A quick out and back to rural Malawi
Apr 22, 2020, 4:51 am
#16
Join Date: Aug 2000
Location: Exile
Posts: 15,656
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.
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.
Apr 28, 2020, 11:26 am
#17
Join Date: Nov 2008
Programs: Flying Blue, Diamond Club
Posts: 782
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.
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.
, 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).
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.
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"
Last edited by flying_blue_white_red; Apr 28, 2020 at 11:35 am
Apr 28, 2020, 11:37 am
#18
Join Date: Aug 2000
Location: Exile
Posts: 15,656
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?
The only time I have had an issue with currency was at the land border at Mchinji where they asked to see the purchase receipt for my US Dollars being taken into Zambia - ironically they didn't care about the Kwacha there. I didn't have one since I had brought the dollars into the country from abroad, but fortunately I had a currency declaration from a previous trip that they scrutinised suspiciously (since they had probably never seen one before!) before letting us go. Didn't hurt that my wife gave them a scolding in Chichewa for trying to harass us. Eventually they got some small small for Fanta once everything was done and dusted.
May 24, 2020, 8:39 am
#20
Original Poster
Join Date: May 2015
Location: Maastricht, unless I'm out.
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Posts: 321
Wow, I didn't think there was such a conversation going on in my little thread! Sorry about that. I didn't manage to successfully get notifications set up.
I did, I'm very fortunate to have explored a lot of Malawi over my short career, and visited some truly beautiful bits of the country. The area around Mulanje is among my favourite, along with Monkey Bay etc. However, the mountains you're seeing in the photos is not Mulanje. I do have some photos somewhere, but I don't quite know where I put them. That trip was a few weeks in Lilongwe, a few weeks in Blantyre followed by Chikwawa, Mulanje, Phalombe, Chiradzulu, Salima, Kasungu over 7 or 8 weeks for a different agency.
It was very easy to pop over to Mozambique, and several parts of the road are right along the border and the stores and houses are in Mozambique. There are petrol stations varying distances away from the road, with different prices depending on how far you're willing to go. I wanted some currency and some small evidence of my trip across an invisible border so I went a bit further to a trading centre and paid for some bits in Malawian Kwatcha and got my change in meticals. Worth it!
I'm not sure about Africa more generally, but my boss is Zimbabwean (and my colleague) and they did not require a visa through SADEC. My Ethiopian colleague did need a visa (several years ago). Europeans do not need a visa in advance, though there is now an E-visa in advance (takes longer, which I think I wrote about). The visa is $50 US on arrival. Malawi at the moment is completely closed as far as I know, and both my subsequent two planned meetings there have been cancelled. We have two projects in Malawi and I don't expect to be there until winter at the earliest.
What an absolutely bucolic story! So much of this story hasn't really changed all that much, which is an amazing testament to Malawi's population. On our journey we stopped in at many very relaxed little cafes, hotels or restaurants and found them to be in there own little world. Some for the right reasons, others for the wrong reason. The lake is wonderful, and hanging out at Cape Maclear was a wonderful experience, watching lanterns on the little fishing boats bobbing about in the darkness and the wonderful fish (both looking at, and eating). Malawi is very peaceful, and people have an eternal patience, though I really hope things will change soon to mean that patience of something better coming is not necessary. I spent a bit of time in a photocopying shop in Ntcheu for one reason or another. A large-ish shop, with a low and wide tree out the front. A counter inside, the proprietor with his little spectacles and stiff-collared shirt. A shop largely in disarray and a slightly dickey photocopier and boxes of branded pens and marker pens, school books and textbooks. Children in neat uniforms popping in to buy things for school. A large-backed television perched in the corner near the ceiling showing a South African movie channel. I still think about the shop and life in there sometimes. There is an atmosphere of stillness and peace in low-lying Malawi. People and buildings small compared to the mountains and even the trees - the huge baobabs towering over people and buildings across Chikwawa.
That journey sounds like a really incredible journey. I was reading an autobiography the other day of someone who made a similar journey - I wish I could do/had the courage to/it was possible to make sure a journey now. Not sure geopolitics or my own anxiety makes it possible really.
Amazing. The buses are a law unto themselves. There are places where the roads is the border, and the writing is different on each side, and of course, nothing will stop you disappearing through the bush and deeper into either country. While no fuel shortage in Malawi really, there is still a huge price different for Mozambique and poor land-locked Malawi.
Sadly never made it to status as honorary Malawian, but did enjoy trying to learn a few words anyway. I never tried an official border crossing, though.
Ha, they have you well type-cast! The currency rule is new to me, actually. I often have currency in my bag. They, of course, routinely hand search at Lilongwe airport. The chap asked if I was coming back to the country soon when he saw my money, and then offered to take care of it for me. Informed me I was coming back soon - little did I know how much damage COVID-19 was going to do... I've never been asked for a currency declaration form. I have certain diplomatic privileges, though he would not know this at the time. I will be more careful in the future!
A 2 month volunteering mission ended up early on a 3 month visa back in 2007. Otherwise, like you said, it would have been hard to stroll around with limited time.
At least, you visited parts of this peaceful country totally unknown on my side in the south. Thus your TR is even more appreciated now. I hope to go back there again... one day
Some mountains on your pics look like Mount Mulange, can you confirm or deny this fact?
Was it easy to travel to Mozambique, especially just for petrol?
In the past, visa free entrance for most EU/African/Asian nationalities for 30 days, but now one should think twice, right?
At least, you visited parts of this peaceful country totally unknown on my side in the south. Thus your TR is even more appreciated now. I hope to go back there again... one day
Some mountains on your pics look like Mount Mulange, can you confirm or deny this fact?
Was it easy to travel to Mozambique, especially just for petrol?
In the past, visa free entrance for most EU/African/Asian nationalities for 30 days, but now one should think twice, right?
It was very easy to pop over to Mozambique, and several parts of the road are right along the border and the stores and houses are in Mozambique. There are petrol stations varying distances away from the road, with different prices depending on how far you're willing to go. I wanted some currency and some small evidence of my trip across an invisible border so I went a bit further to a trading centre and paid for some bits in Malawian Kwatcha and got my change in meticals. Worth it!
I'm not sure about Africa more generally, but my boss is Zimbabwean (and my colleague) and they did not require a visa through SADEC. My Ethiopian colleague did need a visa (several years ago). Europeans do not need a visa in advance, though there is now an E-visa in advance (takes longer, which I think I wrote about). The visa is $50 US on arrival. Malawi at the moment is completely closed as far as I know, and both my subsequent two planned meetings there have been cancelled. We have two projects in Malawi and I don't expect to be there until winter at the earliest.
I loved this report - thanks for sharing!
I have such happy memories of travelling overland through Malawi in 1999. At the time I was just over 3 months into 6 months of travel in Africa, and we'd had a fairly punishing schedule doing a circuit of South Africa, Lesotho, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Swaziland and back to South Africa, all in a borrowed VW Jetta. The second phase of the trip was heading north to Kenya overland, via any form of transport we could find, and we arrived in Malawi after a pretty epic 36hour bus ride from Johannesburg, complete with interiminable multi-hour border crossings, and in my case still suffering from a bout of malaria. The bus took us to Blantyre, and the following day we got a painfully slow local bus to Monkey Bay at the southern end of Lake Malawi, and from there caught a ride on the back of a bakkie (the local term for a pickup) to Cape Maclear, which on the overlander's circuit was reputed as being a bit of a backpacker's heaven. With a string of cheap hostels, basic bars and simple restaurants along a golden sand beach with the warm waters of the lake in front and the green hills of the national park behind, cold beer and 'Malawi Gold' (the local variety of marijiuana) all in cheap and plentiful supply, so it turned out to be. There was absolutely no nightlife and the pace of life was glacial; the super-friendly locals would grill fish for you on the beach; and you could go snorkelling in the lake to admire the famous multicoloured chiclids, which look like tropical reef fish but live in fresh water. We rapidly discovered why people often needed to extend their visas...
From there we took a hilarious 2 day trip up the lake, in an ancient paddle steamer, to Nkhata Bay. Backpackers were able to travel 'deck class', which involved basically camping on the top deck. There was only deck or bench seats to sleep on, and only a shared loo, but there was a bar dispensing cold Carlsbergs for 38c each. And because the steamer had set off a full 12 hours late, it turned into a 2 night/one day trip instead of just the one night, so we congratulated ourselves on saving the cost of another night's accommodation. Not that accommodation was exactly pricey - based on the advice of one of our newfound shipboard friends, who had heard that the 'Heart Motel' was *the* place to stay in Nkhata Bay, a group of us all turned up there, little knowing that our information was a little out of date and the new place to stay was down by the water - indeed the Heart Motel had seen better days and travellers were few and far between. The elderly proprietor, Mr Phillips, was sent for by one of his 38 (no not a misprint) children, and was so overwhelmed with excitement to see 7 guests arrive at once, that he insisted that we wait a few minutes and he re-emerged wearing his best brown suit so he could welcome us properly. Our rooms cost a princely $1 per night, and one of his wives (I believe he had eight) would cook amazingly tasty meals of local fish from the lake, which we ate on the verandah with the meals being passed through a hole in the wall from what we assumed was the kitchen. At one point I looked through there and discovered it was a dusty yard where our dinner was being cooked over an open fire.
Even away from the backpacker bubble, Malawi impressed us for its friendliness, order and calm. At the time I believe it was one of the ten poorest countries in the world yet it was spotlessly clean and life seemed a lot less harsh than in the neighbouring countries. We caught a local bus from Nkhata Bay to the local town, Mzuzu, and from there a long and bumpy mtatu ride up to the Tanzanian border, but everywhere we went the people were unfailingly friendly and welcoming. I'd dearly love to go back.
I have such happy memories of travelling overland through Malawi in 1999. At the time I was just over 3 months into 6 months of travel in Africa, and we'd had a fairly punishing schedule doing a circuit of South Africa, Lesotho, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Swaziland and back to South Africa, all in a borrowed VW Jetta. The second phase of the trip was heading north to Kenya overland, via any form of transport we could find, and we arrived in Malawi after a pretty epic 36hour bus ride from Johannesburg, complete with interiminable multi-hour border crossings, and in my case still suffering from a bout of malaria. The bus took us to Blantyre, and the following day we got a painfully slow local bus to Monkey Bay at the southern end of Lake Malawi, and from there caught a ride on the back of a bakkie (the local term for a pickup) to Cape Maclear, which on the overlander's circuit was reputed as being a bit of a backpacker's heaven. With a string of cheap hostels, basic bars and simple restaurants along a golden sand beach with the warm waters of the lake in front and the green hills of the national park behind, cold beer and 'Malawi Gold' (the local variety of marijiuana) all in cheap and plentiful supply, so it turned out to be. There was absolutely no nightlife and the pace of life was glacial; the super-friendly locals would grill fish for you on the beach; and you could go snorkelling in the lake to admire the famous multicoloured chiclids, which look like tropical reef fish but live in fresh water. We rapidly discovered why people often needed to extend their visas...
From there we took a hilarious 2 day trip up the lake, in an ancient paddle steamer, to Nkhata Bay. Backpackers were able to travel 'deck class', which involved basically camping on the top deck. There was only deck or bench seats to sleep on, and only a shared loo, but there was a bar dispensing cold Carlsbergs for 38c each. And because the steamer had set off a full 12 hours late, it turned into a 2 night/one day trip instead of just the one night, so we congratulated ourselves on saving the cost of another night's accommodation. Not that accommodation was exactly pricey - based on the advice of one of our newfound shipboard friends, who had heard that the 'Heart Motel' was *the* place to stay in Nkhata Bay, a group of us all turned up there, little knowing that our information was a little out of date and the new place to stay was down by the water - indeed the Heart Motel had seen better days and travellers were few and far between. The elderly proprietor, Mr Phillips, was sent for by one of his 38 (no not a misprint) children, and was so overwhelmed with excitement to see 7 guests arrive at once, that he insisted that we wait a few minutes and he re-emerged wearing his best brown suit so he could welcome us properly. Our rooms cost a princely $1 per night, and one of his wives (I believe he had eight) would cook amazingly tasty meals of local fish from the lake, which we ate on the verandah with the meals being passed through a hole in the wall from what we assumed was the kitchen. At one point I looked through there and discovered it was a dusty yard where our dinner was being cooked over an open fire.
Even away from the backpacker bubble, Malawi impressed us for its friendliness, order and calm. At the time I believe it was one of the ten poorest countries in the world yet it was spotlessly clean and life seemed a lot less harsh than in the neighbouring countries. We caught a local bus from Nkhata Bay to the local town, Mzuzu, and from there a long and bumpy mtatu ride up to the Tanzanian border, but everywhere we went the people were unfailingly friendly and welcoming. I'd dearly love to go back.
That journey sounds like a really incredible journey. I was reading an autobiography the other day of someone who made a similar journey - I wish I could do/had the courage to/it was possible to make sure a journey now. Not sure geopolitics or my own anxiety makes it possible really.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Sadly never made it to status as honorary Malawian, but did enjoy trying to learn a few words anyway. I never tried an official border crossing, though.
Oh it's a real rule - you are allowed to take MWK 200 out of the country as of today (approx. US$0.30) and they still check pretty much every single time at the airports. They know me well enough nowadays at Blantyre airport, so they joke that "Bwana, your wife is not giving you Kwacha to take with you again?". Lilongwe will actually hand search your bags if you are on the ET, KQ or SA flights (but usually can't be bothered if you are flying on Malawian).
The only time I have had an issue with currency was at the land border at Mchinji where they asked to see the purchase receipt for my US Dollars being taken into Zambia - ironically they didn't care about the Kwacha there. I didn't have one since I had brought the dollars into the country from abroad, but fortunately I had a currency declaration from a previous trip that they scrutinised suspiciously (since they had probably never seen one before!) before letting us go. Didn't hurt that my wife gave them a scolding in Chichewa for trying to harass us. Eventually they got some small small for Fanta once everything was done and dusted.
The only time I have had an issue with currency was at the land border at Mchinji where they asked to see the purchase receipt for my US Dollars being taken into Zambia - ironically they didn't care about the Kwacha there. I didn't have one since I had brought the dollars into the country from abroad, but fortunately I had a currency declaration from a previous trip that they scrutinised suspiciously (since they had probably never seen one before!) before letting us go. Didn't hurt that my wife gave them a scolding in Chichewa for trying to harass us. Eventually they got some small small for Fanta once everything was done and dusted.
Jun 17, 2020, 12:53 am
#21
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: SYD
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Posts: 5,350
Your reply prompted me to google Mulanje, and it looks absolutely stunning. I didn't realise Malawi had landscapes like that. Another reason to go back one day!!
Jun 19, 2020, 7:24 am
#24
Original Poster
Join Date: May 2015
Location: Maastricht, unless I'm out.
Programs: BAEC, Flying Blue, Eurostar, Miles&Smiles
Posts: 321
Thank you! Kind of you to say. Heartily recommend exploring as much as you can, and if you're in the region, Malawi is worth a stop. Very laid back life, though I would swerve the cities and head out into the wide yonder.
Jun 23, 2020, 11:28 am
#25
Join Date: Nov 2008
Programs: Flying Blue, Diamond Club
Posts: 782
Fingers crossed that your projets will resume asap.
Thanks for the info about Malawi/Mozambique border. Quite unique situation
!