Everyone in the US loves summer vacations, and they always have plenty of plans for this time of the year each season. I’m quite sure the summer sweet thrills fill every other student in the United States of America just like me.
For almost every student, the best time of their lives happens to be the three-month summer vacation. Many students await this time of the year with so much zeal, they forget the word “school” and enjoy themselves as much as they can.
This essay will highlight the key moments on how I spent my 2019’s summer vacation in Malindi Kenya because it was one of the best I have had since my childhood.
It enriched me so much.
How I Spent My Summer Vacation with My Family in Malindi Kenya
In the 2010s summer, I forgot all about school and traveled with my parents and brother to Africa for the first time. A continent none of us had been to before in our entire lives! My parents started organizing the trip 2 months before the summer vacation. I couldn’t wait for the vacations and the day we were flying to this magnificent place just like it presented itself in the Kenyan Tourism Board’s “Tembea Kenya” Website images.
I had no idea about this place, so I had to look it up on the internet; Malindi is a town found in the South-Eastern part of Kenyan and along the Kenyan coast. A place that is famous for its chain of tropical beaches that is dotted by many hotels and resorts anyone can choose to stay in.
More so, I learned that it is renowned for the fort Jesus that was built by the order of King Philip I of Portugal between 1593 and 1596 after it was designed by the Italian architects – Giovanni Battista Cairati. The fort served as a secure base for the Portuguese. It boasts of Malindi & Watamu Marine National Parks famous for the turtles and colorful fish, Arabuko-Sokoke Forest that is a reserve for elephants and over 500 species of birds, and the Gede ruins-remains of an old Swahili Town.
The weather promised to be beautiful too because the place has an average temperature of approximately 27 degrees Celsius.
We chose Malindi as our summer vacation destination after we read that Usain Bolt the famous 100 & 200 Meter record-holder had adopted an abandoned 8-months cheetah in Kenya. It was so touching, and he even went further to name the cheetah Lightning Bolt with a pledge to pay $3,000 a year after he had paid $13,000 as adoption fees.
It was a holiday of its kind! I can’t wait to fill you all in on what happened in that place.
We arrived in Kenya a week later after the summer vacation had started, and we headed straight to our hotel room to relax and be ready to get started early enough the following day. We took a small walk in the evening with our tour guide just to familiarize ourselves with the vicinity and interact with the locals.
Everyone was so lively and hospitable, and we felt at home. Back at our hotel, we spent a better part of the night talking about what we saw and planned the places to visit come morning. By the look of the serene atmosphere around us, right from our hotel, it promised to be the best two weeks away from school, home, and in Malindi too.
I remember by six in the morning we were ready to get moving, we called our tour guide to come and take us to the places we had picked to visit on the first day. We were fully awake that early compared to how my brother and I normally drag our bodies out of bed and have morning fights with mum during school days. Don’t judge us! After all, we were at this place for this once-in-a-lifetime moment.
All in all, it was a road trip to behold, and we were filled with unimaginable happiness that could last for ages. We went to the beach, and we had beautiful and fantastic moments sailing on the hand-crafted dhows that make the beach exceptionally beautiful. At the beach, we got a chance to eat seafood lunch, drank mnazi-a cocktail made from coconut milk, explored different beach places, and so much more.
Damn, the food and the drinks were so traditional and sweet to sample we even bought some for our supper. We also got a chance to snorkel at the Beach as we interacted with the locals who taught us new African dance styles.
I can’t stop staring at the photos we took on this first day. I remember how the day’s visit to the beach made us so tired, but it got us looking forward to the second day and a visit to a new place.
We got stuck, and we couldn’t choose between the two places, so we chose to visit both of the places on the same day. At Gedi-ruins, we got a chance to walk through the archaeological site, which was now a remnant of what it used to be. It was a perfect place to take more photos; we learned a lot of history about the ruins that we didn’t know. This left us all contented and filled with what happens that someone gets from seething something for the first time.
Next, we visited the Watamu National Marine Park which is a marvelous place to visit. The breeze blew against our bodies, as we walked through the aqua park that has almost 1,000 different fish and other aqualife species. The park is built on beautiful coral-reefs grounds that have beautiful gardens all around. Along the shore, our eyes were mesmerized as we spotted all species of birds, on top of the amazing turtles and dugongs. We feasted our eyes on a lot, as much as we could and once we got satisfied we headed to the sandy beach to sunbathe, water skiing, and windsurfing just to end the eventful day on a climax.
What a life! It leaves one with the feeling relocating to Kenya. We were all excited to be in Malindi.
The last days of my summer vacation with my family in Malindi were spent visiting all the places we could manage to go to. We resolved to maximize the value of the last days of our vacation. Also, it was supposed to end on a high note and compliment the excitement we had since we arrived.
So we chose to visit sites like the Bio Ken Snake Park which is a research center specifically established to study reptiles, more so on snakes and snake bites that are rampant in Africa. The vast collection of snakes just amazed us, and the visit was worth our time and money too. Have you ever thought that someone could start a butterfly breeding project? Well, we discovered all that at the Kipepeo Project. “Kipepeo” in Swahili means butterfly, and the project handles butterflies, pupae, moths, and other insect species. Additionally, the project deals with local community development from selling honey and silk cloth. We didn’t leave the place empty-handed; we bought some products.
My best site visit was the Falconry of Kenya that gave us a chance to be in close contact with a vast collection of birds of prey and other wild animals. I even saw a tortoise that was 200-years old! The falconry boasts of falcons, peckers, owls, and goshawks; we took turns petting, feeding, and playing with some birds. Additionally, the site shelters crocodiles, green mambas, cobras, lizards, monkeys, and pythons.
Wow, there is so much left that I can tell you about this place, but that would take a century to get done! Well, stay glued that I will fill you in on the rest in my next essay.
The visit to Malindi-Kenya with my family was by far the most remarkable thing I did during my 2019’s summer vacation before COVID-19 thwarted plans for any traveling in 2020. I can’t wait for the next summer vacation after the virus pandemic since the last vacation made me fall in love with the summer holidays and traveling to new places.
It’s only right to conclude by saying that I spent my summer vacation in the most fruitful and amazing way.
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References:
- Things to do in Malindi, Kenya; Sourced at-link; https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g298253-d2465943-Reviews-Vasco_da_Gama_Pillar-Malindi_Coast_Province.html
- 10 Top things to do in Malindi, Kenya; Source-https://theculturetrip.com/africa/kenya/articles/10-top-things-to
- Things to do in Malindi; Found at this link-https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractions-g298253-Activities-Malind
- Usain Bolt adopts a Kenyan cheetah cub; Found at-link; http://www.kws.go.ke/content/usain-bolt-adopt-kenyan-cheetah-cub
- Tembea Kenya; “Kenya Yanitosha”; link https://magicalkenya.com/tembeakenya/
“Summer vacation is synonymous with freedom—the freedom to explore new destinations, indulge in favorite pastimes, and simply bask in the beauty of the season.”