on the way to lake nakuru

on the way to lake nakuru, originally uploaded by suddenly.

in cape town and nairobi, the cabbies are always angling for a bigger fare. shuttling you from your hotel to a restaurant then back to your hotel is just chump change for them. instead, they’ll ask, “so…ms. susan, what ELSE do you plan to do in nairobi?.” hoping that you’ll hire them to drive you someplace far and unload some of the shillings in your fat tourist pockets.

the driver who picked us up at jomo kenyatta airport in nairobi who’d been pretty sullen and taciturn the whole trip, all of a sudden became mr. chattypants when we mentioned we’d like to go to lake nakuru, a national park that’s a 2-hour drive from nairobi. his initial quote was 150,000 khs for the roundtrip. that’s almost $US 200. holy cannoli! (did i mention that they usually expect a tip on top of the fee?) is this why they call the city nairobbery??

we eventually talked him down to 110,000 khs and set off at 7 a.m. the next day, leaving behind the thick black clouds of exhaust in exchange for thick gray clouds of rain. along the highway, we saw swarms of kenyans walking into the nairobi city center. apparently, most people in nairobi start their workday at 8 a.m. to avoid the intensifying heat as they walk to work. according to the travel agent at our hotel, the locals must make a choice: (a) either walk to work so they can eat lunch or (b) take the bus and skip lunch; they don’t have enough money for both meals and transportation. hearing things like this makes me feel like an a$$hole. i begin to examine all the dough i’ve spent on non-essential items over the last year: shoes, nice bottles of wine, 100 euros a kilo for jamon serrano. all wasteful, indulgent purchases. when you’re here, every mother’s proclamation, “but there are people starving in africa!” becomes all the more poignant. it’s true. unfortunately, mom was right.

soon the swarms dissipated and things got rural real quick. the air is not so black any more, there are cows on the side of the road, and people living in wooden or tin shacks. our driver turns to us and says, “put on your seatbelts. the police look for something small. do you know this, ’something small?’” something small = bribes. we saw road blocks every half hour with cops looking for “something small.” one officer stopped our driver but let him go when he peered into the back seat and saw two smiling tourists strapped into their seatbelts. nothing small for him today.

our driver continues the drive to lake nakuru.

see more photos along the way.