Life in the villages of Remote Islands of Kenya S7 EP.09 | Pakistan to South Africa Motorcycle
Assalam Alekum How are you? I'm good. So this is tuna samosa? Yeah. That's my brother who goes for fishing. Here is Captain Sheikh. Look at this petrol station. We'll do a short tour of this village. Considering its shape and the fact that it drops down vertically...
And it goes straight in the ground. Assalam Alekum Everyone and Good Morning from Lamu. It's our second day here.
I hope you must have liked our previous video in which we explored Lamu. Moses is preparing the breakfast for us. We are just gonna sit here.
They have set up a beautiful and relaxing sitting place at the rooftop. One can sit here and relax. Let's have our breakfast. And after that we plan to visit the area of Shela. Other than that, we'd like to see if we can do some sea activity or explore something else.
We'll share that with you. I don't have much idea about that area as I haven't been there before. Hopefully, today is going to be as interesting as our previous days have been. Let's do the breakfast now. What do we have in breakfast, Moses? Here we have bread toasts.
Coffee... Orange juice... And fruit slices... Okay So that's our breakfast. Mango and banana. Thank you very much.
Yesterday, we met Captain Arafat here. I have been looking for you since morning, as I did not have his phone number. If we can find him, then we'll go with him. Otherwise, we'll look for some other boat.
Sorry? Airport? No. Sheila. How much for Shela? 1000 shillings. That's too much. That's the price my friend. Is it the public one? No public one.
At what time? In the morning. Morning...? Yeah. Let me check first. No problem. Thank you. I have taken some money from ATM. Because many places here don't accept credit card.
M-Paisa does work here but I don't have credit in that account. Have to recharge that account... but it's better to have some cash as well. Yes, I'm coming back.
I'd still like to look for Captain Arafat. I promised to go with him yesterday so better if we can. We can ask around to see if anyone knows his whereabouts. Okay.. 700? New price Yes, but I'm looking for Captain Arafat. Arafat doesn't have a boat.
But I want to meet him. Do you know where to find him? Yeah. Yeah... Around here everyday... Let me look around and see if he's there. Thank you.
This is a public square where people sit to pass time. Unfortunately, we could not find Captain Arafat. However, we are with Captain Muhammad now. And he will take us to Shela.
Abrar... Thank you... .First time in Lamu... Do you live in Lamu or Shela? Lamu. Lets show you some views of Lamu town from here. Really beautiful.
I think the views from the sea are something special. Really peaceful. Very peaceful and relaxing vibes. But I noticed something from Lamu town till here.
This area looks more upclass. Apparently rich families have their holiday homes. There are many hotels for tourists. The view from the sea gives you an impression of a very posh area. You can see beautiful houses, apartments and hotels. We are almost there.
You will notice that yourself. Assalam Alekum How are you? Good. Alhamdulillah Where can we take you? I have a reservation in Stopover. You know? Yes. Thank you.
Thank you Mr. Barakat. Most welcome. Normally I tend to do online booking before reaching my destination. There weren't too many suitable options in Shela. And the ones that were actually good were too expensive. I took a small risk.
I decided to check on phone if the guest house had any room. If they do, then we can go and check it at the spot. And if I like the place, I can stay there for the night.
So I called a couple of people and they had a room. But as I got here, I really liked the first place I visited. It has a very nice view of the beach as well. So I asked the owner about the rent and he said 15 thousand shillings.
That's almost 100 USD. However, I was able to negotiate the price down to 8 thousand shillings. That's almost 53 USD. Let me show you the room now.
Not just the room itself but also the view from here is amazing. Look at this beautiful and nicely made bed. We'll get a private washroom as well. Let me show you the outside view from here. Isn't this amazing...
I've just come for a short round of this area. And this is a really beautiful area. As compared to the crowded Lamu town, this is much more peaceful. Even the tiny road there had motorcycles.
That's why it was quite noisy. All the businesses are there. But here, there are some locals. There isn't any road here so you just have to walk along the beach. And there isn't any noise here.
It's an exceedingly peaceful and wonderful place. There are many small islands here. I can see an island which is exactly opposite to this one. The distance between the two is hardly 400 meters. But over there, you can see more luxurious and upscale hotels, restaurants and houses. I noticed one thing though.
The hotels here blend completely with the nature here. I mean there are no multi story buildings here that could destroy the natural beauty of this place. What's your name brother? Muhammad. Nice to meet you, Muhammad. My name if Abrar. I'm from Pakistan.
So this is tuna samosa. Yeah. My brother goes to deep sea for fishing. They catch some tuna. And my mom cooks samosa. Okay. Then give me 3 tuna samosa. Look at that.
So one is for 100 shillings. The total is 300. They are still warm. It was made about ten minutes ago. Thank you.
From Pakistan? Yeah. Pakistan. Do you have sea in your country? Yes. You have beach. Yeah? Yes. Have you heard the name Karachi? Karachi? Yes. It's the biggest city in Pakistan. You look like you are from India. Yes...
The samosa is really delicious. And 100 shillings is like... 200 PKR. We put onion, lemon and cinnamon in it. We mix all of that with fish. It's really good. Yeah. Very nice. You stay along? Or with friends? Alone Which house? Bahari.
It's a nice place. It's along the beach. People like it because of the sea view. Yes. From the room.
How long do you plan to stay in Shela? Just one night. Why don't you stay longer? I stayed one night in Lamu. Okay. So you stayed in Lamu and then moved here. And then I'm flying back to Mombasa.
By bus or by plane? Plane. Because they also have a bus. Takes 6 hours from here to Mombasa. But the plane is only 40 minutes. That's the problem... People are poor.
Only rich people go by plane. Poor people use bus because it's cheaper. You can pay 1500 from here to Mombasa.
Plane is more money. So, Muhammad, how is life here? Good. Is it good? For me it is good.
Because my father has a boat and they go fishing. So we sell the fish they catch, in the market and get good money. And you eat fish at home with rice and with ugali.
Do you know what's Ugali? Yeah. I do. I had it in Nairobi. Have you tried it? yeah. Ugali with rice. Yeah. And spinach as well. And other vegetables. How many children do you have? 2 One boy and one girl. Do they go to school? Yeah.
In Shela or Lamu? Sheila. How many people live in Shela? May be.... 1 million... 1 million...? Is that too many? 1 million is a lot. Mombasa has 1.2 million.
Then here it must be around 10 thousand. What's the population of Pakistan? 330 million... It's a lot. Yeah. Thank you very much. See you. We have finished half of his basket. So that he can go back home quickly.
So here is Captain Sheikh. How much will you charge for the sunset cruise? It's 4 thousand. My boat is not a sailing boat. Just a ... 15 hp.
How much will we need for the cruise? 1.5 hours. You will show the best places? Yeah. Promise? Because I'm recording you. I promise.
3000? No. It's 4000. Because your boat is not a sailing boat. 3 is okay.
Sailing boat is more expensive. More expensive? Yeah So? 3 is good. Okay. Okay. Let's go Captain Sheikh. 3000 shillings is almost 20 USD.
So he will show us all the interesting places in this 1.5 hour trip. Not much to do other than that. What's your name brother? Siddiq.
Nice to meet you Siddiq. And you? Abrar. From where? From Pakistan. Pakistan... Muslim? Alhamdulillah. So... on this boat, I'm gonna cruise with Siddiq and Captain Sheikh. The three of us will be in this together.
Back there is a very nice restaurant. Pepperoni. That's a 5-star hotel. Look at this. It's the petrol station.
I have not seen such a petrol station before. Hey brother. How are you? They have installed a proper machine inside the boat.
Check this out guys. Awesome I thought it's just for display. They could have just used cans. But they actually do it very systematically. The most interesting thing is that they are paying it through a mobile payment.
He's paying through M-Paisa. M-Paisa is everywhere. You can see the far reaching benefits of technology. Electronic payment is acceptable almost everywhere.
Assalam Alekum Wa Alekum Salam How are you? The next customers are in now. So Siddiq is gonna tell us the name of this island. Here we have Manda Island. Just in front of Lamu. So, Manda only has 5-star hotels and other similar places. In Manda, you see hotels right in front of the beach.
But behind that, there are locals. Farming places. In Manda they don't have fresh water. Okay. So how do the people get water? They farm according to the seasons.
So how did people get fresh water to drink? From Malamo? We have boats and also pipes. But it's not that good. Sometimes they break. Here we have oysters. When it's low tide, we get oysters. You see those rocks.
During low tide, we find oysters there. In many coastal cities, you see mangrove forests like these. These are narrow paths that pass through them. They just told me that we can go there for a walk if we want. Looks interesting though.
The nature here is really beautiful. Lamu does not have bricks or stones used for construction of houses. Mostly people get it from Manda here. We just saw a boat that was fully loaded with stones. And it was headed towards Lamu.
This whole village... They are digging for bricks. We are gonna take a shot tour of this village. Look at that boat over there. It's also loaded with stones.
Siddiq is taking me to the village to let me have a look around. As you saw before... These boats are also loaded with stones. As soon as you step in here, you see bricks and stones everywhere. So they bring these here with the help of donkeys and put it here to be loaded and transported to Lamu. Take a look and imagine how people carry these heavy bricks.
Most of the houses are temporary and makeshift. They have been built only with the help of natural material only. There's electricity and mobile phone signals... This is the local market. Siddiq, do these fruits grow on this island? No. It's all from Lamu. They don't have fruits and vegetables here.
So they get their fresh fruits and vegetables from Lamu since they don't have them here. The only business they have hair is the brick business. That's a medical clinic. O they have motorcycles too. This kid is...
Hello. How are you? What's your name? Jayden And yours? Thank you very much. Nice meeting you. This is the storage facility of fresh water. That's located right next to where boats are parked. Hello my friend. How are you?
Anyone who needs water can take it from here. So the people buy water from here? or...? Yeah. They bring water here from Lamu.
You can see that they have stored water in containers. Every single block would weigh no less than 15 kg. And people carry it on their shoulders all the way till they place it in the boat.
Assalam Alekum Look at what Siddiq has in his hand. This is mangrove seed. And it's quite big. Considering its shape and the fact that it goes down vertically. And as soon as it touches the ground, it gets planted.
That's the life cycle of a mangrove seed. Unfortunately we can't see the sunset as it's a cloudy day. Nevertheless, it's a very beautiful and peaceful location. We are having a really good time, moving through these water channels.
I think our cruise will take around 1.5 hours to finish. Another 30 to 45 minutes to go. Look at this one.
When we were kids, we used to insert a stick here and do like this. Ah I see.. they would play with it. Much like a top. Tonight, our dinner is a Swahili dish... It includes prawns curry.
Along with some rice, vegetables and salad. I make sure that wherever I go, I try the local food. The local food here is very healthy.
I mean, when you are getting prawns, rice and vegetables, what else do you need. Overall, you can get any dish in the tourist restaurants here. I have paid almost 1400 shillings for this. That's almost 8 - 9 dollars. And that's alright because that's how the prices in any tourist restaurant are. Anyways, the food is quite tasty.
Finally back in our room. All that is left is to sleep on this comfortable bed to regain our energy for tomorrow. And also, we have our flight back to Mombasa. That's where our Rangeeli (motorcycle) is parked and waiting for us. We'd like to continue our ride.
Unfortunately, there has been a lot of rain here, lately. Many roads are blocked for that reason. Let's see how our tour goes. Till now, it has been superb; Thanks to Allah. Hopefully, it's gonna stay like this.
Remember me in your prayers. And don't forget to Like and Comment on this video. How do you feel about this tour so far? We are open to any and all suggestions. I always try to reply to comments whenever I get time. Remember me in your prayers. Allah hafiz
2023-11-29 09:57
