A few pics I took in Blantyre in Malawi. Blantyre is the largest city in the country. It is not the capital anymore since former dictator Banda moved the capital to the newly created, soulless city of Lilongwe.

Still, Blantyre is the largest and most urban city in the country. Not that that means much: Malawi is a mostly rural country and cities are usually small. Blantyre is rather boring compared to Dar es Salaam (see my other thread). The city centre is mostly filled with some offices; it's not very lively. Blantyres poor sister city Limbe is very lively though; but because of worries about safety I didn't take any pics there when I passed through.

Although boring, Blantyre is a good starting point to explore the southern part of the country. Malawi is pretty small and has a relatively good infrastructure, so lots of destinations can be reached on a day trip from Blantrye.

1. The main street in the city centre. Lots of banks and offices here. Not much shops, so it's not very lively. There are some good restaurants in this area, though.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Afrika/BLA06.jpg

2. One of the larges and most modern buildings in the country.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Afrika/BLA07.jpg

3. In the background you can see the boma, the administrative building from colonial times. It's one of the few landmarks in the city...
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Afrika/BLA11.jpg

4...although it's not THAT impressive. ;)
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Afrika/BLA12.jpg

5. This is one of the few nice and lively areas in the city centre.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Afrika/BLA01.jpg

6. Just like in most third world countries, public transport consists mostly of minibusjes. This one clearly shows that it is second hand from Japan, like 99 % of them.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Afrika/BLA02.jpg

7. A few pics taken in the same area:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Afrika/BLA03.jpg

8.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Afrika/BLA04.jpg

9.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Afrika/BLA08.jpg

10. .
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Afrika/BLA09.jpg

11. Telekom is een van de twee grote mobiele providers, de ander is Celtel, die in een heleboel Afrikaanse landen zit.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Afrika/BLA10.jpg

12. Blantyre is pretty small: from the city centre you look right into the surrounding mountains. There is a lot of urban sprawl along the main roads from the city, though.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Afrika/BLA05.jpg

13. Market near the bus station, some way from the city center.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Afrika/BLA13.jpg

14. Bus station. This is a bus of Shire Lines, the main operator in the country. It is the only one using full size buses instead of minibuses. It mostly runs with these kind of buses, although there are a few express lines with better rolling stock. Fun fact for those from the UK: for some time Shire Lines was owned by UK company Stagecoach. Some buses still wear the distinctive livery.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Afrika/BLA14.jpg

15. An express bus. Almost all people use buses or minibuses for travelling. There are few private cars and almost no railways: only one line which sees only a couple of trains per week.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Afrika/BLA15.jpg

16. Minibuses near the bus station.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Afrika/BLA16.jpg

Some more pics, this time from Ndirande, the largest township in Blantyre. The word township is often confused with a slum. While townships often are indeed slums, it's not alwats the case. A township always is a neighborhood which is not planned for, but just grows because people build their homes there. Usually they lack public services.

Ndirande is Blantyre's largest township, with an estimated population of almost one million. No one knows for sure. The area has both slums as well as areas where now are public services (gas, water, electricity) and some better houses. It lacks the extreme poverty of townships in some other African cities; people are poor, but usually not starving. Because houses are small, people tend to live on the street for most of their days, which makes it a very lively neighborhood, just like a huge village.

This is not your average tourist destination, we got quite some puzzled looks when we walked around in this area, as well as some negative attitudes (understandably, as we are incredibly rich by their standards). That's why these are just snapshots, I didn't dare to take too long to take a pic.

17.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Afrika/BLA17.jpg

18.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Afrika/BLA18.jpg

19.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Afrika/BLA19.jpg

20.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Afrika/BLA20.jpg

21. The interior of a house. This is a pretty luxurious house for Ndirande. It was built by the owners themselves. The former owner since then passed away because of AIDS (at least 1 in 7 Malawians had HIV/AIDS). His former wife is still living here. She is a succesful business woman, but has to spend a lot of her money on caring for several children of (passed away) family members from rural areas.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Afrika/BLA21.jpg

Interesting pictures, thanks for sharing.

nice to see this city.

Vertigo, you seem to like exotic places (North Korea, Mongolia, Tanzania, now this), very exciting :okay:

Some more.

22. The CCAP church, one of the oldest buildings in the country. It was built in 1891 by Scottish missionaries. There were always a lot of Scottish living in Malawi, after David Livingstone "discovered" the country. Blantyre was named after Livingstone's birthtown, BTW.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Afrika/BLA22.jpg

23. Like most African countries, Malawi is deeply religious. That's why the CCAP church became too small; therefore a new one is being constructed beside it. It's a special construction, designed by Dutchman Jan-Jaap Sonke.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Afrika/BLA23.jpg

24. Interior.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Afrika/BLA25.jpg

25. Mr. Sonke also designed a house for himself. It has a very special design, loosely based on the famous cube houses in Rotterdam. Because it was built on a hill it offers great views from the large window on the second floor.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Afrika/BLA24.jpg

You are right about the big contrast between Malawi and Dar Es Salaam.

I've thought about doing the Cairo to Cape Town thing for many years in the 90s but 1) I got busy with work and 2) I watched the political situation go from bad to worse across East Africa -- the continued smouldering in Rwanda / Burundi (with the resultant big flare-up in Rwanda 1995), Somalia, touch and go in Uganda, rapid disintegration in Zimbabwe, tensions in the Sudan even as John Garang was standing down, poor harvests and threatened famine in Malawi, and political tensions in Ethopia.

I am aware of the good news so I am not biased by just the negatives -- Mozambique is bouncing back, South Africa is still high crime but calming down, Zambia is good, and Madagascar didn't blow up (though how the environmental devastation continues).

I am still looking for an East African journey -- but I think I will have to break it up into month-long visits one or perhaps a few countries at a time instead of trying to do the straight-through for 1 - 2 years.

@TO Joe: Cairo to Cape is pretty difficult right now indeed. You could do Dar es Salaam to Cape though, through Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique and SA, perhaps with some detours to Kenya and Zambia. Should be an interesting journey!

Thanks for the suggestion! Let me look more into it with time off work, etc. I am itching to go after being cooped up in North America due to work since my last big trip across Asia in the 90s.

Thanks for the images!... It reminds me of my two trips to Lilongwe (the capital).

Did you manage to stop by the lake?

love the pics...thanks for the exposure...truly looking forward to more:)

thanks!

thanks alot for all the information and commentary too...it is most appreciated!

Did you manage to stop by the lake?

Yup, I did. Very beautiful, especially where the mountains come close to the lake, in the north near Livingstonia. I'll post some pics from that area later.

That Peugeot in photo 11 looks like it has a UK licence plate, that's a very long way to drive!!

Thanks !! These are the first photos of malawi I have seen!

That new Church looks like a mini version of Singapore's indoor stadium.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Afrika/BLA23.jpg

http://www.dlsqs.com/NewsImg/410/sg_sgindoorstadium.jpg

I really like the pics by the way, it's great to see pics of places we don't normally get to see.