Kilifi

I had an unexpectedly long journey from Lamu to Malindi. It already looked quite far on the map but the circumstances made the trip even longer - though also a bit more adventurous. 🤭
At first, I took a speedboat from Lamu island to the mainland where the bus to Malindi departed. Apparently, I took the „wrong“ bus that stopped everywhere (and for anyone along the road). 🙈 It should have made me suspicious that I was the only „muzungu“ (white man - that’s what we foreigners are called here) on the bus. 🚎
On the positive side, I got to see a lot of the landscape and gained a few insights into the real local life. That included experiencing being seated in the densely packed and unclimatised bus 😓 and going through some rigorous security checkpoints (with passport and baggage control). The bus ride from Lamu to Malindi was considered dangerous for tourists in the past - due to bad roads and criminal activity. 😱Therefore, there were many security checkpoints along the way. The road has been mostly repaired as well - apart from a few locations. Today it is okay to take the bus in the north coast of Kenya. The warnings ⚠️ about that part from the official german government websites seem to be outdated.
So, all in all it took me 6 hours to get to Malindi instead of the usual 3 hours (with the express shuttle for tourists). But the odyssey was not quite over yet. 😵‍💫 I still had to take 3 tuktuks (!) to arrive at the apartment. First I was sent to the wrong GPS coordinates by the owner of the apartment. 😤 I landed in the middle of a muslim community. They have been really helpful and brought me to another tuktuk driver. The second tuktuk driver drove me to a similarly sounding resort but not the place I was supposed to go to 🤦 Only the third tuktuk driver managed to drop me off at the exact location for the apartment. 🥳 I recognised during these moments that the locals were seemingly incapable of translating a position in Google Maps to locations in the real world - which got me thinking. 🤔 It is so normal for us to use technology like that but in a small town like Malindi as well as other places on Kenya’s east coast there just does not seem to be the need for it.
Anyways, Malindi has a lot of resorts and restaurants completely geared towards Italian 🇮🇹 tourists; to an extent where Italian is the main language on the menus (with English translations) - you won’t find anything in Swahili on it. Many of these businesses are even owned by Italians. I knew that when I came to Malindi - I have been “warned” - and it didn’t bother me. It was like a weekend trip to Italy. 😝
When I finally arrived in the apartment, there was not much left of the day. So I only went to the Italian restaurant „Baby Marrow“ for dinner - a recommendation from Jack (from Australia) that I had briefly met in Nairobi and Lamu. It was an excellent recommendation. 😋 The prices were a bit higher for Kenyan standards but the food as well as ambience was just perfect.

On the next day, I had to make my way to Watamu. I could have taken a tuktuk 🛺 to the central bus station, a matatu 🚐 to Gede and from there another matatu 🚌 to Watamu and finally another tuktuk 🛺 to the vaguely described address of my next accommodation BUT after my experiences from the day before, I felt like I deserved a little luxury and would just take a taxi. 🚕
First I tried to get the contact of a driver through the owner of the apartment where I was staying but the person that showed up wanted a ridiculous amount of money (6000 KES) for the 40 minute drive 🤣 … negotiations were tough and did not lead anywhere. 😒
Good thing that I had already checked the availability and prices in the Uber app. So I knew that somebody would drive me for a third or even a quarter of the proposed amount. In the end I paid 1800 KES (approximately 10 EUR) and arrived as relaxed as I could be. 😏
I spend 5 nights in total in Watamu. 3 nights had been reserved for the Kaleidoscope festival that I had bought tickets for (see my other post for that: https://findpenguins.com/6jjjgruit3szw/footprin…). 🥳 I didn’t do much in Watamu outside of that though. I only went to Garoda beach 🏝️ on one of the days. It was supposed to be the nicest beach in Watamu. So my expectations had been very high and - as usual (when that is the case) - it had been disappointing. 😔Although the beach had white and fine-grained sand, the abundance of seaweed diminished the beauty of the sight significantly. I honestly didn’t had the feeling that Garoda beach was nicer than Galu beach 🏖️ in Diani or even Watamu beach, where I went to on one of the other days.
There is not much more than beaches in Watamu. Mida creek supposedly offers some nice views of mangrove forests. 🌳 I had already been to mangroves before and I didn’t feel like seeing that again.
Since I was flying out of its international airport on the next day I went back to Malindi. I wanted to take an Uber 🚕 again but cars going from Watamu to Malindi were rare (at least a the time). So, it was impossible to find somebody who would drive me for a reasonable price. I simply tried with a matatu 🚐 instead and was lucky. Not only could I immediately hop in into one along the main street - it was also going all the way straight to Malindi (initially, I thought I would have to change buses in Gede) so that 11 am I was already at the apartment in Malindi. 😊
With less than a month until I have to go back, my thoughts revolved more and more around what the time after my sabbatical will be like. 💭 Questions such as “Which new insights have I gained through the past month?”, “Did these experiences have any impact on my beliefs and values?“ as well as “Which goals should I persue and what impact might they have on my private and professional life?” came to my mind. So, I used my time in Malindi to start thinking about that. 🤔
For lunch and for dinner I went to the “Baby Marrow” restaurant again. It seems it has become my favourite Italian restaurant on the east coast of Kenya. 😅

On the next morning, I took a flight ✈️ back to Nairobi. My plan was to cross from there into Tanzania. 🇹🇿 As it turned out, it wasn't going to be that easy, but more on that in my next post.Read more