Captain Ali and Abdullah Bob

So within 10 minutes of getting off the plane to Lamu we're on a simple ferry boat crossing to the main island (the airport is actually on Manda island). Of course we have the usual touts trying to be our new best friends, but due to it still being low season there are only a couple of them, and they're not too hard to ignore. But then one of them asks if we are the Irish couple Pat and Sarah, which takes us a little by surprise. He then tells us that our Dutch friends have been waiting for us and have even booked a room for us in their hotel. Naturally I'm skeptical, but we did make plans to meet up with the Maaike's again, so after we check out a couple of places in the main town we decide to follow the touts and get another boat 3km down the coast to Shela town. As we arrive we indeed meet one of the Maaike's on her balcony overlooking the sea - the touts were actually genuinely helpful!

After a bit of hard haggling we decide to stay in a different place (which I think turned out to be a good idea as I think it was a bit quiter) - where we met up with Max and Deborah (an Ozzie and Kiwi couple). We had this huge Swahili-style bed, which is kinda four poster in a really nice building with a very impressive roof terrace.

Basically we didn't do much for the following week. I was really disappointed to have missed (by a single day) a trip out to an island to actually watch baby turtles hatch and dash from the beach to the sea. Although, I actually think the guy who ran that trip was acting very illegally, as he would dig up a turtle nest and disturb the hatchlings, artificially encouraging them to 'awaken' - surely that would be frowned upon by the conversationalists.

The island of Lamu is really famous for it's beach though, which is 12km long and has basically no development along it at all. Unfortunately for me though, it also means it has almost no shade at all either, which with my rather delicate complexion was a tad worrisome. It was also the windy season, so Sarah had a bit of bother trying to sunbath due to the sand blowing all over her. So trips to the beach were fairly infrequent, although just walking along having practically the entire length of sandy beach to yourself was marvelous, just passing the odd Masai local or a train of heavily laden donkeys transporting bricks from one end of the beach to the other (there was quite a lot of development going on in Shela town).

Otherwise we just chilled out. One evening we had a Swahili banquet with a famous (i.e. mentioned in the Lonely Planet) local character named Ali Hippie. He had a great bit of camp banter, well practiced I think, but we all decided to fall it all the same (8 of us in total, including two Finnish girls we met from the cancelled Nairobi flight, Eva and Laura). The food was alright, but then Ali gathered around his entire musically gifted family for a traditional bit of 'entertainment'. It was a bit naff really (at one point I really was on the verge of breaking out into uncontrollable laughter at the naff-ness of it all - if Frankie Dunne had been there listening to Ali tinkering on his baby-korg Casio keyboard then there was no way I could have controlled it, and it would have all gotten quite embarrassing I think!). Still, it was an 'interesting' evening I suppose and all quite genuine I think, bless them!

The only other thing to do on Lamu is a dhow trip. This is a simple traditional sailing boat, and you just basically head out for the day pottering around. Each and every morning we'd fob off the touts with a 'not today, maybe tomorrow', until finally we decided to do a trip on our last day. We organised with the same guy the Maaike's had used, Captain Ali (it's a very common name), who initially gave me a bit of weird feeling. I didn't want to use him, preferring a guy we talked to each morning at breakfast, but Sarah did her usual of 'oh come on, lets just get this guy' because he was convenient, and so I did.

The next morning we're waiting for Captain Ali, and of course he's late - nothing unusual in that. But when he does arrive, it's with bad news - telling us he has had to cancel 'cos other people on the trip had fallen ill (probably a lie - he just hadn't managed to wrangle anyone else onto our boat, so it was uneconomical for him to run the trip with just us). Anyway, cancelling was no problem, we could easily have organised with another dhow captain, but the real problem was that Ali didn't have our money (we'd paid in full - which isn't too unusual). After a heated few minutes Ali swears he'll deliver the money that evening, and I have little choice but to wait it out.

Of course Ali never shows that evening (as the other dhow captains had predicted to us - there is a lot of rivalry between the guys from Lamu and the guys from Shela). Anyway I was feeling all strange about the whole situation. My initial feeling for this Ali character was quite negative, but we'd gone with him anyway. Now it seemed that negative intuition was correct, since Ali had now scammed us - but by this point my intuition was certain I'd get my money back, I just didn't know how.

So we started telling people about the situation (I was pretty mad at this point), and who do we happen to meet but Abdullah Bob (what a great name!), a member of the Shela Tourist Committee. He takes a great interest in our situation, as rogue dhow captains are a real problem in the area, and he starts ringing around a few people. He tells me exactly where to go the next morning and report the whole thing to the tourist police, who'd handle the whole thing.

We'd decided to leave Lamu and head to Mombasa that morning, but we told Abdullah Bob we'd consider staying to try and help nab Captain Ali. But the next morning I had such a strong feeling that I would get my money back (somehow), I decided to try and find Ali and get the money first, before reporting the whole thing to the tourist police.

So of course, the next morning we bump into a guy who knows Ali (it just always seems to be the case when you actually follow those niggly intuitive feelings...), and he knows where Ali lives. I explain the situation and offer him a small reward if he shows me where Ali lives and I get my money back. He agrees and we head off through the maze-like narrow back streets (I left Sarah with the bags beside the ferry). Now at this point the thought certainly did enter my head that I just might be a damn-fool tourist idiot that has already been ripped off and is now following an accomplice into the very the den of the original conman to be completely fleeced - but in fact I just knew that that wasn't going to happen - sometimes you just have trust that intuition.

Anyway, after much running around (Ali wasn't home) and asking around, and following person to person who'd 'just seen' Ali, we did actually find him. He was all smiles and really apologetic, and I was all nice and friendly (there was no point in getting aggressive). He says he only has half my money on him and he'll get me the rest later. Naturally this wasn't good enough, so I tell him I'm on my way to the police. This genuinely seemed to frighten him and after a good bit more jabbering he asks me to follow him and he'll try and get the rest of the money. After much more running through back-streets and alleys we end up at a friend of Ali's. He begs his mate for the money (quite humbling for him I have to say, as I was right there in front of him). His mate eventually, reluctantly relents, and then all five of us traipse off yet again to another place to finally get the money (at this point I'm seriously running out of time, as the ferry is due to leave in less than 10 minutes). But by this stage I'm actually having a really good laugh with Ali (he tells me he's sick of Lamu and wants to get away - it's too hard a life!), and now that I have my money back I ask Ali to come back to the ferry place so I can get a picture of the two of us. Poor Ali's vanity got the better of him I think as he happily follows me back to Sarah, our bags and the camera.

As we arrive I get the camera out and ask Sarah to take a picture as I put my arm around Ali - but Sarah refuses to take the picture, and then I suddenly realise that there are a couple of strange looking dudes beside me. Turns out they are the tourist police, and that Sarah had to tell them the whole story (the other dhow captains, the legitimate ones, had kinda pushed Sarah into doing it). So out come the handcuffs for poor Ali - I tried to tell the police that I'd gotten my money back, but they rightly said that he'd only do it again to someone else, and that anyway, he was supposed to have a license, which he didn't have.

I genuinely felt sorry for Ali - I think he was a good guy deep down, but he was just a petty thieve at the end of the day and he certainly got what he deserved. Pity we never got the photo of him being dragged off though - we literally jumped from beside the police onto the ferry and off away to Mombasa, with my money in my pocket, Ali on his way to the slammer and another case solved for the good of the people - hurrah!