African dance

It is a long tradition with the Maasai warriors to jump. It is said to be a sign of manhood and strength, and is a great competition amongst the young men.
I was absolutely amazed at how high they could jump, this guy must be about three feet off the ground from a stand-still position.

The lion hat

our friend Dee, the best jumper in town.

Gate to the village

The women sang around me

and we danced, chanting what sounded like, "daddy, daddy".

I think they liked my dancing too. Hard to tell though whether they were laughing at me or with me. haha.

making fire

We went inside one of their houses.

The first room we saw was for baby cows.

Inside of this tiny hut, we sat in a small dark room that was both a living room/bedroom and kitchen. They had no electricity. The guide explained the room structures and what a day at the village is like. It was a mind boggling experience. Hard to believe that they actually live here. 

Then we were lead to what's called their "gift shop".

They were so pushy and pressuring us to buy everything we looked. 

Honestly, I would've loved to have bought more stuff but because they were so pushy, I was confused and withdrawn from buying. 

After a warm cup of tea with homemade biscuit at the camp, we set out for a morning game drive at 6 a.m. Since there's no phones in the tents, one of the staff came to our tent to wake us up. 

Stunning sunrise

Our tent number 3.

we have a porch that looks out to the woods.

The entire walls can be rolls up so it  feels like we are out in a "tent".

This is the lobby area.

This is where we had meals every day.

Andrew found a bar.

Our first meal at the camp.

A fly drank my beer.

The food was absolutely fantastic. Just when I though that the trip can't get  any better than this…

We're finally setting off to Masai Mara National Reserve, where we'll be staying for two nights.

Our destination was the third stop made by this small airplane. 

Now we have to drive for an hour to get to our camp. On the way there we saw…

one of the villages

Local shopping center

villagers

We stayed near the Wilson airport, which was our connecting airport for the Safari in Masai Mara. Unfortunately, we missed our safari flight so our travel agent put us here, which is where we spent our first night in Nairobi. 

View from our window.

The hotel staff advised us not to go out after sun down. That thought hadn't crossed our mind anyway. Our place had a gate and our guard had a machine gun. No need to say more.

After breakfast, we were happy to get out. 

Virgin Atlantic airline over booked passengers on our flight by 40 people, so we got bumped off. Being desperate to keep our tight schedule in Africa, we took the next best thing, which was a flight from London to Dubai to Kenya, instead of our original flight from London to Kenya. We were hoping to make it to Nairobi in time to catch our flight for our safari. 

Dubai airport was impressive with lots of shopping available. Unfortunately, I was on the phone the whole time trying to make arrangements for Africa, given we missed our original schedule. Andrew managed to get his Cuban cigars but I didn't get to shop at all. We had McDonald for lunch. 

After the 12 hour flight detour, we finally made it to Nairobi, Kenya. 

Andrew insisted that we have to have fish and chips in London. Not bad.

Cool street to go shopping.

We very much enjoyed London. People were very nice, food was great and shopping wasn't bad either. Hope to come back here to visit again soon! Cheerio. 🙂

Our journey begins tonight as we set off to London for 2 days before we head off to Africa for 10 days. We are attending Aleena's wedding in Mombasa, Kenya next week so we planned a trip for just Andrew and me. I felt bad leaving my children behind with my parents, but I had to stop myself from feeling this way. I felt peaceful praying about this trip and I fully trusted that God would take good care of everyone. I just needed to remind myself over and over again. 

At the same time, I've been excited to spend time with my best friend. This is our first trip without the kids. 

We're staying here  in London. 

View from the balcony

My favorite store in London. If I lived here, I would come here everyday.

We got on a tour bus and saw most of London in one day. It's fun being a tourist. 

We had the best Indian food here on Baker street.