Saturday, November 17, 2007

Weekend in Mombasa - Life on the Beach

Here continues the greatest monologue in my life. I am spending a 3-day weekend in Mombasa , in the Sarova Hotel with a white sand beach just outside the window. Spending time with the family is a delicate balancing act, when you get around it life on the beach is a lot of fun. When you are not losing the rooms keys attached to giant fish in the pool.

Having drinks in the beach bar, lazing about in the pool, taking morning dips in the sea-weed encrusted water. I took a ride on a camel and we went looking for sea-life among the corals, the tropical fish and echinoderms ( starfish, sea-urchins etc.) are beautiful and find a great habitat among the coral. You have to dive or at least snorkel to fully appreciate them. The family insisted on recording every activity with forensic precision. Mombasa feels like some old asian town, with its mostly swahili and arabic population, lots of somali have come in recently as well. We ended up in a packed narrow-lane in the old town looking for a "Kanzu"-traditional swahili long dress. I felt like I was back in the cloisters of chandni-chowk in Calcutta.

I have one more day here, the plan is to see Fort Jesus (old Portuguese Fort), Mamba Village (Crocodile Farm) and Haller Park. Lets see what happens plans never turn out as planned.

1 comment:

Paul said...

Great post what_nick, exotic without cliche. The whole family get-together must be an experience worth having at least, say, once every two years?