Lamu, Kenya - NEW PHOTOS!
Trip Start
Apr 01, 2007
1
34
51
Trip End
Ongoing
Lamu,
Kenya
Monday, July 16, 2007
a fast connetion, I will try and whip up some pics of this fantastical
country!
Well.. just got back from the island of Lamu. A UNESCO heritage site, this town is OLD and still is old. They have one vehicle on the whole island that is used (range rover), with donkeys doing EVERYTHING else from transporting cement to food to regular transportation. Everything is footpaths and it is right on the ocean. On a spur of the moment decision, I decided to take the 1h 45min flight on a 'Twin Otter' prop plane hopper to the island. A scary, shaky plane ride later (parachute not utilized, thank God), we arrived in Lamu. The airport is basically a single strip of tarmac. The terminal, a thatched roof hut held up by multiple wood stilts. The baggage claim? A cement block BESIDE the tarmac. I would say that we took a little step back in time on this trip. If you are looking for a place AWAY from everything, this is the place for you. 3 days of beach, eating and hanging with the locals. I decided to kick it up a notch and stay at a 'luxury' hotel (3 star) for a total of 1500 Kenyan Shillings a night, pool, one of the only 3 or 4 bars in town (Lamu is 95% muslim) - so yeah, that's about $24 a night.
The great thing with Lamu was, being one of the few 'Mzungu ('rich' white people), even in the pitch black of night, with nobody around - people are still friendly and will walk you to wherever you are going to help you find your way. It was more isolated circumstances where people would ask for money for 'friendly' help. Most of the time, people were just happy to see you at the island! I don't know if the mayor ingrained the touristic ideal into the locals' brain, but everyone was happy to greet us with a 'Welcome to Lamu! How are you?' as we walked down the small footpaths that snake the inside of the 'village'.
For one of our days, we decided to take a 'dhow' trip to a closeby island called 'Manda Beach'. A dhow is basically a sailboat - sans la boom.
An example of a dhow
The sail was setup and taken down with rope and these guys were damn good at navigating the wind. We took a trip over to the island, stopping for some fishing (line fishing by hand) along the way. Needless to say, the only Mzungu that caught a fish was my friend Lucas. The other 8 fish were caught by the Capitain of the 4 person canoe-boat. I think he had a deal with Mother Nature as we got the bums rush on that one. I think he poisoned our bait. Anyhoo, we moved on to Manda beach, where the crew of the boat whipped us up a huge lunch derived of our freshly caught fish, coconut rice, a jubilee of vegetables along with fresh tropical fruit including passionfruit and fresh mango. Playing time on the beach, swimming, lunch, fishing and hanging out with the crew, all for about 10$ US for a 5.5hr trip - not to shabby, I must say. Only problem, dear old Andrew was retarded for a bit and didn't regulate his sunblock properly. Needless to say, at the time of writing this - I am peeling like a bunch of bananas at a Hungry Monkey convention. Just a lazy relaxing part of Kenya, it's still fairily untouched by mass tourism. I hope it stays that way. The hard part of everything is as Mzungu, you ARE viewed as a walking moneybag - which changes your perspective on things a bit. I mean, Kenya isn't half as bad as some areas in Vietnam or even other 3rd world countries, as they are not very persistent and are polite people - but if you weren't making more than $6000 a year and you see rich tourists that flash affluence without care, wouldn't you see dollar signs when white skin approaches?
To touch on that point too, I haven't received any racism here except for one isolated comment on the street of downtown Nairobi - which is pretty rare.
Our attempt at 'line fishing'
Everyone is pretty keen to help you out when you get lost or have a question. Just today when I was looking for this place, a PR person from the Kenya Educational commitee helped me out, walked me to where I was going and was just being plain friendly - asking my name, what I was doing in Kenya, just being personal... It's refreshing to see people that are willing to just help and want to be sociable..So.. I am getting together some donations for a school down here that I am working with, Juter Primary school.. I am donating some computers from my own pocket to help the school as these kids are using completely outdated machines, and are living in a really bad slummy area. Once I am done helping with the school with some assistance and other donations (soccer/basketballs for the kids) and other goodies, I will move on to Rwanda. I am going to relive the troubles of the genocide and learn about the Rwandan culture. As an added bonus, they have the famous 'gorilla tracking' where you can go up into the jungle hills of Rwanda (see 'Gorillas in the Mist' (movie)) and you can come within a couple feet of a Silverback gorilla. People stating that this is one of the things to do in life before you die, everyone in awe and blown away by the experience. For a hefty 'park fee' of $500, I would hope so.. but, how often do you get to do something like that? Rwanda is still recovering from the mass genocide in the late 90's, so tourism is still shaky there - with conflicts at the border to Democratic Republic of Congo and other borders. I am not worried though, but I also don't plan on poking guerilla rebels with a pointy stick to see how they will react.
Sorry if this log wasn't uber-verbose and descriptive of Lamu, but, sometimes I just don't have the touch... ;) I would recommend it for a getaway when you want a taste of something different and different it was!! Needless to say, right when I got back, it was Nyama Choma night (bbq goat) along with power drinking at the club the night after. I almost got in a fight, busted out a small tad of Swahili when then bartender ripped me off for drinks because I was a 'rich white man' and got my money back and danced it up a tad to Hip-Hop, Krunk and some genuine Kenyan beats.. so far, Kenya is a blast and I recommend it to anyone. New (revised old rule)! Read the Lonely Planet books, get all the details, then stay away from everything they say!! The best experiences I have had here are all self discovered, away from white people and just getting the inside scoop from the locals themselves. Plus you tend to save a couple dollars when they don't expect you... Back in Nairobi, chilling until Rwanda.. wish me luck!!
