12 Hours in Nairobi

by: Neil Amonson

By KAVU

January 26^th, 2022

During life’s twists and turns, we sometimes find ourselves in a place we’ve never been. Maybe even a place we never even thought we would be!

This winter I had an experience like that. During an international trip, I found myself on a long, 12 hour layover in the Capitol of Kenya, Nairobi.

Wanting to follow KAVU’s motto of “local, worldwide”, I couldn’t pass up the chance to adventure around a new place and try to take in as much of the local sights and sounds as possible. So, I quickly found a driver to show me some things I may not have been able to find on my own.

The first thing I noticed is that the city is very modern! If you google “Kenya”, you might read that it is a third world country, but I promise you the people there have first class smiles and a first class attitude on life.

Our first stop was the Nairobi Giraffe Center. Imagine a petting zoo on stilts, so that you can look these amazing creatures in the eye. You even get a bucket giraffe food pellets and can feed the animals out of your hand. They have crazy long tongues, long crazy long!

Who woulda thought?

It was amazing to see up close one of the most unique animals on the planet. I couldn’t stop looking at their skin. Such a crazy pattern. Unlike some other animals, a giraffe doesn’t use camouflage which I guess makes sense being that they are so much taller then everything around them there is basically no chance of it hiding from predators. Well at least mother nature gave them such amazing coats to parade around in.

Our next stop was the Mamba Village Crocodile Farm. This was quite a different vibe from the friendly Giraffes at our previous stop, no petting these guys. I had seen some small alligators in Florida before, but nothing compared to these Nile Crocodiles. They were absolutely massive.

I was impressed with the ingenuity of the handlers trying to put a medical spray on one of the crocs. He used a long, hollow, bamboo rod to spray the medicine through, and then it slowly oozed out the other end, onto the leg of the crocodile. This poor guy had its leg bitten off by one of their cage mates.

Not all the animals at the Mamba Village are scary. They have some tortoise and turtles for the kids to check and and even hold if they want.

Being a pilot of course I wanted to see some cool birds. Surely enough they had some of the biggest birds I had ever seen!

These Ostriches were taller than me and were enjoying the cool afternoon shade under some trees. I really wanted to see one of their eggs, but I guess I’ll have to make a longer trip next time to see that.

On the walk back to the car, I caught the evening light making a nice reflection of a native style building against a lake. If there is one thing that’s pretty all over the world, it’s being near a body of water at sunset.

We spent the next 3 hours in a massive traffic jam. It really made me feel like I was at home, I mean can you really call a city a city if you don’t get stuck in traffic for at least an hour?

At one point during the drive, I could have sworn I was in NYC driving past central park. The green grass, trees, and sky scrapers really had a familiar feel.

There are two things to note in this photo. One is the construction in the background. Nairobi is really making efforts to modernize the infrastructure of their city. In the years to come, travel should become more efficient as they add wider highways, raised roads, and other forms of technology to help accommodate all the people that are moving there. The other important thing you can see in this picture is the motorcycle. While I was stuck in the taxi, I watched hundreds of motorcycles go past us. Many with two or three riders on them. I later found out from my driver that the motorcycles are a common form of taxi for the locals. You just walk over to where a few bikers are hanging out and ask for a ride, a price is negotiated, and off you go. No getting stuck in traffic for them!

Lesson learned.

I got back to the airport after the sun had set with many new memories and sites to think about during my next leg of travel. Kenya is a country that I will most definitely be visiting again. Maybe I’ll even get to go on a proper safari! I feel like I only got to see the tip of the iceberg of the culture and people that call Nairobi home. If anything..... it motivates me to make the time to return and really get a feel for what this famous region of Africa is all about.