Lamu

"Lamu town is the largest town on Lamu island, which in turn is a part of the Lamu archipelago in Kenya. It is also the headquarters of Lamu District".

What did we do before wikipedia? Lamu is one of those places everyone kept telling me I had to go to. It's an old town on the coast, surprisingly close to Somalia, and I've now been twice in the last month. It's very beautiful, especially if you're staying here:





A really rather stunning house, you might recognise from the front cover of the August issue of Architectural Digest. The owners wanted to keep their identity a secret, but they left a clue in the tiles:



It's taken me a year, but I think I might have fallen in with the right crowd.

There are only 3 cars in Lamu: the District Commissioner's car (which has broken down), the ambulance, and the donkey ambulance (for sick donkeys, obviously). Everything else is done by donkeys, which is pretty cool until you've been headbutted in the back for the 10th time by a donkey who thought he had right of way. Also, I suspect some of them might have been watching the Dam Busters a little too often:



One thing you have to do in Lamu is a dhow ride. Sailing on an old boat into the sunset. Preferably with a cocktail.

It's really a very pleasant way to spend a weekend. Beautiful beaches, great food (I think I could get used to the idea of a live-in chef), and slightly too much too drink (it's difficult to buy alcohol in Lamu, so we had to bring our own. Our bags were substantially lighter on the flight back). As always, it's coming back to Nairobi that's the difficult part.