Bless Mayoka Village. This was the name of the backpackers’
hostel that we were staying at in Nhkata Bay. We arrived there late and we
didn’t have their phone number or any clue on how to get there. We were a bit
in survival mode and were making plans on if we didn’t find the place. We were
thinking about knocking on peoples doors asking them to house us for the night
(an idea that is not so ridiculous in Africa as it is in the western world)
until we saw another backpackers. So at least we had that place as our backup
plan. As soon as we get off the bus it was the usual story. Just a bunch of men
waiting for customers. The reason why I say bless Mayoka Village was because
they sent somebody to pick us up! But before we met the guy, our very first
meeting in Nkhata Bay was with a man who introduced himself as Happy Coconuts.
Right away he tells us that he’s the man with the hookups and that he can get
us the goods. “Huh? What are you talking about Mr. Coconuts? Or is it Mr. Happy
Coconuts all together?” “Malawi Gold bra, Malawi Wowee, ganja bra!” What we hadn’t
known and only realized the next morning when we walked around town was that
Nkhata Bay was basically little Jamaica, or at least what I imagine Jamaica
would be like. Rastas everywhere, sweet roots reggae music playing, and people
looking like they were high walking around everywhere. Weed is very much
illegal in Malawi but it seems like the rule had been forgotten in Nkhata Bay.
Anyway, our man from Mayoka Village drives us to the hostel and we are lucky
enough to walk into buffet night. Tim, Lindsey, and I drop down into our seats,
register our names on the tab that stays open the entire time you are there
(dangerous, watch out for how much you spend) and as Africans say, hamma
(hammer) the food. Completely crush it. It was rice, boiled potatoes, a chicken
stew, and salad. We eat till we have food to our eyeballs, sit and talk for a
few minutes then head off to bed. Tim and Lindsey had their own private suite
only fifteen feet from the water while I got to stay in a four person room (the
other spots where for Kelsey, Sara, and Sara’s brother for when they arrived).
I fell into my bed, didn’t even put my mosquito net down, and fell asleep in a
matter of seconds.
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| Tim, Lindsey, and I in one of the beaches |
The next morning Tim, Lindsey, and I headed into
town. Mayoka Village is at the top of a hill and Nkhata Bay town at the bottom.
On the walk down there are about ten stands made out of wood where a bunch of
Rastas where selling their goods, paintings, necklaces, wood carvings, pipes
(of course), and even their own music CDs. We stayed in Nkhata Bay for almost
two weeks so by the end we got to know everybody hanging out there. There was
Happiness, the man that hooked Tim up with an amazing painter. There was Dr.
Smiley, who introduced himself as a doctor specialized in herbology (also, of
course). Gift was also around advertising his boar tours. Further down the hill
there was another interesting one named Mr. Bamboo. All a great group of guys,
annoying in the beginning since they were trying to sell us things but they
calmed down once they got to know us. Tim was having a painting made by one of
the guys there so we spent one of the first afternoons hanging out, talking about
Malawi, Namibia, and taking things at the village speed.
We arrive into town, which was BUSTLING, but then
when you compare it to Namibia any place is crowded. We walked around, talked
to the ladies selling fruit and started to realize that Malawi was the cheapest
country any of us had ever been to. There were giant avocados being sold for forty
cents each! Onions for about 10 cents. I don’t even know how these women were
making money. Every day we walked to town, bought some groceries, made
guacamole on bread for lunch and enjoyed life. Although by the end we were
getting tired of guac, unbelievable I know but when you eat it every single day
for two weeks, it happens. Another example of how cheap Malawi is, this is
going to drive people that go to bars crazy, there are small bags (100ml so a
bit more than a double shot) containing coconut rum that were sold in groups of
16. The group of sixteen costs about five American dollars. And they actually
tasted good! That coconut room with pineapple juice was all over the hostel. If
you are in Africa and want to do a cheap vacation, Malawi is the place to go.
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| Doing the African beach life |
The greatest attraction of the area was of course
Lake Malawi. This is the second largest lake in Africa, Lake Victoria being the
first. It also had the clearest water I have seen in my life. Only water that
has ever compared was Guam, an island in the Pacific. I’ve never seen lake
water like this, I was used to muggy dirty water but this lake was crystal.
Since we had arrived at night we hadn’t been able to catch a view of the lake.
The next morning I woke up around seven, opened my doors to my balcony, looked
out, and let my mouth hit the floor. Stunning. Transcendent. Dreamlike.
Screensaver material. I stood there for at least five minutes without moving,
just enjoying the view. The water was turquoise, the mountains green, the rocks
grey and jutting out of the water. Also, far away into the distance you could
see huge clouds of black smoke coming out of the water. Tim later told me that
these where actually massive movements of bugs. They were some kind of insect that
laid its eggs in the water at night, eggs hatched in the morning, and the bugs
flew up to the sky and launched themselves into a massive mating orgy. We got
to see these bugs (in smaller amounts) up close and they were tiny. A fraction
of the size of a mosquito. For them to create a cloud like that had to mean
that there were hundreds of thousands of bugs in those clouds. Thankfully they
were many kilometers away from us.
We made sure we appreciated the lake every day.
Mayoka Village rents out snorkeling gear for free so every day, usually twice a
day we would go snorkeling. We saw quite a lot of fish, fairly colorful ones to
even though it was a lake. The most memorable fish where the cichlids that
where swimming around. There were also many boulders on the lake floor so we got
to play around them. Tim, Lindsey and I would also go on swims across the bay,
it was about a kilometer swim which we did with our snorkels, very nice
exercise to start the day.
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| Amazing water |
Tim, Lindsey, and I spend a few days on our own
before the rest of our group arrived. We met several other travelers, a
surprising amount of Israelis, a Brazilian guy traveling the world who we would
eat dinner with us every night, and a few other Peace Corps volunteers from
other countries. The night before the rest of our group arrived we brought a
few of the bags of coconut rum and hung out with the other guests until late.
In the middle of the night one of the owners of Mayoka Village shows up. He is
a fifty year old man and I hadn’t met him yet. He stumbles in completely and utterly
drunk into the dining area. Spittle flying out of his mouth whenever he talked.
He sits with us and begins calling me dickhead! I had just met him! So I call
him asshole in return and that’s what we called each other for the rest of the
night. He was having great fun with it and there was no malice at all, but it
was a bit strange. Later on he starts dancing, takes his shirt off, with his
pants barely hanging on to his waist. The other guests tell us that it’s pretty
common for him to get completely naked. So he keeps dancing, falls flat on his
face about five times and each time bounces right back up. I’ve never see a man
of his age get drunk like that, keep falling, and just keep going. It was close
to one in the morning when Tim, Lindsey, and I decided to call it quits but he
was still there going strong. We saw him the morning after and he did not
remember us but he was an extremely friendly and welcoming guy. I just still
couldn’t understand how he was still alive with how hard he went on his night
out. Apparently he has two or three nights a week where he goes bonkers.
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| Brandon and I canoeing around the bay |
The next morning the rest of our group arrive. At
this point we had almost ten PC Namibia volunteers staying at the hostel so we
had a good time. The rest of the days all went in similar fashion. Wake up and
grab some breakfast, go for a swim, walk around town, take a nap, read a book,
swim some more, and sometimes go out for dinner. One day we went out on a boat
ride to a local village. Along the way the driver would toss a fish into the
water and a huge Kingfisher eagle would swoop down and snatch the fish with its
talons. Beautiful sight. The week was super chill and relaxing, at the end of
the week most of the group left while Tim, Lindsey, and I stayed behind. We
were going to embark on a four day kayaking trip with a company called Monkey
Business early the next morning.
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