Maasai Mara National Reserve

Itinerary: Day 1: Meet-up - East African Rift Valley - Camp - Maasai Mara - Camp. Day 2: Breakfast - Maasai Mara - Camp. Day 3: Breakfast - Maasai Mara Village - Return to original meeting point. First, a summary: The itinerary provided by the vendor, which was emailed after payment, was the same as what was listed on the Klook page. However, the itinerary I've written above is the final one, and it has many differences! Good thing I brought extra money; I would have been furious otherwise. The East African Rift Valley doesn't have much to see. There were many tourists there, and the driver said we'd gather and leave after 15 minutes. Honestly, 10 minutes for photos would have been enough. We arrived at the camp around 3:30 PM, dropped off our belongings, had lunch, rested, and then gathered to go to Maasai Mara. We arrived around 4:30 PM, took some photos at the entrance, paid, and drove in. Since we only had two hours, we saw animals near the entrance, mostly herbivores. We were also lucky enough to see a cheetah, which I heard is quite rare to spot, but I wouldn't know, as we saw one on our first day! We drove around, watched the sunset, and left around 7:00 PM. We returned to the camp for dinner and rest. It takes about 10 minutes to get from the camp to Maasai Mara. After paying at the entrance, we continued our journey. This time, we went deep into the reserve. Kevin (our guide) was truly dedicated; he made every effort to help us see the animals we wanted to see and was excellent at finding good viewing spots – truly amazing! We had a rich packed lunch, but four of our group members were Muslim, and the bread contained pork, which made them look quite helpless. In the afternoon, we were taken to see fierce animals in the river, accompanied by armed soldiers. They led us on foot to the riverbank to see the animals, which lasted about 15 minutes. Afterward, we continued our drive to find more animals. We saw many lions, giraffes, and elephants, and the whole journey was quite enjoyable. Finally, around 5:00 PM, we had to cross a river, and that's when disaster struck. Our vehicle got stuck in the river. We got out and let the driver and a staff member who had come with us from the camp that morning handle it. They worked on it for a very long time but couldn't resolve it. Eventually, three other vehicles came to help us, and we finally got out of the river. Our car was also in bad shape, moving at about 10 kilometers per hour and stalling occasionally. However, this slow pace allowed us to look for animals more thoroughly! But I guess the driver was completely exhausted; he eventually called for another car to replace ours, and we left without seeing any more animals. It was certainly an experience, though! On the last day, we visited the Maasai Mara village. I must say that the itinerary I received did not mention this visit. I had researched it online before and knew there wasn't much to see there, and they would charge a lot of money. However, the group members didn't seem to know they had to pay, so when we arrived and the Maasai people said we needed to pay to enter, they looked quite surprised. Someone stepped forward and asked if we could negotiate the price. In the end, we got in for a cheaper entrance fee. As expected from online reviews, it was: welcome song at the entrance - photos - tour of the houses - fire-starting demonstration - forced selling of goods - end. Oh! They are very good at promoting their goods, but I'm not very good at bargaining, so I just considered it a donation! After all, we did get a discount on the entrance fee, even though it wasn't my doing. Afterward, we drove directly back to the original meeting point, stopping at a gas station along the way. We didn't have lunch.