Driftwood Beach Club Malindi

Mambo all, hope you're well - we've had a busy few weeks in old Kwale town. Sorry for lack of updates, we're not having much luck with computers at the moment.



In the last blog we mentioned we were off to a wedding, here's how it went.

Rise at 6am for cold showers, Mandaazi and chai for breakfast before walking over to the groom's house at 7.30 for breakfast number two of mandaazi and chai.

A lot of ...

... a 50p tip, walked us all the way there and sat outside while we ate, hoping to walk us home again, but we said no thankyou we would get a tuk tuk. He asked for our address and telephone numbers, but I am ashamed to say I think I made a mistake with the odd digit in both!
Before the meal we saw a local football match and strolled along the white sand beach dodging scorpions.

Tataaaaaaa, geschafft! Seit heute Nachmittag, 16.30 Uhr bin ich ein "PADI Open Water Diver"! Ich wuerde ja gerne schreiben, wie hart die Arbeit war und wie viel Schweiss und Traenen fliessen mussten, um die Zertifizierung zu bekommen, aber irgendwie wars ueberhaupt nicht schwer... war sogar ziemlich geil. =) Am Mittowochmorgen wurde ich von John, dem Fahrer von Blue Fin Diving, an meinem Hotel abgeholt. Die Fahrt ging ins benachbarte Watamu ...

Die restlichen Tage in Diani lassen sich in einigen wenigen Saetzen beschreiben: Es waren nochmal drei Tage des Am-Pool-Liegens, der Voellerei, der allabendlichen Kniffel- oder Romme-Runden, des Buecherlesens und... noch mehr Voellerei. Nein, wirklich: Das Essen da war die Bombe. Einziger Nachteil des Hotels war sein Strand, zum einen wegen dem glaube ich bereits erwaehnten scharfen Riff direkt am Ufer, und zum anderen wegen den unzaehligen Beachboys, die einem gleich eine Safari ...

... some of the women had their finger nails polished. I would have thought that would not be allowed. Just goes to show how much I know. When I arrived at the hotel, I almost forgot for a moment that I was in Africa. From what I hear, the Malindi Coast is a popular vacation spot for many Italians and this was certainly true while I was there. Even the local staff members were all fluent in ...

... like it was a sexy blonde. They refused to let me take a picture, and Uri only told me the following day that the pig was free to eat, DAMN! I got to bed at 04:30 and enjoyed my sleep in the fridge. Monday 25th I woke up at 10:00 - no Doxy, no morning sickness, yay! Breakfast was waiting for me around the pool, soon after which we tucked into a lunch of leftover Christmas dinner at Woburn. We returned home to swim and snorkel in the pool, and I used the ...

... even jokingly introduced me to the new volunteers last Monday as 'The Headmistress'. Kate (who incidentally is Samantha Mumba's cousin!) finished up the Friday before last and Sophie and Richard, two 19 year olds from England took up the reigns. I was really looking forward to them starting as for some reason I thought they were real teachers but God love them, there were as terrified and shocked as I was when they were marched into the classroom and introduced as the ...

... in Addis. No one asked for any money. I ended up selling my birr for USD to my Ethiopian flight crew who were having lunch with me at the airport. They must be the highest quality flight attendants in the business. Kenyan Airways ended up combining all three of their afternoon Nairobi-Mombasa flights into my flight and calling in a bigger plane. Leaving at 6:30, I was only delayed about an hour, but others were supposed to fly at 1:30. When we were in the ...

... of a swooning Sarah and the legend above! Ken isn't the only one looking for love in Kenya. The coast is home to hoardes of young male inhabitants who model themmselves (in dress and speech) on Bob Marley. They are there to meet the needs of the many women (mainly middle aged to elderly Germans - why?) who go there for companionship. The fact that 'Bob' has 10 such women on the go at once, means that he's always got the best mobile phone, stereo and ...