Nine Wonderful Days in Kenya

We wanted to go to Kenya so much that when the plane landed in Mombasa we couldn't believe it! At the airport exit the Francorosso operator was waiting for us (the tour operator we'd chosen for this great adventure), who accompanied us to the sea club Tropical Village in Malindi, where we arrive after a good two hours. A stunning, almost enchanted place where friendliness, warmth, cheerfulness and lots of cleanliness reign. Our stay at the Tropical was wonderful: the rooms are nice but above all clean and equipped with every comfort (the bathrooms were renovated recently, they're "really" clean), all the furnishings follow the local style, the dining room is splendid as are the relaxation rooms, the garden teems with flowers and scents thanks to its attentive, watchful gardeners, the pool and beach areas are well-equipped and cared for.

The staff (almost all locals but excellent speakers of Italian) are always at your disposal, kind and with a big smile on their faces because hakuna matata (no problem). The restaurant service is fantastic, we came back with several kilos to shed; the cuisine is varied, tasty, plentiful and then some. The Tropical also has an excellent entertainment team (the chief entertainer is Italian: Roxy, excellent in all the activities), which offers daytime and evening entertainment. But all you have to do is get close to the beach and you make another welcome encounter: the beach boys; I don't like calling them that, they're the local lads who, to earn a bit of work, offer to sell you local handicrafts or who, on behalf of equally local agencies, offer to take you on excursions with them to get to know the reality around you better.

We decided to entrust ourselves to them (the excursions offered at the hotel definitely cost more) and more precisely to a young man who goes by the name of "Sceriffo", or perhaps it would be better to say that some unreasonable (forgive the term) Italian called him that, perhaps because he was unable to pronounce KASSIM SHARRIF. With him and with Alì we spent two days in Tsavo East (national park), on a magnificent atoll (called Sardegna 2) that emerges at low tide, at Watamu on the island of love, at the ruins of Gede and in Malindi. The safari in Tsavo was thrilling; seeing the elephants, the crocodiles, the hippos, the gazelles, the antelopes, the giraffes, the lionesses, etc, in their habitat and just a few metres from you makes you feel alive and so "small" before a world in which the undisputed masters are them: the animals.

We spent the night at the Ndololo camp, immersed in the savannah; we slept in tents, certainly very spartan, but you don't go looking for luxury, lulled by the trumpeting of the elephants and the roaring of the lions. But what certainly won my heart were the CHILDREN: those of Malindi, those of the villages near and far from Malindi, those who shout "helloooo, sweet", who go to school and who rejoice at receiving a pen, who talk to you, stroke you and to whom you'd like to give a happy childhood, a house to live in but who unfortunately most of the time have to settle for just a simple smile, which they return with joyful and sad eyes. My heart stayed there with them! If you ever decide to go to Kenya, to Malindi, the Tropical won't disappoint you; if you want a friendly tour guide attentive to your wishes, contact Sharrif mobile +254****7911 - email: kassimsharrif@yahoo.com.