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I had never heard of Malawi before let alone Nkhata Bay. It was on my travels in 1998, that I stumbled accross this little fishing village in Malawi. After a bumpy, wet and very uncomfortable bus ride with a Malawian football team, we arrived in a town called Muzuzu, which is the largest ... Read review
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Advantages: Small & Friendly Disadvantages: Lose track of time
...of Malawi before let alone Nkhata Bay. It was on my travels in 1998, that I stumbled accross this little fishing village in Malawi. After a bumpy, wet and very uncomfortable bus ride with a Malawian football team, we arrived in a town called Muzuzu, which is the largest town in North Malawi. As it was early hours of the morning we asked to be dropped off at the nearest hostel so we could have a wash down and a good sleep before deciding on our next ... ...in the world was in Nkhata Bay, so Nkahata Bay here we come.
The bus station was about a 10 minute hike away where we purchased our one way ticket to Nkhata Bay. Six hours later we were still waiting for our bus to arrive and to the amusment t of the local children we found out we were waiting in the wrong queue. After the kind ticket master agreeed to let us travel the next day with the same tickets we decided to call it a day and try again ... more
Well where can I start....the beginning I hear you cry !. I had never heard of Malawi before let alone Nkhata Bay. It was on my travels in 1998, that I stumbled accross this little fishing village in Malawi. After a bumpy, wet and very uncomfortable bus ride with a Malawian football team, we arrived in a town called Muzuzu, which is the largest town in North Malawi. As it was early hours of the morning we asked to be dropped off at the nearest hostel so we could have a wash down and a good sleep before deciding on our next destination. The next morning we woke up and flicked through our much used lonely planet and found that the cheapest scuba diving in the world was in Nkhata Bay, so Nkahata Bay here we come. The bus station was about a 10 minute hike away where we purchased our one way ticket to Nkhata Bay. Six hours later we were still waiting for our bus to arrive and to the amusment t of the local children we found out we were waiting in the wrong queue. After the kind ticket master agreeed to let us travel the next day with the same tickets we decided to call it a day and try again tomorrow. Waking up bright and early we made sure we were in the front of the queue at the correct bus stop this time. Thank god we were at the front, as, as soon as the bus arrived it was a free for all and when you are carrying a very large backpack on your pack can get fairly scary. Luckily the conductor saw the pure fear in our face and let us board first. After a mere hour or so we reached the end of the road, luckily for us it was Nkhata Bay....here at last !. We headed through the town, passed the football field, alongside the prison to a little local run hostel called Tiffwanani, which we later found out to be the local brothel and Tiffwanani meaning 'name your price'....this was to be home for the next six weeks, remember what I said about losing track of time, well I did. The rooms were very basic with corrogated roof, well a sweat box really and for 40p who could complain. The owners were very nice and it had it's own bar.....YIPPEEE a bottle of carlesburg was about 30p and we used to smoke the renowned Malawian Gold and swig our lager whilst sitting in the garden area and timing the locals having their nightly tickle with Rosa and Maria........I even knew their names. The diving school is a NAWI run business, this is basically a non-profit organisation that employs the local villagers and plows all it's money into saving the enviroment. There being only three divers who had signed up for a diving course we were spoilt with attention from our teacher and enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere and superb diving in the fresh water lake. The food in Nkhata Bay was cheap and freshly made, whenever they didn't run out of food to cook, which happened on quite a few occassions, we had to scan the whole village for any restaurant that had food left and on a number of occassions had to settle for a packet of crisps and 20 ciggarettes from the supermarket. How could I forget the ciggies 20p a packet and superbly named ' LIFE ' and on every puff you could feel your life losing minutes. I am waffling far too much now, so will bring this review to an end. The only way out of Nkhata Bay without going back to Muzuzu is to catch a boat.....a three day excursion to the next port of call is another story............ My heart will always be in Nkhata Bay, where the locals are friendly, the beer is cheap, the food is good and the diving superb....what more could you ask for.
