Lions and Tigers and Bears...

Today we head into Nairobi to catch the Train to the coastal city of Mombasa.  The train will leave in the evening so we have some time to visit some of the local attractions.  Our first stop is to a large market place where local vendors can sell their goods… sell maybe the wrong word – how about manipulate people into spending more than they want on something they don’t need.

These guys were very skilled in their craft.  All of our team got the privilege of being several vendor’s “first customer of the new year” and receive a special “because you are my friend” discount.  There was no window shopping here – if you made eye contact with any vendor you were stuck in a negotiations process.  Nothing had a set price – they would bring out a pad of paper and write what the “normal” price was and then cross it out and say “NO”  then they would hand you the pad and have you write the price you wanted to pay down and hand it back – back and forth this would happen… not until you came to a price you wanted to pay but until you didn’t care how much money you gave them – you just wanted to end the conversation.  I guess if these guys ever want to come to the US they would have great success as Washington DC lobbyists.

Since Brad and Jen weren’t with us on our visit to Crescent Island we visited the Nairobi Game Park.  As we entered the park we were met by Josiah, a student intern to the park – or probably just a guy who bought the parks’ T-Shirt and saw a bunch of gullible “Monzungus” (White People).  It turns out we didn’t care if he was legit – at one of our first exhibits, the White Rhino, he pulled us aside and said – “We will just trespass quickly and take photo…”  The next thing we are doing is jumping the walking rail and going through the bushes to the back of the exhibit.  All of a sudden here we are face to face with the Rhino – with only a couple of strands of wire separating us. 

What an experience which we thought couldn’t be topped.  Until we came to the Lions… The very same thing happened.  We go walking through a closed gate to a small path between the Lion cage and the Jaguar cage.  Here we are standing within a couple of feet of several lions with only a single chain link fence separating us.  I believe we have video footage of a sensitive moment between Charlotte and the male Lion.

As we are enjoying the Lions, we notice that our group is not alone.  Seems we left the gate open and now other people are streaming into the same area.  A bit concerned – we ask our guide if that is OK.  He shrugs and takes us out and then makes a call of his cell phone for someone else to take care of it – Hakuna Matata…

What could top being inches away from the king of the Jungle?  How about being able to enter the cage of the Cheetah?  Yep, our next stop we meet a guy who opens the cage for us to go inside and take photos with the cheetah and pet the animal.

We finally made it to the train station which looked had been around for quite some time. 

The actual train cars were straight out of the old movies.  15 hours in one of these bad boys… 

We were given 4 2^nd class rooms for the trip.  This meant spending the next chuck of our lives with 4 people inside a 8x7 rocking metal can.

After leaving the station, we were greeted by the police officers who would be riding the train with us.  Kevin gave us a rundown of the dangers of the “night thieves”  which I guess can acrobatically jump through an 18” window, slice through a screen mesh, steal your valuables and exit the moving train all without you waking up…  But he was there to keep us safe – and then he goes and hands his machine gun to Yvonne to hold…  Yep, this is Africa, should be a fun adventure.