Baby Elephants and DUNG BEETLES!!

If you're like me, you often wake up in the middle of the night after dreaming about rolling around in the mud with baby elephants with dung beetles nearby. You may find yourself thinking, "That could never happen in real life..I"ll never get to see and play with tiny little baby elephants and see a dung beetle at the same time". Well my friends, in Nairobi, that dream can be your reality.

Introducing the David Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage.  I've blogged about it before because I go there whenever we have visitors in Nairobi - But there is no fulfillment threshold for baby elephants.You just want more and more and more! When my brother came to visit a couple of weeks ago, a stop at the elephant orphanage was on the agenda for the first day of activities. 

Me getting ready to pick them up at the airport - oh boy was I excited. And I had my little airport pick up sign ready to go! It says NEAT not TAEN.  It's a mirror people!

 On to the elephants!

awww...they're so cute. I love the littlest ones that have to wear a blanky

awww...they're so cute. I love the littlest ones that have to wear a blanky

Most of the babies are little orphans because of horrible evil poachers that killed the moms

Oh this little guy was TINY

Oh this little guy was TINY

PHOTO SPOILER! I was about to take a nice couple shot of David and Ali and then some woman decided to walk right in front of me all incognito with her scarf on her head. It's like KONY 2012..i'm gonna make her infamous for spoiling this PHOTO!

Let's try that again. Such a lovely couple ;-)

Let's try that again. Such a lovely couple ;-)

  Another highlight of the elephant orphanage was when David spotted the DUNG BEETLE!! He was so busy rolling dung. He traveled like 40 feet in 15 minutes. 

Interesting enough - they sort of walk on their front legs and push the dung with their bag legs

Interesting enough - they sort of walk on their front legs and push the dung with their bag legs

These guys are pretty small - the dung ball was larger than he was! Dung Ball. lol.

These guys are pretty small - the dung ball was larger than he was! Dung Ball. lol.

 

After the elephants, we went to lunch at one of my favorite spots. Talisman Restaurant in Karen. I ordered WRONG.

I ordered fish...this may be the most unappetizing food photography EVER. I'm good at these. Somehow my fish had lips and teeth....it looks like a gross body part.  It tasted okay - But a little too much work for my taste. Lots of bones and skin and teeth and lips to dig through. It felt like a game of Operation to eat the thing! lol.

And a zoomed out unappetizing food photo of the fish

And a zoomed out unappetizing food photo of the fish

And top view of the fish. Under all the tomato stuff, the actual fish was pretty good.

And top view of the fish. Under all the tomato stuff, the actual fish was pretty good.

 

 Do not let this be a testament to the entire menu at Talisman. They have really good food. The feta and coriander samosas could easily be a healthy substitute for heroin.

Okay, that's it for me. Next post I will do a thorough sarcastic but serious review of  the Insanity work out and anything else that comes to mind.

What's a matter Navin? feeling different again?

For those of you that have been around me for extended periods of time, you know that my favorite movie of all times is The Jerk - old movie with Steve Martin and a million other people.  And if you've seen the movie, then you understand the title of my post.

My brother was here for a week with his girlfriend and they left on Saturday and I'm saaaad and I feel all goofy.  They had the best time EVER - and I had an awesome time with them - and they bought more stuff than I have bought in my full 2 years! I hope they go home and talk so much about their trip that other people decide to come visit. This country is just amazing.  After my birthday party in Nairobi - David and Ali went on safari to Amboseli and saw a million elephants and some cheetahs, which is awesome. Then, they came back to Nairobi for one night and then we took off for the coast at like 5am the next day (Thursday). I basically laid around on the beach the entire 2.5 days.  They did scuba diving, which is way more stressful than what I'm about. (I tried scuba and it wasn't for me...something about claustrophobia.I wrote about my experience here). At the coast here, a fresh scuba learner can basically do pool work in the morning and then have a first dive in the afternoon - it's a crash course.

Here's a photo recap:

Nerd Alert! David and Ali being funny - But I did give them a hard time about using their neck pillows on a 45 minute flight to the beach. 

I took the shopaholics to the Acamba wood carving co-op when we arrived in Mombasa. Most people go to the gift shop where all the items are dusted off and displayed all nice - But two years ago, one of my taxi drivers told me about the manufacturers warehouse. Same stuff for sale except WAY more of it and it just needs a good dusting. Its like half the price. It's where people come to buy stuff to pedal.

No one better be smoking in this joint.

I was sweating my cajones off.  David and Ali bought a forest worth of stuff there. They bought 2 large duffel bags to get their stuff back to Nairobi! Love those two - They appreciate the hand crafted stuff and they did their part in supporting the local economy ;-)

We went to dinner one night at Forty Theives beach bar and grill

I showed them the Ali Barbours Cave Restaurant. I've never eaten there - it's a little on the fancy side for me and at the beach I'd rather be by the ocean not underground. But it is cool if you have never seen it.  This is a view of the bar from the street level entrance. It's a restaurant that is actually built in a natural cavern.

Here you can see the restaurant. That opening at the top is the street level.

I took them to Sails restaurant - The best ever.

Perfection

Lovebirds

David did a couple of dives and Ali spent the morning in the pool learning scuba with Pedro and then got to actually do a dive in the ocean! Here they are walking out for their dive.

We bought some kikoys and kangas

Ali found a way to continue her shopping on the beach. (just giving you a hard time Ali - I know I started it)

I bought this awesome kikoy with a towel attached. Never saw these before.

This was the only thing I bought at Akamba. I have way too many masks but this one was cheap and I liked it.

 Then we flew back to Nairobi and David and Ali caught their next flight to Dubai (and then onto Dallas) and I caught my taxi home ;-(. We had an awesome time. AND YOU COULD TOO! If you visited Kenya ;-)

Beach Trip with Mume

(Sergio will here forth be referred to as Mume - Swahili for husband)

There we were last Monday night -  finishing our packing for the beach and about to go to bed when I decided to check our ticket print out for the departure time..WHICH WAS 8am MONDAY MORNING! Meaning, we missed the flight to the beach by about oh 16 hours. Not sure what I was thinking...I really thought I booked that flight for Tuesday morning. Damn! So I found myself on the phone with Kenya Airways at 11pm trying to get a flight for us the next morning. She rebooked us and told me it would be $80 extra per person..but no where along the way did anyone actually make us pay so that was sort of awesome.

The beach was awesome. We had the best time just doing nothing - well, I did nothing - sergio did scuba.  My big thing is hunting for coral and shells on the beach. I could do it for hours. You can find huge chunks of DEAD coral (promise I'm not collecting the stuff still alive).
There was  hardly a soul anywhere to be seen. I love it like that. We stay at the same place each time so we know all the staff which also makes it a special place for us. My mom went there when she came to visit too and they always ask about her and it's just a nice little home away from home and it's about $80 per night. If you come to Kenya and go to the coast - stay here! Here's some photos of our beach weekend and our favorite little hideaway:

Living room

Swahili style bathroom

Our balcony area

awesome bathroom...love the swahili design and decor

The room we moved to on the 3rd night

the lounge

My artistic shot of my Mume

Me, trying to be cute.

Sergio with Dominic and Alex - staff at Kennaways. Love those guys.

Other things we did included getting daily hour massages for $10 and....:

We rode in matatus - public buses...oh we are just nuts (sarcastic)

we saw a lot of monkeys - these are colubus - they are so cool looking ..long black and white hair. They try to steal your food

 

For our anniversary night, we went to dinner next door to the most amazing luxury resort - Almanara. The place looks like something transported from Dubai - the restaurant there is called Sails. It's amazing and about the cost of long john silvers for the quality of a 5 star restaurant. Here are some photos of our dinner there and the rest of this amazing place:

This was actually a photo we took the night before...but i can't find a photo of us that exact night. I had such a great time with my Mume.

Seafood Platter from Sails Restaurant. Lobster, Tilapia, calimari, prawn, salad, potatos ...all for $18. I'm telling you, come to Kenya.

Photo of the villas at Almanara - these places are nuts. I got invited in once when a friend of a friends family came from the US during Thanksgiving and stayed here - it's like a 3 story Arabian palace with a full-time chef, butler, waiters and a roof top lounge. NUTS.

Sails Restaurant

The Pool there

The Diani Beach. It really does look like this.

 Listen, I know Kenya is far away (17 hours by flight) and the tickets are a bit expensive ($1100 - $1600) - but all of you reading should really really make it Kenya once in your life. Despite the cost of getting here, once you arrive things are very affordable (beer is $1.50, wine is $3.00/glass- enough said)  and there  are soooo many incredible things see and experience.  This country is just breathtaking, from the coast to the game parks to the mountains. I guarantee you will spend more money visiting Europe and you won't see half the amazing sights that you can see here in Kenya.  It is a life changing type of experience.  COME TO KENYA!