August 27th, 2012 
Emily 
One of my favorite things about traveling is meeting other travelers and hearing their stories. We’ve been on several short safaris in Kenya, and have met interesting people from around the world.
Here are some of the craziest characters we’ve met so far:
- A woman who brought not one, but two cell phones on a game drive, and took several calls instead of ogling the lions, zebras, giraffes, and wildebeest.
Yep, there’s great cell phone reception out here!
- An Australian couple taking a two month round-the-world trip that had already included running a marathon in Berlin, glacier trekking in Norway, and watching the Olympics in London. We never figured out how they could afford the time off or the cost of this luxurious trip, considering they were quite young and worked as a personal trainer and legal assistant, respectively.
- An American couple living in Bahrain, who hate it there, hence they were taking a weekend trip to Kenya, just to “get away”.
- A British undergraduate student who was doing research with the Masai people, but who spoke neither Masai nor Kiswahili, and was staying in the fancy lodge where we were staying.
The most fascinating man we met introduced himself as “Simba,” which is the Kiswahili word for lion. Simba told us that he had been living in Kenya for 7 years, and that he is the only Chinese wildlife conservationist in all of Africa. He told us that he doesn’t have any training in wildlife conservation, nor does he get paid for his work, but he is very passionate about it.
Simba (the lion, not the Chinese man)
Then he asked if we knew of Yao Ming (the Chinese NBA basketball player). When we said “yes,” Simba told us that Ming had visited him recently and sought his help to document the rhino and elephant poaching crisis. (Ming even mentions “Simba Zhuo” on his blog!)
Finally, Simba invited us to stay at his house outside of Nairobi, and then left us to give a lecture on conservation to a group of Chinese tourists.
After a day of watching exotic animals, it was neat to hear from a man who was so devoted to wildlife conservation that he even named himself after the lion. As for the other crazy characters, I just wonder what they thought about us?
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Wow, two cell phones on a safari – not to take photos but to conduct business calls. Multi-tasking gone totally wrong.
And, yes, I have met a fair share of people who are “doing the world” in a month or so. Polite smile – that’s my answer.
It’s not unusual for Aussies to take 8 weeks off every few years to travel the world. Aussies and Kiwis (New Zealanders) are probably some of the most travelled people. In Australia you work for your lifestyle, so if a job doesn’t suit you then you move on to something that does. At present I have a friend who is in Europe for 5 weeks, 2 more heading to the US this week, one travelling to NYC for 2 weeks, 2 in Rome for 6 weeks, a couple in Northern Uganda for a month etc. Aussies are willing to have a couple of jobs just to save and travel. Annually you get between 3 and 4 weeks holiday from work, plus all the public holidays. Many businesses will give extra time without pay. Our 21 year old has just started work at an art store but it was under the proviso that she get 2.5 weeks off in October to come to the States with us.
Most employers believe that if they look after their workers they will be loyal to them.
That’s a smart policy those Aussie and Kiwi businesses have! I know that most Americans would LOVE to have so much time off.
I do like the attitude that work is just a job, and not a person’s whole life. I feel like I’d fit in there.