Muslim hospitality on Lamu Island
A wonderful cultural treasure
A good start to Lamu life is to be picked up at a tiny airport, have your luggage transported in an old cart and then enjoy boating on a Dhow past Lamu Town and up to Shela where we will live for the last week. Muslim hospitality captures us and the walk from the beach through donkey-infested alleys makes an impression on a scrawny folk high school student.
After a calm day of swimming in an idyllic Indian Ocean and several attempts to find the right alley to the right place, we traveled with several different boats to Lamu town on Saturday. This is to give as many boat captains as possible a small job. After a visit to this cultural gem, there was Sunset sailing into the canals on the neighboring island of Manda.
MATANDONIA
On Sunday we went to Kurvlandsbyen, Matandoni. All wicker work is made here and the same with the traditional Dhows. But unlike Lamu Town and especially Shela, it is very poor and not very tourist friendly in this village. It suits us well to have a few hours here to learn about braiding, dhow performances and cultural history. And then we got a local dessert called mallalai.
MANDA TOTO
Key words: Boat and sailing trip, snorkelling, swimming, skin grilling, fantastic boat meal and small dips and book reading = A GREAT DAY but lots of sunburns.
