There are places in East Africa that you visit and smile at the overwhelming beauty right before you. And when you get back to your miserable settings you can’t stop talking about your recent visit and showing off the great photos you took as evidence. Then there is Lamu. Lamu is different. Lamu is sweet (Lamu ni tamu).

After visiting Lamu you will only think of when you can go back.

Lamu is a small town that is part of the Lamu archipelago in coastal Kenya and a part of it is a UNESCO World Heritage site. It is also Kenya’s oldest continually inhabited town. It is probably the best place to go to in Kenya if you want to immerse yourself in the Swahili culture. At the beginning of the year I got to the chance to visit Lamu while doing a general tour of Kenya’s coastal attractions.

To get to Lamu, we set off from Malindi International Airport and landed at a smaller Manda airport using a low coast airline - the ones where you only get a small bottle of water when on board. It is commendable that Kenyans have airports and airstrips serving almost every tourism corner of the country. Manda airport is where you get the first feel of Lamu and its Swahili culture if you come in by air. There were no airport taxis but instead our bags were put on a hand cart (what Kenyans call mkokoteni) and taken to a boat. 

The boat then took us for roughly ten minutes to the other side where our hotel (Peponi Hotel) is located. Our particular destination was a village called Shela. Shela is about three kilometres away from Lamu town. We stayed in Shela for most of the time and only passed through the main Lamu town on the last day of our stay. Shela has amazing sandy beaches and guest houses.  

The donkey is boss

The first thing that strikes you in Shela or Lamu in general is the fact that the streets are hardly more than eight feet wide. And thanks to this fact, a place like Shela does not have a single car! Yes the streets are too narrow even for a Vitz to pass. So donkeys are the mode of transport and if you don’t want to sit on one then you just keep walking like everybody else. 

Donkeys rule this place, they actually have right of way. So if you meet one along the narrow streets you step aside and watch it pass. What I loved about this is that creates an intimate sense of community since the narrow streets mean you always have to greet those you meet and that almost everyone is at the same level. There is no need to envy the guy in a Range Rover because you will see none while there. Whether rich or poor everyone walks on the same streets.

Donkeys are so cherished in Lamu that there is even a hospital for donkeys. Here they get free treatment when ill and just outside the donkey sanctuary there is a watering hole for them to quench their thirst before continuing with their journeys. One resident, whose daughter was sitting on top of the donkey as they went shopping, told us it was the equivalent of a car pulling up at a fuel station for some fuel.

Donkeys are not called beasts of burden for nothing. In Lamu they carry their owners, sick people, sacks of merchandise and even construction materials. They are a prized possession in this part of the world because having one is like having a small car and a pickup truck at the same time. They are respected and loved.  

Swahili architecture

The stunning Swahili architecture is what makes Lamu what it really is. I have honestly not seen cooler houses than the ones in Lamu. The houses are built in the same traditional design with a central courtyard with a flat open roof sometimes covered with palm tree thatch for a cooling effect when one wants to have a siesta. The houses bring out the influence of Arabic, Indian, Persian and Bantu architecture.

The most outstanding thing about the houses are the fine artistically carved doors and walls covered with dead coral giving them a look you are not likely to find elsewhere. You need to see these houses for yourself to appreciate their beauty. They also have a resting spot just by the front door and one is free to sit there while they wait for the owner of the house to open for them.

In Lamu many of the beautiful houses have been bought by super rich foreigners who use them as vacation homes or turn them into hotels. So while walking around you can easily bump into a billionaire who is just strolling to his house like anybody else. The town also has many structures especially mosques that have stood for hundreds of years. Even those who buy other old houses do their best to restore them as opposed to changing the design.

Relaxed lifestyle

While walking around the narrow you also won’t fail to notice that most men wear a wrapper (sarong) around instead of trousers. The good thing is that hotel where we stayed provided these so we could also blend in quite easily. It was also ok to walk around without shoes especially around the hotel. The staff and the guests did that a lot. Being a predominantly Muslim place, the women dress decently and visitors are advised to do the same.

The Swahili lifestyle in Lamu is quite relaxed and once there you really feel like you are on vacation. No sight of cars and the noise from traffic. It is common to see men sitting in their neighbourhoods enjoying tea and chatting in the afternoons or enjoying a siesta. Not much is done in the afternoons here. The evenings are for those who want to enjoy walking around the cool streets or want a boat ride on a traditional dhow.

Lamu is a very peaceful town and you can be sure of experiencing no crime while there. We were told that this is because everyone knows almost everyone else. In fact we were told that the nurses at Shela Medical centre know where everyone stays and often just visit patients in their homes. Shela town has a population of about 3000 people. At Peponi hotel we even slept with our windows open!

There is just so much to see and do in Lamu. You can go sport fishing, snorkelling, swimming, barbecuing by the beach, take walk tours to visit museums, old mosques or simply admire rich people’s houses. Whatever you do, do not forget to partake in a Swahili dinner.  We did this on or first evening eating so much we could barely get up. Remember you sit on cushions and enjoy lots of foods that obviously include chapatti, coconut flavoured rice and fish.

Lessons from Lamu

The main take away from Lamu is that tourism is not just about wild animals or big fancy hotels. A country can sell its unique lifestyle and history to visitors. In Lamu visitors imbibe history and culture. I also love the fact that Lamu holds big festivals that attract lots of local tourists mainly from Nairobi so it does not have to depend only on foreign tourists. Like Kenya, Rwanda needs to have events that attract domestic and regional tourists to keep tourist sites busy when the foreign tourists are not flocking in. 

Lamu also has great infrastructure to aid the tourism industry. About for aviation companies service the place with nearly daily flights. You will also notice that the area has very skilled guides who speak English and many other languages. The guide who took us around spoke, English, Swahili, Spanish, French, German and Arabic!

More importantly all tourism starts with security. Lamu being close to Somalia meant that terrorism had almost killed off its tourism business something that compelled Kenya to send its soldiers into Somalia. The good thing is that when it comes to Rwanda, security is not something taken lightly.