After our visit to the Masai Market, we made our way south to Shellah Beach. But there was more to see along the way. First stop…these boys washing there donkey. The donkey didn’t seem to mind much, either. He just stood there and took it like a…well, like a donkey.
The Masais of the Masai Market on Lamu Island put on a show for a few of the Summer Literary Seminars participants!
After shopping, we discovered that, for a price, the Masais would dance for our group. I was in like flint. After seeing the Masais at Masai Mara perform at the Keekorok Hotel, I was ready to see the magic again! I have lots of pictures of this performance, but I’m going to try to post my video in the next post. I have it posted to youtube, and I hope I can put it up here. We shall see…
Enough of the Baytulkher. It was December 24th, Christmas Eve. Also, my wife’s birthday. And I can’t remember the last one I missed. We’ve been together since the mid 80s…it was hard missing her birthday. Rather than dwell in being homesick, I jumped into the day’s activities. A bunch of us decided to walk to Shellah Beach at the south end of the island. It’s a beautiful beach…it was a beautiful day and it was a free day. Fellow SLS participants Jennifer, Manjula, Venu and Kate and I set out for the beach…and we met up with quite a few other participants along the way. Also joining us was Daniel, a Masai who lived and worked on the island. Daniel fell head over heals for our Manjula. (-;
This stop along the way was a Masai Market. Daniel told us he had his friend’s give us special prices on their wares. I picked up a couple of things here…just to say I did. But I was already struggling with a boatload of stuff to carry back to Canada. I was getting worried about the extra luggage, to tell you the truth.
As you can see in this picture, the Baytulkher is an ‘open’ hotel. I stayed on the second floor. This shot is from my room’s door. You can see that the sun is shining in and that there is no roof. Up another level and you’re out under the big African sky.
And here’s the sitting area right outside my room at the Baytulkher. There were little sitting areas throughout the beautiful hotel.
The shuttered window does not look onto the street. Outside my room is a sitting area…within the hotel. Next picture will show you a view from the other side.
I was just so thrilled to have a nice hotel, I took pictures at every turn. I didn’t post all the ones I took at the Bahari…because I felt a couple of them were too bad to post. But I’ll post a few of the ones from the Baytulkher…in case you’ve been brought to this blog through a search for Lamu hotels. Maybe these Baytulkher pictures will help you make your decision. (-:
If you find yourself on the island of Lamu, you will want to hunt down the Baytulkher Hotel. It’s back-street! You will have to walk up the narrow streets for a few minutes to get to it, but it is SO worth the walk. What a wonderful hotel! Having arrived there on December 24th, it felt a bit like an early Christmas present to arrive on its doorstep. Wonderful rooms, great breakfast and…wait for it…HOT WATER! There was only cold at the Bahari. This was the life!
A Writer Travels - Photo Blog of a Wandering Writer... 