LAMU Back home to roost Ever since I first set foot on the pristine shores of Lamu in 2016, it has become my favourite place in Kenya. So much so, in fact, that I have returned at least twice every year since then. For someone who grew up in Kenya, and a keen traveler at that, one might wonder why it took so long to visit. While this storied archipelago has long been a playground for royals and Hollywood’s elite, particularly in the 80s, it hadn’t been marketed much to domestic travelers until recently. Most of us didn’t think there was much to see beyond Malindi. Add in the steep cost of flights to the island coupled with the rough and unsafe roads, and you can see why the average Kenyan traveler would never have ventured out. Iactually first learned about Lamu via Instagram, which is as millennial as it gets. It was a place of many firsts. I went on my first ever dhow cruise here, an activity that has become a must-do on every subsequent trip. It was here that I first dabbled in yoga which I became really good at before quitting altogether. In lamu I made a lot of friends, which speaks to the kind of community here; from store keepers and yoga teachers to fishermen and homeowners, and more. Lamu to me is the kind of place that you can arrive in as a solo traveler, stay a week and leave knowing pretty much everyone in town. Another year, I decided to stay for a month at the remote Mike’s Camp in Kiwayu, at first to help with digital marketing but soon, because there was not much to do, learning how to cook with the chef, whipping up cocktails behind the bar and going deep sea fishing with some long-staying Swedish guests. I wasn’t very good at this gig towards the end and started to crave some semblance of civilisation. When I met Isabelle, the French owner of the famed Forodhani House, who popped around the camp for lunch and invited me to spend a couple of days with her, her husband Anwar and some friends at their house in Shella, I happily obliged. That very night they threw an epic party complete with traditional drummers and a flame thrower, attended by locals and tourists alike. I continued to mingle with all sorts of people at the vibrant Peponi Hotel, the only place in town which served cocktails at the time; excellent ones at that. My annual trips to Lamu have taken me all over, from Majlis Hotel to Kizingoni Beach, but while I’ve had many a merry social outing at Peponi Hotel, possibly the most iconic place to stay in Shella, I had never ventured beyond its bar and restaurant. Don’t judge me...if you visit, you would understand why. A hotel called Peponi The three of us, Brian (<strong>Nomad</strong>’s photographer), Peter (videographer) and myself arrive at Manda Airport and find the boat captain from Peponi Hotel waiting. He helps us carry our luggage to his boat, we hop on and immediately set off for the hotel. A sense of nostalgia washes over me, and this quickly gives way to exhilaration. I cannot articulate the kind of joy that being on this island always brings me. As we advance upon the Swahili-meets-southern-Europe whitewashed seafront buildings of Shella, I spot some all-too-familiar places. We get off at a jetty, navigate some narrow alleyways above which bright red bougainvillea flowers bloom, and before I know it, I am having a complementary old pal cocktail served to me at Peponi. As far as check in counters go, this is pretty darn sweet; we’re taken through the usual stuff while sitting on a balcony looking out onto a sea dotted with boats and dhows, a stark contrast from the gloomy traffic of Nairobi only some two hours earlier. The boys get a two-bedroom apartment next to the pool. I am shown up to my own room, accessed via a staircase next to the kitchen area, a well-positioned casual-chic rooftop pad which sits right above the restaurant and comes with an impressive spacious balcony outfitted with two sunbathers, a swinging daybed and a pair of comfortable Swahili ‘proud chairs’, all looking out onto the sea. Every morning I wake up to catch the sunrise from this balcony. The views here could help a journo get through writer’s block, a singer compose their best work, and the works, and I’m not just being dramatic. Windows directly in front of the double bed also open out onto the sea, and through this opening, trade winds do the cooling. On another side, the window opens out to the garden, a rainbow of colours with white, red and orange flowers, towering green palm trees, boats bobbing on the water with the dance of the waves, the bird or two that flutter past every so often, and different shades of blue from the sky and the sea. In the evenings, this place comes alive as people from around Shella gather to mingle and drink, and I always find myself torn between being a silent merry observer or going downstairs to join in the fun. When I do join, I meet an Ethiopian couple, a Ghanaian writer, a local dhow captain, a Google Exec...all sorts, I tell you. I get a door key for my room, which I don’t even use for the duration of our stay. I meet Carol Korschen who currently runs the hotel at breakfast the next morning. I am tucking into a cheese omelette with toast and fresh passion juice while checking something on my phone when she appears, takes the phone from my hand and instructs me to take a moment to enjoy the meal and the view. Neither is lost on me. She is very hands on, and I often see her bustling through the restaurant, chatting up guests, exchanging a smile here and giving a recommendation there. After breakfast I ask her about the black canon facing the water out in the garden, one of several along the main wall of this hotel, the kind you’re likely to see at Fort Jesus. She tells me that the main house was built in the 30s as a fort to protect Lamu town. Shella village itself was actually in the present-day Takwa Ruins. There were a lot of territorial battles in the coast. “My parents-in-law had their farm in Rumuruti compulsorypurchased from them in 1966 and had gone to Malindi to have a last holiday before leaving the country,” she says. “There they learnt about this amazing house in Lamu that would make an amazing hotel. They flew here for a day, and three days later, they owned it.” Peponi opened on 20th March 1967 with four rooms, one of which now serves as the hotel shop. When her father-in-law later passed away, Carol’s husband Lars took over the management of the hotel and gradually started purchasing surrounding property to expand, and when he later married Carol, they would organically continue to expand to 28 rooms, all with sea views and unique layouts, as well as a pool which is only open to hotel guests. With Lars passing away in 2014, Carol has continued to run this fashionable hotel. Her two daughters can sometimes be seen doing the rounds whenever they are in Lamu. She credits a particular safari company for putting Lamu on the international map in the 70s and 80s, and while it is whispered that several renowned celebrities have stayed at Peponi through the years, she is tight lipped about their names. 30 DISCOVER EXPLORE EXPERIENCE
The views here could help a journo get through writer’s block, a singer compose their best work, and the works, and I’m not just being dramatic. NOMAD MAGAZINE 2019 31
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