Cultural Divides – Lamu

My daily stroll up the beach from Shela to Lamu

K.  Let’s get one thing straight.  I really did like Lamu Island.  It was funky and interesting.  It had too much garbage lying around but that seems to be an illness of all developing countries.  The other thing was once again the experience of being a single white woman in a mostly muslim and black country.  From the moment you get there, you are constantly hounded by people trying to get you to purchase a boat trip or some similar adventure.  They start their prices ridiculously high and given that I was alone, I didn’t want to go on a trip just with myself and the boat owner but I also did not want to pay such high prices given that I was just one.

The 'roads' of Lamu Island. They only have to accommodate humans and donkeys and perhaps a man pulled or donkey pulled cart

Now as I have said before, I know this is low season so I know there are not as many white people to go around for trying to suck us free of our money.  But once again the constant and insistent efforts every day, maybe 5, 6 or 7 times a day of being offered up packages or things to spend your money on, becomes irritating.  And a simple no does not suffice.  Often they use manipulative emotional ploys sayings “but I said please, just come look.  I am poor, please help me,” etc. etc.

A man and his pack donkey working in Shela

I met a woman yesterday from Australia who does tour bookings for Africa.  Get this, her name is Sara, Sara Reeves.  On my last full day, I had headed into Lamu as I was just dying for some lunch and a beer and to give me something to do – Shela is kind of quiet at this low season time.  Anyway, Sara was at the same restaurant and we got talking and it was great.  We ended up spending the afternoon hanging out and talking about the Lamu experience, being single white women travelling and the Darwin Survival of the Fittest application to our apparent “single” phenomenon.  That is a whole post in itself.

This picture is sadly, blurry. It can be hard taking pictures as the people don't really like it when you use them as subject matter. So I took this one quickly. But it is a good example of the use of donkeys here.

Anyway, she had come to Lamu, like me, to just chill out, spend time with herself and reflect.  But the person overseeing her hotel – and she was the only guest – would not give her a moment’s space.  He insisted on accompanying her everywhere, checking up on her and being there every moment.  She tried to tell him a number of times point blank that she just wanted to spend some time alone.  And although he seemed to understand, he did not give her that space.  Except when she managed to escape his monitoring when she met up with me, did she actually get some time away from him.

Catching a ride on a boat from Lamu to Shela. The girl in the pink is from France - Addely I think - and the other girl is from Spain - Sarah. The guys are from Lamu.

We had a good chuckle about the bizarreness of this and trying to figure out what the issue was.  I was saying that if they really wanted to attract tourists and have their business grow, they have to stop pestering us and give us space to breathe and be and if we really want something, we’ll come for it.  I get that they need to push some sales to get ahead of their competitors but it can be suffocating and what is supposed to be a relaxing experience becomes one of trying to dodge the pushers – so to speak.  A holiday of hiding.  Although Sara and I both agreed that there is a difference when you are a woman in your mid 30s or 40s travelling alone as there are not many men or others that age group doing that, so we become more of a target.
Needless to say, all good food for thought.

Shela's 16 km beach