It took me 3 days to get to Livingstone – where I was attending the AGM of Pharmaceutical Society of Zambia. The journey was CRAZY (not less exciting than the stories in ‘Journey to the West’.. indeed I was travelling west!)
With no money to fly, all journeys were made by route –but comes in different vehicles.
I had the most luxurious time getting a lift from Blantyre to Lilongwe (in the car of one of the most famous doctors in Malawi! LOL!) – well this must thank my housemate who pulled the string of course I myself would have no access to the most famous people!
I stayed at a backpacker hostel called Mabuya Camp (with the initial intention to sleep in a tent but I realised it was impossible the moment I arrived – it was just too cold!!) in Lilongwe Sunday night with the plan to get a coach to Lusaka Tuesday morning. Then these two people walked into my plan (and indeed my life!) and nothing went according to plans from the moment we met.. these two American blokes are crazy, very crazy, and very fun to be with (this I found out later of course, not the first moment we met)! We checked into the same dorm at the same time with a raised eyebrow from me as they never were too embarrassed to talk about just anything with me even during the very first minutes we met! So in the very first hour we met it was made very clear that they both enjoyed SEX – one kept saying Asian girls ‘are the best’ while the other one was used to be a porn star.. oh my god – so I was going to sleep overnight here, within inches away from these two sex maniacs?!!? Things got worse when light suddenly went off – the whole room was dark, and two stupid batteries I bought for my torch were (again!!) just fake batteries. All I had now was just the light from my mobile phone which also was running out of battery..
Most people went for a drink at the bar in the living hall. I continued to write with my laptop. And strange enough these two SMs didn’t join the rest for drinks instead just lied in the bed chatting. They teased me here and there thinking I didn’t speak much English. Oh of course I didn’t keep quiet and started to counter-‘bully’ (verbally). Conversation flew and I became quite comfortable with them as I found out these two SMs actually spoke something of substance. They said they were film makers but of course I didn’t believe a word of it. I spent quite some time to make it very clear about my disinterest in their ‘interest’ and tried to bore them with lots of facts until they said ‘oh you’ve read too much books!’ – no guys are interested in nerdy girls so that perhaps the best I could do for protection (which later I found to be absolutely unnecessary – they’re in fact great guys who not only think with the lower parts of their body lol!)
Oh by the way come back to the business of the journey. Because of these two blokes who also travelling to Livingstone, I followed them to hunt for coach ticket the next morning. Unfortunately we were told it took 17 hours to get to Lusaka from Lilongwe.. ohh forget it! at the same time some local people suggested to us to just take a minibus to get to Chipata (the town where the Zambia-Malawi border is) then we could get frequent coaches from Chipata to Lusaka. I was a bit hesitant about travelling in minibuses with my suitcase – you know you could just end up having it lying by the roadside or broken into pieces or smashed or god knows what.. well Mr C’s rucksack smelt fish as it was stuffed underneath lots of fish during their previous minibus trip!
Anyway I was faced with two choices: go with them in the minibus or being left alone to travel the 17-hour coach ride. I think I didn’t really think sensibly but I was sure I didn’t want to be left alone again. So I hopped on the adventure – but there was a little trouble if I needed to go with them. I needed to give my laptop to the doctor friend (who gave me a lift from Blantyre to Lilongwe) as I definitely did not want to risk my laptop with one-week travel in Zambia, especially when I travel with minibuses!
I made the craziest decision so far ever in trusting strangers – I didn’t know why I trusted these two blokes. I gave them my suitcase and asked them to wait for me while I rushed to the hospital to give my laptop to my doctor friend. You know at that moment I was worried, and very unsure of the risk I was taking – I could risk losing everything in the suitcase. I knew them for just a night and I trusted them that sounds crazy huh.. perhaps!
But you know what that was one of the life-changing experiences I had (I had many while I was with these two crazy Americans). I felt free.. I actually felt FREE of attachment of this worldly belonging of my suitcase. Because I knew I might lose it anyway, I need to be detached in order to stay sane. At that moment I felt I could lose anything – take away my money, take away my passport, my research data, even my life – nothing is certain in life, if you choose to live, you choose to take risk that could befall you anytime. So be FREE..! it may sound illogical here that a small incidence could trigger such thought but yeah.. that was indeed enlightening for me.
Anyway the ride from Lilongwe to Chipata was an uneventful one. My suitcase arrived in one piece, without smell (!). Anyway even if it didn’t, I think I could handle it. On arrival to the border, guess what happened – I had expected the border should be a vibrant city selling lots of food, having bureau de change, banks, bus stands to greet tourists/people who cross the border as it is a popular spot to cross the border. But NO, nothing you could predict in Africa really – it was just a dull, forgotten place with a few blocks of immigration buildings. No food at all. No banks – but ‘moving banks’ yes.. i.e. the black market money changer. And they flushed in like bees – you know when you are attacked by bees how it is. we refused to be stung by all these irritating bees but they keep on pestering us ‘sister! Sister! Come back to me! I give you good rate! GOOD RATE!!’ ‘Ok how much you want? Give me a price! HOW MUCH? HOW MUCH??’ ‘remember me ok! Remember me! Best rate I can give you!’................................ OH MY GOD!!!!!!!!!!!
We had no Zambian kwacha with us. That means we had to change some with these black market people. Luckily I found a small bureau de change hidden beside the immigration. We had some changed as the rate wasn’t great.
And there was no bus stand. Unlike what we were told (to get frequent buses from Chipata to Lusaka), there was just NO public transport. What choice did we have?? No choice – we only had black market cab drivers who obviously wanted to change the ‘mzungu price’. I was so relieved I had both of them with me – I couldn’t imagine how panic I would be if I were to be swamped by all these crazy men.
After rounds of haggling and pretending not to get the cab and bla bla bla, we settled on a reasonable price offered by one of the cab drivers. On arrival to Chipata town where we were supposed to catch the ‘frequent’ coach to Lusaka, guess what is next – there was NO bus until next morning. And how we found that out? From an old lady who was sitting by a ticket selling counter – as we believed nobody! Once we got out from the cab, we were again swamped by too many guys who accused each other of telling lies ‘Take my bus I give you the best price!’.. ‘Don’t listen to them! They’re lying! Come to my coach!’.. ‘come here at 4 hours tomorrow and my bus is sure here!’... ‘DON’T BELIEVE THEM! THEY ARE LYING!!’ ......................OH SOMEBODY HELP ME!!!!
That’s the thing we keep getting when travelling around Zambia – everybody says the other person is lying and only he (no she – it’s always the guys who mess you around) tells the truth! And who do you trust?!? There’s nothing that looks trustable around you just have to pray you make the right decision!
As the coach came only the next morning we had to put up a night in Chipata town. We met the manager of a guest house who wanted to marry Mr D the first minute she saw him haha.. in Africa managers of guest houses manage EVERYTHING – from room service, payment to food catering (not just ordering food but cooking the food for the customers!). That’s why she felt so over-worked and just wanted to leave the country (by marrying Mr D!).
Now the issue is about whether taking a room by myself or to share a room with a porn star and somebody who kept saying ‘Asian girls are the best’ (!!).. if I took a room to myself I would have not enough cash for coach next morning – so did I have a choice? No, I looked absolutely confident with staying one room with them (they slept on a double bed and I on the couch) but god only knows how nervous I was! I was clutching a rape alarm and a pair of pliers (!!!) with me the whole night and was awake immediately when somebody moved.
Fortunately 4am came very quickly – I was the ‘military’ (that’s what they called me) who forced everybody to wake up on time. I didn’t want to miss the bus of course! When we finally dragged our luggage to the bus stand, there was another gush of bus drivers pestering us to buy bus tickets from them. My trip mates were never tired to get to beat the price down. So we moved our luggage from one bus to the other after they managed to haggle the price down from 95,000 to 80,000 – saving 15,000 (which is equivalent to about £2). I didn’t agree but I usually did not have chance to disagree!
Well anyway the bus was ok we got to Lusaka after about 8 hours. In fact there was no difference in taking any of the buses. The buses were racing with each other on the way and when they overtook another bus, the passengers in the bus would cheer!
We arrived Lusaka Inter-city Bus Terminus at 1pm and we got tickets to depart to Livingstone at 230pm. I was very lucky to have a friend in Lusaka who fetched us to the town for money exchange, lunch and toilet in 1 hour – we were running from toilet to ATM to bureau de change to supermarket.. ohh crazy!!
Well we got back to the bus terminus at 215pm and guess what the bus left at 220pm. Imagine if we were ‘late’ the bus could have left without us and we had to stay a day in Lusaka though we already bought the tickets!
The coach promised to take us to Livingstone within 6 hours but in the end it took 8 hours. We were sooooooo tired.......... I couldn’t think anymore I just checked in the same hostel (and the same dorm again) with them and all I could think of was just sleeeeeeeeeep!!
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