Diani Beach

With heavy hearts we leave the beautiful Wasini Island. We jump on a matatu waiting in the nearest village and sit in it for about an hour before it departs. It's a pretty quick ride though and we get to Diani Beach in an hour or so.

As soon as we step off the bus we are hard-pressed by drivers of all modes of transport, tuk-tuks, bodas, and taxis, who want to take us to our accommodation. We settle on a woman who seems friendly enough but won't tell us how much she charges until we've put our bags into the vehicle. We tell her our destination, Diani Backpackers, which is about a 15 minute ride away and is one of the most popular spots for backpackers in Kenya. She complains about the distance and quotes us a high price which Chris manages to haggle down to 500 shillings (about 5USD) and she sets off. Asking us for directions, claiming not to know where it is, but fresh on the scene, we don't know either. She turns this way and that seemingly asking people for directions all while complaining how far the drive is and how much extra we should pay her. We finally arrive and give her the originally arranged amount ignroing her pleas for a higher price.

When we arrive at reception we ask how much it should have been. The guy laughs while asking how much we paid. Embarassed, we let him know the amount. Laughing harder he informs us that all rides, no matter the distance in Diani, should cost 100 shillings in total. We've learned our lesson and now know to call ahead and ask the staff for advice.

After setting up camp we settle into the bar and are pleasantly surprised to find out it's happy hour. More surprisingly though we find ourselves in the company of our Aussie friends who still happened to be there! We join them for dinner and are sad to hear they are departing the next day. Unlike the rest of the people staying at Diani Backpackers, they seemed to be the most down to earth and normal.

The next day we slowly start off the morning by taking a swim in the pool and then set off to the beach to enjoy the beautiful white sands of Diani. It's absolutley breathtaking and we decide to take a dip in the warm waters of the Indian Ocean. As we're changing we are spotted by some of the Beach Boys who take a liking ot us and want us to buy their keychains. Feeling uncomfortable as we're half nude, we kindly ask them to leave. 'We're all brothers and sisters' they say as they stand their ground. We eventually convince them we aren't going to buy anything from them and escape to a beach bar.

In the evening we enjoy a beverage during happy hour at the hostel and then set off to Ali Barbour's Cave Restaurant. We entered the restuarant through a normal white building and then descended underground into the ancient coral cave that is between 120,000 and 180,000 years old. Thanks to the wide opening overhead in the roof of the cave that created a natural window we were able to watch the sunset and stargaze throughout our meal. With candles setting the scene, it all felt extremely romantic.

We take a look at the menu and are surprised to see not one vegetarian option. We swore we read somewhere that they did but we are too polite to ask. Katie opts for fresh crab while Chris goes all out and gets a steak. After coming to terms with our decision and enjoying our night out we are told in the taxi home by a group of German girls who we are sharing the ride with that they ordered the vegetarian risotto. We exclaim that we didn't see that on the menu and are told that there was a separate vegetarian menu that you just had to ask for. Feeling a bit guilty we drown our sorrows in more drinks once we arrive back at Diani Backpackers because guess what, it's happy hour again! We retire from the party relatively early (and pretty drunk) to our tent whose walls are surprisingly not soundproof. Awful techno music fills the air in the early morning with the sound of chanting backpackers. It's all a bit too much for us and we feel extremely old for complaining.

We awake in the morning to extremely heavy rain that has drenched our tent and most of our belongings. Katie is far too hungover to function and Chris makes the executive decision to stay an extra day. We both can't handle the Diani Backpackers scene any further so we book into a nondescript, budget hotel with a big pool and relatively 0 people - a warm welcome after the party scene that was just down the street.Read more