Vasco Da Gama – Malindi🏝️

Hey you🤩🤩. Thank you for coming back, and if you are new here, welcome to our budget family❤️.

While planning for this trip, Vasco Da Gama was no where on my list because like many of you I had already visited during one of the school trips to Coast. However, our guide Gatheru mentioned that it would be best to visit because other than the pillar, the ticket gives you access to the 4 sections that collectively make up Malindi National Museum of Kenya. This I didn’t know!

Thanks to Gatheru, today we are going to explore Vasco Da Gama in beautiful Malindi🏝️.

Entry fees

The entry fees to the national museum is Ksh 100 for Kenyan adults💰. As mentioned earlier, this ticket will grant you access to the 4 sections of Malindi National Museum. These sections are; The Vasco Da Gama pillar, The Portuguese Chapel, The House of Columns and the Malindi Museum📝.

Because you will use one receipt for all the places, kindly keep it safe to avoid losing it because then you will have to pay the entry fee again!

Now that we know how much it will cost us to explore this historic site, let us get right into exploring!

The Vasco Da Gama pillar

The Vasco Da Gama pillar was built in 1498 by a Portuguese man named Vasco Da Gama. He was the first person to sail directly from Europe to India and he built this pillar to give other sailors a direction of the sea route to India.

Due to the ocean tides, the pillar was recently renovated with boulders to ensure that the strong water waves don’t bring it down. Let us take a walk to the pillar🚶.

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The Portuguese Chapel

When Vasco Da Gama first arrived in Kenya, he planned on settling in Mombasa but the Mombasa Sheikh was hostile towards him and his team. Because of this, he and his team set out to Malindi where they were welcomed by the Malindi Sheikh who was in rivalry with the Mombasa Sheikh🤭.

Considering that Malindi Old Town was predominantly Muslim, Vasco Da Gama and his team had nowhere to worship. Together with his team they built this Portuguese Chapel which is also the oldest Chapel in East Africa😎. 36 foreign sailors and Malindi pioneers are also buried in the Chapel’s compound.

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The Malindi Museum

The Malindi Museum, as any other museum, highlights and preserves the culture of the ancient Malindi residents. From transport vessels, to beauty ornaments, clothing, hunting and fishing equipment, you will find it all there.

Since there is so so much to see, I’ll share with you some of my favorite parts👯.

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House of Columns

I unfortunately didn’t visit the House of Columns due to time- we were heading out to Mambrui Sand Dunes on the same day. From what I’ve seen online, it appears to be that the House of Columns has been built to preserve a ‘strange’ fish named Coelacanth which was caught in Malindi in 2001. The building also has equipment and materials related to the fish. 🦈🐡.

Trip Budget

Because we are all about showing that it is possible to travel while on a budget😇, I am going to share with you the comprehensive budget for our 4 nights & 5 days trip to beautiful Malindi and Watamu tamu.

Together with my travel partner, our goal was to spend a maximum Ksh 10,000 each. We ended up spending approximately Ksh 11,500 each as we highly underestimated the transport costs we would incur for our activities😰. What this taught me is to ensure that I have some extra cash somewhere for such unexpected occurrences 📝. Now let’s get into the breakdown 🤑;

1. Two way SGR cost (for 2) – Ksh 4,000

2. Van cost from Mombasa to Malindi (for 2) – Ksh 2,000

3. 3 nights at Young Safari Hotel – Malindi (for 2) – Ksh 3,200

4. 1 night camping fee at Watamu Beach Cottages (for 2) – Ksh 3,219

5. Fee for all activities we did (for 2) – Ksh 2,100

6. Transport within Malindi and Watamu – Ksh 3,790

7. Guide fees + tips – Ksh 1,150

8. Water, snack and food highly depend on personal preferences and hotel/ kibandaski choice. For a 5 day trip, however, plan for approximately Kes 2,500 each. If you get a place offering self catering facilities then that will help cut the cost to almost Kes 1000 each📝.

We have now come to the end of the Malindi series🏝️. Sharing these adventures and places with you has been a very lovely experience and I hope that you have found value in each of the blog pieces🤗.

As per the usual, I’ll see you in two weeks as we explore a new kind of adventure; Hiking on a budget🧗. Thank you for reading 💖 and see you in two weeks💃.