Blogs from Lamu, Coast Province, Kenya, Africa

Well, we are sitting here on our private rooftop lounge as the sun slowly sets over the historic fort and the old town of Lamu, with the iman’s call to prayer echoing out from a nearby mosque. Down below, a bunch of local men play checkers, veiled women chatter animatedly and a couple of kids lead their rather good-natured donkeys home for the day… After quite a hectic year, especially so for Jane, we were determined to begin our trip with a week in a relaxed and slow-paced environment. Thus, our first port of call after overnighting in Nairobi was the tiny island of Lamu, a Swahili settlement that is Kenya’s oldest continuously inhabited town, having first been mentioned in the annals of history in the 1300s, although rumours persist of an older community, now long ... read more

I had heard the bus to Lamu from Mombasa could be a bit of a nightmare, but mine was fairly straightforward and I arrived in Mokowe after less than 6 hours. The only way to get to Lamu from there is by boat and I took a speedboat, which took about 10 minutes. Lamu appears from behind a forest and immediately struck me as somewhere completely unique. I checked into a hotel and managd to dodge a few touts who harrassed me to go on a dhow trip with them the following day. I bumped into Michelle, an Irish girl, who I had met in Mombasa and had dinner with her, Anna a Spanish girl and two German couples. Lamu is fairly quiet, but I was happy to have an early night anyway. The last morning ... read more

Frutto di una attenta pianificazione e fortunosamente privo di rilevanti inconvenienti, il viaggio del Mercante si conclude così come era cominciato, cioè sulle calde sponde dell' Oceano Indiano, tra l' azzurro del mare, il verde delle palme e la bianca sabbia delle sterminate spiagge della costa del Kenya. Ma cosa raccontare di due settimane trascorse a rosolare sdraiato sotto il sole equatoriale?? Prima di congedarmi proverò a fare un breve riassunto dei posti da me visitati... MOMBASA: Città swahili di antiche origini, è oggi il porto principale del paese e porta d' accesso alla costa; la sua città vecchia ricorda molto da vicino la Stone Town di Zanzibar, anche se in un tono decisamente più dimesso, ma rimarrà nei miei ricordi soprattutto per l' ottimo cibo che si può trovare nei suoi numerosi ristoranti e per ... read more

Jambo from Kenya. The first couple of days travelling in Kenya were nothing short of the hardest two days we have had on our trip. It all started in Moyale, a town split by the border. After only finding disgusting accommodation riddled with cockroaches and our favourite, unclean communal toilets (an Ethiopian specialty) on the Ethiopian side we decided to risk it and cross the border hoping for something better, the problem being there was only one daily bus out of the place and it had long gone by the time we got there from Yabelo. We had no problems crossing the border, this is one that we were nervous about as they have had sporadic banditry right up to Moyale in the past, so getting across this with no hassle was a relief, although there ... read more

Paradise Lost A conceptual image of Paradise is reality, but can only be found within the architectural framework of an idealist’s imagination. Just as Happiness and Sadness, Good and Evil—these concepts do not exist, yet are everywhere. They are undiscoverable, can’t by found, hidden from the materialistic world; but they simply wait, readily available to be experienced whenever the heart is open and the mind is broad. In The Island of Lost Maps, author Miles Harvey states: These days… not even the truest of true believers would dare to put Paradise on a map. Yet despite the cynicism of our age, we humans have not lost our urge to quest after that place of perfect contentment, never quite finding it but never giving up hope, sometimes drawing so near that we can almost smell the faint ... read more