Lamu Lamu Lamu!
Trip Start
Feb 19, 2009
1
9
31
Trip End
Aug 02, 2009
Lamu, Kenya
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Chapter 1: Stupid
OK, so anytime you travel you expect to be ripped off or overcharged some of the time, it is one of the inherent risks of being a foreigner.... You are a target!!! Sometimes though.... Maybe a couple of months in you lose your edge a little bit..... your ability to see the scam isn't quite as sharp. Or maybe it is that you are just too dammed tired of having to bargain for everything, all the time. So the taxi comes to the hostel... and I know the price should be no more than $1000 shillings... this is the word on the street anyhow. Our cab driver insists that it is $1500....and whether it is stupidness.....or just us lacking the ability to make the effort to argue.... We concede. So that is the first time we get ripped off.
We board our flight which takes us to Manda Island, directly across from Lamu Island. HM had visited Lamu previously and has made friends with Chris.... Who we will talk about later..... but anyways.... He sent a guy to pick us up and take us to our guest house that he had also arranged for us. So that's great, we get in our little motor boat... make our way to the Shela Bahari Guest House. How much is the short boat ride? $1000... did we try and bargain? Nope....we sucked it up. So now...we are at the guest house, which is such a lovely spot. We are showed to the first room that we could have, top floor of the building, huge.... Basically the honeymoon suite, how much? $6000 shillings per night. Keep in mind this is low season and we should be both bargaining and looking for a deal. Hmmm, we say... that is WAY out of our price range (we were hoping to spend 2 - 3 grand max per night). Do you have any other room with two beds? Well yes... they sure do. On the side of the building, no ocean view or balcony....backing on to the mosque, but this room can be yours for the amazing price of $4000 per night, including breakfast. And we could use the lounge area on the top floor. Hmmm, well again, stupid we are although we don't kick ourselves till later...we move our bags in. We are sure we are being overcharged though.... And I HATE that feeling. ...it makes me so angry! nSo we head down the beach to the stopover guest house to see what kind of a rate they would like to give us.... Could have had a room and breakfast there for $3000. Sounds like we need to have a talk with our place... if the manager was ever around! That evening we are down the beach having a beer at Peponi's and we meet another couple who is staying at Bahari... and they are only paying $3000. They have both an ocean view AND a balcony. Lovely. Time to have a talk with the Manager.....after some negotiations we get it down to basically $3300 per night... there reason being that the room is bigger and has two beds. Keep in mind that this is a Muslim negotiation in that my... being the intellectually inferior sex was not asked to be part of the discussion. Great. Ummm, HELLO no ocean view or balcony like the other rooms. Had to let it go at that point though or I would have been mad the whole time. Could have moved but actually quite like our location. Before I move on to the next chapter... a little background on Lamu.
Lamu is what the lonely planet describes as a "throwback to Swahili culture that once dominated the entire Indian Ocean Coast". Lamu has earned itself Unesco world heritage site status with it's mysterious narrow pathways and gorgeous carved wood and traditional houses. It really is like you are in another world, feels more like Islam than Africa. The island is Muslim so both men and women are dressed accordingly...and alcohol can only be found at a couple of tourist establishments. There are only 3 vehicles on the island... but I am not sure where they drive other then the waterfront as the streets in the town are too narrow. The three vehicles include the mayor's truck and two ambulances. Everything and everyone else is moved by hand cart, donkey or traditional dhow boat. Enchanting to say the least.....a wonderful journey back in time. Cat's and Kittens are everywhere... said to be decendants of egyption cats they are everywhere you look: snoozing in the shade, chasing crabs on the beach and begging for fish scraps from the fishermen. Donkeys are also everywhere... and they are so hardworking! Packing huge loads everywhere on the island. For some reason though when they are not working... we often saw them eating rocks and dirt... maybe someone needs to start feeding these creatures! The two main towns are Shela and Lamu Town. We stayed in Shela as it has a wonderful sandy (and very much desserted) beach and were about a 30- 45 minute walk to Lamu Town. You could also hop on a boat to Lamu Town but we figured we needed to work off the beers. The hear at this time of year is incredible. It was so hot that the locals were complaining! The air felt pregnant.....and it was.....they were waiting on the rain. Technically it already was rainy season, but the cooling change in weather had not come yet (which we were fine with). Our first night in Shela we went to this amazinf restaurant. The serve you up on the rooftop as your lounge on cushions under the stars.... Would have been romantic, which did not escape our notice... but was still a really cool experience. Would love to go back there (no offence James) with my bf perhaps! We spent our first full day getting lost in the mysterious lanes of Lamu town... and enjoying the deserted beach in Shela. This brings us to chapter 2.
Chapter 2: F***ing the dog
Also knows and dicking around, ummm... missing opportunities etc etc. So Chris....who I like to call Hollywood....is someone who the other Heather met when she was in Lamu a few months ago. She said we had to hook up with him, he's a really fun guy etc. We also know that Chris works in the film industry and worked as a cinimetographer on The Long Way Down series. OK, so already I am a little intimidated. He is from LA originally. OK, enough background. James and I have the distinct feeling that Chris will be the guy that unlocks the secrets of Lamu for us....not to mention he sounds like a really interesting (if not intimidating) guy. We head to Peponi's (a hotel down the beach from our guesthouse, it is not muslim run as ours is so therefore... has beer!). We text Chris to see if he is around. Let me back up for a moment... before we headed to Peponi's the guy at our guest house is all over us to have dinner with them. We had already not eaten there the night before....and we were pretty tired of them hassling us about it, so we said yes... we would go for a few drinks and be back for dinner. 8 PM, you must be back by then for dinner. OK!!!! So we are at peponi's we text Chris Hollywood...... and he is on his way to Peponi's as well... finally we will meet this mystery man. I am pretty sure it is him when he arrives, very tanned... beach boy hair, chisled aristocratic feautures. Who else could that be? But he goes inside. Awkward. Was it him or not? OK... so we wait.... But wouldn't you know it.... It is just minutes before 8 pm. He texts again, hey I'm at the bar inside, where are you? Riiigghhht.... We are at the bar outside, of course! So he comes outside....introduces himself... and for a brief moment we glimpse a beautiful friendship that could be. But our stupid dog f**cking hostel is awaiting our arrival for dinner. So we decide we have to leave after barly saying hello... but we will be back, and we will drink and be merry! So back to our guest house, dinner is ok... well actually my chicken is completely dried out and nearly devoid of meat, James' Jumbo prawns looked like a better call. SO eat, head back to Peponi's and he has already left. This meal may have cost of a friendship. This brings us to chapter 3.
Chapter 3: Glisten
Also known as sweating profusely. Did I mention how hot it is here? It is mother hot. Our guest house provides us with breakfast, which is truly delicious.... Fresh fruit and a tasty fruit pancake... which is more like a crepe. MMM, and a fruit smoothy. Yum, I miss it already. Our server however, and I can't rememeber if we had him at dinner as well..... is morose. He ends up being like this for our entire stay. Not one word or smile came from this sullen teenager. Is it something we said? We could have asked for the easiest thing is the world and he would have sight and shambled off as though we had asked him to cook us Christmas dinner for breakfast. Honestly. OK... so have breakfast...and I can't quite recall why but we walk by Peponi's and Chris is there...maybe our timing has improved. And sure enough he is the god of Lamu that we expect him to be... organizing our lives... making sure we make plans for some fun times. That afternoon we take a dhow over to Manda Island. This is a coral island and there are two things we are there to see. 1. The quarry..... bricks of coral are hand cut and this is then used to build houses on Lamu. 2. There is a ruins... there are ruins... how do you say that properly? Anyways... there are there. So we head off on foot with Chris as our tour leader... and it is hot.... And I mean sweat all the way through your clothes and lose 10 pounds hot. Really hot. But that's ok, like I said before... the exercise was needed to counterbalance the beer consumption. Are you ever in a situation where you feel like you aren't really cool enough to be hanging out with who your hanging out with? That was pretty much our afternoon. Chris has cool stories about playing inline hockey professionally and working on films, hanging out with movie stars, also being and architect... no big deal. I can't think of one story that might be at all interesting after that! So Chris pretty much entertained us with his stories...while James and I tried to keep up! The quarry is amazing. These men working there are covered in white dust, their eyes have turned red from the dust... and they are cutting these huge coral bricks and stacking them by hand in the scorching heat. I don't envy their job at all but it is incredible what the human body and mind can accomplish in order to survive! The ruins were really cool as well...I don't actually have much info on them at all.... But it is always interesting to walk among deserted crumbling buildings. I seem to remember Chris saying that they moved on because the water dried up.....maybe? More research is needed! So that was a good day.... We discovered another restaurant in the village called Star for many of our meals.... Mostly because there aren't any other affordable options and we liked it better than at our guest house. We made plans with Chris to go out the following day sailing on a dhow called Hippo to Manda Toto for some snorkeling and fish bbq on the beach.
Chapter 4: Aim for something
After our breakfast at 7:30 am which appeared to be a major inconvenience for the guest house (it isn't that early is it?) we leave the dock at around 8:30 am and head off for a sailing adventure! The hippo is a larger dhow... made in what they call the Mozambique style. Almost all the dhows are built locally. On the boat was myself, James, Chris, Farrid our captain (although our friend Yusef ditched us as he was supposed to be our captain) and Captain Kite... was wasn't actually the captain I don't think but that was what we called him. These boys smoke a lot of green. They smoke it all day, all the time. Are we in Jamaica? I think it might possibly have an effect on them as they forgot the fishing gear, forgot fins for snorkeling and lost one of our lunch fishes over the side of the boat while cleaning it. Hmmmmm. Good thing they are fun to hang out with. We got to the snorkeling spot jumped in. Just my luck there are jelly fish again, not nearly as many as there were in Mombassa.... But STILL! And the current is crazy strong. It is almost impossible to swim against. As far as the reef life goes... the snorkeling was mildly entertaining ... but I have been spoiled and had much better snorkeling in other parts of the world. There just wasn't a lot of life down there and you really had to fight the current to see anything at all. After snorkeling the got the charcoal hot and started bbqing some fish as we headed to a teeny tiny secluded oven of a beach. We headed to shore and thank goodness there was a tree to provide some shade because the heat was intense. The sand was so hot when you walked on it that it burned your feet. The lunch though was delicious, mmmmmm fresh bbq fish and fresh fruit..... can't go wrong there! After lunch we set sail for Lamu. Partway there we see another dhow with a couple of people in the water...and as we get closer.... One of them starts to yell for help. She is caught in the current and losing the battle. Before I even register that she is yelling for help Chris has dived into the water and is making his way towards her. He gets to her, fights against the current to get her back to her boat....and then pretty much collapses back onto our boat. The captain of that dhow had let them get into the water where the current was coming right from the open ocean and the current was much too strong for swimming. They were lucky we came across them when we did or their boat trip could have had a very unhappy ending. As if Chris wasn't already cool enough... now he is rescuing girls out of the water. He is always saying things like 'aim for something' 'reach for something'.... Hard to explain the context but usually it would be in a half serious way to one of the boat guys while they are trying to do something. But seriously.... And I promise I will stop going on about this soon... Chris is an inspiring guy, he is one of those people who has mastered living his life to his fullest potential... and is always pushing it further, and on top of that is a genuinely good guy that cares about the community etc. Hmmm, could learn a few things from him.
Anyways, ended the day tired, happy and sunburned! Did not get up to too much trouble that night....which brings us to the next day, and the next chapter.
Chapter 5. Legalize It!
So the next day we were content to not do a whole lot with our sunburned selves. Did we even go to the beach? I can't remember..... I do remember reading quite a bit... and napping, which ending up being a good thing as the party went well into the night. We started off at Peponi's after dinner for a few drinks.... And there was actually lots of people there. A group of Swedish students who where staying in Lamu town had come down for drinks.... And I'll be honest, the were a little noisy.... Two girls in particular needed to stop singing! The plan for the night: Floating bar. Yep.... There is a bar..... outin the water between Manda and Lamu Island that opens whenever you show up. It looks like a floating house from afar. So we all crowded into the hippo... myself, james, Chris, Yusef our captain, Farrid and about 30 swedes and headed out. We brought the party that is. The bar is great...speakers that will play whatever is on your ipod... and cold drinks for all. We weren't the only boat that docked there that night. There was also a high faction of the rastafari community..... which is all the boat guys. And again... these guys smoke A LOT of pot, and listen to a lot of reggai. I'll ne happy if I don't hear any reggae or someone shouting out 'legalize it' for a while! However, it was a fun night.....much dancing happened. And you may as well not where your watch because your not leaving until your boat leaves. It was about 3:30 AM that we headed back to Shela....and finished the night off with a cooling swim with the phosphorescent. Beautiful. The next day we spent some time Shela as well as in Lamu town. The women get henna art done on their hands and feet before festivals and weddings...it is really very beautiful. I went to a ladies house and she was busy hennaing away for a wedding... had a beautiful design done on my foot...just for fun!
A couple notes on things I haven't mentioned yet. It isn't all fun and games on Lamu. There are a few especially annoying things and characters. There was a guy at our guest house that during the entire time we were there we could not figure out what his purpose what. We called him no tooth... for obvious reasons but he would really just sit on the wall all day... and grunt at you. And not so much in a special needs way..... more in a really irritating rude way. We won't miss him. Another thing, so it is slow season... not so many tourists but just as many boats, and they ALL want to take you somewhere.... And they all ask you if they can take you somewhere ALL THE TIME. NO I do NOT want a boat to lamu right now. And then there was Dude.... We met him on our first night in Lamu....he was trolling for business at Peponi's... wanting to take people out on his dhow. He was actually somewhat funny that first night.....he does a lot of accents..... but then as the days went on we had to try to figure out ways to avoid him because A. we didn't want to go out with him on his dhow and B. he just got really annoying...and he really does go by Dude. Who goes by Dude? TOO MUCH.
Our last night: I went to bed early.... James headed out for another night on the floating bar. What a party animal! And that brings us to the end of Lamu. We headed back to the airport on Manda...flew into Nairobi and took the excruciatingly long bus ride from Nairobi to Kampala. We left Nairobi at 7 PMish and I did not make it back to Heathers apartment until somewhere around 11 AM. The waiting involved both at the border and then again at some weird customs depot in Kampala was nothing short of painful. I think it may have been worse for James though as I was much more well rested than he!!!! And now I am here... enjoying the breeze in Heathers apartment one last time before we head to South Africa for our next adventure in the morning!
