This is the smallest of all the four apartments in Baytil Ajaib. It’s approximately 20 sqm and dedicated to a single individual that wishes to be completely unto him or herself on the highest floor of the hotel. “Klein aber Oho” as said often in German meaning small but precious. 

It’s in this apartment that the owners experimented with color. As well as the beautiful in laid wood governing the entire apartment ceiling, the wonderful massive supporting greek columns ,carpets from Afghanistan, all original antique furniture pieces from Lamu, India, Pakistan, art deco lamps and tables, as well as a large brass heavily decorated serving plate from Syria dominating the surrounding walls finished in blue and aubergine Tadelakt pigmentation of alabaster and marble dust. It’s total harmony at it’s best!

This is a lovely apartment of approximately 30sqm lavished with stucco mural designs that extend all the way up the walls of 5 meters. The ceiling is completely decorated in a petrified wood known as Mwangati, which translated means iron wood, painted in the traditional color of red and black with inlaid white lime. There is a lounging divan, a desk for writing and an authentic traditional Swahili Royal Wedding bed. The apartment has its own private toilet of course with hot and cold shower. 

All furniture in this apartment are antiques and chosen with the greatest of care. From the massive mahogany entrance door to the authentic Swahili commode, Indian crystal lantern, the chaise lounge, the Nigerian Artifacts which grace the portals of the stucco murals as well as the art deco mirrors which grace this apartments walls lends to an atmosphere of the past and the present but in a wonderful sense of harmony and elegance.

This is the larger of the two suites that exist in Baytil Ajaib. Entering and closing of the massive antiques Swahili doors you enter into a world all of your own and total privacy. This encompasses an entire floor, approximately 150 sqm with rooms offering inner balconies leading to a large courtyard teeming with lush tropical plants providing un-parallel seclusion. 

Due to the lighting of different times of the day the walls often glow with hues and nuances from the sun and clusters of palms and ferns are fanned by the breeze through the central courtyard where butterflies and birds flutter and often play. Within these walls, the African Arab culture of the Swahili Coast is a tactile living experience. From the courtyard one enters into the first chamber of the suite whose walls display the shape of a chained turtle in various degrees of abstraction, a traditional symbol of fertility and prosperity bound by religious law and moral restraint.

Entering into the next chambers, have ceiling of 4meters or more, designed and heavily laden with magnificent inlaid wooden beams in various architectural designs to support these high ceiling which permits a constant coolness for air flow. All of these inner chambers are laden with Tadelakt wall murals composed of lime enriched with alabaster and marble dust lending to the walls a shimmering effect that changes hourly with the ascension and the dissension of the sun.

The entire suite is furnished with carpets from Iran and antiques that are all collector’s items beginning with the Sultan’s bed providing kingly splendor fashioned after the bed of the King of Kilwa, to the two Indians beds which grace the outer most rooms which can also be used as divans during the mid day’s onslaught of heat offering refuge in the cooler inner chambers. One is further enraptured by antique commodes from Afghanistan and China that blends so well with this culture.

The Sultan’s bedroom, which is the inner most chamber, is a truly Swahili delight. The kingly bed of Kilwa, made in massive mahogany, extending in width of nearly 2meters and a length of nearly 3 meters dominates a third of this royal room. Herein one finds the most decorative of the wall murals lined with niches containing artifacts of rare finds and beauty. An old Swahili carved chest and an Indian commode graced with Lalique crystal adds the finishing touches to this most private and inner sanctum. Off of the Sultan’s bedroom is the private shower and toilet heavily decorated with the most artistic Arabic archway and open portals highly placed under the ceiling allowing breath taking visual display of light and shadows at various hours of the day which are so effective in this part of the world.

One will find also in the Sultan’s suite, off of the main courtyard, a completely intact, traditional Swahili pre-chamber and toilet. Although restored, it has been left as found to guard the historical integrity of this wonderful structure. Also there is a sitting area in the courtyard that allows one to sit and observe the birds and often butterflies that visit the courtyards daily. 

After several nooks and crannies one emerges on the very top level of the hotel. Tucked away and half hidden around a corner of a frangipani tree is a small wooden door that opens up onto a suite of several rooms with a private courtyard submerging one into a Garden of Eden. Palm trees, ferns, desert Roses, a pomegranate, cactus, bougainvillea and if you’re lucky the Queen of the night jasmine bush may be in bloom.

This barrage of foliage continues off of the main courtyard and around an enjoining section of this suite that is built back, and protruding over the main courtyard of the hotel two floors below. The entire suite is easily over 100sqm providing one with light, airiness and an opulence of space so necessary here on the equator. Typical of all suites and apartments the walls are decorated with wonderful murals of stucco plaster. The suite has all antique original furniture mostly of Indian origin which is a major influence in this culture and differs slightly from other rooms and suites as some of the walls are decorated with artistic paintings from local artists.

The outer chamber serves where one my writes, lounge on several divans and  plump oneself into a huge Jaruri Chaise lounge which quickly leads one to complete comfort and often sleep. 

The inner chamber is the bedroom followed by an ensuite toilet and bathroom. Here also will one find a replica of the bed of the King of Kilwa with the rest of the room furnished with antique Swahili furnishings. 

The bathroom and toilet walls have been plastered with a light amber Rusk pink Tadelakt  adding to the sensuality of the beige amber color that dominates most walls in this suite.