As if the travel and tour operators besides advertisements singing paeans to the African safari is not enough, when one lands in Kenya, the oft-seen message blazing across billboards and T-shirts is; you guessed it, ?Safari?. From roads to hotels to even in one of the busiest market for curios, Masai market in Nairobi, one comes across this now common word.
For a one week trip to Kenya, it is the Safari that was the most interesting and after one has come home, it is the Safari that lingers in the mind. Touted as one of the world?s most ?adventurous tourist destination?, Kenya offers tourists mind blowing wildlife safaris through spectacular landscapes of sanctuaries such as Maasai Mara, Ol Pejeta, Tsavo, Samburu and Amboseli.
Safari Experience: Start your safari with a visit to Ol Pejeta conservancy situated in Nanyuki, a four to five hour drive from Nairobi. Enroute, visit the Mount Kenya Animal Orphanage, Sweetwaters Chimpanzee sanctuary and the Rhino sanctuary. At the Sweetwaters Chimpanzee sanctuary, you are allowed to adopt chimpanzees in packages ranging from $40-$85.
At Sweetwaters Tented Camp, storybook and movies come to life. For staying in tents in the wild forest, one can wake up to sights of giraffes and deer standing near ponds. You have to rub your eyes to believe the sight!
Don?t forget the equator line?where it is amusing to see objects turn clockwise and anti-clockwise in the water kept on both sides of the line.
The Masai Mara National Reserve is one of the most popular tourism destinations in Kenya. Nowhere in Africa is wildlife more abundant, and it is for this reason a visitor hardly misses to see the Big Five (buffalo, elephant, leopard, lion, and rhino) here.
Stays: Mara Sarova hotel offers similar living experience in tents in thicker parts of the Maasai Mara conservancy. Indian dishes are available here. Do ask for a champagne breakfast in the forest surrounded by forest rangers, an experience some hotels offer. If you can spend as much as $450-500, a Balloon safari over the entire Maasai Mara reserve is exhilarating.
Now, there is more to Kenya than just the safaris. Take a dekko at the Masai market in the weekend after you have explored the safaris. Do bargain to ridiculous degrees for you may get the object of your desire at unheard of prices.
If you are a carnivore, pardon me, I meant, non-vegetarian who is adventurous, your palate can experiment hitherto unheard of meats. A hotel, aptly called Carnivore, has a strange (depends on how you see it) and funny too, manner of serving. Until you place down a white flag kept on the table, the waiters will pile your table with exotica ? a variety of meats of zebra, crocodile, ostrich besides the traditional pork, et al.. But do ask for the special, Dawa, a cocktail of Smirnoff vodka with sugar paste.
The currency is depreciating. Perhaps this is the best time to take off to Kenya when airlines offer competitive rates. You may come back with more than just safaris in your mind.