Last year I went to Kenya for a short visit of 3 days. That was during Ramadan holiday in the UAE. This trip was not my plan trip in the year, but when my friend invited me – I never responded ‘no’. I love the wildlife safari and Africa, so I did go! I checked Kenyan embassy online for the visa and the yellow fever vaccine.
Before that, some friends who knew I was going to Kenya told me about the yellow vaccine was compulsory in Africa so I should be vaccinated before I go. Actually, I haven’t done the yellow fever vaccine yet ever and it upset me because my friend who’s invited me told me that the yellow vaccine was not needed there. So I emailed the embassy of Kenya, they responded immediately and said: “Passengers on flights originating from the Middle East to Kenya are not screened for any vaccinations at the moment.” This clear my mind and so I booked my ticket.
For those who like to visit Kenya and wants to inquire about the yellow vaccine and others you can email this address: immigrationdubai@mfa.go.ke and for those who like to apply evisa visit this site: www.evisa.go.ke. For us Filipinos, Kenyan visa is easy to apply as of my experienced. It is evisa and after applying online you can get it few days after – mine it takes only a day or 2 as I remember.
“part of Nairobi – bird’s eye view”
At 9:00 (UAE time) was my flight to Kenya and reached there about 13:00 (Kenyan time). UAE was ahead of 1 hour to Kenya. As usual in my solo flight I got Air Arabia and my departure was in Sharjah International Airport. And by the way, I came 20 mins late when I checked in at the airport’s counter! lol 😀
So I landed at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi alone. Luckily, there were enough tourists with me during my arrival. So it was not that busy in the immigration queue. Though I came late in *SIA in the UAE but when I was in *JKIA – I had good vibes there.
KICC – Kenyatta International Convention Center
‘KICC the 28-storey building in Nairobi – at the roof top where my friends waited for me after landed in Nairobi. Here where we saw the whole Nairobi city.’
To reached to my destination KICC (where my friends were waiting for me), I rode JKIA taxi (as advised as they are safe to ride). I paid Ksh2,000.00 (Kenyan Shillings) equivalent to $20.00 or Aed73.00 (approx. depends on the rate) about 17.6km distance for 25 mins. It was a good timing the day I landed in Nairobi, as what Robert (my driver) told me because during week days the road to KICC is on traffic.
‘this is the statue of Kenyan first President Jomo Kenyatta, that building at the back is their Judiciary Hall.’
After KICC
After we had been in KICC, we went in the city to ate our lunch, rode a public bus, visited Uhuru park, rode public cab to reached our apartment. Then we took rest, went to a hotel for our dinner and watched Euro football live. Below are photos at public bus and Uhuru park.
‘We rode Nairobi public bus to Uhuru park.’
‘This is Uhuru park and this is open to the public.’
On my 2nd day, we woke up early ate our breakfast then at 8:00 we checked out at the apartment and met a new friend (Kenyan) who will drove us to Amboseli park. He is very nice, speak English well (Kenyans speak good English by the way).
On our way to Amboseli National Park at the middle of our journey – we got flat tire! So the 2 guys with us did changed the tire and it took them for an hour approx. Good thing, there were 2 local guys saw us on the road and helped them fixed it. Unluckily, I forgot to take photo with them – they were short in height Kenyans. They were good people. I’m thankful for their kind hearts.
‘this was what happened of our car at the mid of our journey towards Amboseli National Park.’
‘It’s a long drive for us, normally it took 4 hours drive from Nairobi to Amboseli National Park – but because we got flat tire we reached the park for about 5 hours.’
‘Amboseli National Park formerly Maasai Amboseli Game Reserve is 39,206 hectares in size at the core of an 8,000 square kilometres ecosystem that spreads across the Kenya-Tanzania border.’
‘At the gate before we went inside the park, we had a little talked with these Maasai women. They sell handmade products – jewelries. There were few men too – they sell wood carvings.’
Here are few photos of wildlife creatures in Amboseli National Park (I don’t have the best photos of them but hope you like it). There are lot of animals there, I only show few of them here.
‘We saw a lot of plain Zebras.’
‘a lot of Elephants too’
‘there were Ostrich.’
‘Thompson’s Gazelle.’
‘Hippopotamus’
‘Common Wilde-Beest and a lot more’
‘We went to one of the hill top and took rest there. Here where I faced Mt. Kilimanjaro of Tanzania.’
We had a long drive at the park just to watched those animals and because we reached at the park in the afternoon we still continue our joyride on the 3rd day. We didn’t saw all the kinds of animals in Amboseli Park but it was still fun to see some of them. Also, we drove and took time to find Amboseli Eco camp for our place to stay. We reached there at night.
In the morning, we ate our breakfast at the Eco camp where we stayed and after we continue our joyride to the park to see other animals. In the afternoon, we rode back to Nairobi.
‘this is Amboseli Eco camp, at the back where we ate our breakfast.’
‘here were we slept at night – room for 2 persons.’
In the morning by 10:00 we rode to the airport to go back to UAE.
Our flight about 13:40 (Kenya time) and reached Sharjah about 19:40 (UAE time).
*SIA – Sharjah International Airport; *JKIA – Jomo Kenyatta International Airport
Written: 31st of October 2022; Edited: 16th of December 2022; Posted: 17th of August 2023…
"The greatest journey is the journey within." - Unknown
"One of the gladdest moment in human life is a departure upon a distant journey…
"Traveling it leaves you speechless then turns you into a storyteller." - Ibn Battuta
"Travel is never a matter of money but of courage." - Paulo Coelho