sixteen

So, I’ve just returned from an amazing trip to Malawi with Olivia and Naveed! It was one of the most beautiful places I have ever been in my life, and it was probably the cheapest trip ever. So, basically, everyone should go to Malawi. Specifically, everyone should go to Nkhata Bay and stay at Mayoka Village because the people are amazing, the food is SOOOOO good, the water is clear and there are so many fish.

Now, after I returned from Tanzania, I vowed to never go on another long distance bus trip. Clearly, I was made to eat my words. This trip wasn’t so bad though. The worst part was that the bus left so early, 0500 from Lusaka and 0600 from Lilongwe. On top of that, we had to be there half an hour early. GAH! We barely got any sleep. Luckily, we were able to sleep on the bus.

We arrived in Lilongwe around 1800, and right away went to get some food with people we met on the bus. I had a delicious burger. I hate it when you get to a new place and you don’t know what the currency conversion is. It always confuses me a lot. I learned quickly though, and my burger, it was only $3! Excellent!!

We stayed in a hostel in Lilongwe for one night before we took a bus up to Nkhata Bay, a super short distance on the map, but a 6 hour bus ride. So many buses. Naveed was not a happy camper, and shook his head a lot. The day before we left for Lilongwe, Olivia and Naveed had taken the bus from Livingstone to Lusaka, so that’s three days of bus rides for them. Lame.

We arrived in Nkhata Bay around 1700. When we got to our hotel, they told us that they were having a buffet for dinner. Baller. We had fish, potatoes, salad, ratatouille, and I think something else. Can I just say that it was amazing? This dinner made up for all the bus rides. Oh, and the fish was caught in the lake that day, grilled whole on the barbeque, and we each got a whole fish. I ate a fish that had a head and a tail still attached. GROSS!!

The next day, we went swimming and snorkelling. Pretty much our whole trip involved us just swimming, snorkelling, reading and playing Monopoly Deal. Can I just say that Monopoly Deal is the best card game in existence? It is so much fun, we played it every single day for probably at least an hour a day. So Good.

The food at Mayoka Village was the best food ever. Well, maybe not, but it was so good and so cheap. For the whole week we were there we spent less than $150 each for everything. WHAT!? That’s unheard of. There was pizza night twice, we had burgers, lasagne, sandwiches, bruschetta, pancakes, muesli, shak shuka, so much food. The one thing we did not have was icecream. Everyday we asked if there was icecream and there never was. SHAAAAAAME!

Oh, that’s another thing we did. We watched a lot of Modern Family. We watched the whole first season. Best show ever? Probably.

Ok, the fish. There were so many fish and they were so colourful. This is a lake we’re talking about. Blue, yellow, purple, white, black, orange. Beautiful. There are over 500 species in the lake and 99% of them occur only in Lake Malawi. There are also these crazy lake flies that look like smoke, but are actually bugs flying over the lake. Google it.

Now, we’re back in Lusaka until Boxing Day. Then, we will be going to Banani for a few days before coming back to Lusaka on the 29th. On the 30th, we’re flying to CAPE TOWN!! I am so excited. We’re going to eat so much food and see penguins.

Ok, Happy Christmas!!

LYLT!!!