New spot rocking Hurlingham

How we got to know this new hot spot in Hurlingham is quite a funny story going back two months.

Some friends suggested heading out to a club on three floors in Hurlingham called ‘Pirates’ (pirates, sailors – they all have a marine ring to it).

The “3-floors” description got my interest and we went looking for this new club.

We spent nearly an hour looking for this place at midnight, asking everyone and all sorts of security guards, sometimes using funny and quirky descriptions for pirates to uncomprehending people.

Of course it was an impossible mission because there is no club called Pirates.

Eventually, we realised that the club we were looking for is called Sailors, one that we had passed and which had absolutely no parking. It being late, we went home.

Following our failed attempt, I have been hearing a lot about Sailors and how it is the hip and trendy place to be seen in Nairobi.

Radio DJs have talked about it and have started playing there, especially the Capital FM ones like DJ Andre and DJ Protégé, the latter’s music is more our style and so a visit to Sailors was becoming a priority.

As soon as I could after the Easter break, I convinced friends to try again and managed to go see Sailors for ourselves two weeks ago.

Getting there late in the evening, especially on weekends, you should expect parking to be a serious problem: there will be none in the complex where Sailors is situated.

You will have to either park on the side of the busy and narrow section of Argwing’s Kodhek Road or beg the night watchmen in the next door premises to allow you to park there.

If it is raining, then expect to wade through unavoidable puddles and mud if you have to park outside. This probably explains why some cars were double-parked inside and on the muddy Woodlands Lane.

This is the only club I have been to where a security guard parades through all three floors periodically with car numbers written on a board (hopefully these cars were only obstructing and not broken into).

So we finally get to Sailors and the place is literally heaving, despite the three floors, that the crowd had spilled outside.

Unfortunately, there is no bar outside so we simply had to go inside. Now, I don’t think I have come across any club in Nairobi that has been set up on 3 floors!

The ground floor is mostly the bar space and seating around it. There is very little space here late at night except to walk through and either climb up to the upper floor or down to the basement.

We first went upstairs - which is a like a lounge bar with music, that night it was more like a dance floor and the place was so incredibly hot that we could barely breathe!

There not being even a square inch to stand, we then proceeded two floors down to the dedicated dance floor.

Here, there is a bar running the entire length of the floor, a DJ’s station and the rest is dance floor with some seating spaces on the edges.

Again it was so packed that I could be wrong in the description, basing my impressions on as far as the eye could see.

We planted ourselves directly across the bottom step at the bar and some of us found the niche next to the DJ’s station as a good place to dance on the spot and not be pushed around by the constant traffic of revelers.

It was also the coolest spot on this floor as there is a fan that cools the DJ’s equipment. The DJ wasn’t someone I recognise (certainly not any of the radio DJs), but the music wasn’t too bad.

Even during the slower numbers, it was exhilarating to note the tempo on the dance floor.

It has been a long time since I have been to a place this packed with people partying the night away in Nairobi and that alone was fodder enough for us to enjoy the place.

Of course, the girls with shot glasses fixed on belts slung on themselves, and bottles of Sambuca and Tequila also helped ease the night.

Shots are at Sh200 and before we knew it, we already had two in a row! The three heaving floors of Sailors is testimony that Nairobians thirst for new and good places to go to.

Now, if only there were more such places with choice of different music on different floors, it would make the night scene very lively.

DRINK RESPONSIBLY, DRIVE CAREFULLY. NEVER DRINK AND DRIVE

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