Malawi - Lilongwe

We spent 3 days in Lilongwe before heading over the border to Chipata in Zambia. Lilongwe is an enjoyable city if not a little confusing as the districts are all referred to as Area 1, 2, 3 etc like some sort of communist throwback and roads have no names only plot numbers. The city is divided by the river and the new town is mainly large shopping malls and in the old town daily life follows a more traditional path with people queueing along the banks to see the local witchdoctor.

We enjoyed a game of crazy golf, a good steak at Don Brioni’s and a few drinks at Harry’s bar for Becs’ birthday (officially old now) and also spent a few hours scouring the street stalls for a Malawian Chair. In the end we bartered an Argos MP3 player for a beautifully ornate chief’s chair (for me obviously so we'll get a camping stool for Becs). We were lucky to only part with the mp3 player as the carpenter was pretty keen on fleecing me (literally - he wanted my fleece) and getting his hands on my walking boots.

Lilili, Lilili, Long, Lilili, Lilili, Long, Lilong, Lilong, Longwe

Having posted the chair home we looked back to the market place to see 6 men crowded round the MP3 player and started to desperately hope that they could work out how to delete the songs currently on it. They might enjoy the Arctic Monkeys but I'm not so sure when they come across the Becs' Hen Do versions of the Foundations and Madonna.