Beach Trip with Mume

(Sergio will here forth be referred to as Mume - Swahili for husband)

There we were last Monday night -  finishing our packing for the beach and about to go to bed when I decided to check our ticket print out for the departure time..WHICH WAS 8am MONDAY MORNING! Meaning, we missed the flight to the beach by about oh 16 hours. Not sure what I was thinking...I really thought I booked that flight for Tuesday morning. Damn! So I found myself on the phone with Kenya Airways at 11pm trying to get a flight for us the next morning. She rebooked us and told me it would be $80 extra per person..but no where along the way did anyone actually make us pay so that was sort of awesome.

The beach was awesome. We had the best time just doing nothing - well, I did nothing - sergio did scuba.  My big thing is hunting for coral and shells on the beach. I could do it for hours. You can find huge chunks of DEAD coral (promise I'm not collecting the stuff still alive).
There was  hardly a soul anywhere to be seen. I love it like that. We stay at the same place each time so we know all the staff which also makes it a special place for us. My mom went there when she came to visit too and they always ask about her and it's just a nice little home away from home and it's about $80 per night. If you come to Kenya and go to the coast - stay here! Here's some photos of our beach weekend and our favorite little hideaway:

Living room

Swahili style bathroom

Our balcony area

awesome bathroom...love the swahili design and decor

The room we moved to on the 3rd night

the lounge

My artistic shot of my Mume

Me, trying to be cute.

Sergio with Dominic and Alex - staff at Kennaways. Love those guys.

Other things we did included getting daily hour massages for $10 and....:

We rode in matatus - public buses...oh we are just nuts (sarcastic)

we saw a lot of monkeys - these are colubus - they are so cool looking ..long black and white hair. They try to steal your food

 

For our anniversary night, we went to dinner next door to the most amazing luxury resort - Almanara. The place looks like something transported from Dubai - the restaurant there is called Sails. It's amazing and about the cost of long john silvers for the quality of a 5 star restaurant. Here are some photos of our dinner there and the rest of this amazing place:

This was actually a photo we took the night before...but i can't find a photo of us that exact night. I had such a great time with my Mume.

Seafood Platter from Sails Restaurant. Lobster, Tilapia, calimari, prawn, salad, potatos ...all for $18. I'm telling you, come to Kenya.

Photo of the villas at Almanara - these places are nuts. I got invited in once when a friend of a friends family came from the US during Thanksgiving and stayed here - it's like a 3 story Arabian palace with a full-time chef, butler, waiters and a roof top lounge. NUTS.

Sails Restaurant

The Pool there

The Diani Beach. It really does look like this.

 Listen, I know Kenya is far away (17 hours by flight) and the tickets are a bit expensive ($1100 - $1600) - but all of you reading should really really make it Kenya once in your life. Despite the cost of getting here, once you arrive things are very affordable (beer is $1.50, wine is $3.00/glass- enough said)  and there  are soooo many incredible things see and experience.  This country is just breathtaking, from the coast to the game parks to the mountains. I guarantee you will spend more money visiting Europe and you won't see half the amazing sights that you can see here in Kenya.  It is a life changing type of experience.  COME TO KENYA!