In our last blog entry we talked about the Giraffes center and ice skating here in Nairobi, but what we didn’t talk about – Caro – our driver. Actually Caro was the first female Uber driver we’ve ever met – but also the nicest. So we exchanged numbers with her, you know so we have a permanent driver (which is very talkative – in a good way) and she gets paid by us without having to give Uber a 25% commission. So as I mentioned Caro gave as a ride to the Giraffes Center,…,.. and the tea farm – to which we invited her to join us. Luckily we went there on Sunday – not too much traffic – but still very much chaotic (very very much compared to Germany).
But the chaotic driving styles aren’t the only differences:
- There are bumps on the highway, so that cars cannot drive faster than 20km/h – at least in these areas.
- People are walking on the streets, next to the cars, knocking on the windows, trying to sell anything (from food to boardgames to knives – literally anything).
- People are riding their bicycles on the highway – but we’ve not seen anyone riding a bicycle on quiet streets, sidewalks etc.
- The new roads or bridges etc. are built by either Chinese or Indian workers (Caro told us, that they really are sending their own workers from China/India to make sure everything is finished in time and on the budget).
Another advantage of going there on a Sunday – we could see all the people on the countryside enjoying their day of (in their finest churchoutfits – you know because Sunday = churchday/ no workday)
At the purple tea farm we were welcomed with a homemade tea of choice, cake and cookies. Robert – our host – explained everything there is to know about tea and stuff, which was quite interesting actually (e.g. the government controls the process of planting, the plugged tea must get to the factory in less than 3 hours – that’s why you’ll find the best streets in Kenia near the tea farms…).
After that we did not only get the chance to look at scenic landscape, no we went there and plugged some tea – and later on made tea out of the plugged leaves – quiet interesting but also quiet exhausting – but it tasted good so it definitely was worth the effort.
After the tea plucking we were a bit hungry, but before getting lunch there was one thing we still had to do!
Hiking through tea fields, bamboo trees and along paths, that most definitely not TÜV-certified – and all this to get to the tea farms waterfall (a really really lovely place – in the middle of nowhere)
Robert assured, that he had killed all crocodiles and hippos (but if there’d still be one of them, we’ kill it together and eat as dessert) so we could take a bath- which we did, which was a little cold but which was as enjoyable as we could’ve never imagined (you know a waterfall in the jungle – everything around you is bright green, smells good, the air is far from being polluted…. – it was amazing). But still at some point it was scary. The kids screamed because of a big animal beside the water. Fearless Lutz saved them from the crab – a very big crab as the Kids assured. So we unfortunately or fortunately had to leave (it was lunchtime after this – Kenyan cuisine – delicious) and with a tea ceremony afterwards.
Kohl World 