Inside the Tembo!!! First class this place… There are normally loads of willing girls here, sometimes hundreds… When it’s ladies night on Fridays, there could be anything up to a 1000… And the girls figures, super, there is something for everyone there. The Kenyan girls, respectively the girls from the different tribes, who hang about in the discos are all completely different anyway. They range from short and delicate though tall and slim to rounded and FAT, really everything! Admirers of the more girly figures such as I am will be just as able to make a find as those who are friends of medicine ball back sides. The girls characters are just as differing as their figures: They range from shy to bashful, from cheeky to pushy and there are beginners and hardened hardcore whores. It’s simply paradise. Everyone finds something, or should I say, everyone is found… Of couse the girls want to sell themselves and gladly bring themselves into the game.

The place is a real corker. In principle it’s open 24 hours a day, of course there is more going on during the evening, or one could say less during the day. There is also an ST hotel for those who made the mistake of not booking a “guest friendly” hotel. The website:

Tembo Disco, Mombasa

Here a few pics from the Tembo, that’s where you’ll get to know Gina, she ran across my path on the first evening. I though, “get in there”, her or nobody at all. I did the usual things, signalled a strong beating heart, she wanted me to join her on the dance floor… Noooo, that’s not for me, I never dance. So I simulated a stiff leg, really exaggerated a limp, of course that produces the usual laughs. After 10 minutes I had made it, one just has to wrap things up. I kept her for a few days (with a break), went on trips with her to Tembo, bought something to drink at the petrol station and had a party with her. She even escorted me to the FLORIDA CLUB.

A quick word about the photos: Naturally a lot of the photos are in the partially dark, or have bad lighting. The small flash is not that much good in larger rooms. Thanks to the subsequent image processing, one can recognise quite a lot of details. This sometimes has the disadvantage that some of the photos seem to be off focus. Unfortunately this is the only possibility I had, sorry; I hope the atmosphere is still apparent…

Towards the south, Likoni is connected to Mombasa Island. One has to cross with the ferry, during the daytime, the waiting and crossing time amounts to no more than a few minutes. After that one carries on with a taxi across Shelly and Tiwi beach to Diani beach. This part of the coast is around about 30 kilometres long. This is one of the reasons why the respectable sex tourist prefers to visit the beaches up in the north. The infrastructure, if any at all, is very sparing and not very easy to use. Discos and the respective bars are also few and far between. All this makes it obvious that the number of freelance artists are pretty scarce in comparison with the north.

One thing though: The admittedly nice hotels are not very hospitable, that means it is not very easy to take your girl with you into the hotel. You have to “declare” her as your wife or whatever. Those who continually change their girls, and that’s why we are there, can stuff that for a start. I have taken a look at several facilities. The service seems to be super; the food is not bad either and should be expected to be with the comparably horrendous prices charged. Besides, I can’t imagine lying at the pool with a black whore with all the others being white. Ok if you’re black, then you are at work, as a waiter or waitress, chambermaid, gardener, security, but not as tourist’s companion. The big fat white “catalogue tourist” mother’s chins would just hit the deck.

The beaches are really very nice, that’s a plus worth mentioning. If anyone happens to find a “steady girlfriend” meaning a girl that one would like to spend one or two weeks with, then it’s worth trying to check in there. I didn’t save any costs or effort and travelled from Mombasa city with a friendly taxi driver to Diani beach where I took photos (and also on the other beaches) using my adaptable wide angle lens (see video also).

The CASABLANCA CLUB – Great, this is where things really get going! One of my 3 favourite spots…. Situated right in the centre of Mombasa, right near the Tusks. It’s easy to reach with the taxi from Bamburi (see appropriate chapter). I’ve been there quite often but didn’t discover it straight away. Two storey; downstairs (pretty miserable) Kitchen and Billiards, big screen. Above is a disco with good music, ok, they often play African hits, yes, that’s right, we’re in Kenya.

There are always more than a hundred hens there and they are all in desperate need of cash for a beer, mobile and the hairdressers. Well, a Rastafarian hairstyle costs 3000 KSH (approx 34 Euros), that’s half a Kenyan monthly wage. Have taken girls there quite often, never been a flop. They were all sweet and nice girls. The place is open 24 hours a day but during the daytime nothing much is going on. The GOOD girls are still asleep, one or the other who are pretty much over the hill make an offer. See photo. Was pretty hard getting rid of them, Africa! One needs to be on the ball all the time.

After about a week I had had enough of Mombasa town, so I moved on to the beach, the north beach! Next to the connecting bridge to the mainland is the Nyali Beach, the smaller Kenyatta Beach and finally Bamburi Beach where more or less everything goes on. Right at the end is the Shanzu Beach, such as the other small beaches, this beach should not be taken that much into consideration.

I hired a taxi driver who took me to Bamburi where I took a look at one or the other of the hotels recommended that I had found on the net. The information is not that good. I landed in the INDIANA BEACH HOTEL. Even though it was more or less the main season, I was able to haggle the price of 3000 shillings down to 2500 shillings. I was genuinely satisfied with this hotel, would go there again. They have self contained apartments; it’s mainly Muzungus who live here with their wives or girlfriends. The apartments are nice but worn, they have plenty of room and the showers run like waterfalls.

Which brings us to the slight disadvantages of the other hotel room: The shower was only average. Apart from that the room was quite nice. A small balcony with a view of the palms, and beyond that the sea, air-conditioning ok, mosquito net, large telly and a small fridge which was quite sufficient (see hotel description on the homepage). Oh yeah, 2 pools, you can swap girls several times a day, It’s better to register them at the reception for safety reasons. One books a double room (without a surcharge) then there is no discussion about a surcharge in the event of a guest being bought along.

They have a nice beach restaurant with Indian and international dishes. The food is ok and affordable. A meal costs about € 10,-, a large bottle of beer € 1,-. I mainly order the chicken curry or fish and chips. One has a good seating position facing the beach enabling one to beckon freelance hens in.

Of course one is able to book half-board and full-board with the price being anything up to 6000/Person, but who in their right mind wants to eat hotel grub every day, and with that having to be punctual as well… Noooo, nobody needs that. Better just to book a bed and to eat when and where one pleases.

…I had a malaria prophylaxis done using MALARONE; not that cheap, but sensible when travelling to Kenya’s coastal regions. The advantage of these tablets is that they only have a very small risk of side effects. (I had no side effects at all). They can also be taken when going diving and can be taken at a relatively short time before leaving on holiday, about 24 – 48 hours beforehand. After that, one tablet a day has to be taken right through the holiday up to 7 days after returning. An alternative are the more reasonably priced Lariam. The best thing to do is talk to your local practitioner about them because the tablets have to be prescribed anyway. I went to the local health authorities to talk about vaccinations, they gave me a yellow fever jab (only cost a few Euros), it is not that necessary to be inoculated against typhoid and cholera.

One would like to make it quite clear that it is absolutely necessary to make sure that all vaccinations are up to date, a visit to the doctor or to the local health authorities is a good opportunity and recommendable. One is provided with a vaccination certificate, one should not wait until the very last minute, especially if you want your other vaccinations refreshed at the same time. These are:

Polio
Lock Jaw (Tetanus)
Diphtheria
Hepatitis A and B

The malaria prophylaxis is no guarantee that one will not become the illness. This is why prevention is sensible: Because mosquitoes are active during the evening and night time, it is better not to go out in shorts during these times. Clothing that covers the skin is recommendable, this means long trousers, socks (!), and shirt. It is not possible to completely avoid the mosquitoes; I received a few nasty bites, especially whilst I was asleep even though I had a mosquito net and/or air conditioning. I hadn’t used the mosquito net properly, can happen when one has had a few too many, or by not using the net and relying on the air conditioning such as I tried out. The mosquitoes don’t fly from warm to cold, probably wasn’t cold enough, a small dilemma: If the air conditioning is set too warm it will attract the mosquitoes (so it is better to use the mosquito net which is normally available), if too cold one can catch a cold. Unfortunately both cases happened to me alternatively.

The cold I caught had malaria symptoms, a mate who I got to know there thought so to. He has been visiting Kenya for the past 15 years and he had actually caught malaria. A few years back he suddenly had a high temperature, los of appetite and sensitivity to light. Back then, he went to a small “hospital” in Mtwapa (about 3 kilometres from Indiana), and had the usual check up, the test results were positive. He was given medicine and tablets from an English manufacturer and after a time the malaria had actually cleared up. The next test then proved to be negative. 

He urgently recommended that I go for a check up and tests, I was thinking about this anyway because without treatment this illness can very easily end up with death. The only difference is that I would have gone to Mombasa to a modern clinic. My mate said that here in Kenya they have so much experience with the illness that it would be quite all right to go to the local clinic. I myself would not have though about that because this “Hospital” consisted only of a waiting room, a laboratory if one could call it that (it did have a microscope though), and a room out the back.

The method of carrying out a check up didn’t make one feel that they could really be trusted: The doctor (or was he a male nurse?), Extracted a drop of blood by pricking my finger, my mate told me to make sure that these needles are sterile, meaning that they have to be taken out of the sterile packaging in front of ones own eyes. The drop of blood is put on a small pane of glass, spread about, and then submerged in a glass with some blue liquid. After a few minutes I was told the result: Negative. Thank God for that! So I only had a slight cold from the air-conditioning, which thanks to 3 days of care by the appropriate “nurse” was cured.

The cost of the whole “treatment” came to a few hundred KSH including the tip for the doctor, but that was only because he asked “can you give me a tip?”. Thanks to my mate I was prepared for this question, if he hadn’t told me about this I would have probably looked a bit stupid. So. “Sure!” was the answer, and all were happy. These people have to fight for a living every day, and €2 doesn’t hurt us at all.

Apart from this, if the own personal first aid kit hasn’t got something one needs, then one can always fall back on the chemist. Once I bought Immodium in Nakumatt to treat the runs, and somewhere else I bought Aspirin for a few cents (I needed more of these pills than I had expected before setting off on my holidays).

Yeah, the runs: Got me a few times as well, but luckily enough not very heavily. It is better not to eat at any old street stall, which is quite obvious when taking a look at what is on offer (see food below). But even in the hotel and restaurant kitchens there is no guarantee that they are very hygienic…. What can one do? One has to eat anyway; there is always a portion of luck in the matter.
By the way: None of the vaccinations are compulsory.