Traveling Solo in Kenya

Traveling alone….Scary? Sometimes. Fun? Absolutely. I have never traveled solo until this trip to Kenya. My thoughts leading up to my departure revolved a lot around scorecards (GRS M&E love) and anything but the trip really. Maybe this was a good thing, because thinking about it, traveling solo to a country I know very little about, including the language, is a bit scary. Yet, this trip did everything to convince me that I might just travel the world solo. My reasons:

1) The people you meet.

          When traveling with friends or family you have a tendency to talk and hang out with them instead of branch out to those around you. I can’t tell you how many wonderful meaningful conversations I had with my taxi drivers, the other hostel guests (1 worked as the East African Google Developer, 1 was a retired professor from University of Oregon, and 1 did some sort of work with a nonprofit water project), the hostel staff, the people sitting next to you on public transportation, and even the airport workers. These conversations ranged from politics, prostitution, South Africa, America, music, school systems, aid work, Nelson Mandela, you name it. I learned a lot about Kenya and life from these various conversations and looking back I know for a fact that if I was traveling in a group I wouldn’t have sat in the front seat of the cab next to Lawrence for 2 hours talking about life and prostitution. Clearly, the conversations are great.

2) Expecting the unexpected

            It wouldn’t be adventure if everything went perfectly now would it? Traveling solo means that when something doesn’t exactly work out you have to figure out and being alone adds half the fun. This is the part that scares me most yet gives me the most adrenaline. You never know what could happen and what you might gain from the experience.

Take for example getting stuck in the middle of the bush Kenya with a broken down taxi and no cell phone. Yes this happened on my way to Sara Jo at the Daraja Academy. Luckily, people are kind enough to let you borrow their cellphones and you end up walking up the road and leaving the taxi driver and other passenger on the side of the road. Hey, in my defense they kept reiterating how dangerous the road was after dark. Clearly for the mzungu girl it was 5x the danger and I did try to help push-start it before I left.

Or take for example, a stranger giving you a rose in the parking lot because you look lost. Yes, I was lost but the nice man handed me a rose and offered to call the person I was looking for. Ended up giving the rose to the VAP team. Perfect thank-you gift! 

Or when your credit cards get shut down when you try to leave your hostel. Yeah that happened to-apologies to all those that woke up to random texts/facetimes. Time changes are not easy!

Or the fact you can meet people who can take you on a free game drive where you see baby elephants, zebras, hyenas, giraffes, buffalo, hippos and more! Huge thanks to Morgan, the Mpala Research Center, and SJ for that! I can now say I’ve seen animals J