Lamu: man-skirts and donkeys everywhere

Lamu was a very cool place to visit, probably the most interesting I have seen so far in Kenya. It is the oldest city in East Africa and located on an island on the coast of Kenya. There is only one car on the entire island and only one road for which it can drive on. The rest of the transport is handled by dow, an old wooden single sail boat, or donkey (punda). We took a dow ride accross to manda island for a christmas eve beach party which was unreal. Everyone was singing and beating drums with kenyans all hopped up on merah (a local drug) dancing like mad around a bonfire on the beach. A different but very cool christmas. It is an ancient city with very narrow streets, more like alleys, and thatch roofed houses. I embraced the local culture by wearing a kikoy (man skirt) for the entire trip. It is actualy quite comfortable and very breezy if you are ever in an abnormally warm climate.

Everyone in lamu is very relaxed. Completely laid back and very outgoing. It is not uncommon that someone will just stop and start chatting with you. While there i decided i needed the true lamu experience, so I paid to ride a punda(donkey) to Shela beach, about a 30 min walk down the islands coast. Aparantly there is a proper way to mount an ass, a way in which I am unaware. I carefully stratled the beast and sat down on its back, it seemed pretty straitforward. But the ass was not pleased. Like a frikin rodeo bull, the thing started bucking up and down and shot me off onto the ground. Ouch. I recieved quite a loud response from the many locals who were attentively watching this crazy muzungu. I think my dad always told me that "when you fall off an ass(maybe it was bike) you have to get right back on" so that is what i did. I jumped back on and rode the thing all the way to the beach. The owner of the donkey walks behind us beating the thing with a stick for the entire journey, which made my fried feel bad about taking the ride, but not so much me. At one point we asked if we could go faster and the dude dropped his little stick and picked up a big one. That ass kicked it up a notch.

My way back to Mombassa from Lamu was not a nice way to end the trip. On the bus ride from hell I was seated at the back with a family on either side. Children are more like luggage here rather than people so they are not given seats and have to sit on the floor or their parents, or the white guy sitting in the back of the bus. Let me first set the scene. A 7 hour bus ride on a crammed, brutally hot, stinky and blasting Indian music right over my head bus. The route is not a safe one and armed guards must accompany the bus, so there is a fear of death looming over my conscience the entire ride. A wonderful (sarcasm) familiy was sitting beside me, on both sides of me. The wife was sleeping on my shoulder and the baby on my lap. Their other kid was puking for the entire 7 hour trip. Throughout the course of the trip they spilt water on me and then squirted me with a bottle, the wife was breast feeding while resting the child on me, the kids kept stepping on my feet (in sandles), i had no room for my legs, transport in Kenya is not designed for 6'4" white guys. To top it all off, the family got off the bus, before my stop, and took my bag. Maybe I was bottoming out on my culture shock curve, it was most likely larium side effects but I was ready to kill everyone. What a trip! I did manage to retrieve my bag so all was not lost, only my patience.

Lamu was really great, amazing beaches, fun people, lobster, fish and great scenery. Just a great trip. I highly recommend traveling to Lamu, in fact it is one of those places that you absolutly have to see. But for gods sake, TAKE A PLANE!!

I will be at diani beach for new years, then back to Nairobi for a brief layover then trekking up mount kenya until the 9th. What a christmas holiday!!