[Kenya] Final Thoughts on Our Safari Adventure

I can't believe I have finally been on a safari adventure in Kenya. Before I share my final thoughts, here's a summary of all my posts about this incredible trip:

Safari Adventure in Kenya
The Big Five
Samburu
Lake Nakuru
Maasai Mara
Maasai Village Cultural Experience
Lake Naivasha and Crescent Island
The Giraffes of Kenya
The Elephants of Kenya
The Lions of Kenya
Special and Memorable Moments on Safari
Samburu Sopa Lodge
Sentrim Elementaita Lodge in Lake Nakuru
Mara Empiris Safari Camp in Maasai Mara
The Social House in Nairobi
Travel Tips
Final Thoughts

The vast savannas of Maasai Mara

Here's a recap of our itinerary:

Day 0: Arrival in Nairobi, check-in at the Hilton Garden Inn Nairobi Airport
Day 1: Travel to Samburu, check-in at the Samburu Sopa Lodge, afternoon game drive in Samburu
Day 2: Morning and afternoon game drives in Samburu
Day 3: Depart Samburu, travel to Lake Nakuru, check-in at the Sentrim Elementaita Lodge, afternoon game drive in Lake Nakuru
Day 4: Depart Lake Nakuru, travel to Maasai Mara, check-in at the Mara Empiris Safari Camp, Maasai village tour experience in the afternoon
Day 5: Whole-day game drive in Maasai Mara
Day 6: Depart Maasai Mara, visit Lake Naivasha and Crescent Island, travel to Nairobi, check-in at The Social House
Day 7: Depart Nairobi
Day 8: Arrival in Manila

White rhino in Solio Ranch

Kenya actually gets really cool at night. A friend of mine who had gone on a Maasai Mara safari many years ago told me about this. Also, our itinerary and tour document from Explorers Wild Adventures told us that "early mornings and evenings can be cool, so dress in layers." I discovered when we got there that apparently, Kenya has a really high elevation. When we stopped at a souvenir shop on our way from Nairobi to Samburu, a sign there said that we were 1,400 meters above sea level. That's really high! Thankfully, we didn't experience any altitude sickness.

The souvenir shop we visited said we were 1,400m above sea level

This next item should have been part of my travel tips but I forgot to write it there so I am sharing it here: bring face masks with you when you go on safari to Kenya because it is really dusty. I actually brought a lot with me but we didn't use them in our first two days there. On our third day, a lot of us were starting to cough or sniffle due to the dust so at that point, we started using masks. Our noses and throats started to clear up once we got back to Nairobi on our last day.

Ranger station at the Mara Triangle

While in Kenya, I bought a lot of "happy animals." At least that's one of the folks in one souvenir shop called them. These are animals carved out of stone and are painted with vibrant colors and varying designs. I actually got massively overcharged in that first souvenir shop we visited. Our guide Zachary told us that we had 20 minutes there and I was in two minds as to whether I should get these happy animals or not. After thinking about it for a really long time, I decided to buy several of them. To my surprise, I was given really high prices, a lot more than I anticipated. I really wanted to get them because I wasn't sure if I would have another chance to buy them elsewhere. But because it took me so long to decide and we were in a rush to leave, I stupidly didn't haggle. Ugh. I guess me paying way more than I expected would have been a good thing for Zachary and Explorers Wild Adventures since they brought me to that souvenir shop and I ended up giving them a massive profit haha.

Some happy animals I bought as pasalubong

We actually got to visit another souvenir shop on the road from Lake Nakuru to Maasai Mara where these happy animals were significantly cheaper. Naturally, I ended up getting several more of them here. I will say thought that the best place to buy the smaller happy animals is at the Maasai Market in Lavington Mall (which was a block away from The Social House, our hotel in Nairobi). Here, they are sold at a a fraction of the price at which they are sold in the touristy souvenir shops. (I don't recall seeing the larger happy animals here though.)

The Maasai Market at Lavington Mall

I also discovered that I love Kenyan coffee! My family and I really enjoyed the coffee we had while we were there. So when we stopped by a supermarket, we ended up buying a lot of Dormans, which is a Kenyan coffee brand. Some of them, we gave as souvenirs but we also made sure to get some for ourselves.

Dormans coffee that I took home from Kenya

English is spoken everywhere here and almost all signs that we saw all over the country was in English. This is quite different from most countries where signs are usually written in the local language, sometimes with English translations underneath. Take a look at this next photo and you will see Driving School Supplies, Apartment, Offices, Chemist, and Hardware. It's very much like the Philippines.

English signs can be seen all over Kenya

On our first night in Nairobi, before our tour started, I booked rooms at the Hilton Garden Inn Nairobi Airport. We were arriving in Kenya in the evening and we would be picked up really early the next morning so because I thought that this hotel was right at the airport, it would be the perfect place for us to stay. Apparently, it's about 5-10 minutes away by taxi. Thankfully, we were able to get a large van that could fit all of us plus our luggage so we didn't need to split up into two taxis. My hotel choice was still a really good one because we checked in at 10pm and most other hotels in the Nairobi city center are about 30 minutes away.

African-themed decor on the walls of Hilton Garden Inn Nairobi Airport

We made sure to have a heavy breakfast the next morning. Thankfully, breakfast is available at 6am and we all got our fill.

Main restaurant at the Hilton Garden Inn Nairobi Airport

It's too bad we didn't have a chance to see more of this hotel since it seems to have several points of interest. The restaurant has lots of great wildlife photos. As we were leaving in our jeep, we saw a really cool water fountain designed with ibex heads at the hotel driveway. I also love the artwork on the walls in the lobby, especially this next one of a woman and a giraffe. Apparently, these murals were created by an artist named Bankslave.

Beautiful mural by Bankslave at the Hilton Garden Inn Nairobi Airport

We flew Emirates to get to Kenya. Our flights took about 17-18 hours in total, including layovers at the Dubai airport that lasted about 4 hours. This was my first long flight since 2018 (and apart from me and my mom, this was the the first long haul flight of my family).

Emirates plane

I slept a lot on the plane both ways because I was tired and lacked sleep. Still, I still got to watch a few movies including Argylle (I loved this!), Bullet Train (I also really loved this!), Wish (I know this one got mixed reviews but I thought it was still good), and Turning Red (which I also enjoyed). I gotta say, I also love how the ceiling of our plane lit up as if there were twinkling stars when all the windows were down and the plane lights were dimmed.

"Stars" on the ceiling of our plan

Also, it is in the Dubai airport that I discovered Milka Strawberry Cheesecake. I bought one for myself and one for my family and I regret not getting more because these are exceptionally good! I've been looking for them here in Manila ever since. (I think Landers carries them sometimes so I'm hoping I can get them here soon.)

Milka Strawberry Cheesecake is really good!

This trip was truly memorable on so many levels. Apart from the amazing safari adventures in Maasai Mara, Samburu, Lake Nakuru, and Lake Naivasha, we survived:

- the Crowdstrike online disaster happening hours before our flight
- filing our Kenya electronic travel authorisations late and almost not getting them on time
- my mom almost losing her travel documents while we were heading to Kenya
- me almost losing my wallet in Samburu
- being chased by an aggressive elephant in Samburu
- protests in Kenya while we were there, including a nationwide one that threatened to make roads impassable on the day we were going to drive from Samburu to Lake Nakuru
- Typhoon Carina causing a bad leak in our house while we were away (thankfully, that's all that happened)

Wildebeests in the vast savannas of the Maasai Mara

I do think that all that difficulty made us appreciate our trip more, making it even more amazing and worthwhile. I'm tremendously happy and eternally grateful that I finally fulfilled my dream to go on safari with my family.

Maasai Mara Sunset

 

[Kenya] Travel Tips

If you are looking to book a safari tour in Kenya, I highly recommend Explorers Wild Adventures. I discovered them when I did a search for Maasai Mara safaris. I saw that they had many different safari options in Kenya so I checked their online ratings and I saw that they were rated 5 on Safari Bookings and 4.5 on Tripadvisor. I decided to reach out to them and very soon after that, I booked our safari tour with them.

Mara River in Maasai Mara

There are so many things to love about Explorers Wild Adventures. First, it was really easy to communicate with them. Their website includes an email address and an option to contact them via whatsapp number. I started communicating with them via email but as I started to have more questions, I switched to whatsapp so that we would have longer and more real-time chat conversations.

View of Lake Elementaita from Sentrim Elementaita Lodge

They were also pretty flexible with our itinerary, making adjustments either at our request or for our benefit. One of the things I loved the most was that we often stayed out on our game drives longer than planned, sometimes even up to an hour later, which maximized our experience and allowed us to see more animals. For instance, we would have missed seeing the rare and striped hyena in Samburu if we didn't stay out as late as we did. Also, towards the end of our safari, we were getting really tired and it was becoming a challenge heading out at the break of dawn each day so we would request our guide Zachary for a later start and he would agree.

Early morning game drive in Samburu

Also, I made a mistake by applying for our electronic Travel Authorisations (eTA) to Kenya quite late. I reached out to Johann, the person I communicated with (and I think the owner of the company) to ask if we had options to reschedule our trip in case our eTAs weren't approved on time. He told me he could work with the eTA approvers to try and expedite our applications so I gave him our reference numbers. Very soon after I did, I started receiving eTa approval notifications in my email. That was such a huge sigh of relief for me and I was amazed at how Johann was able to get this done for us so quickly and effectively.

Vulturine Guineafowl in Samburu

Finally, I have to give massive props to, and thank, our guide and driver Zachary who was truly awesome. I was continually in awe at how he managed to spot animals that were camouflaged in the trees or behind tall grass or bushes while he was driving. I also have no idea how he knew how to find his way around the game reserves, driving along unmarked and winding paths in search of wildlife without the benefit of GPS and never getting lost. He knew a lot about the animals we saw and he would tell us their names and share information about them. I also felt that he genuinely wanted us to have a great safari adventure and see as many animals as we could.

Photo op with our jeep in Maasai Mara

It was really easy dealing with Explorers Wild Adventures and their packages are relatively affordable compared to some of the other ones I saw. They offer a variety of tours that have different durations and include different game reserves, which means there is bound to be an option that is right for you. They really made sure we had an incredible adventure and I highly recommend them!

Explorers Wild Adventures
https://explorerswild.com/
https://www.facebook.com/explorerswildadventures
Whatsapp: +254 20 7869 663
Email: bookings@explorerswild.com or info@explorerswild.com

Mara River

Kenya doesn't require visas for Filipinos. They do, however, require an electronic travel authorisation, or eTA. You can apply for one here: https://www.etakenya.go.ke/en. Important: the website indicates that eTA application normally takes at least 3 business days to be processed but it may take longer so it is best to apply for this at least a week before your flight.

Mt. Kenya

My family and I also got yellow fever vaccines from the Bureau of Quarantine (BOQ). You need to book your slots and pay in advance through their website https://icv.boq.ph/. This was a bit of a challenge because the website can be slow and not very responsive. The website also works much better on Google Chrome than on Mozilla Firefox so I suggest using Chrome. How to schedule your vaccination:

Step 1 - Create an account
Step 2 - Log in to your account
Step 3 - Click on the services button at the top of the page, click on the vaccination services, and then click on the Yellow Fever option (it indicates the price of the vaccine as well)
Step 4 - Select your location. You will need to select the larger location first (NCR, Luzon, Visayas, or Mindanao) then you have to select the specific BOQ site in which you would like to get vaccinated. Note: when I scheduled our vaccinations, only three of the BOQ sites in NCR offered yellow fever vaccines - the Manila Main Office, SM MOA, and SM North Edsa. We selected SM North Edsa (it is actually in the SM Annex building).
Step 6 - You will then need to make your payment through the website. I think you can pay either via credit card or Gcash (I can't recall if there are other payment options)

A female ostrich and some gazelles

Also, they only offer a maximum number of vaccinations per day. If not enough people schedule an appointment on that same day, your vaccination may need to be rescheduled. I do think that the probability that not enough people schedule appointments on a certain day is low though because slots are hard to come by. In fact, available slots were so tough to book that I was already looking at the option to go to Clark and get vaccinated there. Thankfully, on one Friday afternoon, I saw slots for the following Monday open up, although by the time I did, there were only a few left. Thankfully, we were able to set up appointments just in the nick of time!

 View of Samburu from the main entrance

If your safari tour doesn't includes an option to add a boat safari and nature walk in Lake Naivasha and/or the Maasai Culture Village experience and you still have a budget for it, I strongly suggest that you include these in your trip, even if it costs more. These options added a different dimension to our Kenyan safari experience and provided even more memorable moments. Our tour actually also provided the option for a balloon ride over Maasai Mara and while I thought that it would have been an incredible experience, it was way too expensive, especially for an entire family. If you do have enough funds for it, you may want to take that as well.

Lake Naivasha

The big question: considering how exhausting our trip was and how the travel times between game reserves was anywhere between 5-7 hours, if I had to do it again, would I do a Samburu-Lake Nakuru-Maasai Mara safari or would I just stick to one place, like Maasai Mara? I would probably do just one place, Maasai Mara, because the trip we took meant we spent so much time on the road which could otherwise have been spent in a game reserve. It's also really exhausting to move hotels and game reserves multiple times. That said, it was a bit of a blessing in disguise that I didn't know that Maasai Mara, Samburu, and Lake Nakuru are pretty far from each other because if I did, I may have chosen not to book this tour. In the end, we got to see three different reserves, all with different landscapes. We also got to see animals in each place that we didn't seen in the other places, giving us a richer and fuller safari experience.

The watering hole next to Samburu Sopa Lodge at night

 Next: Final Thoughts