Livingstone, I Presume?

It's a great end to my time in Livingstone being able to chill by the pool with a beer and writing my blogs. The weather has dried nicely but that's brought the bugs out in force and nice selection of bite marks are added to my Drakensburg lacerations. We've just had an American lady come to reception trying to haggle a discount on a private room for tonight, just seems abit rude tbh since the prices are fixed and fairly cheap as it is. Not the first rude American on this trip although in their defence I met a very polite American family at the falls yesterday who kept calling me "sir" when I took their photo.

Livingstone is a town of opportunists. The sellers and hawkers have turns it up a notch from Namibia and all start with the usual approach - run after customer, ask them if they're having a nice day, compliment their hairstyle and say they can give you the best deal in town on whatever product they have. Popular around here are bangles and jewellery and of course there's taxis beeping at non-existent opportunities hoping they'll get a fare. I'm pretty stubborn and have only used a taxi once this trip. Still, I haven't had anyone trying to polish my "very dirty shoes" like a kid in Arequipa, Peru. The other side of this town is the hugely commercial and astronomically expensive tourist side offering all sorts of trips and adventures to predominantly white western tourists. You could quite easily spend a few thousand dollars in a couple of days on helicopter flights, microlights, safaris and the rest. It's one of those places where it's almost impossible to privately hire a local guide and do things on the cheap. I mean just imagine if you had to pay a few hundred dollars to go to the Lake District and do a half day walk with lunch? They'd be uproar and no doubt trespassing which they solve here by ex-military folk cuddling ancient bolt action rifles.

As is common in Africa they have a self made obsession with unnecessary bureaucracy which even surmounts what you'd expect in Europe. Simply changing some currency requires paperwork and your passport, the former surely just ends in a pile and the attendant didn't seem fussed that I filled almost ever piece of information in the wrong place. That said its inconsistent. I can make accommodation and transport bookings with no deposit and just using my first name. Sometimes if you don't care it saves a lot of hassle in trying to understand.

Tomorrow I'm off to Lusaka for 3 nights which I anticipate could be pretty dull. There's not a lot there but it's necessary to get my Tanzania visa and book my next bits of travels inc the Kilimanjaro climb and connect with my Dar bound train which departs on Friday. I figure on the spare day or two ill check out what there is in Lusaka and maybe catch up with my Finnish friends who went a day ahead of me.

On a separate note I hear the weather back home has been thoroughly rubbish and I now have a fence to rebuild on my return. Speaking of bad weather it has just started absolutely lashing it down with thunder that sounds like a van full of C4 exploding on the street, it's so incredibly loud but is over as soon as its started.

Here it comes again in the early evening, mahoosive storm, road is actually a river. Hope this doesn't continue too much or the rest of the trip.