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Published: June 15th 2006
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Roadside Vendors
Somewhere about 2 hours southwest of Tete Mocambique. Well we decided to say goodbye to Zimbabwe, I'd love to go back one day if things change a bit. I might have neglected to mention how beautiful Zimbabwe is in my last blog, its Victorian buildings are really awesome coming in second place only to Cape Town so far and I regret not taking more pictures. We left Harare and ventured north yesterday on another terrible, terrible bus ride. We had arranged for a taxi driver to pick us up at the mansion of a hostel just outside of town and drive us through city center over to the other side where the market and buses are. The taxi driver was asleep in his ride when we went out to the gates just before 5am. Off we go across town! Finbar and Patrick came along for the ride even though they did not plan to go to Malawi with Ryan, Lucy and I. Instead they got to the market and would continue on to a campsite on that side of town where it was cheaper to stay until their Mozambique visas were done (us three did a 24 hour express option for an extra $5). The cab driver decided he
More Locals
Selling your typical travel snacks like tomatoes, fish... would try to rip us off and told us it would be 4 million dollars. Ryan was smart enough to ask for a price the day before, and being quoted 1.5 million meant that inflation had apparently gone up quite quickly in one night. After some harsh words and harsher phone calls to the cab company we left him with 2 million and stormed off. The bus station wasn't open yet so we sat in the dark market compound for awhile keeping a close eye on our stuff, the place gave us the eerie feeling of Honduras all over again.
The bus office opened and we went to buy our tickets, the price was 3.5 million dollars to be paid in of course 50,000 and 20,000 dollar bills. After handing over what was essentially a shoebox full of money we watched in our sleepy state as the clerk counted and recounted all the money. 10 minutes later we got our tickets (with seat numbers!) and waited for the bus to show up. It did alright, and we got on board to find they somehow managed to fit 5 seats across and a makeshift aisle... this is going to be
The bus
Ryans attempt to read Robert Jordan on a bus with 70 Africans and an ass in his face. a long day. We squished into three seats, not the numbers we were assigned at all, our bags at the back of the bus and my legs cramping already. The seats are so thin I can basically feel the spinal cord of the guy sitting in front of me. Most of my other stuff is sitting on my lap, because of the prick cab driver taking my last Zim dollars I can't buy any food. We wait for the bus to leave and since I woke up so early I decide to fall asleep and kill some time. After what felt like a few hours asleep I wake in anticipation of likely being at the Mozambique border crossing already! Unfortunately not, after what turned out to be an hour long nap in my cramped hellish seat it turns out we still haven't left yet!
This was to be the theme of our trip. Market at 5:15am and Lilongwe Malawi at 10:15pm. The first border we had to get off, stamp out then get back in the bus. Then out again to get our Mozambique Visa stamp, then back in. Then back out to get our bags for customs, then
Marvelous Malawi
This is our hostel, I'm not even sure at this point why I'm writing this when I could be sitting 15m away at this very pool. back in to go across Mozambique. We got to Tete Mozambique where the kind locals sold fish to passengers on the bus, if I wasn't going to throw up before -I am now! My window wouldn't open properly because of what appeared to be bullet holes... Onward we continue. Arriving at the Mozambique exit point I actually had a somewhat understandable conversation with the immigration official in Portuguese (I actually remember some from Brazil!) and we ended up trading pens and simultaneously creating my favourite moment of the day. I'm sure glad none of us have money to buy water. It's dark now and we continue a few km's to the Malawi entrance post. Finally, for the first time in awhile we get a free Visa into the country. The officials are nice and they pass us through to customs. Customs and Immigration offices at these type of land crossings are typically two buildings often times connected with barbed wire, armed guards and peeling paint with the inside consisting of a huge wooden desk with a figure behind it holding a stamp. We end up sitting in this barn of a building waiting and waiting for what was well over
World Cup
It's tough to watch the world cup in a place like this with beers that are 75 cents. an hour simply for a customs officer to show up. That happens and he checks my bag and we get back onto the bus. Because all our bags are kept at the back of the bus, in the aisle and on our laps the process of what I estimate to be over 70 people on this bus takes about 20-30 minutes to both load and unload. I carefully navigate the aisle stepping over bundles of fruit, hay and ketchup with my bags in the scorching heat totally dehydrated until the bus finally moves again. By Malawi the driver can't get out of second gear so I figure we went the last 90kms at about 35 km/h.
We get to Lilongwe and try to get off the bus in the usual time consuming process but this time it's different. Everyone is scrounging and fighting for seats because the bus doesn't drive at night and most of the people are heading further and have to sleep on the bus until it continues in the morning. We have to fight through them and unburied our bags before getting off the bus for our final time. Once that happens we head to our
The walk
Daytime photo taken of our walk last night, the bus station on your right is where we got off and the white sign in the far distance is our hostel 300m away. Hostel, the scary 300m walk down the street is quite shady, the guidebook says crime is terrible and a taxi should be taken. A girl from Ottawa and a guy from Melbourne join us and with 5 I think we'll be safe. Thankfully we were fine until the scariest dog I've ever seen leaps out from the Hostel guards hold and even with his muzzle on we all seemingly dive into the dirt totally shocked. We get into the Hostel and things improve at a rapid rate. They have rooms! Rooms are only $4.50! The Germany/Poland game is on! Someone buys me a beer! They have water, and warm water! They decide to open the kitchen for us! I went to sleep a happy man!
Today I thought I'd explore Lilongwe and realized quickly that Malawi is an incredible country. Not only is it cheap but the locals are really, really nice (not that they weren't elsewhere) and we don't have to buy money off the black market or count dozens of bills out to buy a chocolate bar. I sorted out some business at the bank, I mailed some letters (they don't rip people off at the post office like Zimbabwe) and even found a wholesale store that sells beer. I can feel myself getting closer to the Indian Ocean and the spices from further east are cheap here with a huge plate of chicken and curry with yams and green beans for only $1.40. Our hostel has a pool, a pool table and a big projection screen for the world cup. Our plan is to stay here one more night before continuing on our extensive expedition to Ihla Mozambique and the warm Indian Ocean.
Shouts out to the stump lake crew for what sounds like an excellent past weekend of pure debauchery! Finally, there are also some pictures I managed to get up on my last entry so feel free to take a look.
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Allie
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Thanks
I stumbled across your travel blog while googling around for Malawi stuff. As I spent some time their last year and was feeling a bit nostalgic for the warm heart of Africa. Your shot of Doogles made my heart leap. I was once a regular and have many fond memories of getting happily pissed nearely every night thanks to many very generous expats and local whites with a soft spot for us poor broke volunteers. I miss that life! My crazy drunk friends Vic, TJ, crazy Andy, crazy Irish Chris, Crazy Darren the owner a lodge in Liwonde... Tendai the bartender keeping me stocked with cold greens...Siiiigh, thanks for stirring up good memories