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My Story

About Ayaan Chitty

You may like to hear a little bit about who I am and what my connection to Africa is.

Well, I’ve travelled a fair bit in my life, both for personal and business reasons.

When I was a child, I was fortunate to have several family holidays to Malaysian Borneo to visit family that I have there, as well as a trip to Thailand in 2001. In those days (1989 – 2001), the travel industry and the locations themselves were not as developed as they are now. I recall a trip back to Kota Kinabalu in 2013 and it had changed dramatically to what I remember. I visited a place called Poring Hot Springs, which was ‘off the beaten track’ when we were kids, with us being the only people swimming in the pleasant waterfalls and hot baths. This time, it couldn’t be more different – it’s now a major tourist attraction, with coach loads of tourists all splashing about, eating and drinking in the hot baths. I remember feeling sad that the special place I remember as a child has lost its magic charm. Another example, were the islands we visited as children which were a short boat ride from Tanjung Aru beach, we would take a picnic with us, spend the morning swimming in the crystal clear blue waters and playing on the white sandy beaches. Again, we were the only ones there. Yet, in 2013, it was not like that at all.

Although I was young, I’m sure it was these early family trips which opened my mind to travelling. Perhaps it was these experiences that have driven me to continue to seek out special, unique and unspoilt places in the world.

Travel Tribe Africa - Family Travel Site
Travel Tribe Africa - Ayaan Chitty

I first visited Africa in 2001, when I travelled to Sharm el Sheikh, a well known holiday destination in Egypt’s Red Sea Riviera. I’ve since been to Egypt around 11 times since then, mainly to feed my appetite for scuba diving in one of the best locations in the world.

Scuba diving was a major part of my life for around 16 years and besides Egypt (and many other places) also took me to South Africa in 2004, where I dived with the infamous Great White Sharks of Gansbaai, seals of Dyer Island, abseiled down Table Mountain, and explored the comparatively warmer waters of Durban and Aliwal Shoal.

Since graduating from University of Brighton in 2006, I have worked in HR technology and followed the corporate career path, which has been interesting and enjoyable but I found that some of my true passions, such as scuba diving, have been much more limited. This is something I’m now on a mission to change!

More recently, my connection with Africa has become much more personal.

In March 2015, I travelled to Nairobi, Kenya to meet my future wife. Little did I know that I would be visiting the country twice more that year, quitting my job, packing up my life in the UK, moving to Kenya and getting married before the end of the year! I then spent nine months in Kenya before we had to move to the UK due to various circumstances. That’s a full story in itself – actually I could probably write a book about it!

At present, my wife, my son and I still live in the UK and I’m back in the corporate world. This suits us well for the time being but we would like to relocate back to Kenya at some point in the not-too-distant future.

In the last few years, we have been back to Kenya a few times to visit family and I’ve been to Kenya, Rwanda and South Africa in an effort to grow and promote my HR technology business and to speak at industry conferences.

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My Interests

One of the main reasons I enjoy to travel is because it provides the ideal opportunity for me to combine multiple interests and passions that I have, for example:

Scuba Diving

Safari

Food & Culture

Photography

Travel to Remote Places

Philanthropy and Charitable Projects

I try to incorporate these aspects into my writing, so if we share any of these interests, you should enjoy reading my stories just a little bit more.

Family Travel Blog - Travel Tribe Africa

My Travel Style

I have been fortunate that most of my travel so far has been what I would describe as ‘comfortable travel’. Although I enjoy camping and overlanding adventures, I have never been keen on the idea of staying in hostels or shared accommodation. This is possibly because I’m a fairly private person, who likes his own space and if I’m travelling without my family, enjoy my own company too. So, I’d always opt for having my own room or tent over sharing with others (except my wife and son of course!)

When I travel, I like to experience and absorb as much of the culture, food and surroundings as possible as well as enjoying water sports, safari and other adventures. My ideal trip would be 80-90% exploring and adventure and 10-20% relaxation.

For these reasons, much of my content will be well suited to both couples and family travellers, who want to enjoy a comfortable travel experience on a mid-range budget and who have a passion for culture, food and adventure.

My Promises to You

I genuinely want this site to be as open and transparent as possible and I want you to enjoy the experience of engaging with it, without fear of being hassled or bombarded with advertisements, spam emails and fake product reviews. There’s too much of that out there already and that’s not what this is all about, so I’m making some commitments right up front.

  • As a general rule, I will not promote advertisements on the site. By exception, you may see small advertisements that are carefully chosen and directly correspond to a specific post or feature. These will be kept to a minimum and only used where I feel they are complementary to the content.
  • I may use a small number of carefully chosen affiliate links but will not recommend something just to make commission from it. If I make a recommendation, it is because I personally believe in the product or service and there is no extra cost or inconvenience to you.
  • I will not accept freebies for a one off review. However, I am open to forming long-term strategic partnerships with tourism boards, travel companies, hotels and airlines, with the purpose of promoting the African continent and travel opportunities.
  • Where I do promote a partnership, you can trust that I wholeheartedly believe in their ethos and values and feel that associating myself with them will provide benefit to you and Africa.
  • I do not accept unsolicited guest posts. If you see content from other writers on this site, these are people that I know very well personally and trust to write honest, non-biased content for you.
  • I encourage interaction on the site and will do my best to answer all comments you make on the posts – please do post your comments and questions at the end of each post.
  • You can sign-up without worrying about me spamming you. I do not share your details with anyone else and any emails you receive from me will be kept to a minimum – a maximum of one per week.
Family Travel Blog - Travel Tribe Africa

How Can You Get Involved?

I want you to be part of this community and encourage you to engage with me in the following ways.

  • Subscribe below, so that I can let you know when I post new content and upcoming trips.
  • Participate in the conversation – be sure to leave your comments and thoughts in each blog post – I want to hear your thoughts, what you liked, what you didn’t like, what questions you have etc.
  • You can follow me on social media – see the contact page for details.
  • If you like a post, then I encourage you to share it with your friends – lets get the positive messages out there 🙂
  • You can also email me – but I encourage you to post comments if your query relates to a specific post, so that any replies can benefit other readers too.
Kenya - Masaai Mara

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