Travel Photography

My two friends and I planned a safari to Masai Mara for two days. We camped outside the park. Our guide brought us in and out of the back way of the park both days to divert paying the fees, but still took US$30 from each of us as well as his daily earnings. We were on to his scamming so we demanded receipts (apparently, Kenyans take receipts very seriously). The driver (not so cleverly) gave us receipts with incorrect dates that were out of sequence. Our driver must have been doing this for years.

Anyways, we got him fired, but it is such a shame that the parks continue to get exploited. When talking to the manager, he explained that many tourists just give all of the money up front for safaris and the drivers acquire the park fees for them. Many of the drivers could be stealing the money intended for the park fees without anyone ever knowing.

Here’s a scam that I found out had happened to many people. On our first day in Nairobi, we were approached by a man who greeted us as though he knew us. We looked at him with confusion and he said” It’s me, Abdul, I work at the hotel you are staying at. I saw you check in”. We had seen so many faces that day that we couldn’t be sure and we didn’t want to seem impolite so we continued conversation with him. After a while of talking he said he had to get some of the groceries for the hotel and pointed to a place where we could get sandals since that was what I was looking for. He then headed off to get groceries. After a few minutes in the shoe store, he walked by and came in. He said that he was just short of the amount of money that he needed to pay for the groceries and asked if we could lend him some money. He told us that he would pay us back as soon as he got back to the hotel when the manager had gotten the bill. We asked him why he wouldn’t just go back to the hotel and get some more money and he said his food was already at the check-out. We said “sorry” and wished him luck and left. Of course, when we got back to the hotel, they told us they hadn’t sent anyone to get food.