Jambo from Kenya! Of all the greetings I’ve come across (G’day, Hola, Hi, Alright?, Hey…), Jambo is my favourite. Once we landed in Kenya after a 9 hour overnight flight we were, understandably, knackered. However, the bus journey from the airport to the hotel was a real eye-opener, falling asleep wasn’t an option.
You have all seen images of Africans living in huts on fields, men walking around with guns; other men carving wood for a living; children happily running around bare feet; women walking along, also bare feet, balancing buckets of water or huge bags of rice on their heads. Clothes they were wearing looked like rags. Seeing those images on TV and in real life is completely different. Just watching how they lived, cooking meals on small open fires and washing clothes/dishes in small buckets of water, really does make one realise how different life is. It makes you recognise how much we take for granted, especially our continuous supply of clean tap water.
We stayed at Flamingo Beach Hotel. It was 5*, but not the 5* we would expect in the UK, it was more like a UK version of 3* -4 *. Nevertheless, it was lovely. We decided to splash out on the best hotel in the brochure because it was our honeymoon after all! Arriving at the hotel, we were greeted with fruit juices and the staff were standing in a semi-circle singing and dancing some welcome song. We then had to go to a welcome meeting about two hours later; we just wanted to go to sleeeeeeep! After that meeting, we collapsed and slept for a good few hours. Being in the hotel seemed like a different world to what we had just witnessed outside. In order to get there, we had to go through gates at the bottom of the road which were guarded by men with guns. Obviously, this was to prevent the locals entering the hotel grounds and bothering the guests.
Because we were on our honeymoon, the front of our room was decorated with flowers in the shape of an arch around the door. They also decorated our bed and the chairs we were sitting on in the restaurant. Our bed was decorated when we were on safari as well. The Africans like to make a fuss of those who have something to celebrate. We noticed they did the same for others who were on their honeymoon and also a bloke on another table in the restaurant was celebrating a special birthday and he had his chair decorated too. It was quite nice getting special treatment. The same happened when we arrived at the airport in Gatwick to check in for our flight to Mombasa. The person at check in said “oh, you two have a free upgrade to first class”. We were excited about boarding the plane then. Unfortunately, it wasn’t like the first class we get with British Airways, but it was great. Had much bigger, comfortable, leather chairs and it was just two together, rather than the three of four in a row with economy class. We also had glasses of champagne before taking off. We had the same treatment when flying home, so they were very comfortable flights indeed!
Anyway, the first couple of days in Mombasa, we relaxed by the pool. The images of men walking around with guns made us feel a little uneasy about wandering outside hotel grounds. We kept thinking they would call out to us and shoot us when we wouldn’t hear them and not respond – we’re two very paranoid people I know! It was more to do with not knowing what to expect. I also couldn’t help feeling that we would come across as invading their space, looking down on them while walking around clean and well dressed. That wouldn’t have been our intention of course, but I’m sure they would have thought we were wealthy, and we would certainly attract some attention. I don’t think it was just us who felt like that, because there were barely any tourists walking around when we were on the bus. Having said that, we weren’t completely confined to the hotel.
We booked to go on quite a few trips and we had access to the beach from the back of the hotel. There was a rope halfway down the beach for locals to stay behind, so we were able to go for nice long walks without being hassled. The locals did shout out trying to sell bits and bobs to holidaymakers who were sunbathing, but of course, that didn’t bother us. The joys of being Deaf!! With the trips we were booked on and the safari we spent one weekend on, we didn’t have time to get bored. The whole point of this honeymoon was to just relax, so spending the rest of the time relaxing by the pool at our hotel was wonderful. We had monkeys for company!
Monkeys were allowed to roam freely around the hotel grounds. This was lovely to see, but caused a *bit* of inconvenience. You couldn’t really sit on the balcony without attracting monkeys and when you left the balcony door open, you had to keep an eye out so they wouldn’t come in your room. They were also cheeky little buggers, stealing sugar cubes from people before they had the chance to put it in their tea (if you were drinking tea outdoors). On our first night there, we were drinking cocktails outside the bar area and all of a sudden, a monkey jumped over Rob’s head and stole the pineapple that was stuck to his glass, knocking his full glass of cocktail over! This monkey must have been hiding somewhere and secretly plotting what to do, because he landed in the right spot and disappeared in a split second. Cheeky!! Rob’s face was a picture and I was absolutely hysterical! After that, we wised up to these crafty little buggers. It’s not so bad when you know what to expect and be prepared for them!
One other thing you need to be prepared for is crabs! One late afternoon we decided to go for a long walk on the beach to get to the market on the other end. It was daylight when we walked there and it took about 30 minutes. On our way there we got engaged in a conversation with a local Deaf guy, Japhet, and spent some time with him. We learnt quite a bit about him as he told us about his life in Kenya, his family and his education. It was good to learn something about the lives of Deaf people in Africa as this isn’t something you would learn from a conversation with other locals. We communicated by copying his signs and teaching him some of our signs and writing/drawing in the sand.
By the time we got to the market and had a look around, it was starting to get dark when we walked back. Being on a beach at that time of day was almost pitch black, with just the sunset for light. I was enjoying this, breathing in the sea air, sand between our toes, only hearing the sound of waves. Quite a romantic setting, until you have an encounter with crabs! At the corner of my eye, I could see *something* moving. Looking down, it took a while to register what it was, with it being so dark. Eventually, I worked out it was crabs – and hundreds of them! Argh!!! Of course, I went into panic mode and started squealing and jumping up and down like a girl (and I don’t usually behave like a girl). I only had sandals to protect my feet, which wasn’t enough. They could easily pinch my toes. Rob was trying to get me to calm down because he worked out the crabs were actually running away from us. I wasn’t having any of it; I just wanted to get off the beach! That was definitely a very long 30 minute walk back. Next time, I’m wearing shoes!
The trips we were booked on included an ‘African Night’, the ‘Creek Sundowner’, a dolphin cruise and of course, the weekend on safari. I will talk about the safari in a separate post. The African Night and the Creek Sundowner gave an insight into African/Kenyan culture as we got to see tribal songs and dances. The meal on the African Night included crocodile! I did try it after some hesitation but it tasted like chicken, so that wasn’t a gut-wrenching experience! We could have learnt more about the Kenyans and their culture if we had went out and explored more, but like I said, this was mainly a relaxing, beach holiday.
Tags: Africa