2/12/2010

Jack was kind enough to tell me how to use a Kayak (as I hadn't been in once since I was about 9), so I kayaked around several small bays to see the beaches and lodges nearby. Spent most of the day snorkelling, swimming and sun-bathing and even saw a Monitor Lizard swimming from rock to rock (it was roughly a metre long).

Weirdly, I had Bruschetta for breakfast to try and cure my hangover before attempting nsima with kidney beans and beef stew, which they gave everyone for free as it's a traditional Malawian food. To be frank, it was crap. Nsima is maizeflour and looks like a rolled-up dough ball of rice. It's filling but bland and the beef stew was just dodgy. In fairness, the beans were nice, but with no knife and fork they expect you to use the nsima to dip it in. Sod that, I just got my mits covered in bean and the sauce.

Afternoon tea was free to drink everyday, so Ballard and Will were in their element (not me though as I hate hot drinks). As Will went up to get some topless after taking off his Inbetweeners shirt with "I heart Clunge" on, a girl approached him and said: "I'm glad you've taken that shirt off. It's derogatory and it's just insensitive about a woman's vagina" (or something along those lines). We all burst out laughing when he told us. Get a life love - she was from England as well so surely she has seen the Inbetweeners. Bore off! We encouraged him to put it straight back on in front of her - so he did. However, he refused to wear his "Bus W*nkers" t-shirt in the evening!

We'd met some English-Indian guy the day before who it turned out, fell down the steep steps after coming back from the previous night out and smashed a glass into his hand. He tore some of the tendons in his wrist and their was dry blood everywhere. Nice.

In the evening, we tried to take it easy, playing cards , pool, drinking Sobo, and I succumbed to the local arts and crafts salesmen.

I traded some shorts, a free airtel (mobile company tshirt) and 500 kwacha for 3 paintings with a guy named Boobs, and also bought 2 paintings for 1300 (6quid). Jack had one painting for some of his crappy earphones a guy needed and two paintings for 1400.

For tea I ate some turd-looking food called Taquito. It was meaty and accompanied by loads of fruit and veg but it hit the spot!

In our card games of s***head and old maid, I was often stitched up and we had agreed most games for the loser to do a punishment. I had to do 10 press-ups in front of loads of people at the bar and the following night, Will had to lick a chalk board in front of everyone, I ended up pillar-dancing (like pole-dancing) in like a stripper and Shawn scammed out of asking a big group of girls if they wanted to go out with him.

Jack and Will played Boa (a Malawian boardgame which is everywhere - I only played with Shawn and drew 2-2!) and just as we were about to call it a night, a local guy at the bar bought each of us 3 bottles of Carlsberg and we played some pool.

On nature watch - the wildlife is diverse here, having seen giant yellow flies, giant blue/black bees, various multi-coloured lizards, giant ants with massive mandibles, kites, kingfishers, eagles, cormorants, etc.