From Lilongwe to the South Luangwa National Park in Zambia

Brightly coloured shop fronts were a feature of our holiday

This is the second in a series of posts from my recent holiday to Malawi and Zambia.

I only had one worry before our holiday, and that was getting to the South Luangwa National Park in time for our safari. We'd turned down the expensive private taxi ($500) and decided to opt for public transport. A journey which would involve a bus, taxi, international border crossing, second taxi, another bus and then somehow making it from the nearest town to our safari lodge. Could we make all the connections and complete our journey in one day?

I was woken at 4:30am by noises coming from outside our window and the smell of smoke wafting in. When I plucked up the courage to poke my head out through the curtains I saw that a man had dig a fire pit and was placing sweet potatoes inside. No doubt hoping to sell them later in the day.

We left our guesthouse at 6am and walked down to the bus station. We got the last two seats on a minibus to Mchinji and were off in no time. The journey was a pretty efficient 2hrs. There weren't many other vehicles on the road, just lots of bicycles, some carrying incredible amounts of produce on the back. The journey cost us 1,500 MWK / £3 each.

When we got to Mchinji a few taxi touts crowded the bus trying to get our fare. The only hassled us for a couple of minutes, but once we walked about 10m away from the bus they left us alone. I was thankfully they weren't too persistent. We bought some freshly fried chips from a local street stall. They were a bit undercooked and got our hands incredibly greasy, but was a quintessential Malawian experience.

After breakfast we headed back to the taxis and hopped straight in one heading for the border (500 MWK / £1).

The five hour wait for our minibus to fill up

 When we got the border the money changers pounced on us, but again they weren't particularly persistent. There were no obvious signs telling us what to do, but we found the Malawian immigration post who were friend and efficient and stamped us out of the country.

We then walked over to the Zambian border post who were even more friendly. We had to pay $50 for our tourist visa but they didn't check the expensive Yellow Visa vaccination certificates we had done in London before leaving.

After getting our visa stamp we walked into Zambia. The money changers followed us (they didn't seem to worry about the border!) as we headed for the taxis to Chipata. We didn't want to change money on the black market and agreed with the taxi driver we could pay him once we'd reached town and found a bank.

We were crammed into the taxi with seven of us (including the driver) sharing the ride into town. One person even tried to hope in and share the drivers seat as well! When we got into town the Foreign Exchange Bureau was closed, which probably shouldn't have surprised us on a Sunday. We ended up having to change enough money with the rude, and racist ("stupid white brains"), black market money changers so that we could pay the taxi driver (15 ZMK / £3).

We escaped across the road to a small shopping centre and found a much more civilised Barclays ATM where we were able to withdraw some money.

Half build house with rustic bricks, a typical feature by the roadside

We were following an excellent article on Wikitravel to help us plan our journey. The article gave the phone number of the minibus driver in and we texted him to arrange a pick up. While I'd popped into the supermarket to collect some supplies he arrive in a 10 tonne truck to pick us up! It was the first time I'd been in a truck that large and it was quite fun to hop into the cab for the drive round to the bus station.

We'd just missed the morning bus to Mfuwe (nearest town to the National Park), but were in time for the afternoon bus. We had a five hour wait in the bus station until the minibus had filled up and was ready to depart. It could have been incredibly tedious, but it wasn't. We'd made it to Chipata in time for the bus and that meant we should get to our safari lodge on time.

We read and watch the world go by. We saw men holding hands, a unlikely sight in the West and something I haven't seen in India. We ate snacks from some of the sellers that came round (popcorn, a potato pie and hard boiled egg) and just chilled out.

When the bus was full, they somehow packed all of the accumulated luggage into the minibus, and finished everything off with an amp and obligatory boom box and portable DVD player and we were off into the Zambian countryside. The boot didn't close, but our bags looked like they had been tied down pretty securely. Best not to think about whether they'd be there at the other end.

A typical market from our trip

I loved driving through the Zambian countryside as the sun set, the landscape went a beautiful golden colour. The road was about 60% tarmac and 40% gravel. We saw lots of cyclists and people walking along the side of the road. Bags of homemade charcoal lining the roadside for sale, mud bricks drying in the sun, small hamlets of a few mud huts and local markets.

It was pitch back by the time we arrived in Mfuwe town. After the sun had gone down I was able to catch glimpses of houses a bit further back in the bush, illuminated by fires and the odd electric bulb.

We'd negotiated that our minibus would take us direct to our lodge (100 ZMK / £20). When we arrived the safari lodge had a definite wow factor. Our safari was going to be good.

From London to Lilongwe

I've just returned from two weeks in Malawi and Zambia. While travelling I kept a dairy in a notebook I was carrying. I'm going to transcribe my diary, with a few photos from each day, onto the blog.

We  took an overnight flight from London to Nairobi. It was an old plane and my seat was awful with virtually no cushioning. I woke up during the night with a sore bum so packed my blanket under my seat cushion and went back to sleep.

We had a three hour lay over in Nairobi airport before our flight to Lilongwe in Malawi. The airport reminded me more of a small shopping bazaar, although not much was open so early in the morning. I was feeling pretty groggy after not getting much sleep on the flight, but after a breakfast bagel and smoothie in an airport café I picked up.

I slept for most of the flight down to Lilongwe. When we landed we were the only commercial plane at the airport, incredible how quiet it was for a capitol city. We got talking to a few teachers from England in the queue for immigration. They'd come out for two weeks to help train Malawian teachers.

There isn't any public transport into the city so we had to get an over priced taxi (12,000 MWK / £24) into the city. We cruised quite quickly into town, but hit a traffic jam as we approached the centre of the old town.

After checking into our spartan, but clean, guest house (6,000 MWK / £12 per night) we headed to the bus station to check out buses for our trip to Zambia the next day. We found out the international bus doesn't run on a Sunday so we'll be on the minibuses.

After the bus station we took a walk through the Lilongwe market and had BBQ chicken and nsima (a maize based carb) from one of the stalls. The nsima was bland stodge that needed all the added flavour I could soak up from my plate. I don't think it will become a favourite!

After the market we walked to a more modern shopping centre and visited three different supermarkets to check out some of the local produce. They didn't have a lot of fresh produce and reminded of Lidl / Aldi, not a huge range of unfamiliar brands displayed in boxes.

There weren't many other tourists in town.

We walked back to our hotel via a wooden toll bridge that cost us 20 MWK each.

For dinner we headed to Don Brioni's restaurant back near the shopping centre. It is run by an eccentric Englishman born in Oxford who like to mingle with his guests. The menu was western.

We were in bed by 9pm after a hot shower. I wasn't sure if such a cheap guest house would have hot water, but it did!

Restaurant Review: The King's Kitchen, Charlotte, North Carolina

 Cornmeal fried green tomatoes, chili aioli, black eyed pea salsa

When I learnt I was heading to Charlotte for work, even before I'd booked my flights, I started researching places to eat. It turns out that wasn't such a clever thing to do, as by the time I came to book the flight I wanted, it was full. But food research is more important, right?

I checked out a few of the Chowhound message boards and asked colleagues who had visited previously for advice. The recommendations coming back weren't terribly exciting, especially in the Uptown area where I'd be staying.

Queen City Q was suggested as the best BBQ in town. The tasting plate of 16 hour pulled pork, brisket, chicken and sides was enormous for a modestly priced $21, but it didn't knock my socks off.

I had a good chat with the lady from Manchester (England) who works at the Tic Toc Diner. Their sandwiches are filling and made to order, but nothing to write home about. Why the NY Strip Steak at Roosters Kitchen had to be smothered in an overpowering sauce I don't know. It ruined what would have been a good steak.

 

Aunt Beaut’s skillet fried chicken

I was beginning to despair slightly at Charlotte's food. On my final night I checked out the not for profit Kings Kitchen and had the best food of the week. All of the money raised by the restaurant is used to feed 'the poor' in Charlotte and the staff they hire are looking for a new beginning.

I started with the cornmeal fried green tomato, chilli aioli and black eyed pea salsa ($5). The salsa and aoili went well with the tomatoes. It was a nicely balanced dish.

They'd sold out of my first choice main course of the soft shell crab, so I went for the Aunt Beaut's fried chicken ($14) instead. The chicken came with a choice of three side and either corn bread of a biscuit. Not quite sure what a US biscuit was I chose the corn bread.

The chicken was moist and tender underneath it's very crisp and crunchy corn batter. The collard greens and braised green beans were the best I had of the week. There was a slight spice in the collard greens which I enjoyed. The mac 'n cheese was overly rich and didn't have any bite from the white cheese used, but that was the only let down in the dish.

I suspect my waiter on the night was one of the people being helped by the restaurant. He was friendly, efficient and confident in the recommendations he gave to me. I couldn't have asked for me.

The King's Kitchen
129 West Trade Street
Charlotte
NC 28202
USA
 

Charlotte, North Carolina

All roads lead to Charlotte

Last week I was over in Charlotte, North Carolina for a quick work trip. My previous visits to the US have been to New York (a few times) and weekend each in Las Vagas and San Francisco. This was my first visit to small city America and it wasn't quite what I expected.

As we descended into Charlotte airport I got my first glimpse of the town. The small city centre was dominated by a handful of sky scrapers and the rest of the area was as flat as a pancake. I was expecting to see huge sprawling suburbs / a concrete jungle. The suburbs were there, but the density was lower than I was expecting and there were lots of trees in amongst the houses.

Sculpture outside Museum of Modern Art

I caught a taxi into the city, checked into my hotel and decided to go for a walk round. It only took an hour and I'd walked virtually every street in the uptown area. In amongst the (limited) number of skyscrapers I was expecting a shopping mall and a bit bustle. Instead I found a very sleepy city.

In between the handful of sky scrappers were parking lots, vacant blocks, a few apartment buildings and very little else. I was really surprised to see hardly any shops, there certainly wasn't the shopping mall I had been expecting. The city centre seemed to consist of offices, a few hotels, restaurants to serve the office workers and virtually nothing else.

Charlotte Court House

The city was also pretty modern. There were a couple of heritage buildings around, but not many. Charlotte has tried with its public spaces. The streets are clean streets and there are quite a few large sculptures around the place.

Speaking to my colleagues in the office, all of the facilities / shops are out in the suburbs where they live. They all drive to work, drive home again at the end of the day and seem to love the lifestyle.

One of Charlotte's heritage buildings

While I was in Charlotte I met up with the Charlotte Running Club a couple of early morning runs round the city. They were hot, humid and jet lagged runs that weren't my finest, but it was good to meet up with some fellow runners and see parts of the city I wouldn't have otherwise reached.

I enjoyed my week in Charlotte. It's a clean, calm and safe feeling city. As a holiday destination I'm not sure how long it would keep you occupied, but it was great to see a different part of the USA.