I was lucky to run into a photographer while traveling in Kenya and I grabbed some photos off him from our time together.
Foggy
Photo Credit : Jonathan Fontaine
1 day in Lamu
28 NovI took the overnight bus to Lamu and got onto the island just to watch the sunrise. After a little bit of lazing around and waiting for everything to open I started my whirlwind of a tour. Lamu has got a bad rap in the past few years due to a few incidents with Somali pirates but with an American army base very close travelers can feel very safe these days. Lamu is situated off the coast of Kenya and is pretty unique as it has no cars on the island only donkeys for transport. The island is also very Muslim so you have to be respectful over what you wear. If you are looking for a drink on the island you will have to make your way to the police station canteen as drinking anywhere else is quite frowned upon. If you can get a few friends together a dhow cruise is a must. The most important thing to remember in Lamu though is watch out for the donkey poo.
Foggy
Different Cultures
25 NovOne good thing that came out of 27 hours in seat F3 is that in seat F4 was a very nice man named Iddi. He gave me his information and wanted me to call him once I got to Arusha in Tanzania. I gave Iddi a call and he immediately came and picked me up and drove me to his house. I met his wife Mariam and their three children and then his daughter made us all cups of coffee. They wanted me to stay for dinner so I was ordered to sit and relax with Iddi as the women went about cooking. A little over an hour later a huge portion of beef stew and flat bread were put down before us. Mariam came over with a pitcher of water and a bowl so I could wash my hands to eat with and then did the same for Iddi. I waited for the women to join us but was instructed that they were not eating with us. The food was amazing and it is always fun to eat with your hands. After dinner the women came and cleared the plates, washed our hands and then gave us coffee. Every time I offered to help I was shot down and Iddi told me it is seen as an insult to offer help almost saying that I could do it better than them. It was a really cool experience to have a proper dinner in an African household, I am just glad my mother wasn’t there to tell my lazy ass to get to work on the pots and pans.
Foggy
Buy me a soda
22 NovIn East Africa you will come upon the phrase “buy me a soda” a few times (if me quite a lot). Africans love their soda but at this point they don’t actually want you to buy them one. This is a code word for a little bribe to either get things going quicker or to get yourself out of some trouble you may have gotten into. With all bargaining try to start low but when it comes to border patrol or people in government roles soda prices are generally fixed. Good luck with your soda purchases and even though everyone knows what is going on always be discreet.
Foggy
Generator Please
19 NovI spent the night in Dar es Salaam and was slammed by the heat. When finding a hotel room for the night I made sure my shoebox of a room at least had a fan in it. What I did not know was that the city suffers from multiple power outages making my fan useless throughout the night. I slowly melted into my bed as it felt more like sleeping in a swimming pool of my own perspiration. So when traveling to Dar es Salaam make sure your hotel has a generator unless you want to drop down to the next weight class overnight.
Foggy
The Dutch Doctors
17 NovI had reached Zanzibar the place in Africa to drink copious amounts of beer and swim in the very warm Indian Ocean. The only problem was that I developed an ear infection essentially blocking me from these activities. I was a little bummed about it but figured it wasn’t the worst thing in the world. I luckily bumped into 4 Dutch doctors all my own age down in Africa on their final internship. They went over my symptoms and informed me that beer and swimming in the ocean were both fine to do. I was of course ecstatic and waltzed up to the bar to grab an ice cold Kilimanjaro. A huge thanks to my Dutch friends for keeping my party going!
Foggy
27 hours in seat F3
17 NovSunrises are generally a very tranquil moment to reflect on your life but when you watch two consecutive ones from the same bus seat they sort of lose their appeal. I needed to leave Burundi due to visa issues and I found a bus that took me from Bujumbura to Dar es Salam, the only catch was that it took 27 hours. I luckily got a seat at the back of the bus in the middle so I could put my legs down the aisle but that is where the luxury stopped. There were 5 seats in the back row with 7 people squeezed into them. For the next 27 hours I sweated in my seat but I eventually made it to my destination. $20 for a 1509 km bus ride, I think this is one time I should have shelled out for something a little nicer.
Foggy
The Black Market
12 NovHave you ever wondered where your nice camera or laptop goes after you’re robbed? In East Africa the black market trade is actually pretty sophisticated. Anything stolen in Kampala will immediately get sent to another major city like Bujumbura or Kigali so there is no way of tracing it. From there the goods are sold and whatever extra the seller gets for the product he keeps and then sends the rest to where the good came from. You can get almost anything for very cheap if you know the ‘right’ people but this traveler decided to keep Karma on his side and turned down the temptation.
Foggy
Access Denied to the DRC
12 NovTried making a quick trip across the border into the DRC but got denied on the Congo side. Lucky for Mathieu though as they wanted us to pay a lot of money for us to come back into Burundi but he negotiated a much better under the table price.
Foggy
Foggy Travels Himself
Foggy Travels 