卡拉馬山林小屋 (Karama Lodge)

So lets start with the good. The lodge has lovely gardens and very pleasant to walk through. The staff by and large are well meaning and in the main when we asked for things like taxis to arrive on time they did. There is a pool but it is a bit out of the was and no one was using it during our stay there is no bar facilities around it. Now for the not so good. Whilst the lodges are quaint and have effective mosquito netting and well apportioned balconies, they are lacking many amenities. No hairdryer, air conditioning, tv and only one towel per person. Given the remote location there is no fridge which means you cannot buy your own drinks and they are expensive from the bar. The biggest issue though is location and being a good twenty to thirty minutes drive from the centre of Arusha. There is little to walk and see apart from the grounds of the lodge itself. The torus from the lodge are also very pricey compared to similar alternatives from other providers. The biggest red flag is how much you value your sleep. Coming from a Muslim country in the Gulf where i have lived for twenty years I am familiar with Mosquey man going off at pre dawn I was surprised to find that a similar experience awaits you here at around 5.00 am on a regular basis. Unlike my M East experiences, this guy had a different script and gave multiple reprises during the day. There is a village nestled somewhere in the valley that the lodge is nestled on. It has a wonderful loudspeaker system of both Christian and Muslim persuasion so that you can get full involved especially on Sundays when it si carnival time well up to midnight, so be prepared to sing along. If you like wildlife, teh village will also provide you with barking dogs that Sherlock Holmes would be proud of well into the twilight zone and beyond. The lodges have no sound proofing, which I guess reduces the need for having expensive air conditioning. I had foolishly booked us in for six nights, which we regretted. We managed 4.nights before and cutting our losses. The food from our one evening meal experience was dreadful, and as mentioned earlier, once there you are isolated from any other choice for alternative restaurants nearby. Parts of the break-feast are ok, but don't bother with the cooked part. Karama has thirty lodges and during our stay only two or three were ever filled, often we were the only ones there. The staff are helpful and well meaning, but given the terrible noise issues and which the have very little control over, unless they embark on an expensive sound proofing of the lodges, I do wonder if they will be in business in two years time.