Amboseli Day 2

We got up early and headed out. Minutes into the park we saw a baby elephant just born less than an hour before. It was so new it could barely walk, and on a slight hill it had to have its mom help it up with her trunk. Later we saw a hippo waddling across the plains to the lake. At the top of a lookout we met some people who lived in Saskatchewan and knew Papa Bal! – Alexandra

Even the afterbirth was still hanging from the mother, plus our guide hadn’t seen that in 20 years of touring! After lunch we went to a Masai village. They welcomed us with a traditional Masai dance. The part I liked best was when they lit a fire with a stick and another piece of wood. – Isaac

 

 

Hyena relaxing in the early morning

 

 

The Superb Starling – common and very pretty

 

 

 

Journaling out of the midday sun

Our huts

 

 

The huts are made out of “Masai cement” aka cow dung. Very effective because it’s warm inside when the weather is cold and cool in the heat

 

Moses (on the right) worked in our camp as security against the wild animals

 

 

Moses on his bed, made of woven sticks and a cowhide cover

 

The kitchen next to the bedroom

 

More muganga for the Masai

The Masai pen their cattle and goats in the village at night with acacia boughs- very effective because they are all thorns

 

 

 

Heading to Amboseli

As we were in our safari van to our camp we saw Mount Kilimanjaro’s peak. It’s an incredibly tall mountain as I could see. On our game drive we saw common zebras, Masai giraffes, a yellow speckled sapphire, a ground hornbill, Grant’s gazelles, wildebeests, and lots of elephants. We also saw Masai ostrich, Thompson’s gazelles, water buffalo, crown cranes, Egyptian geese, olive baboons and superb starlings. My favourite was seeing an elephant chase away two lions, trumpeting. We were all stunned by that. This is one of my favourite days of our trip. – Isaac

 

Our first safari day! We drove to the park near the Tanzanian border with Walter, our guide, and Julius, our cook. The camp was luxury, with soft beds in a peaceful area. On the game drive we saw probably 20 different animals. At the end we saw 2 lions and a family of elephants. One elephant went ahead and charged the lions, trumpeting and racing at them. It was one of the most amazing things I’ve seen on this trip! – Alexandra

 

Julius buying charcoal for our camp

 

Walter raising our van to get as much fuel in the tank as possible

 

Weaver birds make these crazy hanging nests you see everywhere

 

Not even in the park yet and we’ve already spotted zebras!

 

Mt Kilimanjaro is much bigger when you see it than it seems in pictures

One of many, many security stops along the highway

 

Ready to spot wildlife, with Kili in the background

 

We also had a pretty prime view of Kili from our camp

 

 

 

Doing muganga for the Masai in the park

Crested cranes

Elephant crossing

 

 

Kenya – First Impressions

It was culture shock driving to our hotel because it’s a million times cleaner than India, and quieter too. – Isaac

 

Yay! Just outside the airport, and it’s obvious we’re in Africa!

 

Our hotel was next to the University of Nairobi and the National Museum of Kenya

Isaac slept on the plane so he had energy to play in the hotel pool.

Days of inadequate sleep finally caught up to Baruch a few hours after Alexandra

 

Delayed!

We ended up staying in Mumbai for a day because we missed our flight to Kenya. All we did was rest because we were up all night and our next flight was at 3 a.m. again. – Isaac

At the airport our flight from Delhi was delayed 2 hours and in Mumbai we missed our connection to Nairobi at 3 a.m. When we finally caught our flight the next night I pulled an all-nighter. You feel real great afterwards! During the flight Dad and I made friends with the flight attendants. It is way more interesting in the back than in your seat! – Alexandra

 

The sun salutation in Delhi International- fitting for us yoga types!

 

The people on Kingfisher Airlines were super helpful. They let us sit in first class so we would be first off the plane to try and make our connection, but to no avail.

 

Line-up to get into the Mumbai airport

 

The security in India’s airports is totally over the top. You need a printed ticket (electronic ticket is not good enough) and a passport just to get past the armed guards into the door. This made it a bit of a challenge for Baruch to get back into the airport in Mumbai to rebook our tickets after we missed our flight.

 

 

 

Finally here in Kenya! Someone just woke up. Guess who?

The all-nighter finally catching up on the transfer from the airport

 

 

Dilli Haat

Dad and I went to mail stuff home and to the Dilli Haat market. At the post office we were told to get a tailor to make a bag for our package before we could mail it. – Alexandra

 

We saw this lady on the way to the post office, heating up her irons for the day.

See, cows and garbage. Ubiquitous!

 

Dilli Haat has crafts from all regions of India, but it is mostly pashminas

 

More swastikas for good luck

 

Baruch got a vest

They do Mehndi in the market

The tailor sewing up the package so we could mail it home

 

Lotus Temple

Me and Mom went around Delhi together while Dad and Alexandra did stuff. The first place we went was the Lotus Temple. It is one of the most visited sites in the world. I can tell why, because I could see a thousand people there. The architecture inside was incredible. It looks like the Sydney Opera House I think. Then we got on the subway to go to the Red Fort. When we got there it was total chaos. It started raining, there was a parade, and it was extremely noisy too. Unfortunately, it was five minutes to closing time, so we didn’t go in. On our way back we saw a famous jelabi place, so of course we had some and they were shockingly good. – Isaac

The Lotus Temple is a Baha’i temple where people of all faiths are welcome to come pray. It is very peaceful inside.

 

 

The Red Fort in old Delhi, which is even crazier than New Delhi.

Isaac is excited about getting his treat from Jelabi Walla

 

The Taj Mahal

We got up and went to the one and only Taj Mahal! What I thought about was that it’s incredibly, stunningly, amazingly, astonishingly beautiful. I could barely believe it, we were all speechless over it. We got an audio guide and I learned that it was built because of Mumtaz Mahal’s death. The Taj Mahal is built mainly of marble. It has a row of fountains and water. It shines brightly in the sun like the moon. No wonder why it’s one of the seven wonders of the world. I’m very glad mom chose India. The walls are filled with all sorts of gems, like ruby and sapphire. I didn’t think I’d be coming back anytime soon, so I made the most of it. – Isaac

It is stunningly beautiful, because you have seen pictures of what it looks like, but it is surreal. I found looking at it through the gate the best view. The inside is elegant but I found further back it looks like it was built as a heaven. – Alexandra

One benefit to paying 40x more than Indian residents is you don’t have to wait in this line

No crayons or fishing lures at the Taj please