Recommended by Iwona Strzelecka
Not a few years ago, my favorite visualization to help me survive busy days was a small table on a beach, under a palm, with a white tablecloth, a beautiful service and me sitting next to it. My feet dipped in soft, warm sand on the shore of a turquoise ocean. Savoring a delicious, fresh passion fruit juice and a juicy, aromatic mango… Nowadays it is not a dream anymore – it is reality! I have found my paradise on earth! It is located in a small Kenyan village Diani Beach, on the southern coast of Kenya…
Kenya is an exceptional place that I would love to tell you about.
I am not the first to become fascinated with Africa. Beryl Markham wrote: “Africa is mystic; it is wild; it is a sweltering inferno; it is a paradise (…). It is what you will, and it withstands all interpretations…” No more, no less – this is exactly how it is. It is true that you either love or hate Africa. Among those who came here and made an effort to get to know it better, there are no people who would remain indifferent.
Kenya is a country of extremes and contrasts, where charming beauty is interspersed with unimaginable poverty and dirt, where one day you meet golden hearted people whose kindness and friendliness are deeply moving, who despite not having much themselves will share their last mango with you, and on the other day you see uncontrollable aggression and delivering (dubious) justice in a way that is long forgotten in Europe and in the rest of civilized world. This all takes place amongst breathtaking nature. This whole array of contrasts and amazing aromas, that are arguably the most characteristic features of Africa – an exceptional scent mixture of savanna, herbs, flowers, spices and ground intensified by heat – Kenya is a magical place. It captivated my heart the first day we met. I fell in love with it, with no conditions on my side (and hers…?).
Kenya is nearly always associated with wonderful nature, colorful clothes of proud Maasai, their peculiar mentality and of course with safari. It is where famous films were made, such as “Out Of Africa”, “The White Masai”, “Born Free” or my favorite “The Constant Gardener”. It is a country that has a lot to offer, from “hunting” wild animals with a camera, resting on white, blissful beaches of the southern coast and desert in the north, to glaciers on the summit of Mount Kenya and of course Mombasa, which is an unforgettable cultural melting pot. This great variety creates nearly unlimited possibilities of planning your free time activities, thus making Kenya one of the most attractive tourist destinations in the entire world.
To start (because I am positive that it is simply impossible to forget Kenya and never come back) I would love to recommend you two places…
The closest to my heart is the Kenya Coast, which is a realization of all our dreams of exotic vacation, tropical beaches or turquoise ocean, and which provides unlimited free time activities: fishing, observing fishes and coral reefs from a glass bottomed boat, kitesurfing, etc.
In Hotel Sonrisa, created by me from scratch – with lots of effort, but also heart and love – a very beautiful, friendly, fitting the African climate, culture and landscape, you will find relaxation and peace. We will make you unnoticeably adjust yourself to our pace of life – and it is incomparably slower than European. Here everything happens “pole, pole”, which means “slow, slow”… No need to hurry, worry, everything has its right time. Nothing can be rushed. Do you know our local saying: God gave the European clocks, but the African received time? This is very true here. Do believe me, that such an approach towards life makes many of our problems appear how they really are and lets us look at them from a different point of view.
The coast is a great place to rest after amazements and hardships of a safari. Kenya is indeed a mother and an icon of safari. It is where over a hundred years ago this term became synonymous to the most sophisticated form of spending free time. Even today, it is the place of living for many heirs to this legacy, the legacy that became a symbol and a part of African history, and it continues to exist in an unchanged form. Therefore, when planning your trip to Kenya do not forget about going on a real safari – the Masai Mara Park will probably be the best option.
Africa is not to be explored without an emotional attachment. You cannot simply go on a trip, to get from one place to another within ten days. If you try it this way, you will not experience anything in reality, you will not be able to feel even the slightest amount of its amazing magic, omnipresent under the blue sky, in a dense bush or on a savanna. Safari means exploring a world, that is no longer anywhere else. It is the world from before our times, where green trees are not replaced with chimneys. It is experiencing silence, peace of wild animals, it is a still untamed nature. It surely also is an original form of spending free time, and a sophisticated way of life.
No safari is the same. Even when conducted for several times on the same territory it surprises with new experiences, because the African show never ends, just presents new, different versions. In Swahili, “safari” means “a journey”. Words “safari njema”, “have a good journey”, is what you will hear from us when leaving the Hotel in a direction of a great bush for a photographic hunting, during which everybody wants to hunt “the big five”. This term derives from the times, when rich, white hunters would make it a point of principal to gain trophies that would make others jealous. Five species were considered to be most valuable: elephants, rhinoceroses, lions, leopards and African buffalos.
The first park we will recommend you is the Masai Mara Park. It is located 270 kilometers south from Nairobi and is an extension of Serengeti in Tanzania. It is known for the gnu antelope migration in periods from the end of July till the beginning of October. Hundreds of thousands of these antelopes traverse Serengeti plains in search of pastures. This was rightly acknowledged as one of the seven world wonders. To me – the whole Kenya is a wonder. It would be nearly a sin not to visit it.
Iwona Strzelecka for a dozen or so years used to work for big corporations, such as Arthur Andersen or Ernst & Young. Three years ago she landed in Kenya, where he has built and runs a friendly boutique Hotel Sonrisa. More on www.hotelsonrisa.com