Indian Ocean and Persistent Vendors
For our week on the Kenyan coast, we needed a ride to the train station in Voi, take the train to Mombasa, then ride another car down to the Diani Beach area. Upon arrival at Aestus Resort Kenya, we toured our home for the week, met our personal chef, and enjoyed some pool time before dinner. J does much of the cooking so he was especially excited for our no effort homecooked meals for the week.
We spent much of the week enjoying the beach in the morning and the pool in the afternoon, when there was shade to protect us from the strong rays that burnt our skin our first day at the beach. Galu Beach was a short walk away and where we spent much of our beach time. We enjoyed the white sands and warm water, especially at a spit we found a little further down the beach. We also found ourselves at times overwhelmed by vendors wanting to sell us bracelets, woodcarvings, and an excursion on their boat. K was once left alone and her family came back to see a literal line of vendors waiting to speak to her.
Beach and pool was not all we did. We also went on a glass bottom boat tour to Robinson Island, which was still under shallow water and an insane amount of fun. J and K greatly appreciated the vendor selling beers from a cooler on his paddle board. And the big kids got to a bigger swim with dad. One afternoon we went to the Kaya Kinondo Sacred Forest, where we touched a very old wishing tree, saw Colobus monkeys, and partook in some traditional dancing. Our last full day we spent at Le Cafe near the beach. We paid to enjoy the beachside pool but the money spent went towards food and drinks. We enjoyed having a day to enjoy the pool and beach at once. The younger kids appreciated the section off shallow area where they could play independently (but still supervised). During our later afternoon walk to the beach, we bid farewell but knew we would see the Indian Ocean again soon.
After a week of sun, we went back up to Mombasa for one night so we could take an early flight to Nairobi to catch a connecting flight to Mauritius. In our short time in Mombasa we got to visit the Jesus Fort and enjoy dinner in what we thought was a small cafe but turned out to be a very large, meandering, popular restaurant.
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