TheBigTrip: Living It Large In Lamu

Jen has written something like the past seven entries in this blog so I figured it was long overdue that I rejoined the party, and so what better place to do it than with an entry on the Kenyan coast's most celebrated destination - Lamu. The oldest inhabited town in East Africa, Lamu had been the final goal of our Kenyan coastal exploration and we arrived via ferry to the island town full of expectation. I find that anywhere you approach by boat invariably has a tinge of the exotic about it and Lamu, steeped in history as it is, certainly upheld its end of that particular bargain.

Having settled into our lovely little guesthouse, an old stone house affair with more than its share of charm, there were a few specific attractions that we were definitely keen to see to start things off. Firstly, Lamu was historically a major Swahili trading centre and so one of our obligatory stops was the Lamu Museum. Set in a grand old building right on the waterfront, this museum gave us both an introduction into the history of the island and the town and also a very useful beginners guide to Swahili culture, which we'd been surrounded by on our journey so far but had to date learned only a little about.

Second was the dominant building of the town, Lamu Fort - a big, imposing structure dominating the main square with views out over the waterfront and the harbour beyond. The fort has been restored in a way that most other old buildings in Lamu haven't been, and as such it looks considerably newer and more modern than the rest of the town. This effect was a little jarring on first viewing, but as we were walking past the huge structure several times a day, it eventually just became part of the scenery. And it was certainly impressive, never more so than standing on the ramparts taking in the commanding views.

And we even had a view of it from out the window of our guesthouse.

Finally, there was the walk down south to the village and beach at Shela - a smaller, more upmarket Lamu which has been gentrified and upscaled for the "richers" who like to come to this part of the world but don't want to slum it in the cheap seats like the rest of us. Looking at Shela and the beach it sits on, it was pretty difficult to really hold their choice against them.

The main draw of Lamu, however, isn't in any particular building, beach or attraction but rather just in wandering the narrow, cobblestone streets, soaking up the quiet medieval atmosphere and getting out of the way of the literally hundreds (possibly thousands, it was hard to tell) of donkeys plodding their way up and down alleyways all over town, some carrying supplies, some carrying people, and some simply taking what seemed to be their daily constitutional. Make no mistake, donkeys rule the streets of Lamu and you need to be respectful of their turf.

And finally, of course, there was no better way to finish off each day in Lamu than with some of the delicious local food. The seafood here is predictably sensational - the fish curries, which I didn't initially have the highest hopes for, are divine, and on our last night Jen and I decided to splash out on a wonderfully romantic little local restaurant where the red snapper was to die for.

It was a little harder to find a cold beer - Islam is the dominant religion out in these parts - but a couple of sister hotels sold beer and so we went to one of them (the more downmarket one, obviously) each night to sit in their roof terrace, look down over the water and knock back a couple of cold ones while noticing just how many local girls frequented the place "befriending" solo male travellers who just happened to stumble in there. I don't want to go throwing accusations around saying they were all hookers or anything but, well, they were clearly all hookers. None of them troubled us, of course, being the respectable looking couple that we were.

The five days we've spent in Lamu seem to have kind of melted together - somehow we managed to fill the time effortlessly without really "doing" anything in particular, which I have no doubt is part of the town's considerable charm. Like so many destinations over the course of this odyssey, it's a shame to leave - but the mysterious ancient ruins of Gede await us back down the coast as we turn around and begin our return journey toward the hustle and bustle of Nairobi over the next few days.

And you know how much we like our ancient ruins...

Things Jennie will remember

1) The 'boy' who basically ran the guesthouse on behalf of his father/uncle?? - he not only made our breakfasts (which he tailored to our tastes as the days went on) but he cleaned, did our laundry and let us in at night

2) Our great local restaurant where we ate for pennies every night except our final splash out night - it helped us afford beers and was very tasty and filling! Thanks to the waiter who kindly read out (literally) every menu item and explained what it was to us because they didn't have the menu in English

3) The fisherman warding off the many cats who sat patiently waiting to devour whatever part of the fish he was gutting that was leftover

4) Walking to Shela at high tide and passing the lovely old Muslim lady who shrugged off 'propriety' and "hitched up her skirts" over her knees to stop it getting wet in the sea - her cheeky smile was fantastic!

5) The children outside at school learning a song whilst we were in the museum - well done to the ones who were tone deaf but still belted their solo out with gusto!