Nairobi, May 14 -- How do some hotels do it? Build a wall of magic around themselves. Isn't that the feeling one gets at Kwetu Nairobi, Curio Collection by Hilton on Peponi Road? That somewhere during construction, someone abandoned all reason and decided to pursue atmosphere instead? And boy, what an atmosphere that is.

The first thing that hits you is how the bar on hotels keeps rising. The second time you visit, you begin to suspect there is actually no bar at all, that these hoteliers simply went mad with design and kept building upwards out of pure delusion and confidence.

The third time, for me, involved sharing the hotel's small, intimate lift with two beautifully dressed women with aggressive perfumes that we all floated up towa...