Compared to last year’s expo, the first tourism expo of the year at Sarit Center had fewer stands, foreign exhibitors, and focus was on getting domestic tourists to rediscover the usual haunts.

You have to salute the industry for going ahead and trying to rebuild after two months of violence wiped out a decade of steady growth. While they were advertising Easter packages (discounts of about 10% if booked at the fair), their goal was to get the sector back on track in the long term.

Here are a few of the offerings still have a bias for the Coast;

new
- Holiday Homes Kenya, a network of fully staffed private homes for holiday.
– New Man Eaters Camp by Voi Wildlife Lodge at the site of the infamous man eating lions that terrorized railways builders in 1898
- Mombasa Continental hotel (former intercontinental hotel) opened in December 07 (days before election) has introductory rates valid up to December 20, 2008
- Wild Waters theme park in Nyali - which closed in January when the tourists left, but reopened over the weekend (March 9)

Coast
– Jacaranda Beach flying package from Nairobi for East Africa residents for Kshs. 22,400 (inclusive of 2 nights)
- Kenya Bay Beach Hotel has these prices for 2008; Kshs. 3,700 (up to April 30), Kshs. 3200 up to June 30, and Kshs. 3,500 (July up to December 31) (all half board, per person sharing)– lock in these low rates for the rest of the yeat before the tourism prices pick up
– Sun n Sand no special offers, but the hotel is still a favorite for state and private sector retreats at the coast, so may not struggle

Wildlife safaris
- Discover Wilderness has flying packages to the Mara (keekorok) and Samburu for Kshs. 24,950 per night and Kshs. 11,950 for extra night – (includes 3 game drives, full board valid up June 30)
- Serena have flying package to the Mara, Amboseli, Samburu, (2 nights, 2 game drives at 40,000 pp)

other
- Kenya Wildlife Services: who have self catering bandas in Amboseli, Tsavo and Mt. Kenya as well as Homa Bay, Marsabit, Mt. Elgon, Malindi and Kisite-Mpunguti (Kwale)
- Nairobi's Silver Springs Hotel has two new sister premises in Sangare Tented Camp and Green Hills Hotel in Nyeri

Airlines
- Discovered some ‘truths’ behind Fly 540 airline: low special offers; that $79 Entebbe and Juba $199 fare to Juba re one way and translate to $135 and $279 after the hefty taxes on both routes. So a round trip to Entebbe costs $270 while Nairobi-Juba and back is $558
- Air Kenya with their point to point flights are the best way for a tourists to avoid Kenya’s roads and get around in as little time as possible – so you can fly from Mombasa to Masai Mara, Mombasa-Kilimanjaro, fly from Nairobi to Lewa , from Samburu to Masai Mara etc.
- Virgin Atlantic have $425 Nairobi to London and $829 fares to Los Angeles or San Francisco

Elsewhere
not at the trade fair, but in the news over the weekend
Lewa marathon sponsored by Safaricom is open for registration up to 23/5
- Vipingo Ridge, a housing estate/golf course under development in Kilifi (40km north of Mombasa) by Rea Vipingo was a sponsor at the Kenya Open Golf Course. Some plots of land are still available but not much info is online yet about it.

Run for the border

After a month of being cooped up with elections and politics, it's a welcome opportunity to take a brief trip out of town.

The drive to Namanga is pleasant and with many causal things to observe. However it takes about an hour to leave Nairobi, owing to the traffic from the City Center up to before the airport.

The expansion of Mombasa Road (to three lanes) contributes to a major traffic jam as we pass the still-under-construction new Standard/KTN building, Vision Plaza - an office complex that was slightly ahead of its time, and is still looking to fill some vacant spaces, and Panari Hotel – host of an ice rink, Brazilian restaurant and affordable convenience for transit passengers. As we pass the Jomo Kenyatta Airport in early afternoon, one of new Fly 540 aircraft swoops in to land.

Traffic is slow, at the by-passes and diversions of what used to be Mlolongo infamous meat eating area, towards Athi River which now has an almost -complete cement factory by Tororo Cement who will be the fourth major local producer.

Then there's the Rattansi peace village, proposed site of new Hindu University of Kenya, and numerous single houses. Whatever real estate prices are in the area, they will probably triple in the next dozen years, after the by pass and dual carriage way roads are completed.

On into plains area with occasional zebra sightings. There are numerous chicken-rearing farms for Kenchic and flower estates. Flower farms are visible even from aircraft, and i wonder if it is possible for a media company to draw up some adverts to be displayed on these roofs for long-distance advertising.

Then the curio shops, some which say 'welcome' in German (and other languages) to attract tourists, a well-maintained railway, trains and wagons belonging to Magadi Soda Company. Magadi also have a trial farm growing jatropha seedlings, and this is the road to Amboseli which I wonder why it is not as world famous as the Masai Mara.

Amboseli, has arguably the same wild life concentration, is closer to Nairobi and has better road access. To (cap it all) it has Mt. Kilimanjaro as it's background.

Finally get to Namanga is about 130 kilometres from Nairobi (from where one can branch off to the gates of Amboseli 70km away, but on murram roads). Namanga is the border of Kenya and Tanzania, but a stop for petrol is not the best decision if you have a travel van. We get hit with high pressure Masai saleswomen – who I had read about but never met – they have very aggressive sales tactics aimed at tourists with dollars. They all chatter and take turns to persuade you to buy their trinkets - pressing beads or amulets to your arms or chest and refusing to take them back, saying they are gifts. Yeah, right!

On into no-man's land at the border. You have to fill out a departure form on the Kenya side and an arrival form on the tanzania side – all in a space of a 100 metres.

On both sides, there are border 'fixers' who are residents of this zone, and who traverse both country offices on foot helping people crossing with bureaucracy, currency, tax difficulties. If you don't use them, it can take over an hour to cross, with most of the delay comes from the insurance requirement for every personal vehicle at the border.

The Kenya side is the domain of Somali businessmen and they have imposed their law here; it's like a mini-Eastleigh, clean, orderly, no alcohol, but with tea houses and many super-markets with names like Libaan, Dubai, Taafrik, Mubarak, and Mandera.

The trans-border business acumen of Somali business people is something to be admired as even people in Dubai and China shop and collect their gods from Eastleigh. One day, after the political temperature has gone down, some local university should offer business classes on Somali, Kikuyu and Hindu business, trade, and management models -with business cases to study. I'd pay to attend that class

Namanga is also a mark of contract for two countries, and Kenya loses this time. The Tanzania side of the border is also clean and air-conditioned. But the pen's to fill out forms actually work and there is an eye-scan device for those requiring Tanzanian visa's. Once you step into Tanzania side, it's like you stepped in to coast province, with many buildings having Makuti (coconut thatch)roofs.

Also you can now buy roast tilapia fish and the chips are more generous and healthier than those on the Kenya side, with more drink varieties (Heineken, Pepsi).And that's a day at the border

Safaricom has hooked up with MTN in Uganda (and Vodacom in Tanzania to combat Celtel’s East African no roaming package) to enable their customers to use their phones kama kawaida in East Africa as well and the service works great.

With MTN you even have get to enjoy their cool location prompt that tells you where you are with your phone e.g. Entebbe avenue, constitution street, Bumbu, Luwum street, Speke, etc. that scared safaricom customers one day in 2006.

Only problem with Safaricom is that their cards are very difficult to find and sold at very few locations. Only MTN stores sell them in Kampala and they are making a killing. A 500-shilling card goes for 16,300 shillings at about a 30% mark-up, while a 100-shilling card is priced over by about 36%. Still it’s worth the convenience of having affordable access to your contacts and messages.

The outcry from President Kibaki’s decision to return the Amboseli Park to the Masai community prior to the 2005 referendum was probably influenced by the impression that community was incompetent and would run down Amboseli reserve in no time. But the Masai Mara, Samburu, Baringo and other reserves are run by local communities and rather successfully – even from before independence.

Narok County Council: Said to be the richest council in the country, thanks largely to its stewardship of the Masai Mara. I can’t vouch for its financial efficiency but they have maintained the park well. They collects gate fees (no KWS smart cards here), undertake road repair with in the parks, approve construction/expansion of lodges/camps in the park and hires rangers to guard the animals and the surrounding forest. The revenue collected is meant to be shared among communities and the council also controls issuance of title deeds to the community with a subtle view to discouraging transfers to ‘outsiders.’

Roads: You need a true 4WD to get around the Mara which can get muddy and flodded when it rains. There is some serious road repair work going on, and roads inside the park are generally better than those leading to the park. However, I get the feeling that it doesn’t bother the tourists as much as it does locals (vehicle owners, hotel suppliers, tour operators) since it’s all part of their TIA experience.

Number to know :
5 – The number of airstrips in the Mara
4 - Types of hyaena exist – and that’s how it is spelt, not hyena
0 - number of lodges that will be constructed inside the Mara as the council feels it is too crowded. Hence new project are coming up along the fence or just outside the Mara.

More on property development at other parks

This is a brief story about why there are no pictures to post from a trip to the latest wonder of the world - the Masai Mara

We were scheduled to leave very early one morning. So the night before, I went to the ATM withdraw some cash to buy some batteries for a digital camera. However, the ATM was acting up (no cash on Sunday night) and so I went to Uchumi with whatever cash I had left in my pocket. I didn't have enough for any of the alkaline batteries (about 230 shillings for 4 AA) and so I settled for some "super heavy duty" Eveready batteries.

Early in the trip, I started taking some pictures of road construction work around Narok area, but soon the low battery prompt began to blink at the corner. I ignored it, as the batteries were new, and continued on taking pictures.

At the gate of the Mara, that garden full of almost every significant animal found on the continent - the camera conked out. The last picture the camera I was able to take was of a group of Masai ladies dancing and trying to sell some beads to a minivan of tourists. So much for the super heavy duty batteries, which only lasted for about a dozen pictures.

Great Mara: Driving through the Mara (no game drives or searching for animals), we were able to see buffalo, zebra, giraffe, waterbuck, baboons, monitor lizard or crocodile (dived into the bush near river as soon as we approached), wildebeest, gazelle, warthog, and ostrich. The only ‘kill’ I saw was a secretary bird stomp a green snake and swallow it in about 3 seconds.

Also encountered, separately walking along the road was a hyena and a jackal, whose odd location could probably be attributed to tourists who had (illegally) thrown scraps of food at them. In addition, outside the park (which is not fenced), there were considerable herds of gazelle, wildebeest and zebra grazing close to herds of cattle watch over by Masai lads. There are no photos of these animals as I was neveready for the Mara.

Tourist economy/inflation: Back to the dead batteries. One peeve of domestic tourists is the inflated price of every day goods sold at (and around) hotels and resorts. The batteries I couldn’t buy at Uchumi for 230/= were being sold at a kiosk outside the park for 500 shillings and at 700/= at the hotel shop. Eventually I had to relent and buy them for 550/= at another shop we stopped at. These 100% mark-ups on the price of everyday items like toothpaste, slippers and batteries are a nuisance and should be cut down as the hotels/vendors don’t add any value to them.