MagnusAndCheryl

The Day Of The Con
Monday, May 07, 2007

What with Malawi being the "Warm Heart Of Africa" and Tanzania famed for its reserved and peace-loving people, we were expecting a sedate border crossing between the two countries. A surprise lay in wait.

It began early in the morning in Karonga, Malawi, near the northern border. Trying to get a minibus to the border we were waylaid by a group of youths insisting that the only way to get there was through their predictably exorbitant taxis. Their groans as we pushed past into the bus station told us all we needed to know and 10 minutes later we were on the way of a 3 hour ride for a paltry $2 each.

Reaching the border, we had some Malawian kwacha to change to Tanzanian currency. With the official Bureau de Change out of money (what is the point of a BdC if they don't have money?!), we accepted a reasonable rate from a dodgy-looking geezer on the street. The guys changing money at borders almost always look dodgy - reasonably so, since most-times they are trying to rip you off! However, being aware of that means a reasonable deal is possible if you keep your eyes open. This situation seemed dodgier than most, with a crowd of greedy-eyed guys huddling around to see how much cash we had. Our senses on alert, it didn't take much to notice the scheister had passed us only 8% of the value of our money. We grabbed our cash back, barged through the crowd and made for the safety of the border post.

Cheryl has been traveling on her Canadian passport to avoid being kidnapped and killed by Bush-hating anti-Americans. However, for the remainder of the trip we needed to switch back to her U.S. passport. Which, of course, turned out was a major problem for the border officials, since it would apparently require unspecified "out of protocol" bureaucratic processes. After a long discussion where light gradually dawned as to the way out of this impasse, our first (only?) bribe of the trip - a whopping $12 - was paid as an "expedited visa charge" and suddenly all our papers were in order.

Arriving in Mbeya, we switched buses to get into the centre of town and again were surrounded by a press of young men who blatantly attempted to pickpocket us - Cheryl violently slapped one hand that had drifted into her pockets like a mosquito.

Finally reaching our hotel - we collapsed inside, slamming the door behind us as if shutting out a maelstrom, hoping against hope that this would not be symptomatic of Tanzanian "hospitality".

Check our Latest Adventures section below for pictures and stories from South Africa or Botswana or Zambia.

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