My Travel Adventures

Living in Nairobi, I never really thought about how to spend a fulfilling, action-packed weekend in the city, since it always felt as though there was an ocean of time to do everything I wanted to do. However, a quick visit from my friend Bonnie compelled me to come up with a tight weekend itinerary, as well as giving me the necessary shove to enact my plans.

My friend Victoria came to visit Nairobi this weekend, which we spent together with the rest of our group of Nairobi-based Oxford friends. As Victoria works in Kampala, we made sure to do things that are harder to achieve in Kampala, like eating at an authentic Italian restaurant, going to a bougie café, browsing through an expat-centric bookstore, and eating Vietnamese food. We also spent a few hours lazing about Karura Forest. The highlight of the weekend, however, was our game drive in Nairobi National Park. This was the closest I have ever gotten to rhinoceroses in the wild: we saw two pairs, one of them accompanied by a calf that was prancing around and eying us curiously. We also came across some lions, buffalos, a serval cat, a hyena, and a crocodile. The number of giraffes was astounding, and we managed to snap a few pictures of the classical giraffe-in-front-of-the-big-city scene that people associate with the park.

I wondered, as I snickered in my aeroplane seat, whether I was the only person listening to the pilot’s announcements during our take-off from Paris. “Remember, when you are visiting friends in Africa,” went his routine, “that if you show up empty-handed, you will be compelled to offer up your personal belongings. Save yourself the embarrassment and select some presents from our in-flight magazine.” He followed with another bon mot a few moments later: “We would like to remind you that this is a non-smoking flight. If you smoke in the lavatory, the government will have you arrested for the rest of the weekend, which will ruin your trip.”