this past week i went to malawi with 10 friends for the lake of stars music festival on lake malawi. we left last thursday morning on a 430am bus which took about 9 hours. shouldn't have been that long but the bus broke down for 2 hours when we were still in lusaka. not a good start to the trip. we took that bus to a town near the border of zambia and malawi. then we took a taxi to the border. had to go through border control, walk across the border, then get on another bus to the nearest town. then get in a mini bus for another couple hours to make it to lilongwe. long day of traveling! crammed on buses with lots of people and no air conditioning. and of course, october is the hottest month. lots of sweating. luckily, im a really good sleeper and i was able to sleep most of the bus rides ha.
we spent the night in lilongwe with the grs intern in malawi. he was nice enough to host all 10 of us in his house. i believe i slept on the bath mat outside of the bathroom cause there was no room anywhere else. then the next morning we got in another mini bus and took a 5 hour ride to mangochi, which is where the festival was being held. we had a mad man as our bus driver and feared for my life most of the drive haha, but luckily we made it there in one piece. although, we did hit a goat that was in the middle of the road :( i've never hit an animal with a car before. kinda sad.
but then we finally got to the festival!! hours upon hours later. lake malawi is beautiful! its a huge lake with beaches all along the shore. so we set up camp in the campsite directly on the beach. got everything set up just as the music was starting friday evening. perfect timing.
the music was awesome! mostly local bands from malawi, zimbabwe, and zambia. and mostly reggae which was so fun to listen to. they were all crazy good. and it was such a nice setting with the 2 stages both directly on the beach. the music went from around 4pm-4am fri-sun nights. also very nice cause we had the days to relax, swim in the water, take naps in the shade, etc. being at the lake made me miss being at home at the lake a lot. i didn't realize how much i love being around water. needless to say, spent a descent amount of my time in the water over the weekend.
there were probably around 3-4 thousand people there. a good mix of malawians, zambians, south africans, and english people. the whole vibe of the festival was chill and everyone in a good mood. no drama for problems which was nice.
i ended just sleeping straight up on the beach in my sleeping bag 2 of the nights cause our big/main tent is apparently not very wind resistent and collapsed the first night from the wind. basically it just looked like a huge tarp that we threw all of our stuff on. the beach was pretty comfortable though.
we stayed until monday morning then hopped on another minibus back to lilongwe. we took a different way back which was much shorter and through some beautiful mountains. zambia is really flat, so it was nice to see some mountains. spent the night in lilongwe again and then made the trek back to lusaka.
had a minor setback on the way home when some super sticky fruit juice started leaking from the overhead compartments onto our seats. its ok though, we pulled some ninja mcguyver moves and were able to fix it. also, towards the end of the trip someone told me we were only an hour or so away. so i started chugging my fanta organge i had been saving. however, apparently i had been lied to and we were still 4 hours away! not good since i obviously had to pee after chugging all my fanta and there are no bathrooms on these buses. so the last few hours were a bit rough ha.
but we finally made it back all in one piece, and it was an awesome trip! ill try to get some pics up soon (i know i keep saying this). but i now have my new computer!! so ill be able to get back into blogging more often and get some pictures uploaded within the next few days.
we spent the night in lilongwe with the grs intern in malawi. he was nice enough to host all 10 of us in his house. i believe i slept on the bath mat outside of the bathroom cause there was no room anywhere else. then the next morning we got in another mini bus and took a 5 hour ride to mangochi, which is where the festival was being held. we had a mad man as our bus driver and feared for my life most of the drive haha, but luckily we made it there in one piece. although, we did hit a goat that was in the middle of the road :( i've never hit an animal with a car before. kinda sad.
but then we finally got to the festival!! hours upon hours later. lake malawi is beautiful! its a huge lake with beaches all along the shore. so we set up camp in the campsite directly on the beach. got everything set up just as the music was starting friday evening. perfect timing.
the music was awesome! mostly local bands from malawi, zimbabwe, and zambia. and mostly reggae which was so fun to listen to. they were all crazy good. and it was such a nice setting with the 2 stages both directly on the beach. the music went from around 4pm-4am fri-sun nights. also very nice cause we had the days to relax, swim in the water, take naps in the shade, etc. being at the lake made me miss being at home at the lake a lot. i didn't realize how much i love being around water. needless to say, spent a descent amount of my time in the water over the weekend.
there were probably around 3-4 thousand people there. a good mix of malawians, zambians, south africans, and english people. the whole vibe of the festival was chill and everyone in a good mood. no drama for problems which was nice.
i ended just sleeping straight up on the beach in my sleeping bag 2 of the nights cause our big/main tent is apparently not very wind resistent and collapsed the first night from the wind. basically it just looked like a huge tarp that we threw all of our stuff on. the beach was pretty comfortable though.
we stayed until monday morning then hopped on another minibus back to lilongwe. we took a different way back which was much shorter and through some beautiful mountains. zambia is really flat, so it was nice to see some mountains. spent the night in lilongwe again and then made the trek back to lusaka.
had a minor setback on the way home when some super sticky fruit juice started leaking from the overhead compartments onto our seats. its ok though, we pulled some ninja mcguyver moves and were able to fix it. also, towards the end of the trip someone told me we were only an hour or so away. so i started chugging my fanta organge i had been saving. however, apparently i had been lied to and we were still 4 hours away! not good since i obviously had to pee after chugging all my fanta and there are no bathrooms on these buses. so the last few hours were a bit rough ha.
but we finally made it back all in one piece, and it was an awesome trip! ill try to get some pics up soon (i know i keep saying this). but i now have my new computer!! so ill be able to get back into blogging more often and get some pictures uploaded within the next few days.
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