Trip to Kenya Part III: Travel to Nakuru
Kenya and the Great Migration of Animals have appeared in various propaganda carriers in recent years, attracting a large number of Chinese people. In 2013, the knifeman went to Kenya for the first time, and searched for a lot of information on the Internet before leaving, such as customs, language habits, tourism characteristics, etc., but when he arrived at the local area, he found that some of the online information had been out of touch with reality. I traveled to Kenya for ten days, although I did not visit many places, I would like to put what I have seen and heard into my pen and show a real Kenya.
After a night's rest in Nairobi, early the next morning, we needed to drive almost 4 hours to Nakuru. First of all, the problem of cars, in Kenya, Japan and South Korea account for the majority, China National Heavy Duty Truck, pickup trucks and the like also have a lot, of course, rich people everywhere, driving a few Mercedes-Benz Baoma Road Tiger on the road is not unusual. There is a lot of used car market in Nairobi, and a large number of Japanese and Korean used cars are resold here, which has also boosted the development of the local car industry. We are mentioning here a kind of car related to our tourism, as more and more tourists go to Kenya to see animals, there is a growing demand for vehicles suitable for galloping on the grasslands and making it easy for tourists to take pictures. The Kenyans were good at reinforcing the used Land Cruiser or Nissan off-road chassis, completing a full-time four-wheel drive modification, changing the exhaust pipe to the form of a chimney facing the sky, and finally they had to cut the roof open and design it into a pattern that could be opened and closed so that people could stand in the car and shoot, and this modified Land Cruiser accompanied me throughout my trip to Kenya.
After talking about the car, let's talk about Nakuru. Nakuru has a Lake Nakuru National Park, famous for its flamingos. In addition, there are a large number of water birds and various animals in the lake area. In Kenya, there are many such national parks, which are a paradise for animals, and Kenya is also committed to maintaining this state of harmony between man and nature, so it is easy to see zebras, water antelopes and other animals leisurely eating on the side of the road. Here, people are not allowed to frighten and drive away animals, if in national parks or protected areas, visitors are not allowed to get off the car, let alone feed the animals, as for shooting, you must also keep a certain distance. Some people will ask what to do if you can't help but get out of the car, so choose between a mineral water bottle and a fine of $120.
In all the national parks and protected areas, there is actually no driving road, the vehicle travels along the dirt road pressed out by the tour bus for many years, if it rains, the mud is unbearable, and even the wheels are embedded in the mud, it is not allowed to get off the cart; if the weather is sunny, tourists are also eating ash, so before coming to Kenya, it is still a little hard to be aware. Along the way, the animals I can see include rhinos, a large number of water antelopes, bison, a large number of unnamed water birds, etc., which really makes people feel like animal paradise. As for flamingos, people come here to see large swathes of flamingos, which is not necessarily true. You see on TV or in promotional materials that tens of thousands of flamingos inhabit the lake are waiting to be filmed for a long time, flamingos feed on algae in the water, and this area of water is gathered in pieces, otherwise they will move elsewhere. There are many lakes in Kenya, the area is not small, it is not certain where these tens of thousands of flamingos should be, so we take a fancy tour, whether we can see it, depends on luck. For photography enthusiasts, give a suggestion, go to Nakuru to shoot birds, vehicles can not be close to them, so at least bring more than 200mm of telephoto, otherwise you can only regret to shoot zebras, antelopes and the like.
On the way to Nakuru Road, through the Great Rift Valley of East Africa, with high mountains on both sides and low-lying in the middle, the key is that the distance is quite wide, many residents live at the bottom of the Rift Valley, and the highway to Nakuru has a long section at the bottom of the Rift Valley. Speaking of highways, Kenya's highways are basically two lanes in both directions, and sometimes it is necessary to borrow the opposite lane to overtake, and the 120-yard race in China is impossible here.
Daily Special Introduction: Today we will introduce two contents, first of all, Shilling. The Kenyan shilling is the local currency, where only the US dollar and the shilling can circulate. 1 dollar to 85 yuan shilling, 1 yuan to 14 yuan shilling, or so it goes. Many of Kenya's commodities rely on imports, so consumption is actually very high, buy a bottle of Coke at a roadside stall, 200 shillings; beer 250 shillings, a bottle of vodka can dry up to 8,000 shillings, do your own calculations, equivalent to the price of the renminbi has turned upside down. Of course, there are also very cheap local food, but since you are traveling, don't be too bitter about yourself, accept this price that is sharper than the Heavenly Dynasty.
Let's introduce the sim card of the mobile phone again. Someone planned to buy a local mobile phone card to make it easier to make calls, and this decision was absolutely correct. Kenyan operators include safaricom, airtel, etc., which are quite common. It is recommended to bring an old-fashioned mobile phone to buy a card, preferably the old Nokia, because there is no hair to the extent of cutting the card for you, and it is necessary to know that the smart phone with the small card has not yet been popularized. Sim cards are generally 150 shillings, which do not contain money, and need to purchase a recharge card. The recharge card can only choose whether to use it for phone calls or internet access, once selected, all the quota in this recharge card will be charged to your option, which is really impersonal. It is recommended to buy two recharge cards with 250 shillings, and charge 250 shillings each for the telephone and the Internet, so that you can get everything in total 650 shillings, equivalent to about 46 yuan, and there is no problem in supporting 10 days. I charged 500 shillings for the phone, and the call reached Less than 3 yuan / minute in China.
To be continued……