Armitage Shah Family Travels

  Throughout our trip I have had many different types of food. In all of the countries we have been to, the food has always been fresh, tasteful, and flavorful. Many of my meals have looked like a piece of art. I have noticed that food is an important aspect of the cultures of the countries that we have visited. I think that in North America there is not the same appreciation.   I do appreciate that I have had the opportunity to enjoy well prepared food.

       When I was in Dubai I got to do many fun activities. On the first day we walked through the Dubai mall and saw many different stores. The mall is very unique because it has multiple areas with different types of architecture. One part is a Chinatown and other parts look like a traditional gold souk with a lot of jewelry stores in it. On the Second day my family and I went to the Aquarium that's in the mall. I was amazed by all of the fish they had. I got to see crocodiles, freshwater fish, saltwater fish and turtles. Following the Aquarium we went to the Burj Khalifa which is the tallest building in the world. We had booked tickets for 2pm and thought we would only have to wait a few minutes to go to the top, but once we got there we had to wait for 45 min. At the top, the view was very nice but there was no glass walk and it was very crowded. On the third day we went to a go-kart track called Dubai Kartdrome.  I felt a little intimidated as the race cour...

  Mombasa south coast beach  A canon at fort Jesus. Fort Jesus was a military fort that was built in 1593 and owned by the Portuguese , then the Arabs , then the British and finally it's now owned by the government of Kenya.  A window used for shooting guns out of.  An old Portuguese anchor.

Nairobi is the capital city of Kenya.  It is a  bustling city with several attractions.   In Nairobi I had the chance to get a personal tour of my uncle's mattress factory. He picked me up from our hotel and showed me around a small part of the factory.  We continued the tour into his office and watched the CCTV of all of the parts of the factory. He told me that he has a factory in Kisumu (a city on the east side of Kenya) 10X & larger and I was so surprised because I thought the factory in Nairobi was large. My uncle drove me around the factory and I got to see the foam for the mattresses being made. It  looked like massive marshmallows. I also got to see lots of other things like plastic chairs, plastic  bowls and cloth shopping bags. After we were done at the factory I went go-karting and swimming at a restaurant  15 min away from the factory. The go-kart track was the longest track I've ever driven on, it's 1.4km long While we were i...

  Throughout our safari our Maisa driver Ben taught us a lot of facts about animals and the landscape.  All wild cats need to eat every 3 days to survive.  A group of lions are called a pride  and the lions hunt in a group to take down their prey. We were able to see a pride of lions kill a buffalo and its calf.  Lions are very organized while hunting for prey. The lions were watching a buffalo and its calf very closely. The lions started to creep through the long grass and finally encircled the buffalo and calf that was separated from the herd. The mom was trying to protect its calf but it was no match for the lions. The lions would go back and forth hitting the buffalo. One lion was able to grab the calf and kill it first.  They jumped on the back of the buffalo to jump and  were successful in killing it, the process only took 2 min.   I noticed that there was a hierarchy in what order the lions ate. The males would eat, followed by the fem...

  On Feb 28th we drove from Nairobi to Masai Mara. The drive was 5 hours and we stopped in a small town to eat our sandwiches and get some tea. When we arrived at the park gate we had another drive take us in the park across the bumpy roads  to get to our camp.  On the way there we saw zebras, antalopes, buffalo, cheetahs, leopards, elephants and a hippo carcass. I was surprised how many animals we were able to see just driving to the camp. When we got to the camp our room wasn't ready so we had lunch.  All of the meals are buffet style with  plenty of options.  After lunch we went to our tent that had a full bathroom and 3 single beds. There was a porch attached to the tent where you could sit and listen to the hippos that are in the Mara river. On the first day I saw a hippo carcass that still had some  meat on it but when we returned the next day all that was left were the bones. We were lucky to see multiple giraffes eating leaves and grass and 3 o...

  A few days ago my family and I got to see the Giza pyramids. We had a taxi driver take us in the morning. He parked his car on a side street then walked us to the gate. At the entrance it was madness, there were at least 100 people shoulder to shoulder pushing their way to  get tickets. There was no way we were going to get tickets so we paid a guy to get them. He pushed through everyone to get to the front of the line 1 minute later he had the tickets and brought us to the gate. When we got in he said we should take a horse carriage. He kept on insisting, but eventually left us alone so we could explore ourselves.  Once we started looking around we were amazed by how big the sphinx was. You are not able to get close because there is a large pit surrounding it. The sphinx is an Egyptian god that is the protector of the pyramids. As we walked around the pyramids I noticed that this area was a large tourist trap. Locals were selling everything from camel rides to souvenir...

  On February 21 we left Tanger on a bullet train to Casablanca. The train ride was nice because it was surprisingly smooth for going 308 km/h, some bullet trains can go up to 400 km/h. When we arrived we checked into the hotel and planned our next day.  My mom and I decided to go to the Arab league park but when we got into the taxi the driver said you should go to the ANFA park because it's better for kids and it's newer. We took his suggestion and he drove us there.  When we arrived we wandered and saw a large  play structure  and I played on it for a long time.  I met a boy named Adam and I played tag with him for 2 hours. It was fun to play with someone my own age because I have been with my parents for 3 weeks straight. Adam was able to speak English, French, Arabic and German which I thought was cool !  The playground was amazing because it had lots of ropes and one large slide. The slide was made from barrels that were welded together. The rope...