Early One Morning

Up before the birds this morning, full lodge, 2 boat trips to organise, one carload of guests off to the Mafia Marine Park and 8 staying in-house - whew!

Royal Visit to Tanzania

The Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall will visit townships and community projects during a tour of Tanzania and South Africa next month.


The trip, which will focus on the environment and sustainability, education and trade, is timed to take place just a month before the Durban Climate Summit.
In Tanzania, the official visit will be part of the celebrations of the 50th anniversary of independence from the UK..They will visit a Masai village, a national park and Zanzibar.They will meet President Jakaya Kitwete at his residence in the country's capital, Dar es Salaam.

The duchess will make visits to child literacy programmes in both countries.


Prince Charles has recently become president of World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in the UK, and in both Commonwealth countries there will be a strong focus on the charity's work to protect endangered species and fragile ecosystems

A Really Big Thank You

We had some post today, a large envelope which contained the certificate in the photo above. A massive thank you to all those guests who wrote reviews on Tripadvisor. Reviews are important to an out of the way business such as ours for a myriad of reasons, obviously it's lovely to know that people had a good holiday, but also given that we get no passing trade it gives people a view other than ours or a travel agents.

So from the team at Ras Mbisi, Asante sana and Karibu tena Ras Mbisi xx

It's that time of year again

The Whale sharks are back in the channel, the last couple of mornings have been early starts (5am) as the tides are not in our favour for the next few days, thankfully by the end of the week, guests wanting to swim with them will get their breakfast at the lodge rather than bacon,sausage and egg rolls on the boat :)as the tide moves to a more respectable hour of the morning.

Hmmm

Well I think it's official, i've been a bit rubbish about keeping this blog up to date - I've got lots of reasons (ok excuses)though, which are;
The lodge has been busy
We've had weddings and nuptial celebrations (will be posting about this in the next few days) and lots and lots of honeymooners
I'm building a new website for the lodge - very excited about this, Matt killed himself laughing when i phoned him to talk through some stuff, he told me i was turning into a geek :)
Preparing for WTM2011 (the World Travel Market - held every November at ExCel,4 days of manic activity promoting Ras Mbisi and Mafia)
and err, all the other stuff I have to do every day

BUT, I am going to try really hard to get back to regular posting, I miss it, shouting my opinions into the internet.

The New Season - Happy Days

We’ve had an amazing start to the season, great guests, mostly great weather. The new menus are going down well, and the new Dhow bar and pool table are especially popular.
The new kanga bathrobes supplied in the rooms are also proving popular as are the full size toiletries (Shampoo, conditioner, body cream), and of course the Mafia Coconut soap made especially for us at N’gombeni in the south of Mafia.
So it seems the changes we made for this season were good ones, now just the count down to the opening of our Coconut Spa, offering a simple menu of massages and scrubs, based around the local coconut oil. No overegged ‘rituals’ or gimmicks here – just real bodywork to relax you into Swahili time.

I had an interesting trip to the mainland last week, Coastal had delays and we therefore had to fly via Kilwa, as we flew south we saw many (more than 20) Humpback Whales breeching, was an amazing sight.

*FREE Whale shark trips – for stays of more than 7 nights between November 15 and December 15 2011- book before 1st September 2011 and get a FREE trip to swim with Whale Sharks, also if you book online before the end of August then November stays of 5 nights or more get a free night (Stay5Pay4)*

Sympathy Tourism

This is something that has been on my mind for while then today I read David Whiteleys piece on his blog GrumpyTraveller.com this last paragraph really says what i think "Tourism as an industry is about service, not charity. People are not giving their money to destinations, they are spending it there. There is an enormous difference. If people are genuinely moved by plight, they’ll make a charity donation, not book a flight and hotel. Tourism is a business, not a welfare scheme – and anyone tempted to overplay the sympathy card would do well to remember that." Most Lodges and Hotels in Tanzania (and elsewhere in the developing world) have involvement in their local community, and there is no reason to hide it, BUT, as a primary marketing tool? Really? How many people actually choose their annual break to help others? As a bonus, great, but most people want to have a great holiday, and to be honest promoting the fact that people nearby are in desparate need of your financial help probably just makes people feel guilty.

Ras Mbisi is about good food, relaxing and being looked after, by people who really want you to have an amazing holiday, if we choose to donate or set up projects with monies earned then great, but we will never force guests to contribute, in fact we are unlikely to mention it to you at all. Occasionally we will refer to it in a blog, but it is not the reason we exist, we exist to give our guests the best we can on this beautiful remote and deserted beach paradise.