10th August:
Slight change of plans. I realised that to get to Nkhotakota I would have to go back to Nkhata bay and then take a 6 hour minibus which wasn't even definitely gonna turn up. Joy asked me what I was seeing in Nkhotakota and I actually didn't really know. So instead I'm staying another night in Mzuzu and getting the 6am AXA coach to Lilongwe (the capital where I flew into) and then going straight to Cape Maclear via Monkey Bay that afternoon. Only issue is that Joy's place is fully booked tonight, and I would've been happy to camp in their tent had there not been a huge rainstorm last night. So I called up Mzoozoozoo and they gave a spare bed in the dorm. Apparently it's quite grim/brothel-ey there though :/
I went on a little walk round Mzuzu to get some money out and visit Dapp- like the Malawian version of TK Max (loads of nice second hand clothes, often good labels, for tuppence). I started off at the Shoprite and came out with socks, apples and the Malawian version of wine gums. I then tried a few different ATMs to see if my Caxton or my Visa cards worked... They didn't. Although I managed to take a grand total of 10,000 kwacha out on one of my attempts at one of the ATMs. I came across Dapp accidentally, wandering through the streets of Mzuzu. It was like a really weird charity shop with the racks of clothes. There was a guy shouting out blahblahblah300blahblah through his little speakerphone which was a bit bizarre, I felt like I was at an auction. I came out with a couple things for 300 each!! (That's like 30p!) and one of them was a nice soft jumper from Pull and Bear in good condition!
On my way out I met a guy called Justin who knows everyone at Butterfly (AJ, Kumbu, Ez, Thoko, Meg and Kyle, etc) and he gave a lift to Sam last week!
On my way back to Joy's Place I stopped at every ATM I came across, many of which I'd already tried once or twice before! I even went all the way to the one I tried last night but that didn't work either so I gave up.
After going back to Joy's Place to pay and collect my bags I headed off to Mzoozoozoo (also known as The Zoo), not realising the map proportions in my travel guide book are completely off. Half an hour later I was still walking along with quite a few kgs on my bag, and carrying my other smaller backpack on my front like a pregnant tummy replicator. I felt like a rucksack sandwich!
Eventually got to Mzoozoozoo (with no signposts! quite proud of my map reading skills) and got shown to my room. No one else was around, it felt really empty and lonely. I hit a bit of a low this evening missing everyone from Butterfly, and knowing that its only an hour away and I could just hop in a minibus and stay the night there. But I kept telling myself I have to stick to my plans cause otherwise I'll regret not seeing all the country I want to visit.
Snuck out into the main reception area to ask the guy at the desk about a taxi for 5am tomorrow morning to the bus station. As soon as I opened the door there were about 10 local men staring at me. They all wanted to know my name and where I was from, etc, the usual small talk that everyone asks mazungus. One guy was called Dot Com... That's gonna be added onto my list of great names! Another guy came up to me who I recognised, and started chatting to me about when we were in Nkhata bay together. I still can't remember exactly how I know him though...
All packed up for another big long day of travelling
I can see why people said it was a bit brothel-ey
I can see why people said it was a bit brothel-ey
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