Rooms 11 & 12 – Latest

Rooms 11 & 12 – Latest


It might look a bit like a prison, but actually this picture shows signs of good progress!

You’ll have guessed it’s the latest picture of our two roomed accommodation extension by the poolside at Chanters Lodge, Livingstone – rooms 11 & 12. You can see the door and window frames in the process of being fitted and the roofing trusses are being put together on site too. Look up!

What can’t be seen are the conduit pipes fitted by the electricians, and the plumbers’ work too.

I’d like the rooms to be finished before the rains arrive on or around November 15th, we’ll see if that’s possible.

29
AUG
0

accommodation, Africa, Chanters, extension, Zambia

Sunset Over Victoria Falls

Sunset Over Victoria Falls


Just occasionally a picture of where we have the privilege to live turns up that blows me away and the one above does that!

It was sent me by John Macdonald a recent Guest at Chanters Lodge, with this accompanying e mail:

“Hello Richard

Thank you for your warm email. Yes, we did enjoy our stay and thanks for your recommendations on what to do and see. Attached are a couple of photos from our visits to the Falls. Hope you enjoy them. With the good new road from Chipata, we’re sure more people from Malawi will be visiting: we’ll certainly be recommending you to any friends and happy for you to pass on our recommendations.

Best wishes

John, Lindsey and Stephanie.”

Now, just how nice is that?

27
AUG
0

accommodation, activities, Chanters, guests, victoriafalls, Zambia

Rooms 11 & 12 Progress Report

Rooms 11 & 12 Progress Report

There’s been good progress on the new rooms at Chanters Lodge again this week, with the coarses above the ring beam added as well as the gables on either end. The electricians have begun their work for wiring, and the plumbing materials have been ordered and paid for, awaiting delivery.

We’ve decided on the roofing materials and these as well as the door and window frames will be ordered and paid for tomorrow. The next major decisions will concern tiling. Plastering will follow the completion of the roof, and fitting door and window frames.

Completion date? Can’t say, sorry!

16
AUG
0

accommodation, Chanters, extension, victoriafalls

Twihotels

Twihotels


I found this through Happy Hotelier. Ron Callari, Society and Trends Writer at InventorSpot.com writes:

The difficult thing about traveling is finding the right hotel in the right city at the right price! But equally important is securing a hotel you can trust – one that has been recommended by others. Hotel booking sites like Hotels.com can locate a number of hotels any where in the world and if you are diligent enough to cross-reference with TripAdvisor you can most likely obtain a review on that hotel’s performance. But until now, there was no one site that could surface hotel recommendations for you firsthand, without a lot of searching and cross-referencing. Twihotels is filling that void nicely with a new app they just rolled out in August.

Twihotels.com is a Twitter application that allows you to tweet your hotel queries to your followers. Once you tweet your hotel request, the followers that respond will be providing you with recommendations based on their experience in that particular destination. User-generated responses like this are worth their weight in gold since they are based on helping others make the best travel choice. And yes, even hoteliers can respond to your tweet if they feel their accommodations meet all of your criteria. They may also be inclined to offer you discounts and bargains as a result of finding them on Twitter. In interviewing Ajit Narayan, Promotion Manager for Twihotels, he asserts ” that an application such as Twihotels.com can facilitate the interaction between all parties.”

Details for submissions include country, city, hotel category, check-in date, check-out date, rooms required, number of adults and children accompanying you.Once you submit a request, your tweet will immediately be added to your time-line for all of your followers to see and respond to. Twihotels also includes a search feature on the site. To discover relevant hotel queries, you can do a specific keyword search or you can also opt for advanced search that provides drop down results based on country and city names. You can also search on Twitter as well or by visiting Twihotels’ Twitter account page.

Social Media sites on Twitter are another means of obtaining non-commercialized information and updates about hotels, travel and destinations. For other Twitter accounts that specialize in social media in the travel industry, check out INN Social Media and AllTravelSites. Both of these sites include blogs, directories and up-to-date commentary about hotels doing the best job on Twitter. Twihotels.com is another innovative Twitter application created by MapXL Inc, a division of Compare Infobase Limited that has incubated other successful web projects such as TwitSnaps.com, MapsofWorld.com, and MapsofIndia.com.

There you are then Tweet your hotel requirement now! The picture? I couldn’t find a nice one of Twihotels but I liked this!

13
AUG
0

accommodation, hotels, Twitter

Varndean College play 107.7 fm

Varndean College play 107.7 fm


Not so much an experience more of a party, is what I’d say about this week’s edition of the Chanters Lodge Experience with the DJMJ Ingredient ft Soulchild! The show airs at 20.00 hrs every Sunday evening on
107.7 fm Zambezi Radio, Livingstone’s best loved local radio station. Why? Well the two young ladies pictured above, Dorothy Spencer (right) and Maddy Rayner from Varndean College in Brighton, Sussex, UK made it seem like a party, bright, talkative, pretty and vivacious as they were! Also in the picture is Alrik Green a lecturer from Varndean. Not in the photo, but very much in the studio was Cerys Green, Alrik’s young daughter – “it’s pronounced Kerris Richard it’s Welsh”, she told me after I’d repeatedly mispronounced it! Sorry Cerys!

Alrik and wife Jane, as well as Cerys and her young brother Jake (the latter was very cheesed off not being allowed to come to the studio) were staying in accommodation reserved at Chanters Lodge for their week long visit to Livingstone, the Varndean students were accommodated at Jolly Boys, the best of Livingstone’s two back packer lodges. “Do you have messages for any listeners?” I asked Maddy and Dorothy early on in the show “we’ll do it together” they laughed and proceeded to alternately read out a long list of names. “Are they all staying at Jolly Boys?” I asked surprised, “then maybe it should be The Jolly Boys Experience with the Chanters Lodge Ingredient this week!” “They’re not all staying there” laughed the girls “but some are and others are people we’ve met since we’ve been in Zambia”.

“What are you doing in Zambia?” DJMJ Milli Jam wanted to know. The girls and Alrik explained they’d been involved in a Kaloko Trust (a Brighton based trust) project near Luansobe, south of Ndola on the Copperbelt, building toilets at Kwesha Primary School as well as making chairs and tables for the same school. Had they enjoyed it? Yes! Had they thought the trip worthwhile? Yes! “And how were you received by the Zambian population and the students at the school?” I asked “wonderfully well!” They all agreed! “And what have you been doing since you came to Livingstone?” George Soulchild asked “You should know” they said to him “we’ve been partying and we’ve seen you at one of the clubs we went to!” Fits of laughter! “Did you enjoy your safari to Chobe National Park?” Milli Jam asked the girls – they had and had been lucky to see both lion and leopard. “We went to the crocodile park and I held a crocodile” chipped in little Cerys. “Great stuff!” We said!

The music was good. Two local tracks, actually the same two as we’d played last week. “Why?” I wanted to know. “They’re hot!” I was told. ‘Nafuti Nafuti’ by Baska Baska (‘again and again’) and Mampi’s ‘High on Me’. As usual we played the UK number one of the week – ‘I Gotta Feeling’ by the Black Eyed Peas, back to back with ‘Candy’ by Paolo Nutini, my track of the moment! ‘Remedy’ from ‘Little Boots’ is high in the charts right now but it was new to the girls, so too was ‘Thinkin’ & Linkin” by Liquid Danger, a Zambian rap artist. Now that did surprise the assembled company – more about that next week! DJMJ loves Ne-Yo so it was no great surprise to hear ‘Round and Round’ and when we featured ‘The Climb’ by Miley Cyrus, Maddy looked at me shocked! “But I love this track!” She exclaimed! Yes Maddy! “Sport, football?” DJMJ wanted to know but disappointingly there wasn’t a Gunner amongst ’em “Liverpool, Man U and Chelsea” only George Soulchild(Liverpool) looked slightly happy. “Why don’t you support Brighton’s local team?” I wanted to know. “Ooooh! They’re our second favourites” they all said looking sheepish, as opposed to gullish! (geddit?)

We ended with the usual questions about future plans. Maddy wanted to travel and intended to start soon. Dorothy wasn’t quite sure but thought she might go straight to University. They both said they’d like to be married 10 years from now and actually named names of young British celebrities as potential partners, not famous enough for me to have heard of or to remember for that matter! Alrik still hoped to be married to Jane, but said he wasn’t sure where he’d be in 10 years time, but he was sure that if you’d asked him that question 10 years ago, he wouldn’t have answered that he’d be appearing live on local radio in Livingstone, Zambia. Nice one!

What about Cerys, would she like to be married 10 years from now? ‘DEFINITELY NOT!’ was her emphatic reply. Right on Cerys!

11
AUG
0

accommodation, Chanters, guests, livingstone, music, radioshow, wildlife

Rooms 11 & 12 – Update

Rooms 11 & 12 – Update


Another update showing the progress on the 2 additional rooms being built at Chanters Lodge Livingstone just about 10 kms from the mighty Victoria Falls! The rooms face the lodge swimming pool and garden and will have one double bed, with an en suite bathroom and seperate shower. The room rate for 2010 will be about US$89 per room per night including english breakfast and free transfers from/to Livingstone Airport. The design is the same as we used for the additional poolside rooms we completed in 2006.

When will the rooms be ready? It’s really hard to say – unexpected hurdles can appear from nowhere. My current dilemma is the roof. The dark red roof tiles I’d love to use are very expensive and I’m just not sure if they’re worth it, or whether we can achieve a good finish at a more reasonable price using another material or tile type. The roof is very important visually as it will be seen from the restaurant terrace, garden and pool. I won’t be able to prevaricate for too long!

9
AUG
2

accommodation, Africa, Chanters, extension, victoriafalls, Zambia

Wild White Water Rafting!

Wild White Water Rafting!


Kwameh Anyona from Nairobi, Kenya stayed recently at Chanters Lodge Livingstone and was determined to undertake as many activities as possible. One of the things he did was white water rafting with Safari Par Excellence. Here’s one of the great pictures he sent me!

White water rafting really is an awesome experience, as much for the views and landscape as for the adrenaline rush, as above! And, from Monday 10th August you’ll be able to raft from Rapid 1 to 25! Some of the wildest white water in the whole world!

8
AUG
0

accommodation, activities, Chanters, guests, rafting, victoriafalls, Zambia

Bungee Kwameh!

Bungee Kwameh!


I had this wonderful e mail from a Client Kwameh Anyona from Nairobi, Kenya who stayed with us recently at Chanters Lodge and was determined to do everything there was to do in Livingstone! The picture is of him bungee jumping – awesome! This is what he wrote:

“Hurtling down toward the boiling point. Just to confirm that I didn’t get the stamp at Chez Ntemba (one of our swinging local night clubs – ed) and that I did jump after all. They had a combo that day of slide, swing & bungi to promote the slide, which apparently is not very popular. Did the swing first to gather enough guts to do the bungi and it did help.

If you’re ever to recommend to any of your clients, the swing is much better, the FREE-FALL is to die for.

PS: 80% of the jumpers that day were either teenagers or kids. The adults would have none of it.”
“Free-Fall to die for” Kwameh? Well, yes, if you say so but not literally I hope…

5
AUG
2

accommodation, activities, Chanters, guests, Zambia

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