We are back from our safari in Kenya and had the most amazing trip of our lives. Kenya was the 38th country that my wife and I have visited together, and it blew all of the others away!
We were amazed with everything, including how many animals we saw and how close we were able to get. We saw a cheetah hunt gazelle, lions mating, and a mother and five baby cheetahs on a termite mound. Dominic and Thomas did a superb job with our safari! We didn't want for anything! The lodges were amazing, especially the Mara Serena Safari Lodge in the Maasai Mara National Park. All of the food was excellent. We will definitely travel with 2AFRIKA, INC. again when we make a return trip to Africa.
We did have one incident that I wanted to let you know about, not as a complaint, just to be able to warn future travelers. I am going to pass this information on to Dominic and Thomas as well, so they can warn other travelers. We purchased a 'big-five' wooden carving at the Acacia Gift Shop in Naivasha. It was about 3 feet tall and hung on the wall. (Dominic said that you purchased two giant giraffes at this same shop for your office). The owner of the Acacia Gift Shop said that he could give us the best price if we paid cash. He asked for $600 US. We asked for $150US. He said he could come down some if we would pay the shipping when we returned home. He told us that shipping costs $3-$4 per kilogram. We told him that would be fine and finally settled on $250US for the selling price plus $20US to him for a tip. We only had $40US left after that other than tip money for Dominic and tip money for bags, and I figured that the shipping would be more than that. I work with shipping some with my job and expected that the shipping would probably be closer to $100US, which would be fine because we thought that we got a great deal on the piece.
When we arrived home, I received an e-mail from the Nairobi Airport Cargo representative stating that we would need to take $295.50US with us to the airport in Memphis to claim our package. I explained what had happened to him, and he said that the people in the shops know nothing about what shipping costs. He went to the cargo people for me and got the shipping reduced to $240.00US. I really appreciated this gesture. However, had I known that the shipping was going to be this much, we would have tried to carry the piece home with us as it was just a little oversized.
All of this to let Dominic and Thomas know to inform people to go ahead and include the shipping with their purchase, so they don't have any surprise bills when they get home.
Thank you again for coordinating a wonderful Safari for us.
TG
2AFRIKA Founder & President, Kenneth R. Hieber’s message to future passengers!
Please be warned . . . in good faith you purchase items from Africa (as is outlined above) but the moment you leave the Continent, the ‘picture’ changes and you are at the mercy of strangers that you do not even know! Being African myself, I have no doubt that this was a scam and that ‘someone’, ‘somewhere’, walked off with a huge bonus! My personal recommendation to my passengers is that if you buy anything that needs to be shipped back home to the U.S., USE A MAJOR CREDIT CARD for the purchase for if matters steer off course, your Credit Card Company can (and will) dispute the charge! This has happened to me previously and I will not tolerate such inappropriate business practice – morally, it is wrong!
For further information on this Safari or any other Safari in the 2AFRIKA Collection, visit us on the web at http://www.2afrika.com/
2AFRIKA, INC. remains committed to Corporate Social Responsibility in Tourism.
If you would like to comment on this Blog Post, please communicate directly with 2AFRIKA Founder & President, Kenneth R. Hieber, electronically via kenneth@2afrika.com
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