Lamu

What an interesting bus ride... We drove north for about two hours, at which point the bus stopped on the side of the road, but not for long. The driver chatted with an armed solder, and was cleared to continue. The next check point, everyone had to get off the bus with their belongings. We lined up in front of the 4 standing soldiers, as they checked our passports (ID for the others) and looked into our bags. Once the bus cleared again, we continue maybe 5 minutes and wait on the side of the road. At this point all the buses are waiting to just accumulate, so that all together we continue our journey with a military convoy leading us. There's about 6 buses following a military truck for about an hour. One last time, during this hour drive, we all had to get off again for ID check, this time no need for the bags. Talk about heightened security! Everything went very smoothly of course, but all the check point were interesting.

Once at the dock where we are supposed to take a ferry to Lamu (it's an island), these boys we met on the bus signalled for us to follow them onto their choice boat. There's speed boats and regular ferries, apparently being 5 minutes long and 45 minutes long depending on the choice of boat. We got a quick one, and thank God. The two boys kept trying to chat with us, making obvious efforts to make plans to party together, or go to an island together, Jack says the guy next to her kept touching her... 5 minutes was enough, we basically ran off the boat so we could lose them at our arrival on the island.

What a different world! The waterfront and pier is beautiful! Restaurants with patios align the boardwalk. The touts though, of boy. There's maybe 5 different guys trying to take us to their hotel, or whoever's hotel for commission. Their trying to sell us a boat tour for tomorrow. A nice meal. Anything you want, I'm sure they would make happen. Thing is, I just wanted to be left alone, as usual.

We set out to explore the island and find a home for the night, but the touts, seeing us with our backpacks, were relentless. Finally we actually followed one and got a room simply to get the guys off our backs. Now we could set out to explore with no one bothering us.

This Swahili town has strong Arabic influence, their roads are simple, small alleyways weaving between homes and store fronts. The doors are all beautifully carved, making for these grand entrances. Just a couple turns off the main alleyway and we can already tell we were no longer on the typical tourist trail. Everyone was saying jambo (hi) to us, smiling, some even saying kariboo (welcome). A large percentage of the women are veiled, some of which with full face coverings, some of which with simple head coverings.

The sun was going down, so I didn't want to be too deep into the maze of the Lamu back streets. I think Jack could have continued for hours, but we attempted to head back to the waterfront. We both no longer had a clue what direction to go in. Not the faintest idea of where the ocean was. Asking directions was actually quite difficult. Words like "waterfront" or "boats" or "pier" were not recognized by most. We got a school age boy to point in the right direction, and eventually a man with decent English helped us. Funny part is, he pointed to the alley next to him and said "just go straight, don't turn, straight straight". As if that's possible in here. I think the alley went straight for about 1.5 minutes and came to a wall. So you zigzag through, attempting to remember the intended direction.

With plenty of time to spare, but still lost enough to make me nervous, we make it back and find a cute little roof top restaurant next to the main square. Not having been in such a strong Muslim space before, it was interesting to people watch. We definitely no longer feel like we're in Kenya anymore. This is all new. Men sitting all around the square, either playing some kind of dice game, or just chatting with their neighbours. The women, very few, were always walking to a destination. None were just sitting down, not even amongst themselves.

Night cap tea along the waterfront, feeling the breeze coming in, slight sense of salt accumulating on the skin, smell of the sea... Just perfect. Again, the people have been welcoming, smiling, and I'm feeling perfectly secure. I was afraid that coming here I would constantly be looking over my shoulder, or always afraid of anything happening, but I'm at ease. This is a really nice town, and I'm looking forward to tomorrow.Read more