My Big Fat African Holiday

So my long due trip (impending since July 2009) to Kampala, Uganda, finally happens... well this time i also get to visit Nairobi... It's been a total blast; met some wonderful people, made some good friends, had loads of crazy times.. visited some interesting places... well there's much I can say.. here are a few things below, and I'll keep adding to this list of my big fat African holiday, April 2010:

Attended a big Asian Muslim wedding in Nairobi.. truly global... everyone's Asian but come from different parts of the world... the boy's family from Kampala, the girl's family from Nairobi, other family members & relatives from all over the place-- London, Toronto, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Dar es Salaam, Mombasa... all of whom have in some way or the other been connected to Africa... and share the common lingual backdrop of Gujarati... diluted with African & Swahili lingo...and the resultant accents a truly global mix as well.... to top it all, here I land up as well, crazy, hyper Indian from Mumbai, with my own accent to boast of... :-)

Visited Nairobi National Park... didnt see any lions (and I've seen them a few years back on our trip to Serengeti & Ngorongoro) but was all the same excited to see loads of giraffes & deer, and a few other animals-- cant really get their names... and here is the most exciting & scary part... at the end of our safari route in the national park, there was a parking area where we could get off from our safari car for a bit & take a few photos, maybe use the washroom, etc.. so just when we get out, I see this baboon or two walking towards our safari car (there was another car in the vicinity as well)... none of us really panicked 'cause we thought it was normal & they're probably harmless. I even thought of the possibility that the red top i was wearing could have 'excited' the baboon. Turns out it didn't; and so much so for animal instinct, before we knew, this baboon leaped into our safari car from the semi-open top.... tried to grab the plastic bag in which we had carried some stuff to much on... managed to grab some of the stuff and jumped right out the same way he had got in... Holy Crap!!! ah yes, he did crap in our car tooo!! We were all pretty startled for obvious reasons... our tour guide was, on the other hand, fairly relaxed. Luckily our hand bags were not touched (which carried our passports as well)... the baboons were quick... they moved off... i even managed to capture a shot of the baboon munching on the Cheeseballs I had carried.. 'No one can eat just one'.. how true..!

Next, went to an "Elephant Orphanage"... a place where abandoned & as the name suggests, orphaned, elephants are bred and taken care of till the time they're ready to be a part of their natural habitat... saw these elephants ranging from 1 year to really old ones... saw them being given milk thru these unique approx 5 litre bottles that resembled the pipes thru which one fills car fuel... intersting stuff...

Also, went to this "Giraffe Farm" where you have these two huge giraffe who survive tourist amusement as get to actually feed them... well since I'm not really an animal person, I didnt do that, but it was an interesting sight nonetheless... realized that they actually have really long tongues... learnt that they are apparently 18 inches long.. the tongues that is.. also learnt that one kick of a giraffe is enough to kill a Lion... so much so for being the King of the Jungle... hahha... but I guess thats life and thats actually their self defense mechanism... also held a sample of the calf bone of the giraffe-- bloody heavy I tell you...

Shopping: Went to the Converse store at one of the malls in Nairobi... my dad was there and another friend from London... it took me a while to understand the Kenyan currency.. so when i had a little idea finally, we all did a quick 5-second calculation into 4 different currencies-- USD, GBP, Ugandan Shillings & INR.... for the benefit of all :-).. Also went to the Bata store there.. to my surprise the pair of sports shoes i picked up from Bombay just a couple of months back was available here for the equivalent of 40o INR less...!

Also visited this place called Village Market in Nairobi.... which was neither a Village nor a Market, but in fact a damn good place with much to do.. an amusement center with a water park, mini golf putting, bowling alley, cinema, mall, restaurants & food court... super-well landscaped, a great day out...

As hectic as Nairobi was with the wedding functions and other stuff that we did in those 8 days, it's good to be back in Kampala as well... love this place 'cause it so damn chilled out... honestly I can't believe I have exactly two weeks left before I head back to my crazy Mumbai life...

Last night was out for coffee with some friends, had some great cappuccino at the Kampala Serena Hotel-- felt kinda nostalgic since I had done a 6-month internship there about two years back... got back home by about 1 30 and couldn't control my hyperactivity thanks to the coffee... tried everything I could to get some sleep... typed much of the above, read a book, counted boys, oops, Sheep, and yet I promise I saw the daylight before I actually fell asleep...

Will add on more to my big fat African holiday as more of it rolls out :-)