Enjoy ‘safe privacy’ on your honeymoon

When you are on your dream honeymoon, the last thing you want is to be interrupted by the numerous phone calls from friends and family. However, let someone know of your whereabouts, writes Allan Olingo

Lovebirds Mary Mwangi and Martin Kirimi are still missing after they left for their honeymoon in Zanzibar a month ago.

According to Maina Kariuki, Martin’s brother-in-law, the two had planned to travel to Dar es Salaam for their honeymoon and they have not been heard from.

Having arrived back from Dar last Sunday, Kariuki says they have not made much headway as far as tracing their whereabouts.

“We got conflicting information from different sources in Dar. The hotel the newly weds are claimed to have spent the night has refused to release the names on the guest list and the Government of Tanzania has not been helpful,” said Kariuki.

“However, we are waiting for a ministerial statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to be made,” said Anne Kanake, a relative. That was last Thursday.

The case of the Kirimis is not peculiar. Usually, when couples head out for honeymoon, they want to get away from everything and everyone and just enjoy each other’s company. They want to be off Internet, instant messaging, phone calls, text messages and generally be unreachable. After all, it supposed to be their time out.

However, keeping a few people abreast with the happenings of your honeymoon is advisable so that in case of anything, the two of you can be easily tracked.

Newly-weds want to enjoy their uninterrupted sun-drenched love nest, but they can still do this while keeping in touch with a select few!

For instance, keeping in touch with the folks at home is an important consideration, as is finding the easiest and most cost effective ways of doing so.

With Internet access and electronic communication being easily accessible, staying in touch is easy even when on honeymoon.   There are numerous ways of keeping in touch with your loved ones whilst you are away including sending simple e-mails, messages on social media inbox, phone calls and text messages.

Most honeymoon destinations have Internet access so you can also check your private e-mails and catch up with family and friends through the social network.

Social networks

Facebook and Twitter are now part of our day-to-day activities. If you have an account with these sites, you could use it to provide simple, one line updates to your friends and selected family members to let them know how you are fairing. There are those who also would like to take it a notch higher and upload photos to give a snippet of their honeymoon.

You can also dedicate a particular night where you and your partner can chat up your best couple and fill them in on the happenings of your honeymoon. It’s always good for them to know where you are staying, where you plan to visit and an itinerary of your activities. Many people prefer to closely guard such information even from their best couple, but for safety and emergency purposes, it’s important to share it.

 

Texts and phone calls

Many newlyweds shy away from calling while out of the country on honeymoon because it may be expensive to call. Nevertheless, provide a contact number to at least two loved ones of, say, the resort you are staying in, so enable them reach you in case of emergency. You can also text, which is cheaper.

In addition, utilise Internet call services such as Skype, which is far cheaper compared to making trunk calls.