This tour with Perfect Wilderness was my first trip as a solo female traveler, and unfortunately it confirmed a lot of the worries I had going in. The issues began... read more right away with poor maintenance on the safari vehicles. Right away on the first day, our van broke down at a gas station. The driver was able to get the vehicle back running, but it broke down a second time in the Masai Mara National Reserve. At this point when the breakdowns had become a pattern, our vehicle should have been swapped out for one that was running well. Instead, we were kept to this van the entire first section of the tour and the van would go on to break down 15-20 times. These breakdowns each took between 5 minutes to almost an hour to tend to, cutting into our sightseeing time in the reserve. The driver would have to get out of the van each time and tinker with mechanics under the seat, which forced a tour member to also get out every single time in the middle of the park. Eventually, the van started breaking down every time we stopped to view an animal. Included in this was a time we stopped to see three lions. With the van broken down, the driver and one tour member had to get out and open the door to the van with lions a mere 40 feet away. Although the lions appeared docile, making this assumption is extremely risky because you can never predict how a wild animal will behave. Again, we should have immediately been changed to a functioning vehicle, and this would have never happened.
The maintenance issues continued with another vehicle when we were pulled over by a police officer in Nairobi, who explained that the license plates had not been renewed. On this leg of the trip, it was just the driver and myself in the van. I was very surprised when the police officer actually got into our vehicle and had the driver pull away. We kept going for several minutes, leaving behind the majority of the traffic and heading into a run down area. The police officer and the driver spoke solely in Swahili, and I started to get really scared. I didn’t know if they were taking me out in the middle of nowhere to be attacked or abducted or worse. Eventually, the driver explained to me that the police officer said if we dropped him off at another location and paid him a bribe, he would forget about the large ticket for the expired license plate. My driver did not have any money on hand, so I had to pay the bribe. I was eventually paid back for this, but if the vehicles had been properly maintained, this scary experience would have never happened.
Another mishap occurred when Perfect Wilderness “upgraded” me to stay for one night in Gem Hotel. Right away, I noticed cockroaches in the main areas of the hotel and that my room had several mosquitos and no mosquito net. When I woke up in the morning, I noticed that my arms and any areas not covered by pajamas were covered in bed bug bites. At this point I could only assume it was possible bugs had also gotten into my luggage. Because of this, after 36 straight hours on planes and in airports getting back to the US, I could not enter my apartment and go to bed but instead had to stand outside after midnight, sanitizing every item before bringing anything inside to ensure I couldn’t also contaminate my own home. Although I told Perfect Wilderness what happened right away when I discovered the bites, to this day, nothing more has been said or done regarding the poor choice of hotels I was put in and the major inconvenience it led to.
The last and probably worst issue was with one of my drivers. The last three days of my trip in Amboseli it was just myself and the driver in the van. I was initially a bit uneasy to see this because I had intentionally booked a group safari for the sake of “safety in numbers” and not being alone with a stranger. Early on, the driver began making degrading comments about women in general. He told me Kenyan women are all liars, and since sometimes they don't know how to cook or clean that they are worthless. He mentioned that he hoped he could find a fat lady in America that couldn't find a husband and would thus be willing to marry him to get a green card. Then things progressed. He started with saying I was beautiful and describing why my body was pleasing. He asked if I would help him in any way I could to get him to America. He also asked if I would write him a good review outside of Perfect Wilderness so he could promote his own tour company and quit working for them. He continued to say how he would be thinking of me always and as more than a friend. He said he was not sure how our “relationship” would work out since I was not sure when I was coming back to Kenya to see him, but advised that next time I should not book through Perfect Wilderness and instead come and stay with him at his home. All of these things were very uncomfortable because I had shown zero interest above general politeness. He hinted multiple times that he had a friend who married a woman in the US in order to get his green card and that he hoped I would do everything possible to help him come to the states. I did not feel I could call Perfect Wilderness and tell them what was going on when the driver was sitting right next to me, and during the time in Amboseli, there was no cell service for me to send an email. At the Carnivore restaurant, my driver asked if I would buy him a drink. I agreed to this as part of his gratuity, but then he told me he was drinking as a form of “medicine for the bedroom." He asked me if I would have some and I refused. He lamented that he was going home alone after having the drink, called dawa. He then started discussing the reason he was drinking the dawa with the bartender. They started talking in Swahili about me but said enough in English for me to hear the driver say, "How many cows will you offer for her? 30?" The two of them argued about this for the rest of the time at Carnivore. I have hardly been so uncomfortable and humiliated in my life, and I had no way of getting away from him. I was scared because I didn't know what would happen if I firmly rejected him, since just ignoring his advances was doing nothing. I didn't know if he could get angry and take me somewhere other than the airport or leave me somewhere alone with no transportation.
After getting home and taking a couple days, I wrote a detailed account to management at Perfect Wilderness. The next day I received a response that they had received my email but they needed to hear from the driver “what really happened.” Immediately I felt as if I had been discounted and they did not believe me. I received a couple more emails from management, each with about a week in between and providing no solution. Naturally, the driver denied everything. When I pressed them, the company agreed to call me over the weekend to come to a resolution. I waited for their call both days, but they never called. I pressed them again and finally received a call. Management was apologetic and claimed they would send me some money back through PayPal. I had requested money back for the days I spent with the driver that harassed me, as I would never pay to feel so uncomfortable and objectified for three days straight. However, no link or funds has yet to come over on PayPal, and the issue remains unsolved over a month later.
Be very, very careful before booking with this company. If you are a solo female traveler, just don’t. I was lucky to remain physically unharmed and got home safe, but who knows what will happen to the next person when the company clearly hasn't taken this issue seriously.
