Day 2 - Nairobi

Accompanied by the church bell across the street, the African sun greeted us to our first day in Kenya.

One might mention that hotel we was ok from room standard point of view, nothing over the top. But the breakfast was one of the best I've had. A nice selection of almost everything you can imagine and added to that typical Kenyan dishes. The kids absolutely loved the samosas they served.

Our first day would take us to the rather famous elephant orphanage in Nairobi as well as the giraffe center. Finalizing the day with a dinner at perhaps Kenya's most famous restaurant Carnivore.

The traffic in Nairobi is at it's best called unorganized though mostly I'd call it chaotic.
Fortunately we had our driver Ian to take us around. But to be honest it's nothing compared to India, the Kenyans at least have the common sense not to constantly use the signaling/car horn.

It was now we got our first exposure to the wild life. Marabou storks occupy many of the larger trees, waiting for an opportunity to finds something edible.

Marabou storks

A bunch of baboons were rummaging through waste bins for breakfast.
In fact this is probably what makes Nairobi so special. It's built around the wild life, animals and trees seem to thrive in the capital. Most western cities do the opposite, we  bring in a bit of green by building artificial parks.

The elephant orphanage is worth a visit as well as purchasing some souvenir in their shop. All money goes to the trust dedicated to protecting elephants.
The little baby elephants are adorable and you'll have the possibility to greet them and even touch them.
Their daily visiting hour is limited in time and people allowed in to the area. The reason is to limit the exposure to humans to ease their return to the wild.

The giraffe center is a rather small establishment operated by a trust dedicated to preserving the giraffe. The fun thing here is that one can feed the giraffe. Got a bit of education as well, didn't know there were three sub-species of the giraffe.
Besides that feeding giraffes was a rather odd experience.

These hop-on-off buses seem to traffic all over the major towns in Kenya. They run by no schedule nor do they have fixed stops but seem to have some fixed routes. People hop on and pay a fare and then hop off where they desire. Whilst it might seem rather unorganized I do find it a rather efficient way of transporting large amounts of people. 

Back to the hotel for a bit of lazy afternoon and prepping for the food carnage to come.

Jumped into the pool hoping to cool down a bit, but no luck there. No idea how warm the pool was but I'd say at least 30 centigrade. At home we need to warm up our pools, they do have the quite opposite problem.

Evening came and Ian picked us up to drive us to the much famous Carnivore restaurant.

The first thing one notes when entering the establishment is the gigantic barbecue best described as something out of Dantes Inferno. Hellishly hot when walking by it, wonder how anyone can work there. It was like a smelting furnace.

Hotter than hell

We decided to take it out doors as the nights are warm.
A slightly surreal feeling came to me when realizing there were small monkeys running on the roof and climbing in the trees. The wild life is never far in Nairobi.

At the table awaited us cutlery suited to take down larger animals.

Prepped for action

The table was prepped with various dips and sauces. Also note the little flag on top of the sauce tray. As the waiter explained "Eat until you surrender"....

By dropping the flag one "surrenders", up until then they will keep serving food.
You'll be first served a light vegetable soup but from there the veggies stop...it's all about meat...lots of meat. A vegetarian hell one might say.
They'll walk around with huge skewers with meat on them and ask you if you want a taster. That's how it continues until one "surrenders".
At the end of the night I felt like a lion that refused to give up on the kill and just kept eating.