Travel Journal: May 25 - June 7, 1999

Jambo. Hello. The standard greeting in Swahili. You flash a large smile back, wave your hand in greeting and say loudly back: “Jambo .....”.

Karibu. Welcome

   

    No, this travel journal is not a sequel to Karen von Blixen’s memoirs, even though we did visit her house and gardens when we were in Nairobi. These is just travel notes of our 10-day visit to Kenya in 1999, certainly not as evocative or touching as her remembrances of the years she spent there.

    Our trip was organized by Forex Travel through Boston Arts. To get to Nairobi we flew to Detroit, where we transferred to a KLM flight to Schiphol, Amsterdam. There we met the other members of our party. There was the odd couple from San Francisco, consisting of Ron, an extremely knowledgeable horticulturist and Bill, who used to work for IBM. There was Maria, an Italian nurse from the East Coast; Diane, an X-ray oncology technician; Regina, the owner of an environmental consulting firm; Ellen, a rather discombobulated rich heiress, whose father had the foresight to put most of his money in Berkshire Hathaway shares, Peter Lieberman, our friend from Boston, and the two of us.

    From Schiphol it was another 8-hour flight to Jomo Kenyatta Airport in Nairobi. In the airport we exchanged US$100, for which we received KS (Kenyan Shillings) 6600. There we were picked up by the representatives of UTC, the United Travel Company, and driven to the reasonably upscale Landmark Hotel, recently renamed the Jacaranda Hotel.