8-25
Yesterday we got to experience what l day in the life of a rich colonial Brit in Kenya is like. I have to admit, it's pretty dang great. Might have been one of the most fun days I've had since I came to Kenya. Just outside of Nanyuki at the foot of Mt. Kenya is the Mount Kenya Safari Club. Elisha visited the animal orphanage located at the safari club earlier this summer with Todd's class.
The Safari Club hosts a huge Sunday brunch and the group had decided to go down to partake. I was a bit skeptical and not super interested considering the price for the buffet brunch was 35 bucks. I have most definitely never spent $35 on a meal. But they all told me it's worth it, and I didn't want to miss out on a fun day with the group. One of the issues with hanging out with Princeton kids is that money is much less of a concern for them (the frustrations caused by this is for another conversation). Not only did they all pay the $35 for the meal, they all got a couple of $5 beers and then $12 passionfruit mojitos at the pool. I certainly wasn't going to buy anything that would take up any room in my stomach and take away potential space for the buffet! Also, almost all of them had stayed a couple nights at the Safari Club with their parents when their parents came to visit. I believe the very cheapest room in low season runs about $700 per night. But most rooms are over $1000. The interesting thing is with my forthcoming alien registration card, I can get a weekend spa package for $800 per person for 2 nights if anyone is interested..haha.
Anyways, on the whole ride down, Tyler kept glowing with how this place was paradise, a heaven, if you will. A magic place that you couldn't believe exists in Nanyuki. Everyone built up the place pretty high, but I have to admit, I was still quite impressed.
When you pass through the gates, there are wild animals everywhere, even some "mythical creatures" as Tyler liked to point out...some of the animals they have there are basically extinct everywhere else (ex. the Bongo). The hotel is of course beautiful. It overlooks a fancy pool, fountains, amazingly manicured grass (super rare in Kenya), and of course Mt. Kenya. The equator also runs right through the hotel grounds.
We arrived in the morning and the car I was with (Tyler, Sally, Julia, and Billy) headed over to play some golf. Despite the high expenses of everything else there, the golf was super cheap, and so we had to play, especially since the course straddles the Equator. Supposedly there is only one other course in the world (in Sumatra, Indonesia) that straddles the Equator. The total cost of a caddy (what!?), club rentals, green fees, and golf balls came down to just under 20 bucks. Pretty crazy. I've never of course had a caddy in my life, not that I've ever played many rounds of golf. But it was quite the experience to have a caddy carry your clubs, find your ball, place your ball on the tee, mark your ball on the green, give you advice and pick your clubs. Felt almost awkward, and definitely like you were missing something when you'd walk off the tee box without any clubs. Tyler and I definitely got a kick out of that. We ended up playing scramble (best ball) since most of us hadn't hardly played much golf (Billy is from St. Andrews, the home of golf, so he was pretty good). The teams were Tyler and me versus Billy, Julia, and Sally. They had the lead from the 1st hole through the 6th hole, but then we stormed back on the last 3 holes to win by 2 strokes! Scrambles are always fun and we had a great time. I also think the caddies had a great time (one of them had a CU Buffs hat) b/c they probably weren't used to not having spoiled, cranky, rich british golfers. The course was great in our opinion (better taken care of than both EP golf courses), but when we read the reviews of the course online, people mostly complained about how not perfect it was and rated it low.
After golf, we hit the brunch buffet. WOW! Seriously wow! I've rarely seen such a spread of food. They had a pig roasting on a spit and ribs, steak, chicken, and other meats out on a grill. There was a hamburger stand where they made burgers on the grill to order. They had a crazy amount of fancy veggie dishes (all organic) and appetizers that I didn't even have an idea what most of them were, all fancily displayed. Someone more educated in fancy food culture would probably appreciate it even more than I did. They of course had African dishes but they had special "food islands" for a variety of cultures. There was a meat island, american island (fries, kentucky fried chicken), italian island (pasta and sauce made to order), chinese island (stir fry and other things), sushi island, mexican island (burritos and stir-fries made to order), a mediterranean island (gyros sliced fresh off the roasting meat and humus and stuff like that), Indian island (chicken tikka masala and the like plus a made to order naan oven), a fish island and other islands I'm sure I'm forgetting. They had a couple islands of fresh tropical fruit all arranged in quite the fancy manner. They had a couple of islands for dessert. There was so much chocolate type things, it was simply unbelievable. Plus different cakes, tarts, and many types of desserts I didn't recognize. Some of my favorite were the chocolate covered strawberries. They also had an icecream bar with several flavors of icecream and all the toppings you could dream of. The strangest thing was a cotton candy machine, I guess for the kids. I don't know how many times I went back to the buffet, but I am pretty convinced they lost money on me (as is always the goal of a buffet!).
The buffet goes from 10am til after 4pm, so you have time to sit, relax, and go back. After we gave up, we explored the grounds a bit. Nice gardens, ponds, fancy birds, and even a hedge maze. They have tennis courts and a volleyball court, so we played volleyball for a while. We then headed up to the pool to play some water polo. All in all a super fun day. I love days full of sports (and the were sports I could play with a bum knee since golf is easy, water polo is mainly upper body swimming, and v-ball I could take easy). And the food was just super impressive as were the grounds. Julia's parents are coming soon to stay there, and we were thinking they should sneak us in!
Yesterday we got to experience what l day in the life of a rich colonial Brit in Kenya is like. I have to admit, it's pretty dang great. Might have been one of the most fun days I've had since I came to Kenya. Just outside of Nanyuki at the foot of Mt. Kenya is the Mount Kenya Safari Club. Elisha visited the animal orphanage located at the safari club earlier this summer with Todd's class.
The Safari Club hosts a huge Sunday brunch and the group had decided to go down to partake. I was a bit skeptical and not super interested considering the price for the buffet brunch was 35 bucks. I have most definitely never spent $35 on a meal. But they all told me it's worth it, and I didn't want to miss out on a fun day with the group. One of the issues with hanging out with Princeton kids is that money is much less of a concern for them (the frustrations caused by this is for another conversation). Not only did they all pay the $35 for the meal, they all got a couple of $5 beers and then $12 passionfruit mojitos at the pool. I certainly wasn't going to buy anything that would take up any room in my stomach and take away potential space for the buffet! Also, almost all of them had stayed a couple nights at the Safari Club with their parents when their parents came to visit. I believe the very cheapest room in low season runs about $700 per night. But most rooms are over $1000. The interesting thing is with my forthcoming alien registration card, I can get a weekend spa package for $800 per person for 2 nights if anyone is interested..haha.
Anyways, on the whole ride down, Tyler kept glowing with how this place was paradise, a heaven, if you will. A magic place that you couldn't believe exists in Nanyuki. Everyone built up the place pretty high, but I have to admit, I was still quite impressed.
When you pass through the gates, there are wild animals everywhere, even some "mythical creatures" as Tyler liked to point out...some of the animals they have there are basically extinct everywhere else (ex. the Bongo). The hotel is of course beautiful. It overlooks a fancy pool, fountains, amazingly manicured grass (super rare in Kenya), and of course Mt. Kenya. The equator also runs right through the hotel grounds.
We arrived in the morning and the car I was with (Tyler, Sally, Julia, and Billy) headed over to play some golf. Despite the high expenses of everything else there, the golf was super cheap, and so we had to play, especially since the course straddles the Equator. Supposedly there is only one other course in the world (in Sumatra, Indonesia) that straddles the Equator. The total cost of a caddy (what!?), club rentals, green fees, and golf balls came down to just under 20 bucks. Pretty crazy. I've never of course had a caddy in my life, not that I've ever played many rounds of golf. But it was quite the experience to have a caddy carry your clubs, find your ball, place your ball on the tee, mark your ball on the green, give you advice and pick your clubs. Felt almost awkward, and definitely like you were missing something when you'd walk off the tee box without any clubs. Tyler and I definitely got a kick out of that. We ended up playing scramble (best ball) since most of us hadn't hardly played much golf (Billy is from St. Andrews, the home of golf, so he was pretty good). The teams were Tyler and me versus Billy, Julia, and Sally. They had the lead from the 1st hole through the 6th hole, but then we stormed back on the last 3 holes to win by 2 strokes! Scrambles are always fun and we had a great time. I also think the caddies had a great time (one of them had a CU Buffs hat) b/c they probably weren't used to not having spoiled, cranky, rich british golfers. The course was great in our opinion (better taken care of than both EP golf courses), but when we read the reviews of the course online, people mostly complained about how not perfect it was and rated it low.
After golf, we hit the brunch buffet. WOW! Seriously wow! I've rarely seen such a spread of food. They had a pig roasting on a spit and ribs, steak, chicken, and other meats out on a grill. There was a hamburger stand where they made burgers on the grill to order. They had a crazy amount of fancy veggie dishes (all organic) and appetizers that I didn't even have an idea what most of them were, all fancily displayed. Someone more educated in fancy food culture would probably appreciate it even more than I did. They of course had African dishes but they had special "food islands" for a variety of cultures. There was a meat island, american island (fries, kentucky fried chicken), italian island (pasta and sauce made to order), chinese island (stir fry and other things), sushi island, mexican island (burritos and stir-fries made to order), a mediterranean island (gyros sliced fresh off the roasting meat and humus and stuff like that), Indian island (chicken tikka masala and the like plus a made to order naan oven), a fish island and other islands I'm sure I'm forgetting. They had a couple islands of fresh tropical fruit all arranged in quite the fancy manner. They had a couple of islands for dessert. There was so much chocolate type things, it was simply unbelievable. Plus different cakes, tarts, and many types of desserts I didn't recognize. Some of my favorite were the chocolate covered strawberries. They also had an icecream bar with several flavors of icecream and all the toppings you could dream of. The strangest thing was a cotton candy machine, I guess for the kids. I don't know how many times I went back to the buffet, but I am pretty convinced they lost money on me (as is always the goal of a buffet!).
The buffet goes from 10am til after 4pm, so you have time to sit, relax, and go back. After we gave up, we explored the grounds a bit. Nice gardens, ponds, fancy birds, and even a hedge maze. They have tennis courts and a volleyball court, so we played volleyball for a while. We then headed up to the pool to play some water polo. All in all a super fun day. I love days full of sports (and the were sports I could play with a bum knee since golf is easy, water polo is mainly upper body swimming, and v-ball I could take easy). And the food was just super impressive as were the grounds. Julia's parents are coming soon to stay there, and we were thinking they should sneak us in!
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| The Mount Kenya Safari Club |
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| Julia on the 1st hole |
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| Billy, the St. Andrews pro, hitting the ball over the swamp hazard |
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| The crew: Billy, Tyler, Julia, Sally, Colorado Hat Caddy, Me |
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| Crown Crane |
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| Tyler, Sally, and Julia heading back to the Safari Club after the golf game |
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| part of the meat island |
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| Desset! There were 3 other trays like this, plus different cakes/pies, and the ice cream bar |
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| When you start to reach your 6th or 7th plate, you just go for the very best. Steak, Ribs, and Chocolate-covered Strawberries. The Princeton kids got a kic, out of this plate |
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| The evidence of the early stages of the buffet. Matt and Rinada in the background |
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| Round 3 of dessert |
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| The golf course and hotel straddles the equator |
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| View of Mt. Kenya from the Mount Kenya Safari Club |
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| Some of the grounds and Mt. Kenya |
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| Mt. Kenya from Mpala when we got back |
2 comments:
Wow! Just wow!
I probably couldn't walk, let alone play volleyball, after eating that much food. Sounds like an amazing place!
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