After the short drive to the massive resort Sean (one of the administrative African Impact staff) had booked us into, the multiple cavity searches seemed almost worth it. Sean, I LOVE YOU MAN!
Huge rooms, a shower (A HOT SHOWER!), beautiful palm tree dotted ocean views from the balcony, free buffet meals three times a day, free snack bar for all other times of the day, free water sports (non-motorised) and most importantly, twenty-four hour free drinks, alcoholic or otherwise, limited only by your ability to raise your arm to gesture a waiter to get you another!
There was, however, a single downer to the resort. Along the whole beach were an awful lot of touts that pester you every time you venture down the steps from the upper resort (which, fortunately, they were forbidden to step foot on). Most of them were extremely pushy, they didn't stay by their wares displays, waiting for you to go to them, they come to try and take you to look at their stuff, and most of them sold the same items as the rest. They even tried to flog me merchandise while I was in the middle of a camel ride along the beach.
Not all of them were bad. There were two whom enjoyed repeated business from all the girls I came with. One did henna tattoos (all but one of the girls got one) and braided hair (four girls did), the other sold saris which were bought by all of the girls. They all look great.
So, with me are Carly, English Jenny, Katharine, English Sarah, American Sarah, Layla (A newly qualified theatre nurse from Liverpool who looks outstanding in a sari) and Kerrianne/KA (A well humoured, extremely sarcastic Sussex girl that never shuts up). We all did a lot together, but the two Americans seemed to be excluded a few times. I think our Englishness got to them at times, they also had their own room at the opposite side of the resort, whereas our two rooms were right next door.
On Saturday, we didn't have time for the water sports, but we had a slap up Australian feast (the restaurant changes country theme every day) and... Dude! Carly just pointed out we're flying past a HUGE mountain right now, which I can only assume is Kilimanjaro, man that's high!... then we went swimming for a while (I know you shouldn't after eating, but who could stop us, we were so excited) and then we went for a walk along the beach without realising at the time what a pain in the arse it would be. I haggled for a keyring and bought a painting with the two free double scotches I just happened to be holding at the time, seemed like a bloody good idea.
Before we knew it, we'd drunk away the evening and someone suggested we go out clubbing. The club Tembo in Mombasa has shockingly good security, with car boot searches of the taxi on the way into the car park and personal searches with wands by one of the many bouncers. The venue was brilliant, the music was not. Mostly just awful nineties pop music and RnB, but we had a good time (though we started to miss the free drinks back at the resort). There was a dance off type of affair near the end, where bouncers cleared the dance floor and two teams of three male dancers professionally danced to a song one after the other.
On the Sunday, we did as many water sports as we could fit in. Swimming, peddle boating, snorkeling and kayaking; where Jenny and Carly couldn't figure out how to paddle properly, couldn't leave the shoreline and then had their kayak confiscated, and Katharine and KA capsized twice, lost their kayak to the current, couldn't swim against the current to shore and had to be rescued, laughing all the way. I really wanted to go scuba diving in one of the three swimming pools, but I missed it. :(
It's amazing how quickly you get tired of alcoholic drinks when there's a limitless supply of them, but we had a few, acted like idiots for a while chasing the hundreds of crabs that appear on the beach at night, and went back to the room. Jenny ordered three items of room service with three separate phone calls over three minutes. I get the feeling it pissed them off... Damn, have to get off the plane... because it took forever for it to arrive (who knows what they did to it?). Katharine invited herself to spend the night in our room (Jenny's, KA's and mine), kicking Jenny out of her bed. I thought about doing the gentlemanly thing of offering to sleep on the floor instead of her, but convinced myself she wouldn't have it and insist I stay where I was, which was good. It was a VERY comfy bed. :D
This morning, it turns out the floor was perfectly comfortable for Jenny. We got up, determined to fit in as much as we could before we had to go to the airport. We ate as much as we could and we went swimming and kayaking (more successfully this time). The girls bought a few more items from the touts and the gift shop, then we were off. The plane ride back was great. I was just sitting writing my journal, when suddenly Carly points at the window
and right there is a huge mountain... Oh wait... I'll stop now.
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