NairobI, Kenya
We started our last day in Nairobi by visiting a traveling Market. Traveling markets are pretty popular here. Essentially, the same group of vendors sell their crafts and supplies at a different location each day of the week.
We were lucky enough that a craft market was within walking distance from our hotel. We were excited to go but quickly realized we were wildly unprepared for the skilled sales techniques of the artisans.
Kenyan markets are haggling markets. They give you a price, you disagree, you name a price, they disagree. And then you negotiate until you reach a deal or walk away. We’ve experienced this in other countries - Turkey, South Africa and Thailand to name a few. However, I have to say the Kenyans have the haggling system down.
We hardly made it past three or four stalls in this market before we spent all the money we brought. And these sales men and women were happy to direct us to the nearest ATM when we told them we were out of cash. 😂
Before we knew it we had purchased two pieces of art and I got a beaded necklace from a women who called her self Big Mama.
Here, they actually number a paper 1-4 and write down their price at #1, hand you the paper and pen and have you write down your price at #2 and so on until you reach a deal. It was very easy to find yourself in a negotiation for something you merely glanced at and not even realize you were haggling to buy it until you’re too deep in to quit (which is how we have a second piece of art).
This haggling culture is a really uncomfortable concept for me and Josh (and probably most Americans). We much prefer paying a ticket price in a quiet store where the owner leaves us alone to shop.
But that’s simply now how things work in most other places. Haggling is a very foreign concept and pushes our American (and, perhaps more so, Southern) boundaries of not talking about money and not wanting to offend anyone - by offering too low a price or walking away from the negotiations.
A huge part of my job is engaging in prudent negotiations and let me just say - I’d hate to have to argue out a custody schedule with one of the people I met yesterday. They talked circles around me and got all my monies!
In all fairness, it was kind of a fun - albeit expensive - way to spend the morning and all the artist we met (Big Mama included) were light hearted, friendly and darn good at pushing their products.
We spent time in the afternoon with our friends at the pool (despite it being s little too cold to enjoy). Kenya is surprisingly cool and feels like a like early fall at home.
For dinner, we had to hotel arrange a driver and reservations at the restaurant called “Carnivore.” It is a pretty famous restaurant that essentially served the food like a Brazilian steakhouse - bringing out exotic smoked meats to be cut at the table.
The rush hour traffic meant we took two hours getting there. It was pretty rough but our driver, Bedin, played pretty good music on the drive. We discovered he was a big Chris Daughtry fan 😂 and very impressed when I told him we were basically from Chris Daughtry’s home town and he had even interviewed for a job with my dad right before he became famous. Bedin was very impressed.
Not too many places would have been worth the long drive, but I’ll say Carnivore lived up to the hype. We had a good service, a delicious cocktail called a Dawa - vodka, lime, sugar and syrup.
We had ostrich (in various forms), BBQ rabbit, crocodile, ox testicles and all the regulars like ribs, roast beef, chicken, sausage pork loin and roast turkey with a wild berry sauce. We ate an ungodly amount of meat and agreed the rabbit and turkey were the best.
I was hoping we would get to try some camel - which is a common staple on the menu - unfortunately, they were not serving camel in their rotation that night. So if anyone knows where a girl can get some camel meat, let me know.
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