Gede Ruins

Only two hours from Mombasa, Malindi is popular with vacationing Italians. Hotels are villas, pizza is delicious and the even beach boys speak Italian. But I had a reason for venturing back onto the beaten path into little Italy by the sea, other than lounging on the beach. Not far from Malindi are the Gede Ruins (pronounced geday). I have always wanted to see the ancient Mayan ruins of Mexico and Guatemala and Gede is just off the main coast road.

From the 13th to the 16th centuries, Gede was a thriving coastal town of 2,500 people. Controlled by Omani sultans, its citizens traded for goods from all over the known world, from Chinese pottery and china, Venetian glass, Spanish scissors and Indian iron lanterns. It had a tight urban core for the wealthy, much like Lamu Town with homes overlapping sidewalks and connecting through and across narrow alleys. Its interwall protected the wealthy in their stone homes while the outer wall protected the middle class’s wooden homes. The poor lived outside the walls, left at the mercy of the Oromo tribes, nomads from the interior.

Inside the mosque, the imam's voice was magnified by the holes

In terms of buildings, there was a grand mosque for worship. The iman knelt or sat in a small, hollowed out chamber in front of the worshippers. His voice was augmented by small, hollowed out circles in the wall which have since sadly been replaced by microphones and loudspeakers (Islam is a great religion but broadcasting it loudly at early morning hours over loudspeakers takes away from 1,400 years of grandeur and tradition.). The mosque had a large men’s worshipping area but only a small, separated women’s section. Outside, a well provided water for a trench which leads to a storage tank used for worshippers to cleanse themselves before prayer. Other wells with trenches are for drinking. Clay pots and large, underground cisterns keep water cool.

There was also a large palace for Gede’s ruler and his four wives. The palace had its own air conditioning system which drew cool water from underground cisterns up to dispense cool air on the ruler and his subjects entering the palace. The ruler could entertain visitors in a large waiting room while the wives could do the same in a much smaller room. Front doors are flanked by two benches in an alcove, made for women to entertain their guests without letting them inside if men were not home.

Air Conditioning hole for a ruler

After about 400 years of continuous settlement, Gede was abandoned sometime in the 16-17th centuries but reasons for this are unclear. Repeated attacks by Oromo tribes could be the reason. More likely, water or lack of water was the culprit. A large river changed its course, living Gede stranded several miles inland without its important connection to the ocean. The water table dropped, leaving wells in the town to dry up. My guide Pili had a theory that the proximity of latrines to water cisterns and wells had something to do with the diseases with plagued the town.

King's burial tomb

Overall, it was amazing to see how little some of the basic features of Gede’s houses have remained in Lamu Town’s homes, many only 150 years old. Coral walls are still bound together with a type cement while same rounded doorways are used for visitors. Many of the newer homes in Lamu Town continue to follow the old style, not just of Lamu Town but of the Gede all the way from at least the 12th century.

Westerners Abroad

Jambo House, a small five room hotel in Lamu Town, attracts an interesting clientele of mostly backpacker students and folks looking for a good deal on fine lodging. Not only were the rooms clean and comfortable, Arnold, the German born owner, knew exactly what his guests prefer and can afford. People rave about him on TripAdvisor and four years of awards speak for themselves. Breakfast on the rooftop terrace was how guests socialized and how Nicole and I convinced Chris to join our fishing trip.

The folks you meet traveling are fascinating people, especially in Lamu. Being so far away, it attracts a different type of tourist than the overweight speedo wearing Europeans found further south along the coast. Faye was waiting for her boyfriend to arrive from South Sudan for a much needed vacation. Chris had volunteered in Uganda but vacationing before returning home to Montreal to figure out life. Mike was a sixth grade teacher in the Bronx while Faye taught in intercity Denver. Chris even taught in Jamaica. It was lovely to talk to folks our own age and budget. Because of Lamu’s remoteness, it takes a special type of person to visit, even flying in.

Lamu has been the highlight of the trip, from wandering its dark, narrow alleys at night without fear of violent robbery, enjoying an empty seven miles of beach alone, climbing sand dunes and eating cheap but superb food at various restaurants. Listening to the call to prayer in the early morning, the sounds of footsteps rushing through the streets and the occasional donkey neh wafting through my window, I will certainly return to Lamu, hopefully with my girlfriend in tow.

Fishing in Lamu

 Update, my computer have been fixed and here are my pictures. 

Life has a way of working out in Africa. A new friend from Montreal, Chris, decided to come fishing with Nicole and I, bringing the price down to a manageable 3500 shillings each. We left from Lamu Town with two Kenyan fishermen, Adam and Salim, and motored into the channel before putting up the dhow sail.

The wind was strong, taking us quickly up the channel towards the northern end of Manda Island which is directly across from Lamu Island. For at least an hour, we sailed up a long, manmade channel, only four years old since the Kenyan government dredged it to better connect the large bays, until we reached Manda Toto Island, just north of Manda Island, which overlooked the enormous Manda Bay. On the edge of a reef, we anchored and begin to fish.

Thanks to the still strong wind, we three mizungos began to jig for fish using bate and line wound around wooden squares. Adam, the captain of this venture, slipped into the water with fins, a snorkel and a spear while Salim began to cook using a small charcoal grill, first boiling rice and then a vegetable curry. Salim explained that because of the wind, it would be difficult for us to try to spear fish ourselves due to the churned up water. Adam took a while to spear three gorgeous fish, a feat made more impressive by Ramadan not allowing him to eat or drink all day.

After Chris and Salim gutted the fish, he cooked it on the grill, ocassionally reapplying delicious Swahili spices. Served up were the three fish, rice with coconut, vegetable curry and some extra spices. Cold beer topped off a perfect meal or so we thought until three long, tinfoil wrapped things were produced out of nowhere. Inside was a banana with chocolate placed in the middle. Horrary for dessert!

We had some time to wander Manda Toto Island before going back. It appeared really remote unitl I saw a house on one side. And across the small channel, one of the most expensive hotels in Lamu sat watching us on Manda Island.

We went to leave and sailed for part of the way back until the wind switched direction. I lounged on the rooftop deck, listening to the conversations belong while enjoying a killer view of largely unspoiled mangos and coral rock formations. I highly recommend the fishing experience for anyone in headed to Lamu.

Pictures of Lamu exist but were uploaded to my now non-functioning computer.  

Update, my computer have been fixed and here are my pictures. 

Paradise Found

Update, my computer have been fixed and here are my pictures. 

Lamu is not Kenyan. It does not feel like what I have come to know as Kenyan. It is Arabic, dropped here by the sultans of Oman who built the town's wealth on the slave trade. After the practice was banned in 1873, Lamu lay forgotten for 100 years, retaining its narrow, car-free streets, open drains, un-motorized dhows and its large herd of donkeys, one ass for every ten people. Its whitewashed buildings with elaborate doors and doorways, over-street extensions and tunnels give the town a labyrinthian feel, combined with some traditions from old Arabia and filled with darker skinned Kenyans. Calls of Allah Alkar, God is great, are heard over the Jambo's (hello) and Karibou's (you are welcome).

It was only in the 1970's when Lamu fell onto an adventurous tourist's map. Slowly, it became better known beyond backpacking circles as wealthier expats began to buy up old Swahili houses in town and in the smaller, beachfront town of Shela, a few miles north of Lamu town. 60% of the old homes in Lamu are owned by expats. In the past five years, the number of ATM's have tripled, from one to three. Outside of my hotel, I have seen perhaps a dozen mizungos so fortunately, the place is not overrun by tourists. The fact that it is less than 50 miles from Somalia also keeps the less adventurous away .Two kidnappings and a murder in 2011 reminded the region of this and depressed housing prices for both expats and locals.

Nicole thinks this place will soon be overrun by tourists and development. Along the poorly paved and then completely dirt road, I saw true poverty, not just some kid asking for money on the street, but mud homes, tiny plots of crops, water jugs outside (signalling lack of water at home), and power lines running through people's yards without any line leading to their homes. That says something should be done for the people of this region. People were not as poor further down the coast in the tourists towns such as Malindi. In the next bay over from Lamu, there is an ambitious scheme to build a new deepwater port, complete with railways, pipelines and roads linking it not just to Nairobi but Uganda, South Sudan and Ethiopia, all funded by China. It would be Kenya's second port as Mombasa is supposedly congested. As the years drag on, the project's infeasibility becomes more apparent, especially with Mombasa not fully built out as a port. My walking tour guide suggested that it would happen within a century. But something needs to happen in this region because while people in Lamu and its surrounding villages appear relatively stable, the people in the surrounding countryside and inland are very poor.

No pictures yet, my computer's power cord died and photos are trapped on my camera.
Update, my computer have been fixed and here are my pictures.