I Slept in a Masai Warrior's Bed

Dan and I spent the last week far away from internet camping on beautiful Lake Naivasha.

Our first day there we cycled into Hell's Gate National Park on a pair of crappy rented bikes. My butt hurt for days.....
This park is really cool because you are not in a car. The giraffes, zebras, warthogs etc. are really really close to you, but there isn't too much that will eat you aside from the leopards --- so it is pretty safe.
In the park there is a huge gorge with hot springs and you can hike around it with a Masai guide. We had a great time in the gorge and even got to see where some parts of Tomb Raider 2 were shot (they love Angelina around here.)

At the end of our hike, one of the other guides invited us to stay a while and have some food he was making and that would be ready in "5 minutes." Our answer was simple because of the improv rule. Dan and I decided at the beginning of the trip to use the "improv rule." In good improv, one is never allowed to say "no" to a suggestion. If someone says "look at that huge purple crocodile" you can't say "I don't see any bloody croc!" You have to say "it's at least 30 feet tall and it's coming to eat us."

So, of course we said "sure we'll eat."

I'm not sure we've mentioned the sense of time in Kenya. Generally, we triple the amount of time that someone says something will take. But after 30 minutes, I went to check on the status of the food. Needless to say, the food was going to take 2-3 hours, so I tried to politely say how about we just have some tea since it will be dark soon.

Over our sweet milky tea, our guide Seret invited us back to spend a night in his village and see how Masai live.....Improv rule applied again here.

A few days later we were back on another pair of crappy bikes with our bags filled with gifts of sugar, salt, and school supplies heading to the village. Seret's wife came down several hours from the Highlands just to cook for us. We didn't get to eat many Masai dishes because the village elders specifically decided that we should eat Kenyan food so we wouldn't get sick.

We stayed in Seret's house....and by house I mean hut made with sticks and cow dung. The houses are really dark inside and have a bed and a place to cook on an open fire. It's hard to be in the houses for too long because they are so smoky. The cows and goats sleep in the middle of the compound.

The Masai really live integrated with nature.
The night before we arrived, Seret fixed a leopards injured paw.....The leopard just came up to him and held his paw out to show him it was injured....I would have crapped my pants!!!!
The night we were there a hyena was near the village trying to eat a goat. The dogs went crazy and woke us up and the Masai boys all went out to chase away the hyena.

Plus we got to play dress up. PS Dan wants you to know that the Masai outfits were NOT our idea...the Masai insisted that we try on their clothes. photos will be posted ASAP