09.01 We have rested, showered and of course we´re still at Kalulu Backpackers (http://www.backpacklusaka.com), Lusaka, Zambia. Our British neighbours have checked out and left. Now we have been in the kitchen and ordered today's breakfast. We wonder about the breakfast for tomorrow. Shall we order what is offered here or we buy something of our own? Just before we left the room a girl, young woman (what is right?), looked into our room and apologized. She had walked in to the wrong room.

09.46 The breakfast arrived after twenty minutes. On my plate it was plenty of sausages but short on bacon. On Christer’s plate the conditions were at the opposite. Some of the guests who stay here seem to have done so for a while. They have this place as a base and embark on various trips. They are away for a few days and then return.

10.20 After some problems, we got through the gate in the big sliding doors at the property's entrance. The door had to be unlocked. A new day in Lusaka lies ahead of us.

11.01 What a mess! We had just reached the bus station Lusaka Inter-City Bus Station when we were caught by a young man who wondered where we were going. We told him that we're going to Chipata tomorrow and we told him which bus company we wanted to go with. No sooner had we said it as he led us to a ticket office for a completely different bus company. He promised us reserved seats in the bus and air conditioning. We stated our names and they arranged with tickets. The tickets were paid and he showed us to the place where the bus departs from tomorrow. Then it was argued that we had to pay baggage fees. Another man wrote something on the back of Christer's ticket. I can’t help to wonder about that! Now we are back in the Levy Mall and are doing some thinking. What was it that just happened? What have we done? Well, we do have tickets. We are going with the company Ronsil and will be in place at 8.30 tomorrow morning at the bus station.

11.17 Now we have a problem, we need more kwacha, more local currency. The idea was that we would exchange US$30 together. Now, the exchange of lower denominations provides lower rates. This lower rate gives us too little kwacha. If we exchange enough dollars to get a better rate, we will get too much of kwacha left.

11.37 I added US$5 more and the money was exchanged. This meant display of passport and leaving home address for Christer. Now the exchanged money has been divided between us. Here in the shopping mall, we have seen several muslim couples. The men wear round hats and women wearing various forms of veiling.

11.48 Drinking is good, Christer said, and put down his glass of Fanta. We are back at Zoran Café for a light lunch. The entire mall has an airport feeling. It's a lot of steel and glass, open spaces.

Mr Petal (I guess they meant Peter) has bought a bus ticket from Lusaka to Chipata.

Peter is showing photos for little Shawn.

Sunday afternoon at Kalulu Backpackers.

13.26 The lunch at Café Zoran ended and we went grocery shopping at Pick 'n' Pay. We bought breakfast and bus snacks for tomorrow. When we came home, Christer discovered that his case with accompanying glasses has been lost or forgotten in Livingstone. There is no explanation how it happened. We travelled from there on the 13th of July and thought we had everything with us.

14.21 We have received a visitor. The little boy who lives here is looking in through our window. He is eager to talk and interested in our purchases. He has climbed up and sits on a windowsill.

14.35 Problems appeared when the little guy (Shawn) should get back down. He simply did not dare. Finally he took courage and climbed down. He came into our room through our door and started to talk to me. I showed him the photos I took today. Now we´ll go out to Christer, who sits on the couch on the porch.

16.25 We are reading in our books and Shawn was "playing" chess. Playing meant to throw around the pieces. He received a reprimand from his mother and picked everything up ever so nicely. We continued to read. Now we're back in the room doing almost nothing. It is not impossible that we soon will go and have dinner, there are some plans.

Christer on a Sunday walk in Lusaka.

Some streets look better than others.

Christer is walking along Omelo Mumba Road.

Cheap transport in Lusaka.

17.17 Well, how things can turn out. We had planned to go to a place recommended in our guidebook, a restaurant/café called Chit Chat. This was not such a good idea, they had closed because it´s Sunday. We continued towards some eateries close to the Total petrol station. They did, however, seem simple and boring so we went to the Levy Mall again. Here we have arrived at Mugg & Bean. Beer has been brought in and dinners have been ordered. The chain is named after the founders, Clement Mugg and Joshua Fenomah Bean. They started it all in San Francisco in 1868. I actually thought the name was a play with the words coffee mug and bean

18.17 Full and satisfied, we walked home in the Zambian dusk. Now it has started to get time to read about the future stops on this trip.

19.50 Just now our door was opened. There stood two apologetic young English men. They were looking for the shower. I said that it is, over the hills and far away, or at least in the back garden.

20.38 Christer has decided to send an email to Jollyboys Backpackers in Livingstone and ask if they have seen the glasses and the case. Now we are thinking about what is actually written on our bus tickets. Is it numbers or? I am anyway called Mr. Petal and Christer is called Mr. Krse or possibly Mr. Kase.

21.26 There are lots of guests here tonight. There are tents everywhere and full activity in the kitchen and the hallway outside our room. There seems to be a major travel group who has come here.

22.27 The dog just barked in the house. We are going to call it the night. I hope we will get out through the gate tomorrow. What if there is no one but us awake. Who locks up and lets us out?

Christer´s hamburger at Mugg & Bean.

Monday 16th of July

06.48 My fears from yesterday seem to be unnecessary. It is hustle and bustle in the hostel, full speed ahead! Now it's time for breakfast.

07.03 After breakfast Christer intended to take a shower. It was not so good, it's a queue there. We have not seen anyone at the front desk. We need people there if we want to check out and call a taxi later.

07.38 The hostel itself has not been the best. Toilets that do not work, chefs who ran away and some other things have lowered the overall impression. The dog that lives here is marvellous though. I have just seen him drink water from a wash basin faucet and try to steal the shoelaces from a young man. Christer also saw the dog crawl into and hide in a tent that was being packed down.

07.53 I have been at the reception and called John, the taxi man, who drove us here. He has promised to come here about quarter past eight. Outside the reception there were a number of young guys. They seem to belong to the big English travel group.

We´re on our way to the bus station through the slow morning traffic.

08.18 It's not just the shower that it is a queue to today. The taxi crawls up along with all the other vehicles in the morning traffic. If it is John who is behind the wheel, he has changed his age quickly. We are probably in the vehicle we ordered after all because he stopped at our gate and waved after us. Maybe it's John's father who drives us, who knows?

08.35 We are so far the only whites on board the yellow bus from Ronsil Transportation. We had to pay 10 000 kwacha extra for our backpacks. There was little if no notice of what was written yesterday on Christer's ticket. There is perhaps no state of the art bus but we were offered to buy men's perfume. As for our hostel, it left like I said a lot to be desired, no personality, weak service, lack of different things. Everything felt random. They need to think about how they should act. Within half an hour, we are going. At least that is what I hope.

09.09 Men's and ladies perfume, shoes, socks, belts, watches, mobile phones, water, chips, cookies, sausages, DVDs, handbags, wigs, hair trimmers, extension hair and scissors. This is something of which we offered to buy all the vendors who walk through the bus. Outside the bus, it has been a fight. The bus however remains standing still. However, the engine is running.

09.57 The young English guys we saw at the hostel this morning have joined us on the bus. They participate in the school project World Challenge. Right now a man with a strong voice walks around in the bus. He talks about that son of the carpenter, Mary's boy, Jesus.

10.24 The preacher dressed in a tight pink suede jacket preached, sang songs, prayed that Jesus' blood would be shed over the bus, took up the collection of money and blessed us. Vendors come and go. According to one of the guys in the World Challenge, they were told yesterday that the bus departs no earlier than 10:30. We were told that it would depart at 09.00. Who knows what is true? We are after all in Africa. Here, time is relative. Now the bus rolled a bit. We are leaving!

A neverending stream of vendors walking through the bus before departure.

A long wait at Lusaka Inter-City Bus Station.

A rasta man and his friend at the bus station in Lusaka.

It´s crowded at the bus station in Lusaka.

11.03 We have left Lusaka behind us and now a suitcase fell down from one of the shelves.

12.28 The bus travels east through a hilly landscape with an occasional hut. I want to stretch my legs.

13.02 We travel through sparsely populated areas and now we have Lower Zambezi National Park just south of us. The landscape consists of wooded mountains and valleys.

13.44 We have finally made a short stop and stretched our legs. Lots of vendors have tables set and sells a little of everything. Now we roll again and another suitcase fell down beside me. We are at Luangwa Bridge, just near the border to Mozambique and Zimbabwe. We are about halfway. It's a long bus trip today. 590 kilometers will be travelled before it is finished. The English travel group, which included one Swede named Christer, got off here for further travel to South Luangwa National Park.

We´re traveling over Luangwa Bridge.

Petauke

15.06 It's a hot day and we have just departed from the bus station in Nyimba.

15.58 Now it remains around 200 kilometers. A car laden with cotton just came running from the opposite direction and goats roam around outside. Pigs can also be seen here. We stopped at the road to the small town of Petauke.

17.10 The bus bounced over a speed bump and stopped. Vendors are gathering outside the bus. A bag of popcorn costs 500 kwacha. We are in Katete, 90 km from the destination. We just realized that we are going to arrive after it got dark.

19.07 The darkness came and suddenly it became difficult to navigate. It is total darkness outside the bus window. Eventually we came to Chipata, a town that experienced a major power shortage. A taxi driver met us at the bus's luggage compartment and he took us up to say the least, bumpy and hole filled uphill to our accommodation Deans Hill View Lodge (http://deanshillview.com). Here we were met by a voice in the darkness carrying a flashlight. The voice took us to our room. Then we checked in, ordered dinner, to be cooked on the gas stove and I have been promised coffee. Now we are in our room. It is dark and the only light sources that are available here are the mobile phones.

19.30 We have searched us back to the main building where the restaurant is and has sat down to eat dinner in candlelight. We just heard muezzin, call for prayers. I guess the mosque has its own power unit.

Peter is calling to Sweden telling the latest news.

Christer has washed away red African soil from his pants.

Peter is stepping out into the African darkness.

20.06 Today’s dinner was breaded chicken, strips, carrots and pea. This dinner tasted more than what we saw of it. We have said hello the white little dog living here, a real old-timer who went by slowly moving one leg at a time. In addition, we talked to a young Danish couple. They are the only guests here except us. The conversation was conducted in English. After dinner, I got my coffee. It was good and welcome. It was actually the day's first cup. Now we will see, if it is possible in the dark, what we do next.

20.41 Here we sit in darkness and sings This little light of mine. I expressed my skepticism about electricity's return this time of day, then, like a bolt from the blue, the light was back. Now we see what our room looks like.

21.19 When the light came back we took the opportunity to wash our clothes. The newly washed clothes hangs to dry on the banister to the upstairs of the house we live in. I've talked to the Danish guy. They are also teachers. When it was dark I mostly wanted to sleep. Now I don’t know what I want.

Tuesday 17th of July

08.36 The filament glows in the bare bulb. It is quiet outside our room except for the wind and some birds. It's the last morning in Zambia. Today it's off to a new country and a new capital if all goes as we have planned.

09.06 Now, we have said good bye and have a good trip to the Danes. They are going on a trip to South Luangwa National Park, one of Africa's best areas to see wildlife in their natural environment. It is a large park which requires overnight stay and long trips. It is too expensive and time consuming for us. BBC News talks about the latest news here in the restaurant and we are waiting for breakfast.

10.16 We got a visit during breakfast from the dog living here. It is as I said very old and also small in stature. This doesn’t prevent it from having a big appetite and being pleasant. Now we pack up our belongings. We wonder about how we shall get to the border. Will it be taxi and then minibus as the original plan says or do we take a taxi all the way from here. It will be a quick ride if we take a taxi all the way and we use the remaining kwacha. However, we do not know if we have enough kwacha. I guess we will soon find it out.

10.39 We wandered around a bit in the garden here. Here are some guinea fowl and a rooster, is he a guinea fowl rooster or a common rooster? He is most likely a common rooster. Now we have paid for our stay and found out that an ordered taxi directly to the border will cost 60 000 kwacha. We'll take it. Now we are waiting for it. I hope to be able to exchange my remaining kwacha to Malawian kwacha at the border. Deans Hill View Lodge is a simple place, is far away from the town center, but the service is excellent and it's quiet and peaceful here. Everything is very dry now. It must be glorious here when it is greener and wetter during other seasons.

A view of Chipata.

Our room is in this house at Deans Hill View Lodge.

It´s time for breakfast.

The old begging dog comes to visit at every meal.

The path leading to our house.

10.56 Let's go with the taxi. It´s here now. It's a miracle how the cars survive the journey along the bumpy road to and from the Deans Hill View Lodge. The worst forest roads home with their potholes are like a floor compared to this path. We have been told that we shortly will get a new driver. The current driver's taxi license has expired. He does not want us to be delayed if the police stop him. Instead, his younger brother will take over the wheel as soon as we come down to the center of Chipata.

11.05 Lionel is the name of the new driver. We have also changed car, a car which right now need to get petrol. We shared a Caribbean hand greeting with both the man at the accommodation and with Lionel's big brother.

11.24 We are in full speed ahead going towards the border between Zambia and Malawi. There are plenty of cyclists and pedestrians along the road that runs through a hilly landscape.

11.32 We have reached the border and are about to be stamped out of Zambia. We have exchanged to some Malawi-money to a dubious rate. The main thing is that we have money for transport after the border. We arrange with more money later today.

MALAWI

11.48 The border is passed and we have new kwacha currency in our pockets. It went smoothly, quick and easy to get from one country to another. Now we are in a taxi, which we share with a middle-aged French-speaking couple and the taxi driver. The five of us are now in Malawi and have begun the first phase of the journey to Lilongwe. Everything feels OK. The driver would rather drive us all the way to the capital, but we politely declined.

12.01 The first phase of the journey in Malawi is completed. We are in Mchinji. Now we have changed vehicle. We are sitting in a crowded minibus. Now it's off. Oh, we stop again. The passenger door flew open by itself and we also need to refuel. At the exchange of vehicles I first wanted to get my backpack in the mini bus. The taxi driver was of a different opinion and wanted to get paid. Across the street is the Export Trading Co. LTD Mchinji Branch.

12.39 The minibus stopped and a new passenger joined us. Now the sliding door is hard to open and close. The bus host works in the crowd to fix it. We are 17 adults and a child on board.

12.46 The latest passenger embarked got off for good and the bus' youngest got off to pee. The host helped the little one. Now we are whizzing further east towards the capital.

Christer has squeezed into the minibus that will take us to Lilongwe.

Somewhere along the road to Lilongwe.

12.59 The door is working again. Now we have stopped at a check-point. Here some servicemen check around and young men are selling eggs and soda. A look at the dashboard during the trip told us that the speed was 0 km/h and there was no petrol in the tank, an interesting journey.

13.39 We reached a roundabout, took to the right and arrived in Lilongwe, Malawi's political capital. We stepped out in of the chaos of the market/bus station and have put us in a new vehicle. A taxi will now take us to our next accommodation.

14.27 Mufasa Backpackers Lodge (http://mufasamalawi.com) is the name of our first home in Malawi. We live in room 3 and have received breakfast vouchers and have been shown around here. It's a nice place with a kitchen, bar, good bathroom and a cozy verandah. We are now in our room. Once again, we have a double bed even though we booked two separate beds. The ones we shared a taxi with seem to live here as well.

14.42 The ones we shared a taxi with seem to have left. They migrated towards some other resident. Now they struggle to get in an extra bed. It does not go into the room through the door. However, there is a door out to the porch that can be used. The fluorescent lamp in our room hums loud, pretty disturbing.

15.15 The bed was finally in place and prepared. After that we took a walk down to the center and have exchanged to more Kwacha. There were some notes, bills that will be needed for the upcoming lunch.

Peter is sitting in our room at Mufasa Backpackers Lodge.

It was difficult to get the bed into our room.

15.32 Our eatery, Megabite, is located in Lilongwe City Mall and is halal. This means that they follow the muslim food rules. Malawi has a lot of muslims because some groups of people converted when the Arabs traded in East Africa. There are also some migrant muslims from India and Pakistan. The owner of this restaurant seems to originate from one of these countries. Before we came here we met a student, Kaka who wanted to show us some drawings. He is from Salima, a town we shall visit later on. Another one we met is a one-legged man who hopped around aided by a metal rod. When he was not jumping around, he sold handmade cards.

17.29 Some have happened since last time. At the tourist information we were told there we could find postcards. On the way there we met Kaka and his friend Respect. We batted and bought an artwork each from the boys. While we were doing business with them a security guard appeared and muttered something. It is not entirely popular with the vendors here at the new mall. Then a blind beggar came up to me and said, "Give me money", he got none. After that we bought postcards at a bookstore and now we have surfed a bit on the internet and got in contact with the world. Christer has mailed Jollyboys about the spectacles. I know that it was not Jon Lord that I saw in Tsumeb. He died yesterday. He has been treated for pancreatic cancer and died after a clot in the lung. A great musician has left us.

Lilongwe City Mall

18.02 On the way home we saw a guy in a Finnish icehockey jersey. The fluorescent lamp or is it the entire luminary hums in our room. We ordered dinner later tonight before we went inside. Pretty soon there was a knock on the door. The lady at the front desk wanted to know our names. Now we take thing pretty easy. Maybe there will be coffee. Perhaps we will write our postcards.

19.02 Now we have been written some postcards. We might as well take the opportunity when we come across a few. During the writing there was a knock on the door again. A young man, the chef, wondered if we ordered one or two servings. Now we are relaxing before dinner. Oh yes, we've been drinking coffee and there are Danes in this place as well. They do not seem to be tourists, rather volunteers of some kind.

20.00 A candle flickers on our round high table away from the bar here at Mufasa Lodge. We are waiting for the ordered dinner, meat and nsima.

20.54 It was an eventful meal, chicken and nsima, a thick porridge made from maize flour. It is the staple food in the country and reminds of oshifima which we tried in Windhoek. During the meal we were visited by a small cat. It sat in our laps and seemed delighted. Most fond was it in our meat. It tried to steal a piece of chicken from me. It liked the bone I gave it and then the cat jumped up on the table and took a drumstick that Christer had left. It uttered it a growling sound then it took a bite.

22.34 Tomorrow is planned, not in detail but roughly. We should take the opportunity to buy washing powder. Not that it needed now but it's good to be prepared. Soon we will call it a night and get rid of the humming sound of the tube

Nsima and chicken, an authentic African dinner in the candle light.

We had a visitor during dinner.

Wednesday 18th of July

08.42 Clutter from china and talking people can be heard from the porch outside our window. They are having breakfast there. Shortly, we will also go and do the same. Then we will probably show the voucher that we got yesterday from the reception. It feels nice to have a day without regrouping. However, we have some errands to run here in Lilongwe.

09.38 We did not need to show any voucher. It was just to go out of the kitchen and provide us with a little of everything, including, toast, milk and cereal. Now we are sitting out on the porch by a long table and on a bench each. Here we have eaten our breakfast. Now let's take on the day's activities.

09.57 We are ready to see more of Malawi's capital Lilongwe. It has an old part, Old Town, where we are, and a new part, New Town, where all political buildings are. That part is a couple of kilometers north of where we are now. The city is also divided into districts called "areas". We are staying in area three.

It's nice to have breakfast in the sun on the porch.

Mufasa Backpacker Lodge, Lilongwe.

10.39 We trotted out from the room and hostel and went to the post office. On the way there we saw a guy in a jacket on which it said ABB Ludvika Floorball club. Ludvika is a town in Sweden. Does he play for that club or is the jacket just a gift from Sweden? Outside the post office where some people that sold stamps. We relied more on the people in the post office counters and they offered fast service. Now the postcards are mailed and hopefully will they reach their destination.

11.18 We walked along Murray Road past a long line parked trucks. Now I am sitting in a leather armchair at the Axa Coach Service office. We have just signed us up on the list for travelers with tomorrow's bus ride to Mzuzu. We were advised to go here by the woman at the reception at Mufasa Lodge. She has been very helpful and service minded. Another member of staff who deserves to be honored is the chef who really loves his job, cooks big portions and seems long to do the dishes.

11.51 It's time for lunch. In the absence of other ideas we are back at Megabite. First we had supposed to vary us and go to the Italian restaurant Augusto's just next door but they were too expensive. Here at Megabite we had planned to have pizza, but now they are a halal restaurant, no pig, that is, no ham. It became skewers instead. Next to us there are two bowls to wash our hands in.

Lilongwe

Christer is waiting for his lunch. In Malawi, you always get a barrel for washing hands when eating.

13.14 It was a perfect lunch, good and just enough filling. After that we went to the old faithful grocery chain Spar to shop. Spar has more than once offered what we sought. This time we were very disappointed. They had poor and little amount when it comes to drinks and candy. We did however buy more detergent. Now we're home for a while.

14.23 After sitting and reading in our books for a while on a bamboo bench, we bought carrot cake and coffee at the reception. Now we sit and have coffee at yesterday's dinner table. Sometimes you need to take it easy. We must not forget that we actually are on vacation.

15.25 With the company of the little cat and various birds in the trees sang for us, we read further in our books. There are all sorts of noises at the birds, singing, croaking and one that seems to say "ya, ya, ya."

A nice place to relax.

Peter is reading a crime novel at Mufasa Lodge.

16.02 We left the books, the cat and the accommodation behind us. We are back out on the streets of Lilongwe for a last tour. Soon it will be dark and tomorrow we'll go on. There is not really any sense of a capital city of this city. It feels like something is missing but I can not really say what. What is not missing is the Town Hall (City Hall). We are in fact in front of one right now. Town Hall can be read on a worn building.

16.48 Now we´ve come back after the last walk in the city. After the Town Hall, we went to the supermarket Shoprite and bought some things. On the way there we donated some kwacha each to a needy woman with children sitting on the sidewalk.

17.08 The amount of guys with links to ice hockey here in Malawi is increasing. We saw a man in a Czech ice hockey jersey during the walk home. We also tried to buy some more drinks. We finally had to go into a butchery to find what we were looking for.

Lilongwe Town Hall

Lots of cars and flags along Glyn Jones Road.

18.20 To come prepared, we have been and ordered our dinner. Today it will be Spaghetti Bolognese. Now there's a knock on the door. It is the chef who wondered if we want spaghetti on one or two plates.

18.57 It snapped in our doorknob. I opened and there stood a little boy about five years old. I asked if he was looking for someone. Yes, my father was the answer. I referred the kid out to the porch. We have heard voices from there and soon we heard the little one as well, he sounded pleased. Why do so many want to visit us? It has happened in several places in a row that children, women, chefs, cats and dogs wish to enter.

19.52 It's time to go out to eat dinner. Will the cat come to visit us tonight as well?

20.38 No sooner had we sat down at the table before Alex came to visit us. It's not the cat but a drummer from the southern parts of the country. He wondered if we used to smoking weed, talked about Malawi and also his music career. He also wished that we were out on one of the nightclubs in Lilongwe. It would obviously be very good and have both white and black visitors. He left then the food came and then came the cat as well. It put its claws in my back at first and then Christer’s. This led us to brusquely reject it. Suddenly another small cat appeared and soon the first cat made a comeback. It was really tasty Spaghetti Bolognese. The chef here is really good. Now we are in the room to pack.

21.02 BBC News announced over the radio about a suicide bombing in Damascus. The deed killed among others a brother in law of the president, the current minister of defense and former minister of defense. In addition, there has been a bomb attack against Israelis in a bus in Bulgaria, charges against a suspected Nazi in Košice during World War II and a ferry accident off the coast of Zanzibar.

22.05 Right now President Joyce Banda is being congratulated on her 100th day as the country's president. Soon it is time to say good night, or as it is called in the country's language, Chichewa, Gonani Bwino!