Originally Posted by
B747-437B
There are places in Ntcheu where the Malawi and Mozambique roads run parallel to each other with no border fence or any other barrier or markings. You can turn off onto the Mozambique road, fill up the tank and turn bank onto the Malawi road without anyone even noticing.You only realise it is Mozambique because the shop signs on the Western side of the street are in Portuguese while the Eastern side are in English.
Back in the days when Malawi was suffering from acute fuel shortages, the AXA bus service from Blantyre to Lilongwe used to actually stop by the side of the road near the border in Ntcheu and a herd of porters carrying jerricans of fuel would rush across from Mozambique to fill up the tanks.
What a crazy experience... a little detour worth the extra time/km for sure
, thanks a lot! Yeah I remember AXA company!
True, a few times fuel shortages had compromised some local transports for anyone far from MZ or TZ (Zambia would be a different story).
Originally Posted by
B747-437B
Of course, if you want to go via the official checkpoints it is a fairly lengthy process with passport checks, insurance requirements, customs declarations, etc... Although my experience is that once they realise you are Malawian (or in my case, a Permanent Resident of Malawi) they are happy to wave you through quickly. Just be able to respond to the "Muli Bwanji" greeting with "Ndili bwino, khaya inu" and you will be fine - they assume that anyone who speaks even that much rudimentary Chichewa is an honorary Malawian.
Indeed talking in Chichewa represents a real ice breaker, as often, genuine smiling faces would appear afterwards!
You were lucky to just have to "learn" the national language, as when dealing with mostly rural local communities in the northern part of the country near Mzuzu, greetings in Chitonga was the norm, if not compulsory for remote villages only accessible via the lake ... Truly hard to not mixing up sometimes, Jeez (People were just laughing in fact but gladly invited = welcomed us...
)
Since the last trip in 2010, I truly miss Malawi
Also in the report, when OP wrote this:
"The lovely gentlemen was afraid I wouldn't be able to convert my remaining currency and offered to take it off my hands"
It reminded me than before MKW currency devaluation, several times all travelers departing were asked to declare how much local cash money they would take away, at airport mostly, as amount was limited (can't remember how much now)! Was it a normal trick or a real rule from the employees/officials?