I spent my last day in Malawi in the capital Lilongwe. There is a big
market, where one can find just anything. The afternoon I spent with
Guenter and his dog – with the typical Malawian name Anton – outside of
Lilongwe for a nice walk. This was rather interesting as Guenter could
explain many of the plants. He has even written a book about the plants
of Malawi.
The following day, I travelled to Zambia. Border crossings in this
part of Africa are usually very easy, you just turn up at the border,
pay usually 50. – US and then you go!
Finally, before in Lilongwe, I was able to solve my bank problem
which was left over from Karonga close to the border with Tanzania. At
that time I tried to pull out of the ATM the amount of 100. – Euro. I
got a receipt from the machine, but unfortunately, no money! The branch
in Karonga could not solve this problem. The whole thing was transferred
to Lilongwe with the statement that the money would be returned to the
credit card within the next 24 hours…. These were African 24 hours.
Nearly 2 weeks later I showed up at the headquarters of the bank in
Lilongwe to sort that problem out. Well, at the end it was not possible
to transfer the money back on the card. I got it instead in cash, in
Malawian Kwacha. Usually no problem, but this was on my last day before I
left Malawi…
It is usually not a good idea to show up at the border with such a
high amount in local currency, as every moneychanger knows that one must
exchange the amount urgently. Malawian Kwacha is not the kind of
currency you get easily rid off later in Zambia.
Moneychangers at the borders are usually creepy characters, but on
this border they were especially audacious. One of them tried to cheat
me even in so silly -audacious way that it was almost insulting!
First he smuggled between his 50000th notes some 10000th which look
quite similar. When I confronted him with that, he stated, I gave him
not 18000 Malawian Kwacha, but only 11000…. However, there I already
pocketed his money! I proceeded to the immigration leaving him to think
about the following options:
1. We cancel the whole deal; each one gets the whole amount of money back
2. We leave everything as it is
3. We go to the police
For sure, this guy was not happy about all that, but at last we
cancelled the whole transaction and occupied neutral people with
counting of the money.
