Inside the exclusive Shaza Resort

I wake up like Puff Daddy, or P-Diddy, or whatever he calls himself these days. You know Sean Combs, right? Music mogul. Showboater. Bad Boy Productions. Always in white; flashy, wealthy, blinged out. I’m neither of these but when I wake up I think to myself, “This is how Diddy feels like when he wakes up.”

I’m feeling like Diddy because I woke up and slipped into a bathrobe so white an angel would wear RayBans to look at it.

I shuffle over the rich grey marble floor, through the sliding doors and out into this large balcony that can host a party of 12 and I stare out at the Indian Ocean.

It’s a gorgeous morning to be alive and even a better one to be standing at the balcony of The Shaza Club in Shanzu, Mombasa.

The sky and the ocean are competing on who can get bluer than the other. It’s a tie.

Arnold Deche

The ocean is calm and smells of salt, old sea vessels, wet fish, frothy waves, smooth pebbles, coral, seafarer’s wishes, rusted anchors, old discarded sailors shoes, reflective cumulus clouds and sea-weary muffled sounds drifting from Asia like jaded logs. Meek waves lazily slap against coral at the beach. There is no soul in sight.

From up here in my perch, from the balcony of The Shaza Club’s penthouse suite you can imagine to be anything you want to be; Warren Buffett, Puff Daddy, Alonzo Mourning (whatever happened to that guy?), Nicky Oppenheimer, that guy who wrote the runaway musical, Hamilton, I forget his name, or you can be Shonda Rhimes or even our own Ayisi Makatiani, hell, you can even pretend you are Robert Mugabe, after all, this is safe space.

Whomever you feel like, The Shaza Club’s penthouse inspires grandiosity, success, achievement, content (this is debatable, though) and all the tenets that men and women of achievement have stood on. And continues to stand on.
Actually the original plan for The Shaza Club was a hotel. The plan was to build this high-end resort for men and women of achievement. They brought in some talent in the name of Arnold Deche.

You might not know him. Not many people do. He’s an architect, a damn good one as word on the street has it.

Appropriately tranquil

They told him that wanted to create a big statement on that four-acre plot that overlooks the ocean. They wanted some of that grand Roman architecture influenced in the design.

They wanted to do something that wasn’t like the rest of the hotels in their neighbourhood. Arnold, with a pencil stuck behind his left ear and tongue sticking from the corner of his mouth (because that’s how I see genius architects) he drew what is called Insulae Africanus, or African apartments.

Excellent design

The owners, Shanzu Beach Resort, threw some good money at an excellent design and the result are two infinity swimming pools with a cool service bar, large Roman columns decorated with ancient designs, it’s the green lawns that look sprayed with green paint, it’s the open spaces and the apartment rooms with jacuzzis and open kitchen fitted with modern appliances, it’s the— and this was my favourite part— the high climbing dome at the reception, that look like something Michelangelo would have touched with his art.

When you look up light filters up from the dome, spreading it into small prisms that fall on your below like snow-flakes made from light. Does that even make sense?

If it doesn’t then you stand below that dome and try and describe it. All these was the work of an interior decorator from Belgium called Saravan Van Buyvlde.

After the hotel opened and some high-net worth individuals started patroning it, the establishment decided that it would turn the hotel into a private members club.

You pay a membership fee, and you become part of this elite club who can use the facility (87 suites) anytime of the year.

Penthouse suite

Its one bedroom suite measure about 110 square meters while the two-bedroom suites measure 140 square meters. All have a view of the ocean and balconies.

The design is modern minimalist, with big screen TVs and sliding glass doors and large rainwater shower-heads. (I love those).

They also have conference facilities and two restaurants (one is under construction) and a chef who is the soul of the culinary experience of The Shaza.

The Penthouse suite takes the cake, though: jacuzzi, large low-setting bed facing the ocean, mood lighting, opulent furniture sparsely populated in the room big enough to dribble a basketball.

I stood at the balcony for a long while, watching the ocean change it’s colour from light blue to dark blue then to some shade of green and back to light blue.

I could watch the ocean for hours. The Shaza Club actually means “corals”, if you are the dedicated ones who stayed up in Swahili lessons in primary school. (I couldn’t). It’s got the coral feel all across, on the colours and the texture of the walls.

Even P-Diddy can’t stand at a balcony for ages, so I walked back in and called room service for some breakfast.