samponton

My husband and I are going on safari in Kenya in June. we will be packing light as we are supposed to take only one soft sided bag and a carry-on on the safari. I would like to bring back as many wooden carvings,etc as possible. Does anyone have any advice for bringing things back? Has anyone had things shipped successfully?
Thanks
Sarah

sandi

Bubble wrap!

For small pieces you can wrap these with your clothing. If you go for a "tall" giraffe, which can be from 3-ft and up, the shop will wrap in bubble and tape which you can hope to carry on board if it's small enough to fit in an overhead or closet.

Otherwise, depending on where you make your purchases, some shops will ship. For instance, the Collector's Den on the street level of the Hilton Hotel - will ship, but I don't know their price for this service.

Your guide can probably direct you to places that can ship if you make purchases in volume. If you don't buy large items, these can be packed in a carton which you can take on the plane as a carry-on item or ship in the belly.

katesy

I shipped some beautiful wood pieces from South Africa years ago (along with 11 cases of wine!), and I found someone to ship everything by asking around. I recall that it wasn't very expensive shipping to the US. A friend of mine who had been an expat in Asia cautioned me to look for termites upon arrival, but fortunately we didn't find any.

santharamhari

There is a lovely store at the Regency hotel in Nairobi. Great works of wooden art and yes, they do ship. But, if you want to hand carry them back home they do a great job of wrapping them safe....

Hari

Pumbavu

I personally wouldn't buy from a hotel shop. I have in the past, but paid 4 or more times the price it should have been.

I've carried in luggage no problem, but have had problems with excess baggage.

You could go to some of the excellent craft places. If you go to Mombasa check out Bombululu.

There's a good craft markey on the rounabout near Ukay Centre, Westlands.

Again you need to haggle, haggle haggle and check the quality of what you're buying. The Hotel shop will give you an idea... but divide by 4 for a price to aim for.

Favor

If you're changing planes in North America, be careful with large items and extra bags.

I've witnessed several instances of very upset people coming from Africa on SAA with large items or an extra bag. SAA didn't charge them excess baggage to get to Atlanta, but Delta enforces prevailing US carrier policy and charges excess baggage from Atlanta on to wherever.

You're not home-free till you're home.

Patty

Even worse than hotel shops are the asking prices at some of the curio shops on the roads to the parks. It's not unusual to be quoted 10 or more times the "fair" cost of an item.

dlo

Patty
Hope the trip planning is going well.The large curio shops are crazy.The Kilimanjaro shop on the way to Tsavo was the worst i saw.I bought most of my stuff from the Masai and Samburu warriors i went trekking with.DHL costs a fortune by the way.I had no choice as i was way overweight but my package cost me $420.

Patty

dlo,
My trip is nearly finalized and I just posted my itinerary at the bottom of this thread - http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34781265

After checking DHL/UPS rates, I ended up shipping a rug home by surface mail last year. It took about a month to arrive and of course, there's no tracking capability but it was much cheaper. I think I paid around $50 to ship a 20lb package. I wouldn't recommend it for really important stuff but it's an alternative to courier service if you're not too worried about the contents.

samponton

Thanks to all for the great info. I have another question - same subject. I have read that mail service is not too reliable in Kenya. What I'm specifically wondering about is - how unreliable is it to ship this wonderfully large wooden object I intend to find? and where would I find a place to ship it. I fly to Nairobi, then straight out the next morning to 4 different camps. We return on the last day to the airport driving from the Masai Mara. This is my first trip to Africa and I need all the advice I can get about this subject.

sandi

DHL (and the likes) rates are high. I had a package weighing about 10-lbs and they wanted about $110. The local Post Office wanted $85. I took it home with me as checked luggage.

If you make your purchases in one shop, check with them how they ship and cost. This may be your best option. And pay for your purchases and cost of shipping by credit card. This way if you never receive your package you have some recourse.

samponton

what about when you buy from people out in the masai mara,etc... on the sides of roads and things?

Patty

If you're purchasing from roadside vendors, you'll need to figure out how to get things home on your own. Maybe your tour operator can help if you don't have time to do it yourself while in Nairobi.

sandi

What you buy on the roads, inside reserves, at curio shops... we've always just packed them in our own bags and that's that. Another reason we avoid like the plague those 6-ft giraffes.

Recall on one trip, leaving NBO for the Seychelles... a British women with her giraffe in bubble wrap, taken on the flight. We saw her again when we were leaving SEZ to NBO... still carrying that giraffe though the bubble wrap by then seemed to have seen better days.

Only on one trip from Southern Africa, my partner purchased lots of "stuff" and just had the freight forwarder in Zim ship it for him. Though they promised 2-weeks, it didn't arrive till 6-weeks later when he was already living in another house. Many emails went back for forth trying to determine where the package was, always being told "it's on its way." When finally delivered, it was left at his front door, showing the original (old) address, no post marks, no indication how shipped... it was just there.

The PO had no idea who delivered it, as they didn't. Nor did FedEx, DHL or UPS. We believe, the freight forwarder sent it with someone traveling to the States and just tracked him down and left the package. But the contents were intact, except for one soapstone giraffe who lost it's neck. Crazy Glue fixed that!

All very strange. Hey, it's Afree-kah, so who knows and who questions!

ALadyNCal

Maybe not useful for LARGE wooden things, but on our last trip, we bought a nylon duffle bag that zips up into about 8"x10" flat and weighs a few ounces. We are taking that. If we buy things to bring back, we will use the spare duffle (which is about 24" long when open) to pack laundry and use our better duffel/luggage to pack breakables, souvenirs, and misc wrapped up in some of the clothes.