Jambo Kenya! (Part 1.)
Before I start I want you to get out of your head the fact that this was a honeymoon; honeymoons are very personal things and what may suit me probably won't suit you. So from this moment on , as far as the blog is concerned, this is just an adventure in Kenya.
An amazing adventure in Kenya!
So, I'm not the best traveller in the world. Flying scares the jeebies out of me, I get incredibly seasick, I have to sit facing the right way on a train, I get claustrophobic on coaches......I'm pretty much a nightmare to travel with. Flying is the worst for me. Before Kenya my longest flight was 3 hours long so the idea of jumping up to a 9 hour flight was sending me into a tailspin. We flew from Gatwick (a fair old drive from the Midlands) so the journey time was quite huge. Luckily for Mr M we got a very generous wedding gift of access to the No.1 Lounge before the flight.
Once we got to the lounge and told them it was our honeymoon we were handed a card giving us two free glasses of champagne.
Lovely surprise aside, I would definitely recommend spending that little bit extra and going for the lounge. They have everything you need. You get access to limitless drinks and a food bar. You can order hot food. There's a cinema which is always showing something, a games room etc. There is even a spa.......massage anyone?! Basically whatever floats your boat is there. It's the perfect distraction for a nervous traveller and I have it on good authority that it helps relax a "normal" person pre flight too.
Anyway, before we knew it the time to leave the safe haven of the lounge and board the big scary flying tin can came and 9 short hours later we were touching down at Mombasa Airport.
If you ever go to Kenya one of the best tips is to learn a little bit of the language, Swahili. The locals love the effort! The best word you can learn is "Jambo" which is hello. Everyone is incredibly friendly and they will always try and teach you extra little bits of the language.
Another tip is take spare cash and take smaller notes. They are huge on tipping out there.
If you are heading out to Kenya I would definitely recommend the Baobab Beach Resort on Diani Beach. It was a beautiful hotel! The staff were very friendly and couldn't do enough for you. Anyone and everyone said a cheerful Jambo.
The rooms were beautiful.
The beach was beautiful. It was cleaned every morning by the hotel to remove any Sea Urchins. A walk on the beach is not a good idea if you want a quiet stroll. You will gain a few new friends in the shape of beach boys. The are completely friendly and are only trying to make a living but if you're all loved up and just want a quiet stroll do it early morning or late late evening.
(I swear these are the biggest camels I have ever seen! Their legs were as tall as him!)
I'm not sure if the hotel do the following for every travel company that go there but on our last night the hotel owner held a "Farewell Meeting" (we went with Thomas Cook). At the meeting all of the Head of areas were there, head of the kitchens, head of housekeeping, head of security.......you get the point. They wanted to give us an opportunity to raise any issues that we may have had or anything we thought had been done well. It was a nice touch.
Anyway.....that post got a bit long! I'll do a part 2!
Date: 30.11.2013
An amazing adventure in Kenya!
So, I'm not the best traveller in the world. Flying scares the jeebies out of me, I get incredibly seasick, I have to sit facing the right way on a train, I get claustrophobic on coaches......I'm pretty much a nightmare to travel with. Flying is the worst for me. Before Kenya my longest flight was 3 hours long so the idea of jumping up to a 9 hour flight was sending me into a tailspin. We flew from Gatwick (a fair old drive from the Midlands) so the journey time was quite huge. Luckily for Mr M we got a very generous wedding gift of access to the No.1 Lounge before the flight.
Once we got to the lounge and told them it was our honeymoon we were handed a card giving us two free glasses of champagne.
Lovely surprise aside, I would definitely recommend spending that little bit extra and going for the lounge. They have everything you need. You get access to limitless drinks and a food bar. You can order hot food. There's a cinema which is always showing something, a games room etc. There is even a spa.......massage anyone?! Basically whatever floats your boat is there. It's the perfect distraction for a nervous traveller and I have it on good authority that it helps relax a "normal" person pre flight too.
Anyway, before we knew it the time to leave the safe haven of the lounge and board the big scary flying tin can came and 9 short hours later we were touching down at Mombasa Airport.
If you ever go to Kenya one of the best tips is to learn a little bit of the language, Swahili. The locals love the effort! The best word you can learn is "Jambo" which is hello. Everyone is incredibly friendly and they will always try and teach you extra little bits of the language.
Another tip is take spare cash and take smaller notes. They are huge on tipping out there.
If you are heading out to Kenya I would definitely recommend the Baobab Beach Resort on Diani Beach. It was a beautiful hotel! The staff were very friendly and couldn't do enough for you. Anyone and everyone said a cheerful Jambo.
The rooms were beautiful.
The beach was beautiful. It was cleaned every morning by the hotel to remove any Sea Urchins. A walk on the beach is not a good idea if you want a quiet stroll. You will gain a few new friends in the shape of beach boys. The are completely friendly and are only trying to make a living but if you're all loved up and just want a quiet stroll do it early morning or late late evening.
But then again you don't get much peace sunbathing..........
........I am of course just joking. There are monkeys on the hotel site and they do like to pop down to say hello but they don't walk up to the people....unless you have food. The security team around the hotel are there to move them away from you.
The Baobab Hotel was built in what used to be part of the Shimba Hill National Reserve so it's only natural that the monkeys are wandering around.
(I swear these are the biggest camels I have ever seen! Their legs were as tall as him!)
The quality of everything at the hotel was amazing. It was an All-Inclusive hotel and the quality of the food was out of this world! It was varied every night, they had themed nights and everything was made fresh.
Every time we left our hotel room we came back and it had been cleaned or turned down. There was a fresh supply of bottled water every day - something that you need!
I'm not sure if the hotel do the following for every travel company that go there but on our last night the hotel owner held a "Farewell Meeting" (we went with Thomas Cook). At the meeting all of the Head of areas were there, head of the kitchens, head of housekeeping, head of security.......you get the point. They wanted to give us an opportunity to raise any issues that we may have had or anything we thought had been done well. It was a nice touch.
Anyway.....that post got a bit long! I'll do a part 2!
Date: 30.11.2013
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