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Tales From the Chicken Bus Comes Alive!

Monday, January 5th, 2009

Many of you have recently sent me emails asking about photos from the trip.  Well I’m pleased to say the photo update is finally here.  If you follow this link you will be led to a whack of photos from our travels.  Mostly the albums contain photos from Africa and a few from Central America.  Photos include our recently completed safari in Africa.

I should soon be updated on the blog as well as we are out of internet depreived Africa.  Stay tuned and thanks so much to all of you who actually read this.

p.s. Don’t be afraid to leave a comment once and awhile….I know you are reading, the internet stats don’t lie.

Michael

Tales From the Chicken Bus Photos

Posted in Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia | 4 Comments »

Has the Heart Grown Cold?

Wednesday, December 17th, 2008

Day 261

We slept well and felt secure with our mosquito net tucked into our bed. Mzuzu is over 1000 meters so its pleasantly cool at night. We were up at 7am ready for our breakfast which was included with the room. Two fried eggs on toast, fresh fruit, juice and tea, breakfast was surprisingly large and good. Jordana and I walked to the muddy bus station looking for transport north. We figured we’d stop at Chitimba on Lake Malawi before heading into Tanzania.

Its difficult to tell which bus is leaving next as there are so many, no schedules and bus touts telling you that their bus is next. After a quick walk around the U-shaped station we decided on a mini bus. We waited for it to fill and about 30 minutes later we were off. I had bargained for the fare and we were paying 1000 Kwacha to Chitimba, however we could hear the money collector speaking with other customers who were going further than us. All I could understand was Karonga and 500. Oh well I figured maybe I didn’t do the best bargaining job. When he asked for money I asked why they were paying 500 to Karonga and us 1500 to Chitimba. He gave me this rude reply laughing about how its 1800 to Karonga. Sure whatever, I wasn’t about to argue I was more mad at the rude way he spoke to us.

We stopped often picking up and dropping off passengers. One lady came on with a tub full of fish that just reeked, it smelt as if it was rotting. Lucky for everyone she only rode with us for 10 minutes. Near noon we reached Lake Malawi, a beautiful sight after the dusty farm fields of central Malawi. Soon after we came to Chitimba. We stopped at a police checkpoint right at the beginning of town. Jordana and I got out and looked around as people tried to sell us things and kids begged for money. I walked around the van and looked around then turned to Jordana, “Looks like a shithole eh? Kinda run down”, she agreed. “We could just get back in and keep going, keep going to Tanzania today its only a few hours away.” I offered her this thought. To be honest as beautiful as Lake Malawi is supposed to be we haven’t had the best experience in Malawi so far, I would be fine if we just skipped over it. “Yeah, let’s keep going. Its not nice here”. So that was it, Malawi just wasn’t going to work for us so we were outta here. I told the money collector on the bus that we wanted to continue to Karonga. He demanded 500 kwacha each more for the trip. “Hold on, you said it was 1800 to Karonga from Mzuzu, we paid 1500 to here. How can it be 500 more! Here is 600 for both of us.” This guy was making me mad now, first he’s just plain rude when he speaks to me and now he wants us to pay more than he originally told us! I was thankful we decided to leave Malawi today.

Karonga’s bus station looked identical to Mzuzu’s, I think Malawi has a set design for bus stations. Besides the layout or lack of one the one thing they all have in common is mud. We need to find a share taxi to the border. As we exited the bus about 10 guys all were shouting to come with them. We ignored them and stopped at a stall for a drink, I was thirsty and wanted to take a second to figure out how much this should cost. “Sir can I have your bottle?” A boy asked me, he wanted the deposit from the glass bottle. “Sure no problem, give me a second I’m almost done”.

We bargained for a good 10 minutes with all the drivers before finally agreeing on a fare. We climbed in the car and now drove back and forth in front of the bus station looking for other passengers. I commented to Jordana, “Would it not be easier and cheaper on fuel if they just waited in one spot?” We drove up and down the same street for about 15 minutes constantly honking the horn until we had Jordana, myself, two men and a baby in the back seat and a young girl in the front. Finally we were off and barrelling towards the border at 140 km/ph. A few people got out and by the time we reached the border it was just the two of us. There was a sign for customs on the right but we veered left for some reason.

As we got out of the car I figured out why we turned left, the driver dropped us amongst the money changers and porters who offered to carry our bags. We just walked straight to the customs office. Finally the end of Malawi, not so fast though, there was no agents to be seen. We finally saw someone and he asked if we were exiting or entering? “Exiting Malawi”, we both said. “OK wait here”. We waited 10 minutes before someone else arrived, he finally got to stamping us out. Although it took a while as he was on his mobile phone and chatting with the guy behind him. With our stamps we happily began walking out of Malawi. I had one issue, since we thought we’d be in the country a while I had withdrawn the equivalent of $120 U.S. I wanted to change this but the money changers were offering a ridiculously low rate. As we walked about 10 guys followed and I tried to bargain for a better rate. Finally one guy agreed, he gave me what I wanted in Tanzanian Shillings and I gave him my Kwacha. I saw him slip a wad of the kwacha to another guy. I shouted, “Hey, why are you giving him that?!” I had just counted it all in front of him so we just kept walking. Then he says that I’ve short changed, by just under half. “What? I just counted it in front of you and YOU just slipped your friend some of the money.” I explained. He just kept counting it and then telling me to count it again, of course it was short his friend had the rest of the money. This went on back and forth for a goof 2-3 minutes, he wasn’t listening to me and just kept saying I never gave him what I said. Then I lost it, “You’re a fu*king liar! Fine, just give me my fu*king money back now!” He gave me only what was in his hand, still short the bills he slipped to his friend. “I want it all, you fu*king liar!” Finally he gave me the rest and I gave him back the Shillings he had given me. As we walked away he was shouting he’ll give me a better deal. How stupid was this guy? I thought to myself I should have just continued walking over the border since he had given me the amount of Shillings I wanted. Then again maybe he’s friends with the police or something, and who were they going to believe here? We finally walked over the border to Tanzania, good ridance Malawi!

It felt so good to be in a new country, the custom agent was friendly and advised us not to change money here. Yeah thanks. He asked us if we were married and why we didn’t have kids yet. He said we should go home and have children. Was this guy talking to my mother? Mom did you set this up for us? We were stamped in and walked a steep and hot few kilometres to the bus stand and grabbed a packed bus to Mbeya.

We arrived in Mbeya early evening, we checked into the Mbeya Peak Hotel, nicer than it sounds and then went out for dinner. I liked Tanzania better than Malawi already. It was cheaper, people were already more friendly to us and we had a fabulous vegetable curry for dinner. Things were looking up again now that we were out of the so called “warm heart of Africa”.

Posted in Malawi, Tanzania | No Comments »

Ridin Wit Da G-Unit

Tuesday, December 16th, 2008
Day 260 One day in Lilongwe was enough, it was time to move north. We got an earlier start today and were looking for a bus to Lake Malawi or at least a good distance north of Lilongwe. After a short ... [Continue reading this entry]

Posted in Malawi | No Comments »

Foiled Escape

Monday, December 15th, 2008
Day 259 I'm trying to think of a nice thing to say about Lilongwe, but its tough to come up with one. I like cities and can usually come up with at least one thing that I enjoy about a ... [Continue reading this entry]

Posted in Malawi | No Comments »

A Long Way to Lilongwe

Sunday, December 14th, 2008
Day 258 Up again at the break of dawn, this time to catch a bus to Lilongwe, Malawi. It seems like we've been up before 6am everyday for the last 10 days. There were always taxi drivers waiting for ... [Continue reading this entry]

Posted in Malawi, Zambia | No Comments »