Food & Drinks

Mlima Tamu bar: Does it live to it's name?

bar

Someone wrote to me and said I like to romanticise everything. But what is life without a little romance, surely? And if, like me, you seek romance [not of the love type] then drive out to Lerruat Log resort in Kumpa, Kajiado.

The first experience is the drive there; don’t nap, don’t read a book. Look out the window. Look at the landscape, the flatness of it all, the beauty of monotony, the curve of the wide endless sky.

The resort is perched on the crown of a hill overlooking a valley. Get room D9, or any room along that corridor. They are bigger. The view is breathless. There is a meandering dusty road below. Sounds from tens of kilometres echo back in the silence.

Because it’s on a hill, there is a bit of walking up and down hills to get to the reception, to the restaurants, to the parking. We all need the walk. Wear your comfortable shoes. The service is excellent.

Roomservice picks up their calls and acts fast. I got ice in a bucket in record time. I cracked my whisky on the balcony hanging over the valley and stared at the sunset.

Oh, please carry the company. Surely. But I hear some people love to visit such places alone, to think. Good for them. I normally think when I sit on the toilet seat back in Nairobi.

Your evening —and the whole point of this article— has to end in their bar called the Mlima Tamu Bar. It’s a sweet, small and intimate circular bar. It has ridiculous signs that read “Vodka with ice is cheaper than a two-hour massage.”

A fire is lit in the fireplace. [Outside is very cold] One side of the wall is all glass that overlooks distant lights below. The barman and deejay is Filex Mandala, a real standup brother; very efficient, very professional, and very attentive. [Yes, Filex because Felix is too mainstream.

The music is fantastic and it isn’t too loud. Someone cut a cake on their birthday and it went around to all the tables. Mlima Tamu bar is the kind of place you would make friends because of its size and energy.

It stays open until the last patron steps out into the blinding cold, normally way after 3am, and walks back to their room, preferably not singing too loudly.

How’s that for romance?