Neptune Palm Beach Resort

Visit a local Orphanage.

by pfsmalo

Asked if we would like to go and cheer some kids up a bit was right up our street. Not far from the hotel was this small orphanage called " New Diani Children Support Centre". It turned into rather an eye-watering experience as these kids sang us some local songs, then Frere Jacques. The Centre is supported only with donations from the tourists that visit and a few handouts (bags of rice but no money) from the Kenyan authorities. The teachers are all working for nothing, and as the children sleep in-sito, there is one girl that acts as cook, nurse and guardian.

I'm not making a plea to send money, just that if you are in the area of Ukunda, it won't hurt to pop in and hand out a few smiles and laughs to these kids (and a few sweets if you've got them).

UKUNDA

by sigg

Until a few years ago just a village on the highway, UKUNDA is now a scruffily burgeoning town and the main service centre for the resort hotels, strung out along the Likoni-Lungalunga road, with a post office (Mon-Fri 8am-12.30pm & 2-5pm), Total petrol station, a couple of places with internet access (BTS near Casino Pub , for example), which is cheaper than at Diani Beach, branches of KCB and Postbank (both opposite Total) and hundreds of dukas . Only marginally touched by tourism, Ukunda has a life of its own, not all of it pleasant: the sprawl is an increasingly deprived area, and along with Likoni was a major centre of the ethnic violence that swept the region prior to the 1997 elections, in which some 100,000 "up-country" people were forced to flee. Still, if your holiday isn't otherwise adventurous, it's worth a visit to see something of Kenya a little less unreal than the strip.

A daytrip to Ukunda

by myriam_c

Extract of my travel report.

The next day we visit the public school (read: poor-kids-school) of Ukunda. The most beautiful dark colored children with big black eyes. Since there are only two classrooms most of the children just sit in the shade of a huge tree during their lessons. Nice and cool. No ballpens, no notebooks … They write in the sand, with their finger. The women of the village prepare our lunch, the same what they usually eat: red beans, meat (???), maniok, sweet potato. Soon we have our one-day foster child: Said. He stays with us for the rest of the day, trying to tempt us to give him all the candy we have. Later on we visit the local medicine man but it doesn't make much sense what he has to tell ...

DIANI BEACH

by sigg

"SOUTH COAST OF MOMBASA"

"COASTAL FORREST"

Diani beach in Kenya is a tropical paradise on the coast of Kenya

"FROM SAFARI BEACH HOTEL"

Wiew from the gardens of "Safari Beach Hotel" towards the Diani Beach

"BEACH FRONT OF SAFARI BEACH"

"WALKING THE DIANI BEACH"

Walking along the beach you may often be annoyed by beach-boys trying to sell you everything you can think of,but my experience is that tmost of them are quite nice,and understands if you do not want to be disturbed.

"BEACH BOY"

Me with "Roger" on the beach.
He was a very nice person,i think he is the good example of Kenyan hospitality and friendlyness.

"POOL"

The nice refreshing pool at Safari Beach Hotel

"MONKEY"

Monkeys often are a "pain in the ass" stealing food an beeing rude to the hotel-guest's But they are funny too.........