8 August 2008: That week was the most hectic week in our round-the-world trip. To get to Zambia from Jordan, we had to fly first from Amman to Madrid, Spain (during the 12-hr stopover, we went to the city center of Madrid), then get on a 10-hr flight from Madrid to Johannesburg, South Africa. We stayed a night there, and then flew to Livingstone, Zambia the next morning on British Airways, a 1 h 40 min flight.

We were lucky to have all our luggage intact after all these flights. At the Livingstone airport, we met some people from Spain who were on the same flights as us from Madrid, and they told us their luggage was missing.

 Our battered luggage, here in Livingstone airport

We had a ‘food bag’, dedicated to storing big bottles of mineral water, bread, peanut butter, honey etc.

 We are in Africa, Africa!

The locals speak English here, so there’s no problem in communicating. The hotel staff told us not to venture outside of the hotel in the evening and at night because of the high crime rate even along the main streets. The local female staff said they don’t even walk outside the hotel after work; they hitch a ride with their colleagues to return home. They also said that most crime is committed by the Zimbabweans, whose country Zimbabwe is now in a terrible shape.

 People carry their goods on their heads. An amazing feat.

We took only a few photos in Livingstone (except in Victoria Falls where we took a lot) as we didn’t want to be conspicuous with our video camera.

Livingstone is a relatively small city. It was the capital of Zambia before it was moved to Lusaka.

Behind is a stretch of curio market where people sell carved goods etc. We didn’t buy anything there as there wasn’t any space left in our suitcases. But if we were to go there again, we would definitely buy some stuff since it is a livelihood for many people.

We love Zambia. It’s a wonderful experience to observe how people live their lives in Africa.

 Love this photo.

There is even a ShopRite supermarket down the street. The security guards would check everyone’s bags and receipt when they leave the store. We bought mineral water from ShopRite, but to our dismay, all the bottles at the store were not sealed, so it’s possible they were all open and refilled before, which made the water source very questionable. We drank from these bottles after we used up our own supply of water for drinking and brushing.

There were taxis everywhere, people hawking their goods to sell, and groups of people just loitering around to talk or people-watch.

It was winter in Africa, so it was pretty cold most of the day despite the sunshine.

Be sure to bring along mosquito repellent. We had to spray our room with the repellent every night to get rid of the mosquitoes who could carry malaria.It wasn’t healthy to breathe in all that, but there’s no choice.

 Email This Post

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 2nd, 2009 at 10:00 am and is filed under Zambia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.