Leaving South Luwanga, I arrived in the town of Chipata around 6:00am, about 20km from the border. Normally, this would be a pretty good time to get a shared taxi or bus to the border, but being in complete travel mode at this point, I had forgotten it was a Sunday. Few people were traveling, limiting my options and bargaining power. Eventually, I bargained for a reasoanable rate to the border with a stop at the atm to pay the fare as by this time I was completely out of local Zambian currency. The atm limits so far have been annoyingly small.

I changed some money at the border for I’m sure less than optimal rates, but looking around, the chances of me finding an atm any time soon on the other side was highly unlikely. After helping a local man fill out an immigration form, I waited 5 minutes and paid $75 USD for a 30 day visa for Malawi and grabbed a shared taxi to the bus station, where I got on a minibus/shared van crammed with people and arrived in Lilongwe a couple of hours later, at around 10:30am. I was dropped off pretty close to the hostel I was camping at, so trekked up the hill, happy to walk and stretch my legs after so many hours in transit.

Somewhere along the way I had lost my bathing suit and sarong, so my main goal in Lilongwe was to replace them, buy a sim card to get internet, get cash and figure out how to get to Lake Malawi as I was in serious need of chill beach time. None of these tasks proved that easy. I encountered crazy lines for atms and sim cards, and no bathing suits to be found anywhere. I was helped to a line-free atm that the locals didn’t seem to like because it was new, and to a sim card guy for a small fee, by a couple of locals hoping to sell art to me. I let them help me as everyone is really friendly in Malawi, so I’ve tried to be less jaded. Plus the line to get a sim at the store was crazy long. I was happy to overpay a bit.

I did some research and found the biggest mall in Lilongwe (it had about 10 stores total) and tried to walk there but then realized it was an hour away and got picked up by a friendly local who dropped me in front. Bathing suit shopping is hard at home, so I grabbed some food first and then found 3 stores that sold bathing suits (about 2 each) and managed to find one that miraculously fit and it wasn’t crazy expensive. I was ready for the lake.

I ended up checking out Sunday night jazz at the fancy botanical gardens in the city for a couple of hours, before heading the next morning for the bus station to grab a bus to Monkey Bay, before the taxi ride to Cape Mclear, my final destination. I was put on a minibus with a few other passengers and waited until it filled up so we could leave. Anticipating the delay, I had brought my Kobo, so didn’t notice too much as 1.5 hours lapsed. Finally, we started to creep out of the bus station when smoke appeared in the distance and people started to run. We started to try and speed out of the station, but got caught up with everyone else trying to do the same. At the same time, my eyes and mouth started to burn and everyone started coughing. It was a bit terrifying. 

After a small crash with another minibus, we managed to get out of the bus station and the gas evaporated and I could breathe again. The next 5 hours of the very slow trip to Monkey Bay was comparatively uneventful, with some nice views, a million stops and some nuts the driver shared with me. I did have some instant noodles fall on me from above my head in the shared taxi to Cape Mclear.

Finally, safe in Cape Mclear, I surmised that it must have been tear gas, which the police threw to clear the people from meeting to deter more protests that had been taking place since the recent elections. It’s unclear to me if people don’t trust the results of the election, or are just unhappy with the results. It’s also unclear to me how the police could be surprised by large numbers of people milling about the bus station.