Heading to Blantyre, Malawi
Good day on this April 7th. Now in Malawi. So time to make it to Blantyre. I had changed my plans to go north straight away since I have now an engagement on Sunday the 12th where I should be able to meet someone at the airport in Lilongwe, which is the capital. So that gives me time to go to Blantyre and sort out a few things there.
The Road to Blantyre
The road to there — the distance is not that great, and I really appreciate that because then I get to my destination at a reasonable time in the early afternoon, early to mid-afternoon, and that is a good time to find a place to stay. The scenery never is boring, but the road still has a little bit of potholes, but wasn’t anything like what I did the day before. So that all worked out okay. Every country has its own flavors, and even the street scene just changes. It’s different every time.
First Impressions of Blantyre
First Impressions of BlantyreIt turns out that Blantyre is just a spread out city, but it seems more like a collection of little villages. There isn’t much of a downtown. There’s a busy area, but that’s about it.
Staying at Chinyonga Guesthouse
It was time to find a place, and I ended up taking some less than smooth roads to get to where I ended up, which is the Chinyonga Guesthouse. It was situated on a hill, and from the rooms you have quite a nice territorial view. It even has a small swimming pool and built-in exercise, since all the rooms require some steps to be taken. It was reasonably priced. The receptionist had started there in 2012 when they only had 2 rooms, and now they have 14 rooms, and they feel like they can add 2 more at some point in time. Very, very nice people, very friendly. It was really a good choice.
Meeting Eros the Bubble Man
I ended up talking to one of the other people there — Eros, who is a Belgian that works in Germany, but he goes by bubblesforfun.com. He’s a bubble man who does street bubbles, and he has done that for many, many years. He is 45 now and he did some of that time in South America, in Peru and other places. We had some interesting conversations — he’s kind of done with being on the road and now wants a more permanent situation. Good luck on that, Eros.
Conversations About Selling the Car
We talked about me wanting to sell the car, and he had a conversation with a friend, Andrew, that is in Lilongwe, who suggested that I just leave the car there and don’t worry about it. Well, we’ll see where that goes. I think I need a little bit more information than that.
Dinner and Evening Walk
They were also able to serve dinner at the restaurant that they have, but it’s just for guests, so they just do an occasional dinner. I always like that — then I don’t have to drive anywhere. I was able to do a bit of a walk higher up the hill and picked up some more views. It’s a fascinating place, but not a real city in my book. Thanks for coming along. See you tomorrow.
