A tour of Nairobi Safari Park Hotel and National Museum

My first office in Nairobi was located in a 19-floor building at the center of Nairobi. It’s only six years ago, but the city used to suffer much less from traffic jam and air pollution. After four years working at that building, I decided to relocate my office to Safari Park Hotel at the suburbs of Nairobi, thinking that the traffic jam and heavy air were not why I had moved to Africa in the first place.

The reception area which cannot be more African. The elephant standing at the middle is a popular background for photo-taking for tourists.

It is the only resort-type hotel in Nairobi with very pleasant facilities.

Although there are plenty of swimming pools, the 1800 meter altitude is too chilly for swimming.

Hotels at the center of Nairobi may be risky to walk around at night time. But, this hotel is really vast.

Barbeque

A wide selection of barbeque including beef, pork, lamb, goat, alligator, ostrich, camel and chicken and roasting nice and easy.

The spacious garden reminds of a botanical garden.

This tree, which appears to be dead with most of the leaves fallen, has pink flowers iin full blossom. This is the vitality of nature in Africa.

If you take a closer look at the photo, you can see that many different plants are being parasitic on the tree.

The plants not only grow on the trunks, they are deeply rooted in the big tree.

A cute elephant decoration. The trunk usually spouts water, but due to the draught here in Nairobi, the foundation is turned on only once in a while to save water. A cool elephant made of copper, not plastic.

Nairobi National Museum

A year or so ago, the museum was closed down for a good eight months for repair, and reopened only recently. Actually, before the renewal, the museum was poorly managed with not much to see and I thought the admission fee was too high for what I got. However, the museum is way better now that the $12 of admission fee is worth it.

Only five minutes from the center of Nairobi, the museum is one of the most popular destinations for tourists who are making a short visit.

Stuffed elephant and its skeleton standing side by side.

The skeleton looks like an angry animal, rather than an elephant. The huge ivory implies that the elephant must have lived for more than 80 years and of course, no damage to the ivory made while it was alive. Ivory is nothing more than animal teeth. It’s regretful that these huge and smart animals are hunted due to the various myths surrounding the ivory.

The bottom of an elephant

A structure in the form of the traditional water bottle used by the Masai.

To be more accurate, the bottle carries the blood of cow and milk, not water. Because of the high calorie and rich nutrition, drinking this is enough to sustain life.

The difference between a chimpanzee and human being.. blah blah blah.. the board reads.

One thing I remember is that the DNA is 96% similar. Very shocking!

Various art works including sculptures surround the museum.

This is the one that caught my eyes the most. One person is trying to separate two people desperately hanging on to each other and interesting enough, the tool used is chisel and hammer.

A small botanical garden located at a promenade nearby.

The floor is nicely decorated with scrapped glass.