Lake Nakuru & Lake Bogoria
Day 32 Nov. 25. Nairobi - Nakuru. Friday. Rain, sun, rain.
5:45 am breakfast. Managed to pack in pouring rain and depart at 7:20, 40 minutes behind schedule. A long line at the border. Many people (including 2 elderly Aussies) cut in line. Toilet at the border post is Tsh 200, Ksh 50 (expensive on the Kenya side). Arrived at Nairobi ~3pm in heavy traffic. At two jammed cross sections, many large birds (heron-line at one, vulture-like at the other) perched on trees.
Arrived at Boulevard Hotel ~3pm. Got a map printout at the reception. Said goodbye to my fellow GAP tourists at the Boulevard Hotel, left an envelope of $100 tip to Ang & David, and walked with my 2 bags to River Road. ~20 minutes in sun. Two ladies with perfect English helped directing me. Took 2NK matatu 1 to Nakuru (Ksh 400), hoping to visit the lakes in the Rift Valley. The minibus filled up quickly (10 seats), but took awhile to maneuver out of where it was parked (jammed), and took longer to get out of the city. Maybe it's just the Friday rush hour. Once out of the city, it ran smoothly into the rain. The young lady next to me let me place one bag in front of her legs. She then returned to her English novel.
Arrived at Nakuru city's matatu station @6:45pm (about 160Km, 2.5 hours). Dark and raining, full of people. Bought a Sim card Ksh50, but didn't know how to activate it. The friendly receptionist at Avenue Hotel called my hostel for me, which doesn't seem to exist. No one has heard of this hostel. The guy answered the phone, Moses, came ~1 hour later, and claimed that the hostel is packed, and then called other homes to put me up. Pega Tours 2 happens to run a home stay business and I was to room with a Japanese girl Yuri, even though my booking was for a private room. So, over 2 hours later, I arrived at a nice 2-story house with balcony in the outskirt of town. The lady of the house, Eileen, invited me to dinner (beef bone stew, bean stew, cabbage, rice) and then charged me Ksh 1000 for the bed, even though my booking of a private room was Ksh 700. Too late to change. Other boarders were 2 Swedish girls doing preschool research, a British lady, Patricia, volunteering at a construction project. I was the only tourist. Two servant girls, and some relatives in the same house. TV was on almost all the time. Mostly in English. To me, it turned out very nicely. Got to know a real Kenyan family, and learn more about Kenyan people.
Day 33 Nov. 26. Saturday. Rained until ~4pm.
Up ~7am. All was quiet until 8am. Had 1 egg, toast, bananas for breakfast.
Went to Pega Tour's office with Peter, Eileen, Pat and a relative. No tour is leaving today. Pat showed me the main buildings of the small town, and her Internet cafe, before meeting her Swahili teacher. I then wandered around the town, and left my phone # to 2 travel agencies. Internet is only Ksh 1/minute or less. Took some cash from ATM 3.
Hopped on a piki-piki 4 to Nakuru park entrance. Just 4km south of town. Lake Nakuru is on the UNESCO tentative list. After a lengthy security check, I was turned back. A vehicle is required to visit the park. Paid Dennis, the son of Peter and Eileen, Ksh 150, to pick me up. A new guest, Robert from England, showed up after dinner, with a very pushy guide Linus 5.
Day 34, 11.27. Sunday. Overcast with sun break.
6:30am pickup for Lake Nakuru. Ksh 3000 + $60 entrance fee 6. Only 3 passengers in a van with room for a dozen. 
We entered the park at 7:30am. Many baboons right at the gate, having sex on the road. The lake water level was high. Numerous white pelicans, not so many flamingos (both lesser and greater). Lake Nakuru is an alkaline lake. During the dry season when the water is more saline, the growth of some algae is at its best, attracting flamingos. Now the water was very diluted, but the flooded lake shore was very pretty (albeit muddy), and the weather was pleasant. There were also ibis, marabou, hamerkop, cormorant, a couple of rhinos, lots of buffalo. Rothschild giraffe is a specialty here. Chocolate color skin. West side of the lake is grassy and flat, and the east side is more woody with countless birds on trees. South end of the park is forest and savannah with bigger animals. We saw 3 lions, 2 were munching on a dead zebra. A muddy waterfall quite thundering. Baboon Cliff is a good high point to view the entire lake. Toilet and shaded outlook available. Monkeys tried to steal food outside of the restaurant at the gate. Our guide, Alex, is not knowledgeable, couldn't identify birds other than pelican and flamingo.
~1:30pm, we 3 tourists had lunch back in town. I tried Maragu (some green leaf vegetable) and Mukimo (green mashed potato with corn and onion). Robert had Biriani. Anne's cheese burger came without cheese. When question was raised, a slice of wrapped cheese was brought over on a plate, frozen. The two of them are very young. Traveled alone and stayed in Africa for about a year. Anne from Austria is 23, doing a thesis on land ownership of Kenya. Robert was doing some volunteer work in a small village with no hot water. One loves the train ride between Mombasa and Nairobi, while the other hates it. After lunch, Robert went back east to Nairobi, Anne went back west to Kisumu.This afternoon, a funeral memorial service was chanting well into the evening next door. This service would go on for a few days before the dead was buried. To my untrained ears, the music sounded rather cheerful.
Day 35, 11.28. Monday. Overcast.
Failed to find anyone else for Lake Bogoria after asking a few hotels, agencies and people in other game trucks inside Nakuru park. Had to hire a private vehicle. Since it's the low season, Pega Tours let me have a guide and a van for Ksh 7000. We started late ~10am, arrived at Lake Baringo close to 1pm. Higher elevation, drier and warmer. First homes, fields, acacia trees, then thorny bushes. Surrounding hills have a red hue. This is a fresh water lake with a couple of inhabited islands, many fish, birds and hippos. I paid Ksh 300 for me, and 100 for the vehicle at the gate.
A bumpy road leads to the village at the lake shore and other bumpier dusty tracks lead to resorts. A few tour operators near the entrance and in the village, selling the same boat tours. 2 hours Ksh 3500, allowing time at one of the islands and feeding birds. Sounds pretty good. Again, I was the only tourist in town at this time. Received too much unwelcomed attention: a kid was following me begging money, a young guy insisted on showing me this tiny village of one street, even though I told him to leave me alone. My guide, Peter, doesn't allow me to walk alone outside of the village without a guide. After lunch, I gave the kid a cold coke and left for Lake Bogoria, my real destination.
Retraced the many potholes and washouts back to the town of Marigat. 3Km paved road later, turned left (east) to Lake Bogoria. Tall reeds twice tall as a human in the march area before the entrance. People live here. Richly cultivated fields fenced by cactus. Cattle roam free, among them sometimes walked a couple of ostrich or zebra. Ksh 2500. 
Lake Bogoria sets against Siracho escarpment, quite scenic. Tens of thousands of flamingos congregated along shore at few segments. Geysers were just bubbles. In dry season, millions of flamingos would be here, geysers could shoot 10m high, and water is low enough that one can walk around the geysers. Even so, I was quite satisfied. At least it was not too hot. On the way out, it rained. Rainbow. Bought a bottle of acacia honey from the numerous stands along the road. Peter bought 2 charcoal bags, and picked up some hitchhikers for extra cash. Roadside grilled corn is only Ksh20. Half an hour after the park, we crossed the Equator back to the southern hemisphere.
Day 36, 11.29. Tuesday. Sunny - rain.
Sweet potato for breakfast + the usual. @7.30am, walked for 40 minutes with Yuri to her volunteer preschool. She bought bananas, prepared soap bubbles and shiny posters for the kids. Some kids were already there. More coming. Yuri introduced me. The kids apparently like any new comers. Some of them came onto my laps. They loved taking photos and looking at their images. The older ones lead the group reciting both Swahili and English alphabet, numbers. Loud, but orderly. No wonder people I met here all speak good English. They started earlier than I did. This preschool is a free government run school. Most kids here are poor. The banana Yuri brought may be their only meal before dark. 3 classes, aged 4 to 7. The two official teachers came in late (~9:30am) and didn't prepare for the exam scheduled today. One brought her 2 year old. The older students looked after the little boy. All school material was locked in the church next door, which I helped carrying. One teacher asked me to copy the exam on separate sheets. They asked Yuri if I brought something, obviously used to getting donations. Very friendly, but they don't seem to be nearly as enthusiastic as Yuri was with the kids. During intermission, kids go out to play. Enough ground, with big trees and cultivated Sukuma Wiki (a type of very tall kale). Yuri's soap bubble got all the attention.10am, Yuri's piki-piki driver, Holmes, picked me up and dropped me off in town. Ksh 150. I bought some malaria pills for later (1/10 of what I paid before my trip), and a pair of sunglasses, before heading to the matatu station. Boy, they fought for my ticket. I took 2NK again, Ksh 300. It took off ~11:55, arrived ~14:35. We were stopped by police for ~15 minutes for I-don't-know-what. Street vendors came peddle snacks/drink to stopped buses immediately. Traffic in Nairobi was bad.
Hotel Ambassadeur is surrounded by many city buses. City Hoppa (#34) goes to the airport. Ksh 60. No luggage space. 5 seats per row. Orderly but cramped. The driver wouldn't leave before it was full. It took over an hour to get out of the city. Once turned east for the airport, no more traffic. There was a security check on the road before the airport. I arrived ~4:30, 1.5 hours for 15 Km. Passport control was slow (2 of the 3 computers died). Fingerprint checked and photo taken. My flight was still many hours away. So I bought some mobile minutes and text-ed people back home.
Day 37, 11.30. Wednesday.
Nairobi airport has better toilet paper than at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport. A woman was in the NBO lady's room at all times to clean after each use.
If possible, do NOT connect via AMS. Internet is only free for the first 30 minutes. Security check (taking all liquid and metal out, X-ray, pat-down) is done in front of each gate. After we all boarded, a discovery of fuel leak was announced, and we and our luggage were ushered out. We were given a €5 voucher and a 5 minute calling voucher to use inside the terminal. Given the time at destination then was 5am, and the only allowed phones were in a different terminal, the phone voucher was completely useless. 2 hours later, we had to go through yet another security check.
I arrived at Vancouver in chilly rain. Felt refreshing. Took Skytrain to town. CA$8.75. END.
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