So, under M and K’s wonderful direction, T and I decided today would be a nice day to hit Lake Malawi, as that’s probably the largest tourist attraction here. Malawi is a very pretty country, but not too much to do. It’s weird that it can be right next to Zambia, but so different! For example, they have a few shortage here, so there are lines for petrol that go on forever it seems. Good thing the LCCA uses huge Land Cruisers that only run on diesel! It’s cheaper here and there’s no shortage!
Anyway, M took us to catch a minibus to Salima. It was a nice experience; not as crowded as the ones we use in Lusaka with more leg room too! Someone had fit a bike inside too; I don’t know how! The ride was about an hour. Then from Samila to Senga Bay on the lake is another 20 km. However, no minibuses go here, so we rode on the back of a glorified pick up truck (I’ve heard them called matolas and cantors and lowries, but the travel book says matola and that’s what the people said, so that’s what I’ll go with) in the bed. That’s their public transportation. We had about 18 adults back there, some standing and some sitting, or crouching, as I was doing. It was a long 30 minutes, but we made it! Next on the agenda was to find a place to stay, so we ventured towards Cool Runnings (yes, a Malawian hostel with a Zambia themed room based on an American movie about Jamaican bobsledders that takes place in Canada). Lucky us, as soon as we hopped off the matola, two gentlemen found us and escorted us to the hostel which was about 1K down the winding road and through a village. These two guys ended up being our guides for the day! They brought us to Cool Runnings and told us about all the wonderful opportunities which they could lead us to in the area like Lizard Island ($55 to hike and eat at an island crawling with monitor lizards) or explore the hippo pools (a guided tour to and from the pools for $35), but we gratefully thanked them for helping us to our hostel but turned them down. Oh, don’t you worry; they showed up later too!
Next up was exploring the beach. The beach area was small, but nice. It’s definitely not a touristy place, but it was nice enough. Kind of cool to walk down the beach and instead of seeing resorts you see people’s homes and people swimming or fishing like they do daily. T and I opted for laying out (myself in the sun and T in the shade) instead of swimming since the water is full of bilharzia, a bacteria. I really don’t want to get even more sick than I am (have I mentioned that my immune system doesn’t get along with Africa?) so tanning it was. J I’m ok with that! T and I went in search of some lupper after that and guess what—our guides showed up again! Good thing, though, because even though we had a map, we didn’t know it would be a 30 minute walk to find a restaurant! We ate some yummy Chinese food at a nicer hotel in Senga Bay and relaxed a bit. We wanted to go in search of the craft stalls next, and guess what—our guides showed up again! It was getting on past 5 pm now, but they said we’d try to see if they were still open. Well, the head guy started walking through a village and through the bush. I definitely felt like an intruder, but it was neat to see where the locals live up close! This guide in fact led us not to the craft stalls, which were closed apparently, but to his house to show us the artwork and things he makes! Tricky guy! But he was really nice and really talented, so we did end up purchasing some things. I felt bad haggling with him! Afterwards I got a picture of him and his family which we met by their house. It was quite an experience. But don’t worry. That’s not the only random stranger I followed in Malawi!
The gentlemen took us back to the hostel as it was starting to get dark. They invited us for a night out on the town, but considering we were in the middle of a village and I really don’t want to try their standard drink called Chibuku or Shake Shake here, which is made from mealie meal, T and I thanked them again and parted ways. Instead, we spent the evening at the hostel bar, gazing at the Southern Hemisphere constellations over the lake and playing Yahtzee and Scrabble. Not much to do after dark, as we’ve realized in Africa, but it was still enjoyable.
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