Lilongwe

Lilongwe is the capital of Malawi. Lilongwe is fairly reasonably sized with a population of about 250,000. It's a very green city, to the extent that sometimes you wonder if there is a city centre at all as buildings in the new town at least are divided by patches of grassy land and trees.

The town is very spread out so getting around can be a bit of a chore. You can pick up taxis from the Lilongwe Hotel (in the Old Town) and the Capital Hotel (in the Capital City). If you're feeling adventurous, you can take a minibus. It's very cheap, but you will be getting very familiar with your fellow passengers. There are several routes you can take, including one that goes from the large blue bank in the new town and drops you off in the heart of the old town, next to Shoprite surpermarket.

There's a place for drinking like bwandiro (area 47) where there's a lot of pubs. There's now a new Pirate cassino where people usually go almost every day up to midnight. Harry's Bar, in the old town, is a great place to have a drink and a burger during the day or to slam Malawi gin with an energetic crowd on weekend nights.