Anyways, I realized that due to sheer laziness and sloth, I never got around to writing about our last couple weeks in Kenya and Tanzania. After arriving in Zanzibar, I got a text from Merle (that's my mom's nickname, but only I can call her that) asking if I'd packed up my guns and put them in storage before we left for Africa. My first thought was, "My backpack's gone, my backpack's gone, my backpack's gone." And, obviously, this requires some explanation.
After college, a big group of my friends backpacked Europe for 6 weeks or so. By backpacking, I mean we rode the train all over the country. My buddy Matt, took a side trip away from the rest of us to drop his then-girlfriend off in Rome, so that she could catch a flight back to the states. On his way back to meet up with us, the entire car he was in was gassed by thieves. Sadly, this was, and I think still is, relatively common. The thieves run medical tubing up the hall of the train car, and slip it under the doors of the individual rooms. Then they pump laughing gas under the door, and knock everyone out. Old Matty Cakes woke up to find himself alone and sans backpack. Matt told me his first words upon waking were, "My backpack's gone, my backpack's gone, my backpack's gone." His Italian thieves were a relatively considerate group. They took his camera, but left his film. Took his walkman, but left his CD's. Dude, we had CD's then, and no mobile phones. I, and most of you, dear readers, are getting old.
Soooo, Merle's second text let me know that our house outside of Georgetown got robbed while we were gone. Luckily, I hand put many of our valuables into storage. The Texas thieves were not as considerate as Matt's Italians, though. They stole the Kawasaki mule, but also took our trailer to load it. They also stole the hitch to steal the trailer. They also topped the mule off with gase, and took the air compressor to pump up the tires. They hit Mom and Randal pretty hard by stealing their custom cowboy hats and boots. You want to see a former West Texas DPS office get pissed, take his size 14 custom alligators. Who does that?
Two days after finding out we got robbed in Texas, we got robbed in Zanzibar. Two robberies in two countries in two days. Luckily, they did not get too much, but the circumstances were kind of a kick in the junk. We had some cash and traveler's checks stolen out of the hotel safe......at the church hostel that we were staying at. Hopefully, we've met our theft quota for the next couple years.
The rest of Zanzibar was incredible, though. It is a predominately muslim city, so we were a bit nervous being westerners. However, our fears were a bit misplaced, as we were robbed by the christians. The food was incredible- seafood, curries, and spices that were non-existant in Central Kenya. Most definitely a place to go back to.
Finally, we then took a short flight back to Nairobi and took a van to the Masai Mara in western Kenya. It was like going to the zoo and knocking down all the fences. You could look out at any one time and see an ostrich standing next to a Thompson's gazelle and some warthogs, while a couple hyena ran around in the background. Absolutely unbelievable. Our guide, John, from Best Camping Tours, on the other hand, was kind of a shizaster. The extent of his input would be to say "buffalo," together with a nod of the head as we drove through a herd of a couple hundred. John also got hammered drunk most nights, chain smoked in the van, and managed to get us stuck in the mud next to a cheetah. All the other vans mysteriously drove around us, as we got out and pushed. John then topped it off by getting detained by the park rangers and was denied service at our hotel. More like, Kind of Marginal Camping Tours.
That's all I've got on Kenya. Talk to you about Hawaii soon.
kk
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