20,000 Kms in 7 days at 2Rs / Km

Recently I Traveled to Kenya and Seychelles with my family. Africa, particularly Masai Mara, or the Mara as the locals call it, is absolutely mesmerizing. When I was in the wilderness of Masai Mara, the wind in my hair, the sight of endless land, tranquility engrossed me. It was the feeling of being one with the universe.

Besides seeing some very interesting animals we also learnt a lot about them. Thanks to our guide Lawrence. One such animal was  the Eland (it almost looks like the Indian cow, Amrit Mahal) but it also looks like an antelope. Apparently, this is the only animal that the Masai community hunts and eats.

Kenyan Eland

Our preparations for the trip had started much earlier than the trip. Weather, vaccination, threat of terrorism, risks of going out in the night, best time to visit, my wife had researched everything. She even made a few international calls to Nairobi to inquire.We booked through http://www.holidaysbox.com . (Nice people). Our plan was to travel to Nairobi then to Seychelles and back.

Just a few weeks before we left for our trip Kenya airways cancelled our flight to Seychelles. They did not offer accommodation, refund, nothing! our travel agent offered us an additional day's stay in  Nairobi for an exorbitant additional price + no refund for cancellation of our stay at Seychelles. There were two parallel events that did not help our cause. Jet airways had just gone kaput and following a Ethiopian airline crash Boeing 737 max 8 were being banned across several countries. Soon after, a domestic leg of our trip involving Jet Airways was cancelled too. (I am still waiting for a refund!!!)

We had already lost a lot of money and we had to spend more if we were to take-up this trip. The possibility of getting stuck in Nairobi with my 4 year old son and wife still bothered me. I was not sure if the adventure was worth it. Kudo's to my gritty wife she persisted with both the travel agent and Kenyan airways for a better deal. We made several international calls to the Kenyan airways each lasting more than 30 mins waiting for their agents to answer the call. Then finally one late night I got through to an agent who told me that we could fly to Seychelles via Qatar in place of our cancelled flight! We took it!  What would have been a 3 hour trip was now taking 15 hours. We were now flying 7000 Km to cover a geodesic distance of 2000 Km .  We ended up traveling more than 20,000 Kms in our full trip and the flight charges for the three of us would work out to less than 2 Rs / Km  per person. (Yes, I like to look at the bright side) This is of-course not accounting for the money we spent on calls and the money we lost to Jet-airways.


We reached the Mumbai airport much ahead of time. We had plenty of time to spare. So, my son was chasing a pigeon that managed to get past the security check at Chhatrapati Shivaji airport. My wife and I spent time arguing about where to exchange our currency. Finally, I exchanged some Indian rupee for dollars at the behest of my better half. 

The flight was full. What was surprising to me was the amount of luggage people were allowed to check in. Upon landing in Nairobi we were told that they did not bring our luggage. This apparently is part of routine for Kenya airways. We eventually got our baggage on our last day in mainland Africa. We managed our week-long trip in two pairs of clothes each and a rain jacket.

Our flight to Doha was also interesting the flight was almost empty it had a 40-50 refugees sponsored by UNHCR, some UNHCR delegates and a few Chinese nationals. That and more for another blog.


If you plan to visit Kenya here are some tips.
1. You need to be vaccinated for yellow fever & Polio (Even if you are an adult) before you travel to Kenya. (see This Blog for details)

2. Get your visa before you travel. With an Indian passport you can get a visa on arrival at Kenya. Since the Jumbo Kenyatta airport serves as a transit airport to may African destination the queue for visa could be long.

3. Book your safari and other trips from India. (You may be able to bargain a good price once you reach Kenya if you have plenty of time to spare)

4. Exchange rates and commissions at the airports are exorbitantly high

5. You can Negotiate the exchange prices even at the Airport.

6. You will not be able to exchange Indian currency for Kenyan currency anywhere. (not in India not at the airports not in Kenya). You will need to buy dollars and exchange them for Kenyan shillings and visa versa. Plan your spend and buy your Forex ahead of your travel we bought most of it from https://www.bookmyforex.com and we got good rates.