July 30, 2010 – Karonga, Malawi to Mbeya, Tanzania
Today we plan to enter Tanzania but in order to do so, we need breakfast.
We head over to our favourite restaurant in Karonga to check out our options and we’re told they consist of eggs, tea and chips in any combination we want. We opt for the egg, tea and chips combo which is greasy… perfect for a long day of travel.
After we check out of our hotel, we grab a “shared taxi” to the border and then walk across the bridge into Tanzania. From there we walk 1km to the bus station, where we then catch a mini-bus to the town of Mbeya. Mbeya is about a 4-hour drive to the border, once you factor in construction, people pick-ups and police checkpoints.
Our journey goes without a hitch thanks to a helpful Tanzanian border officer who not only provides us with an explanation about our visas, but also lets us know the “real” price for the bus to Mbeya and not the “mzungu price”. “Mzungu” is the Swahili word for “white person” or “foreigner”, which you will inevitably get used to being called by almost every taxi driver, bus driver, random child or any other person trying to make a buck off of you.
Our bus ride starts off rough with us having to stand shoulder-to-shoulder in the aisles with 10 other people, but eventually the crowd thins out and Eric and I manage to score the best seats – single windows all to ourselves.
The hardest thing of the day is finding a place to stay, but even then we only have to go to three different places before we find a small guesthouse.
After finding a bite to eat and strolling around the town for a bit, we call it an early night – tomorrow we’re heading to Iringa and we have to catch our bus at 5:30am, which means we have to be up around 4:30am… not looking forward to it!
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