Mary & Ted's Excellent Adventure: Lazy in Lamu

Lamu: "It's like Venice, but instead of canals it has open sewers and donkey poo." - Mary-

A side street in Lamu

So we set off on a weekend adventure to Lamu, the oldest city in Kenya.
Our trip started by catching a matatu (an 11 passenger van that's been retro- fitted to seat 15 but we've been in one with 20) to Malindi and from there took a bus. The first half of the trip was on nice roads. We were stopped in a small town by police who did a search through everyone's bag. Ted's got glanced at. My bags were searched. Upon seeing our books (one travel guide book, one novel and a Philip Yancey book on Prayer) the female officer said. "You have many books". I said, "Yes we like to read". Police officer, "Can I have one? You have so many." I contemplated if a Keyan would like a Kenyan travel book, an novel in old english or a theological book on prayer geared to white middle class Christians. So I answered, "Well I haven't finished reading them." Not realizing that the officer was asking for a bribe. Thankfully surrounded by witnesses I was not arrested for refusing to give a book. We all loaded the bus and started on our journey again. The last half of the journey was on very bumpy road but we arrived on the dock safely and quickly got on the public ferry which was cheap but heavily laden with people and parcels.

We arrived at Lamu and were met by Juma, a past A Rocha volunteer who is originally from Lamu and now works at a swanky hotel as security. It seemed that everyone in Lamu knew Juma. He was a really nice guy and helped us find a hotel. Their main hotel was full but they had a separate apartment we could rent that had a good view...of roofs. We decided to take it.

Roof top view

Inside bedroom - not rat proof

Outside bedroom - even less rat proof

A little boy teaching me to "drive" his wire ring outside our hotel.

Juma and his friend Joseph, a Masai living in Lamu, took us on a tour of the city. Glad we had them with us. Like Venice it is very easy to get lost in the tiny, winding streets. The streets are often no wider than a metre or two, with a little open sewer and donkey poo of varying consistencies. Lamu is like no other place that's for sure. With no cars most everything is carried around by the 2000-3000 odd donkeys that wander the streets. Because they carry such heavy loads some have health problems. There is an actually donkey hospital. Ok, I kind of lied, there are actually 3 vehicles in Lamu. One is on the water front and owned by the water company, the second is a Tuk-tuk converted into an ambulance and the third is the donkey ambulance you see below.

Donkey Hospital

Juma took us for cinnamon tea in the centre of town where we meet the infamous Ali Hippie. Ted was warned about Ali Hippie by Juma but I had not heard anything about this guy except what I vaguely remembered from the Lonely Planet. Dressed in a white robe, colourful pants and twirling a cane Ali has a strong sales pitch. With dramatic flare he says "Hello my name is Ali Hippie. You might have read about me in your Lonely Planet guide...many people have said 'Ali your fish is F#@*ing good', don't I know English well...Come to my house and have a wonderful fresh meal." He invited us to his shamba (house plot) for dinner and local swahili entertainment by his family for about the same price as you'd pay at a restaurant. Juma had warned Ted that the music is horrible but in my ignorance I thought it sounded good. After all the Lonely Planet can't be wrong, right? At 6pm we and 3 med students (coincedently) from Canada (including one from Edmonton), as well as, an American and a German were met by Ali and brought to his house. We all felt a bit sheepish and a bit dumb for all get roped in. We sat on the ground on mats, shared a good meal and then suffered through horrible Kswahili music accompanied by a electric keyboard (note: Kswahili style music is not horrible...just Ali Hippie's). We all left as quickly as possible to one of the few establishments that serve alcohol for a beer and to watch some football (soccer). As it turned out the original Ali Hippi died some years back. Not a complete rip off...just a learning experience.

Ali Hippie rocking out the Kswahili music with four fingers. No idea why I'm smiling.

That night in bed I woke Ted up. "Ted I hear something"..."Hmmmm, what?" There was a long pause as he tried remain in obvilion. "Ted wake-up there is something in the room!"......"Ted where is the flashlight?"........"Ahhhh it's a rat...it's eating our bread!". Yes we were robbed. The rat ate the side of our loaf of bread and half our granola bar.

Evidence of night time rat visitor.

After finally falling back asleep and having dreams filled with rats we were woken the next morning at 5am by loudspeakers calling muslims to prayer...it turns out that we were surrounded by many mosques. Thank goodness for earplugs (My not so secret travel companions). We wondered how a religion can be so popular if you have to get out of bed for prayers at 5am? Thank you Jesus for letting us sleep in once and a while.

The counterbalance to keep the boat steady

Never regaining sleepful bliss we met up with Joseph (Juma had to work) in the morning to catch a Dhow (wooden boat) that took us on a tour of the mangroves and to fish for our lunch. We had read that some of the boats are manned by less than professional seamen so when ours almost capsized a few times we came up with a plan how to save our camera and Ted (the great rock imitator) from sinking to the bottom of the ocean. Thankfully we didn't sink and eventually after a few unsuccessful attempts began catching fish. I caught 2 small fish that looked like they should be released so they could grow a bit more but was assured they were full grown. Ted only caught one fish (but he argues that since it was much bigger it also counts as two) with poisonous spins, but once cooked was no longer dangerous (see the captain looking nervous behind Ted as he posed with the poisonous fish). Joseph, the Masai, who had never fished or eaten fish, caught 3 fish and ate one. He said he enjoyed it and will eat fish again. The crew cooked the fish right on the wooden boat...dangerous perhaps but delicious. Best meal of the weekend.