Into Zambia!!
on Kev in Tanzania (Tanzania), 17/Sep/2009 10:18, 34 days ago
Thursday 3rd SeptemberWe woke up early to try and get over the border and see if we can use our tickets on another bus as they are valid all the way to Lusaka (so far we had only got as far as the border– around half way!)We had a quick breakfast and discovered that saying you do not want the free chai (tea) causes all sorts of confusion...We found a bus company called Falcon (much better that Taqwa or‘Faqwa’ as I now call it…) they let us travel using our current tickets which was nice as we did not have to pay extra. Immigration was fine although the lady wrote 7 days rather than 10 days on my VISA – luckily I noticed and she changed it for me. Going over the border was smooth and wewalked over no-mans land to Nakonde, the Zambian border town.We were told that we would have to wait for the bus to leave at 4pm– this meant lots of waiting around again but my phone worked and we had each other for company so there was lots of chatting and games. We also did some exploring but not too far.We change a little money (on the black market…) Sat outside some buildings in the shade and waited. It was nice though, had we been in Tunduma we would have been pestered by touts, the Zambians were much nicer and left us in peace. We had a fantastic lunch of rice, beans and yummy veg for 5000 kwacha (only 60p for both of us!!). $20 gets90,000 kwacha.Liz had a smoke as the last few days were stressing her out a little bit and she wanted me to have a nice journey. I was having a good time and told her so. She is a good travel buddy. I made her feel guilty about the smoke but she has done well quitting up until then.Bus left 30 minutes late and took 13 hours to reach Lusaka. We were sat near the back but the trip was fine– for us at least... We were stopped twice by immigration and one guy on the bus on two separate occasions looked like he was going to get into a fight with the conductors. Managed to sleep on the over night bus, think if was at the front I would have been scared of accidents.Friday 4th SeptemberWe arrived in Lusaka at 5am and using the guidebook walked to a hostel only to find it was shut… We then tried Cha cha cha backpackers and were able to book a room.We had breakfast at Central Park café and decided that Lusaka is quite nice. We bought our tickets for Livingstone for the next day and decided today to travel 200km to Kapiri Mposhi to check that our train tickets were ok for the journey back to Tanzania. We had to catch a little Dala dala which was cramped and the journey took around 3 hours.Once at the TAZARA station we were told tickets‘should’ be ok and to just turn up next week when we want to board the train… Liz wondered if it was a wasted trip but its good to check as our ticket was sold in Tanzania and although cramped and hot on the way back to Lusaka it was still a good holiday with the best yet to come!We got back to Lusaka, had a nice shower and then went out to a local Indian for some food. It was scrumptious and we got try the local beer‘Mosi’ which helped wash down the food.We had an early night as were catching the 7.30am bus in the morning (hopefully it would be the last bus for a few days!!)Next: Livingstone!