Visa or no visa I was going to Malawi

By any stretch of imagination, getting a visa for this small nation should not be difficult and I thought so too – turned out to be a bit of a circus in the end. The Republic of Malawi does not have a diplomatic mission in Liberia or for the matter in any of the nearby West African nations. That’s understandable with limited resources available to the nation for what was surprising was that Indian citizens are not eligible for visa on arrival. Now, compare that to fellow East African nations like Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Ethiopia who all have visa on arrival and its quite baffling why Malawi doesn’t have something similar. A couple or so decades ago I would have understood but considering India’s ascending clout politically and economically it was quite peculiar.

M1 to Mzuzu - Elephant rock to the right

First, I tried getting a travel authorization by sending an email to the contacts listed on the immigration website but to no avail. It begs the question why they put these emails address when no one is going to respond. Perhaps I should know better - efficiency and customer service is not the top priority for most immigration/consular services.

Lake Malawi shoreline from air

Second shot was applying for an e-visa – I submitted all the documents but then their site would not process my card payment. Either the 3^rd party payment processing system the consular services used was broken or it has firewalls that prevent payment by a US bank issued card used from Liberia. The latter seems improbably as I can’t imagine their systems being so sophisticated. My only option then was to find someone who knew somebody on the inside.

Enter Muwuso, a Malawian friend and fellow expat in Liberia. He tried to have his nephew make the payment for the e-visa in cash but even that failed. He then connected me to one of his contacts who works in the Malawian embassy in Zimbabwe and with her help I was finally able to get an email from the immigration office that my visa was approved.

The only problem was that the email address was a generic Gmail account which I felt would be challenged by the airline crew. Either way I was confident I had something to BS my way to Malawi!

That BS got me on the Kenya Airways flight from Liberia to Accra and then on to Nairobi without much fuss. At Nairobi the flight crew did quiz me for a while but eventually she relented – she crossed her fingers and wished me luck!

Major highways in Malawi are surprisingly good

As the flight approached Malawi I could see Lake Malawi hemmed in by the sandy western coastline and I could feel the excitement of jumping in those cool blue waters soon.

At the immigration counter I was told I did not have the requisite paperwork but I could sense they were willing to work with me. I just let the immigration crew process the paperwork of the other passengers with valid travel authorizations and then let’s just say we “came to an arrangement” for them to process my paperwork and soon I had a nice new visa sticker on the passport.

I only had six full days in Malawi and not wanting to waste a day in Lilongwe I immediately proceeded to getting a shared taxi heading north to the town of Mzuzu but not before dropping off some excess luggage at a hostel I was supposed to return on my last day in Malawi and exchanging some of my US dollars to the Malawian Kwacha.

The shared taxi to Mzuzu was a comfortable Toyota 7-seater which I came to learn through the next few days are quite the norm in Malawi. The fare might be slightly higher than the minibuses but the rides are infinitely more comfortable, especially if riding in the front seat. About five hours later the shared taxi made it to Mzuzu as dusk settled.

 Rumphi, a small town serving as a gateway to the Nyika National Park lay an hour northwest of Mzuzu and I reckoned that pushing on to sleep in Rumphi would be better so I could get more quality time in Nyika.

I took a minibus and halfway through the journey the minibus broke down. It turned out that we had actually run out of fuel. Travel weary and jet lagged…I was mildly bummed that we now had to wait for the driver to find a motorcycle and go fetch fuel from the nearest town selling it which would delay my arrival in Rumphi.

Photo shoot while the driver went to fetch fuel

As I lay on my back by the road side gazing at the stars I pondered why I was not taking things with as much grace as my fellow Malawian passengers. Their spirit was dented not one bit as they continued to nonchalant conversations among themselves as well as me. An additional though raced through my mind - Malawi is ranked as one of the poorest countries in the world by the IMF and suddenly I could make sense of the whole situation of the driver not having enough fuel in his car. Could it be that it was not his carelessness but the fact that life is so precarious in these parts that having a full belly and a full tank is not mutually exclusive.

Perspective…I can always rely on it to ground me.

Eventually I made it to Rumphi and at the drop off point, the motorcycle driver that took me to a place where I could rest for the night, also offered to take me to Nyika National Park. It would be 3-4 hours on a bumpy road but was significantly less expensive than renting a private 4WD. I hadn’t read of anyone taking a motorcycle taxi to Nyika but I relied on my African experience and the fact that anywhere there are motorcycle taxis…there’s always a way to get to where you want to go.