The Budget of My Trip to Kenia - Essay Example

Mathematics Essay Mathematics Essay Vacations do not always come easy, especially considering the costs involved. However, one day I was lucky to win a raffle ticket of $ 5000, which I decided to use by treating myself to a splendid holiday vacation. As a lover of the wild, I decided to have a vacation in Africa, and majorly targeted to witness the Great Wild Beast migration across the Mara River. This migration is synonymous across various sectors in the world, especially those in relation to tourism and wildlife conservation. The wild beast migration takes place at Maasai Mara National reserve, a Kenyan wildlife conservancy located south of the capital city, Nairobi. Kenya is a country in Africa, particularly East Africa, and speaks both English and Kiswahili as national languages, thereby eliminating my fear of language barriers (Hoare, 2009). I spent the first part of my 5000 dollars in booking a flight from New York to Nairobi, Kenya with the Fly Emirates Airlines. This was a roundtrip flight that covered the flight ticket to Kenya and from Kenya back to New York, costing $ 953. I booked a flight on a Sunday evening as I was planning to spend a whole week, or at least five days in Africa, in the wild, waking up to the sight of wild animals and surrounding nature. This was in July, that month of the years when the wild beasts migrate from the Mara national park to Serengeti national park in search of greener pastures, risking their lives in the process, as they have to cross the Mara River, which is full of dangerous crocodiles waiting to pounce on their prey. I arrived in Nairobi, Kenya, early Monday Morning and called up my tour guide who was to drive me all the way to the Maasai Mara National Reserve, located in Narok County (Modlin, 2002). I had made reservations with the tour guide to pick me at the airport, the largest airport in Kenya ad named after the first president of the country, Mzee Jomo Kenyatta, the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, soon as I landed. The tour guide from Safari Vans, a leading tour guide firm in the city, picked me up at the airport and drove me to Maasai Mara National Park. I wanted to go there by road so that I could see the beautiful landscape of Kenya as I travelled along, especially The Great Rift Valley, a natural depression that we passed on our way to the Mara. The Tour guide charged me $ 50 to take me from the airport to the Mara, and was to charge me an additional $ 50 when he returned to pick me from the park and take me back to the airport five days later. The Maasai Mara National Reserve is a secret haven in Kenya, visited by thousands of tourists on an annual basis. This time I was among the lucky tourists visiting the national reserve to watch a vast diverse of wildlife and bird life. I had with myself a set of camera and other filming equipment, such as a pair of binoculars, a camera, a video recorder, which I intended to use in capturing all the memorable sights and sounds that I would meet at the camp. I had bought these gadgets at a store in New York streets at a total cost of $ 500. On reaching the entrance of the Mara Reserve, we had to pay the entrance fee, which is $ 80 for every adult and valid for 24 hours. Since I was planning to spend five solid days at the park, I paid a total of $ 400 as park fees (Jacana Education, 2005). The tour guide was quick to point out some of stunning features of the park that I would expect to see while driving me to my hotel, situated at the heart of the park, the Mara Serena Safari Lodge. He said that the reserve had a high number of predators, including the African lions and cheetahs. In addition, the park also had over one million wild beasts that migrate annually across the Mara River filled with hungry crocodiles. All members if the “Big Five” are found within the Mara, which are the Lion, the Black Rhinoceros, Leopard, the African Buffalo, and the African Elephant. The park also hosts large groups of Nile Crocodiles and Hippopotami within the Talek and Mara rivers flowing through the park. Other animals found in the reserve include bat-eared foxes, hyenas, zebras, giraffes, jackals, and wide bred of herbivores, which graze across the Mara plains and Esoit Siria Escarpments. I noted all this information and promised myself to see all the animals mentioned by my tour guide. The guide finally came to my most intriguing segment, in fact, what had initially prompted me to come and visit Africa particularly at that time of the year. He said that the park was preparing for the Great Wild Beast migration that was to take place in the next few couple of days. Around July every year, animals migrate northwards from Serengeti plains to the Mara in search of greener pastures across the crocodile infested Mara River. This migration is among the most impressive natural events in the park, and in fact world wide as the migration is almost dubbed the Eighth Wonder of the World. The migration involves about 1,500,000 wild beasts, 500,000 Thomson’s gazelles, 200,000 zebras, 97,000 Topi and 18,000 elands. On reaching the hotel is when I realized that I was not the only New Yorker eager to capture the livid graphics of the Great Migration of Wild Beasts. A large number of tourists were already booked at the hotel and some even failed to get the rooms they desired because of the traffic. Lucky for me I had made prior reservations for my hotel room at the Mara Serena Safari Lodge through its website, and paid for the hotel room at $ 300 per night for five nights, totaling to $ 1500. I checked into my room and freshened up ready to experience the wild through a game drive. The tour guide company further provided game drives around the park in their vehicles, which I too enlisted. I wanted them to take me around the entire park so that I could see all the animals found in the Mara. For each of these game drives, the tour guides charged $ 30 per day, which totals to $ 150 for five days (Kennedy & Scott, 2013). The Mara Serena Safari Lodge wanted to make sure that every guest in its hotel enjoyed being in Africa, and especially in Kenya. This is a marketing tool used by the hotel to entice first time visitors like myself to make repeated visits at the park, and possibly be a guest at their hotel. Truly speaking, they won my heart, and I swore by the end of the first day as I retired to bed, that I got another $ 5000 to spend on a vacation I would definitely travel to Maasai Mara again. They enticed me with songs and dances, especially from the native Maasai Culture, the inhabitants of the region where the park was located. As such, I was not only sampling game, but also the rich and deep cultural history of the Kenyan people. The meals and dishes served to guests at the hotel were African in every word. I sampled a different African cuisine daily during my stay at the park spend about $ 200 daily on food and drinks for five days, a total of $ 1000. Apart from the game drives across every corner of the park, I also opted to sample Hot air balloon tours across the park. These tours took place early in the morning when the atmosphere was still humid and the sun not too hot. I went for a ride in the hot air balloon across the park every morning, which lasted for one hour before taking a game drive on the tour vans across the park. This enabled me to see all the animals as captioned in my picture itinerary below. The tours by Hot air balloons cost $ 50 each, thus I spent $ 250 for the rides over the five days. A visit to the wild is not complete without camping, or setting up a campfire. As such, I was quick to seek out some camping services while at the reserve whereby I camped for two nights, at a camp adjacent to the Mara River. These included the two first days of the Great Migration of wild beasts that had already begun, and I wanted to be near in order to capture every moment in real life. The park provides camping services at $ 70 per night, and I paid $ 140 for the two nights that I camped at the Mara River. Later that evening on my fifth and last day at the camp, as the tour guide drove me back to the airport for my flight; I realized I had spent $4993 for my trip, but did not regret how I spent every dollar. Given another opportunity, I would do it all over again (Koppikar, 2013). References Hoare, B. (2009). Animal Migration: Remarkable Journeys in the Wild. California: University of California Press. Retrieved from https://books.google.co.ke/books?id=34UDysXNKqIC&dq=the+great+wild+beast+migration+in+masai+mara&source=gbs_navlinks_s Jacana Education. (2005). Maasai Mara: Visitor Map Guide. Johannesburg: Jacana Media. Kennedy, V. & Scott, A. (2013). Animals of the Maasai Mara. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Koppikar, A. (2013). The Game Drive: A Tete-A-Tete with the Wild. Bloomington, Indiana: Partridge Publishing. Retrieved from https://books.google.co.ke/books?id=JjuVAgAAQBAJ&dq=the+great+wild+beast+migration+in+masai+mara&source=gbs_navlinks_s Modlin, R. (2002). Malachite Lion: A Travel Adventure in Kenya. Boston: Authorhouse. Appendices 1. Pictures Itinerary Film and camera equipment Maasai Mara National Reserve Tour vans Mara Serena Safari Lodge African Dishes and Cuisines Camping At the Park Hot Air Balloon Tours around the Park The Big Five The Great Wild Beast Migration 2. Expenses Report Item Activity Costs Per Unit Frequency Total Costs 1. Flight ticket – roundtrip NY to Nairobi $953 1 $953 2. Tour Van to and from Maasai Mara $50 2 $100 3. Park entrance fee at Maasai Mara $80 5 $400 4. Hotel room at Mara Serena Safari lodge $300 5 $1500 5. Food and drinks $200 5 $1000 6. Park camping fees $70 2 $140 7. Hot air balloon tours $50 5 $250 8. Filming and camera equipment $500 1 $500 9. Tour guides around the park $30 5 $150 10. Total expenses $4993 Read More

The Maasai Mara National Reserve is a secret haven in Kenya, visited by thousands of tourists on an annual basis. This time I was among the lucky tourists visiting the national reserve to watch a vast diverse of wildlife and bird life. I had with myself a set of camera and other filming equipment, such as a pair of binoculars, a camera, a video recorder, which I intended to use in capturing all the memorable sights and sounds that I would meet at the camp. I had bought these gadgets at a store in New York streets at a total cost of $ 500.

On reaching the entrance of the Mara Reserve, we had to pay the entrance fee, which is $ 80 for every adult and valid for 24 hours. Since I was planning to spend five solid days at the park, I paid a total of $ 400 as park fees (Jacana Education, 2005). The tour guide was quick to point out some of stunning features of the park that I would expect to see while driving me to my hotel, situated at the heart of the park, the Mara Serena Safari Lodge. He said that the reserve had a high number of predators, including the African lions and cheetahs.

In addition, the park also had over one million wild beasts that migrate annually across the Mara River filled with hungry crocodiles. All members if the “Big Five” are found within the Mara, which are the Lion, the Black Rhinoceros, Leopard, the African Buffalo, and the African Elephant. The park also hosts large groups of Nile Crocodiles and Hippopotami within the Talek and Mara rivers flowing through the park. Other animals found in the reserve include bat-eared foxes, hyenas, zebras, giraffes, jackals, and wide bred of herbivores, which graze across the Mara plains and Esoit Siria Escarpments.

I noted all this information and promised myself to see all the animals mentioned by my tour guide. The guide finally came to my most intriguing segment, in fact, what had initially prompted me to come and visit Africa particularly at that time of the year. He said that the park was preparing for the Great Wild Beast migration that was to take place in the next few couple of days. Around July every year, animals migrate northwards from Serengeti plains to the Mara in search of greener pastures across the crocodile infested Mara River.

This migration is among the most impressive natural events in the park, and in fact world wide as the migration is almost dubbed the Eighth Wonder of the World. The migration involves about 1,500,000 wild beasts, 500,000 Thomson’s gazelles, 200,000 zebras, 97,000 Topi and 18,000 elands. On reaching the hotel is when I realized that I was not the only New Yorker eager to capture the livid graphics of the Great Migration of Wild Beasts. A large number of tourists were already booked at the hotel and some even failed to get the rooms they desired because of the traffic.

Lucky for me I had made prior reservations for my hotel room at the Mara Serena Safari Lodge through its website, and paid for the hotel room at $ 300 per night for five nights, totaling to $ 1500. I checked into my room and freshened up ready to experience the wild through a game drive. The tour guide company further provided game drives around the park in their vehicles, which I too enlisted. I wanted them to take me around the entire park so that I could see all the animals found in the Mara.

For each of these game drives, the tour guides charged $ 30 per day, which totals to $ 150 for five days (Kennedy & Scott, 2013). The Mara Serena Safari Lodge wanted to make sure that every guest in its hotel enjoyed being in Africa, and especially in Kenya. This is a marketing tool used by the hotel to entice first time visitors like myself to make repeated visits at the park, and possibly be a guest at their hotel. Truly speaking, they won my heart, and I swore by the end of the first day as I retired to bed, that I got another $ 5000 to spend on a vacation I would definitely travel to Maasai Mara again.

They enticed me with songs and dances, especially from the native Maasai Culture, the inhabitants of the region where the park was located.

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