Guest post: on the beach

Since joining me in Kenya on 27 July (oh, happy day!), V. has been diligently keeping a diary with our travel tales - the good, the bad and the downright bizarre. His account on a recent visit to Jomo Kenyatta beach in Mombasa paints a very accurate picture of the atmosphere: "The beach we ended up at was a surreal experience; a strange, crowded mix of wholesome family fun and seediness. There were school children being shepherded by nuns; kids getting camel rides; thousands of bathers girded in tire tubes laughing, frolicking and screaming in the waves. There were young women swimming while clad from top to toe in bui bui (Muslim dress), and older ladies wearing hairnets and showercaps to protect their coiffures from the elements. On the slightly seedy side there was a young Muslim girl with her bui bui open and legs bare doing saucy kicks to joke with her friend; beach boys strutting and posturing up and down the beach and an unattractive middle-aged white woman sucking the fingers of her younger Kenyan toyboy. There was even a woman rather scandalously getting henna applied to her chest."