When they woke up on the morning they were supposed to leave Nairobi for Zanzibar for the Easter holiday in 2022.
Mercylyn Mokeira, 32, Doreen Moracha, 32, and Maryann Njenga, 31, had no intention of recording police statements or spending their entire day at Central Police Station, Nairobi.
They had packed their bags for an exciting weekend in the Spice Islands. Just before they left their houses for a 4am meetup in Nairobi central business district, a message popped up in their travel WhatsApp group.
“We started noticing gaps in the plans when responses to important questions began taking longer. It all made sense when the organiser stopped picking up our calls,” Doreen says.
“It was a long con; we may have been the only three genuine clients in that group,” she says.
Their travel trio began to form later that morning when they met at the police station to report the company that had swindled them. They had met before under different circumstances.
“The three of us support programmes in the health sector. This trip was a discussion that started on Instagram between Doreen and myself, after we met for a work engagement in Nanyuki,” Mercylyn adds.
Spending countless hours at the police station together, marked the start of what you would loosely describe as a travel trauma-bonding.
The bump on the road did not dissuade them; if anything, it propelled them to plan for another trip.
“We realised that the travel bug was still heavy on us, and this incidence only served to heighten our vigilance and due diligence when dealing with people in travel circles. A brutal but very welcome and timely lesson that in one way or the other, had to be learnt by all of us, maybe all at once,” says Maryann.
Travelling for the three means different things: “For me, it is an escape from reality. I know the famous line told to people on travel, ‘utarudi tu’ is a reminder that you can’t escape reality forever, but travelling tricks your mind for some time, and isn’t that what adulthood is about, the opportunity to escape some things sometimes?” poses Mercylyn.
“Travelling is about exploring and experiencing culture, and food, and seeing things and people... Travelling is an eye-opener; it reveals to you things you never knew existed, people you’d never meet if you don’t leave your hometown,” says Doreen.
“Travelling is a continuation of something I have done since childhood. I was a member of the Wildlife Club in school, I visited Lake Nakuru National Park several times as a child, and I’d say it is inherent. As an adult, it affords me the luxury to experience other places, people and cultures,” Maryann says.
First trip together
One would ask, did they plan to form a girls’ travel group formally? “It has never been a formal group in the strict sense of things.
We operate on vibes. Remember, we formed the group out of frustration. Had the Zanzibar travel happened, we’d probably be doing solo trips and sharing experiences.
Our first trip was an Overlanding trip to the south of Africa. We met the organiser during our times of agony at the police station. On this trip, we visited five countries by road (Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Botswana),” says Mercylyn.
They were on the road for three weeks. “At the time, I had not travelled as much as Doreen and Mercylyn. This was a pronouncement that I was going back to my childhood passion and dream of seeing everything there is to see outside my parents’ home,” says Maryann.
Spontaneity vs schedule
Mercylyn admits that she is an adrenaline junkie. “I am the one always looking for bungee jumping, paragliding, skydiving, and such. Whatever makes my heart race, that’s what I’ll go for,” she says.
Doreen, on the other hand, is chilled out. She is happiest when visiting malls in different cities and seeing sites that do not involve life on the edge kind of situations. Maryann is their bridge; she is at home with either.
She could go to the mall for shopping or she could take photos on the edge of Victoria Falls. Maryann and Mercylyn did not complete the round trip by road.
“While in Zambia, we gelled well with other travellers. The explorer in me convinced a number to remain behind. We partied and explored the nightlife before booking flights back to Nairobi. I think of travel in two ways. Plan everything, but leave some wiggle room for spontaneity. The fun in leisure travel, from where I stand, is in the ability to step out of your schedule and see what else you can spend your time on,” adds Mercylyn.
The temporary breaking of their travelling trinity back home inadvertently ushered them into another aspect of their exploratory journies.
“Go as much and as far as your legroom allows. This goes for interests, time, money, etc. We look for different things when traveling; we are inspired differently, and individual decisions are made based on a person’s available choices. What the temporary break taught us is that we are still travelling friends even when we don’t travel together. No hard feelings,” Doreen says.
This manifested well in their next two trips. “In 2023, we felt like we had not done a proper down-south trip, so we planned to go back and finish the trip by travelling to Namibia and then South Africa. For this trip, we went with Doreen. Her international links helped us come up with an itinerary for our stay in the two countries.” quips Mercylyn.
“Since we are now friends and have our own WhatsApp group (giggles), we update the members of the group about the trip on the go. We also look for souvenirs like fridge magnets we know they would like. Maybe this is us carrying a small part of our trip for our friend to have a taste of the experience,” Doreen adds.
Ending 2024 in Asia
“My 2024 travelling inspiration was based on two things. Zip lining in Laos and Cliff jumping in Bali, Indonesia. When I shared this with the group, we came up with six countries. The other four were based on ‘girl math’ we said, since we will be in Asia anyway, why not go to these other countries beside Laos and Indonesia?” Mercylyn offers.
For 30 days, they would travel to six countries and soak all there was—this is both figurative and literal as some of their site visits are very humid. Maryann created a travel spreadsheet with a roadmap of how their trip would look like. Only Mercylyn and Maryann went on this trip.
“Our planned route was Indonesia-Singapore-Thailand-Laos-Vietnam-Malaysia. Our actual route was Indonesia-Singapore-Thailand-Malaysia.” Says Maryann. “Our entry into Laos was not possible despite us having all requirements.
I think the airlines may have been overbooked. Even then, we sensed some aspect of racism when an attendant at the airport required us to have more than $3,000 (Sh387,420) in cash. Her words confirmed our fears: ‘People like you need to prove they can afford the trip.’ We turned back and considered this a lost opportunity,” says Mercylyn.
In the end, they admit that even without the two countries, they optimised their Southeast Asia travel experience.
How they do it
“The first thing is always to research. This can take months. You want to experience everything there should be to experience. So, take time to research. After research, set dates. Once you have tentative dates, you must plan on the baselines—individually. Time, work, money, family, health, et al. We usually come up with a generalised budget for travel(including in-country travel), accommodation, and food,” says Mercylyn.
Their budget is malleable and depends on individual activities.
“We set, say, Sh300,000 expenditure per person per round trip. Outside this baseline expenditure, someone may want to do other activities. These are not catered for in our collective budget. To make it easier, we use the Splitwise App that does all the math for us, so that nobody feels they have been made to spend more than the other in shared costs like accommodation and food,” adds Maryann.
What has travelling together taught the three? “Travelling with someone for three or four weeks calls for great flexibility and patience, I think,” says Doreen. Maryann and Mercylyn share similar sentiments.
The three are yet to decide on a destination for 2025. Their collective travel tip? Just Go!
