Kenya again

 A first cousin's 50th birthday was a good reason to visit Nairobi again from Feb 13_22. It was a week of endless partying _ the scheduled dinners at  Capital Club, an outdoor venue and at home _ as well as lunch or dinner at other restaurants and clubs or at home.

I had not attended anything of this scale before. The crowd was intimate and fun - they included apart from a few of us relatives - mother, sister, first cousins and relatives from the wife's side -- his friends from his student days in Belgaum, US, France and his work life in Germany and Kenya. Ash got a special invite too since he has been in regular touch with the ammacha (uncle). 

Just after I had booked on Kenya Airways, the cousin told us that he would like us to carry some 15 kg fish food for his koi fish; soon after, he asked Ash if he could bring his DJ set to play at the party. After some dillydallying, we decided to take in its original packing material -- discarding the box I got from Amazon. The fish food and set filled one passenger's luggage allowance, so the two of us managed to fit in our wardrobe for the week in the second suitcase. 

We were not prepared for the long-winding, slow-moving queue at the check-in counter in T1 of DXB on 12th midnight; some carried bulky shapeless sacks probably filled with consumer durables and other goodies that would have a good retail market in Kenya. Our DJ set was specially marked fragile and sent separately for loading in the aircraft after we had paid a fee of AED 45.. The journey was thoroughly uncomfortable and sleep was difficult in the 5 hours we were in the flight. Food was overcooked and nothing we would remotely fancy. 

We were accommodated at Novotel in Nairobi Westlands for the 7 days we were in the capital and Temple Point Resort for the 4 days we were in Watamu, a beach town that had the humid weather of Kerala and the development level of a North Indian small town. Apart from the complimentary hotel breakfast, we could troop to cousin's house near the embassies (the isrl one being the only ominous one with gun-toting security men and no photography signboards) which was an Uber ride away for lunch and a few dinners (the dinner parties on 14th, 15th and 16th were formal, casual and semi-casual respectively and grand affairs in their own way).  Ash played his DJ on the third night -- an informal garden party at home that was half ruined by an unexpected summer rain. 

On 15th, I joined a motley team for a city tour that included viewing the capital from a helipad. A hippie draped in a keffiyeh and a couple of African man sporting t-shirts displaying the Palestinian flag made a half-Palestinian guest among us happy and emotional. On 19th, my brother took us and his family for an early-morning safari in the Nairobi National Park where we saw three of Africa's Big Five -- lion, rhino and African buffalo. A huge baboon peeped in through the roof of our vehicle and went off with the breakfast that the hotel had packed for me -- that was fine; my only worry was the plastic caps and cases polluting the park.

The foodie that my cousin is, we feasted and drank like the gods on Olympus. As with the Australia vacation, it seemed unreal once I set foot back here. The only real and tangible parts were the goodies I brought home - tea and coffee packets, Masai-beaded mirrors and sandals, and other knick-knacks. 

Photo captions (clockwise from left): Barbeque party in the garden; the big formal party in Capital Club; the outdoor party in Langata; atop the helipad with the hippie couple in front; cousin's multi-level home near the Karura Forest; my cousin Rose feeding a Rothschild giraffe at the Giraffe Centre in Nairobi.