ISLAND IDYLL
Said to be Zanzibar’s most-popular beach, Nungwi is always abuzz, understandably so. In between its beach strip which stretches into Kendwa, amidst the array of hotels both grand and cheerfully cheap, Kilindi Zanzibar redefines luxury in this quaint fishing village. TEXT: WENDY WATTA PHOTOGRAPHS: BRIAN SIAMBI
“You can dance, you can jiiiive, having the time of your life...diggin’ the dancing queen!”
I
mooch about the grand villa which is far too spacious for just me, singing embarrassingly off-key at the top of my lungs, certain no one will hear me because of how spread apart the 15 villas at Kilindi Zanzibar are. Carried away, I imagine I am Meryl Streep in Mamma Mia and jump onto the four poster bed with childlike glee then spring up as though on a trampoline, but quickly remember that I can’t do a split mid-air and this bed might break under my weight, in which case, it wouldn’t matter how understanding the people here are - I would have to pay. I have been playing Abba’s Dancing Queen in a loop ever since finding out that Kilindi Zanzibar was built as a private home for one of the bandmates before being converted into a resort. It is now under the management of Elewana Collection, and for that I am glad. Bosomed within the forested folds of Nungwi, it is hard not to love this property. The slatted door of my palatial bedroom opens up to a full-moon plunge pool which overlooks an indigenous forest that stretches out to waters docked by various traditional double-outrigger canoes called ngalawa.
44
DISCOVER
EXPLORE
EXPERIENCE
