My Travel Adventures

One of my friends is leaving Kenya for the foreseeable future, and since we have been talking about going on a safari together for the last two months, we decided to make it happen this weekend. I did most of the planning for the journey, beginning with the all-important decision of where to go. Although the rainy season, which lasts from March to May, is generally considered to be Kenya’s low season, there are several reasons why to go on a safari during that time. First and foremost, hotel prices tend to be lower during the low season and accommodation is easier to find on short notice. Second, there are fewer tourists (though the weeks around labour day see a large influx of Chinese visitors). Third, some parks are genuinely worth the visit during these months. It is said that the view of Kilimanjaro from Amboseli, which is the park I ended up choosing precisely for this reason, is clearer during the rainy season because there is less dust in the air.

With my flight back to Dar Es Salaam scheduled for 13:45, my options for how to spend the morning were limited. However, having found the national museum closed yesterday, I did not have to rack my brains to figure out a programme. The visit took less than half an hour, but I spent another fifteen minutes waiting for the building to open, for although the museum’s official visiting hours begin at eight o’clock in the morning, only the most assiduous employees arrive at that time. I came at around 8:20 myself, when only one of the three ladies who served the ticket booth was present, and she asked me to wait while she turned on some of the electronic information panels.

Having toured Moroni and a few of the villages north of it, I turned my attention to the southern town of Iconi. This sleepy town was once the seat of the Sultanate of Bambao, which also encompassed the country’s present capital. Until the arrival of the French in the late nineteenth century, the island of Ngazidja (or Grande Comore) was divided into ten sultanates, with the sultanate of Bambao and the sultanate of Itsandra occupying a preeminent position among them. Rulers from these two lineages selected the Sultan Ntibe, who crowned the other rulers and theoretically held authority over all but one of the other sultanates.     

The pick-up time we were given for our six o’clock flight from Dar Es Salaam was three o’clock in the morning. I thought I was cutting it close by setting my alarm to 2:50 and turning up on the dot, but it took over half an hour for the entire group – which was just over a dozen people – to assemble in the hotel’s reception hall. Still, we made it to the airport with plenty time to spare. The only person missing from yesterday was the French military attaché, who I imagine might have gotten on a government special when our flight was postponed.

My trip to the Comoros began in Nairobi at 3:43 in the morning. Instead of waking up to my alarm, which was set to four o’clock, I woke up to the sound of a mosquito buzzing its disharmonious song right by my ear. Appropriately enough, I have been reading Anguille sous Roche by Comorian author Ali Zamir, who relates the story of three sisters: Ear, Hand, and Mosquito. If my shaky French serves me correctly, the story revolves around the three sisters buying a goat for a joint meal. Hand eats the goat by herself and frames Mosquito, and until the end of time she will not let Mosquito reveal the truth to Ear.