The anticipation and excitement of what’s to come was killing me. For one I am the type of person that must always have an international trip planned or I feel like something is missing. I will cruise google.com/flights months in advance scouring for when my airline partners of choice – SkyTeam will have unannounced low fares.
In this instance I didn’t have to go scouring. A frat brother who does missionary work in Africa invited me to Kenya in June. Of course it didn’t take me but a second to jump on the bandwagon and just like that I was going to Nairobi. I knew 3 months in advance that I was going and I’d lay in bed at night thinking about hitting goal – 50 countries visited by year 2020. This would be a whole year early too. I would even get the added bonus satisfaction of beating my friend Verne to #50 as he’d challenged me a few years before.
On the way to Nairobi I even visited a fan favorite Paris. Actually the Nairobi trip was sandwiched between 2 Paris stopovers. I’ll talk about that another post…
Landing in Nairobi was surreal. I finally accomplished my goal and immediately wondered what would be next? Would I set a goal for 75 or 100 countries? Would I finally hit the 7th continent -Antarctica? I didn’t really know. What I did know was that I was here and needed to live in this moment for the moment.
When I travel I’ve become attached to luxury so I like really nice hotels. There is absolutely no camping or hostels for me. I chose to split my time between the Crown Plaza in the airport area and the Intercontinental Hotel in the city center. Both hotels were dripping with class and offered a different take on fine living.
Condelzza Rice actually stayed at the Intercontinental as Secretary of State on a trip to Kenya. The Intercontinental sits across the street from the Jomo Kenyatta Memorial which is in the same government complex area as the Parliament. Just a block away is the Supreme Court, City Hall, and Office of the President all situated on side of City Square Park. The Intercontinental has 3 main restaurants and I tried 2 of them multiple times – I wasn’t disappointed.
The Crown Plaza was a lot newer and more updated but it was far from the city center being by the airport. However it provided such a nice getaway from the hustle and bustle of the city. I even used points to stay here as IHG Rewards were available and for just 15k per night I was covered. The best part was that with my status (gold at the moment) they upgraded me to a luxury suite complete with full living room, dining room, guest bathroom, master suite inclusive of bedroom, master bathroom, and dressing room. I was living large and in charge. Also the hotel provide tea all day every day with options for coconut or hazelnut extract – let me say I got hooked. I am not a tea drinker but they swayed me with the set up. There was one main bar hitch seemed to be the hang out spot for all the flight crew that arrived and left each night nonstop. It was so interested how local women would sit in the bar trying to capture the attention of the foreign men and it didn’t seem to be a problem at all.
Let’s cut back to my personal journey through the city. Another interesting find in the city was of course exploring the City Square which included another building the K.I.C.C where you can pay just $5 to go to the top of the convention center and overlook the city. City Square: https://www.instagram.com/tv/By5KL53nDXX/?igshid=1hhgeede8uugo
Some other interesting finds included a) Nairobi Gallery b) National Museum & Snake Park c) University of Nairobi d) Two Rivers Mall.
I will give you just a little snippet of each now but you can check out more detailed info on later posts.
Info on Interesting Sites & Video Footage:
- a) Inside a landmark building built in 1913 and includes the central point of Kenya. https://www.instagram.com/tv/BzO6pKTHDPX/?igshid=11ymggbqsfjst
- b) A great museum featuring Shujaa Stories exhibit and a park with deadly reptiles. https://www.instagram.com/tv/BzO6pKTHDPX/?igshid=t3zli4xmvz8q
- c) A beautiful campus but because of safety concerns not allowed to take photos.
- d) Kenya’s nicest mall and features the largest Farris wheel in Africa.
So if you visit make sure you stay at the Intercontinental and check out some of these places.
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