Sometimes it rains.

Luckily in this season and region it’s short bursts which makes all smells come forth, settle some of the dry dust and another excuse to stay inside. It’s not like that sideway, umbrella devestating rain I’ve learned to love from my years in Göteborg but still – rains are underestimated.

We had a cosy breakfast starting just before the rain broke out so Mona quickly helped some of the staff collect pillows before they got too wet – we have different cravings, I ran and grabbed my camera to get some different photos. After breakfast we retreated to our couple-cave (I guess that’s the equivalent of a shared man-cave?). At 16:00 we checked the weather and it was better, but a bit windy – and Mona was “almost done” with her Audiobook so we stayed inside a bit longer. 4 hours later she was indeed done and we headed to Seles for another dinner.

An hour after ordered we got our dishes – about expectations, but we felt sorry for the other table who said they were starving and asked how long time it would take and were told it would take 30 minutes. When we left they had waited 45 minutes without luck. I understand that when dishes are done from scratch it takes quite a bit longer, but setting expectations shouldn’t be that hard. On the other hand I cannot come up with an excuse for it taking 15 minutes to get a Sprite when there are 3 guests per waiter either – TIA.

The food was OK and I guess hunger is the best spice, however when we were getting the bill at the bar we were charged for another dish to our surprise. Turns out that since we asked “does it come with a sauce” and got the reply “yes, coconut sauce” that mean we changed our dish from catch of the day to a fish curry – obviously. The interesting thing however was that at this point the staff did not say “sorry for the mixup, of course we will charge you for what you ordered” but stated “so now you see why you have the higher price”. Being a man of principle I could not let this slide and asked to get a word with the manager, again to my surprise the barman explained I could go to talk to her myself. It got sorted out in the end but I don’t see us going there again.

It did however raise an interesting subject on our walk home, why is it like this? Why does waiters not look around to spot guests requesting attention (orders which could generate tip) or how can it take them 10-15min to get a soda? Seles is absolutely not unique in this aspect but it’s pandemic in Africa and I would argue worse here than south Africa, strangely the service level on the Safari was much better though (also 6 Degrees in Stone Town should get credit for their service here). I refuse to believe this is some genetic deficient, but several of the places have had european owners who I only assume have seen good service elsewhere and can convey the requirements to their staff (I can understand if they have not been abroad and experienced good service themselves). Why the standard shrugging of shoulders and TIA-comments rather than incentivize your staff to improve service?