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Welcome to my travel log! You will find here a lot more than in the travel reports, stripped from political correctness. Enjoy! 
Jun 08, 2005 02:00 PM Lobamba (SZ) - the spiritual capital
Lobamba with the Parliament building and the King Sobhuza II Memorial is the true capital of Swaziland. At least this is what it is spiritually, I was being told.
The nation has a national museum as well showing stuffed animals from the country and three motor vehicles, which were used by Sobhuza II. I truly hate museums, but since I wanted to see the traditional beehive-like houses, I was showing genuine (at least as close to genuine as possible) interest in the expositions.
At that point, I was not sure if was going to see any of the beehive-like houses, so I was king of thrilled that they were there I was free to take as many pictures as possible. Some of the houses were being maintained, so I could not go everywhere, but I took a few nice shots.
I could also enter any of the huts and since I was the only tourist there, it felt good enough, despite the fact that a terrible wire fence separating the territory of certain governmental buildings was next to them.
By the way, Musa had never been there either, and he was thrilled more than I was.
My next stop was the King Sobhuza II Memorial, which is still being completed. It is a challenging task to fill in the museum, because it is hard to collect the personal things of the king. The Swati people believe that these things are magical and should not be exposed to a mass public eye.
The place, in which the body of the late king rested for a few days is encapsulated in a glass house, of which no photograph can be taken. For the same reason – it is a magical place and someone taking a picture could affect the spirit of it.
The memorial is a meticulously kept garden with the king’s statue, the glass house and a small museum currently showing only a few pictures of the king in many different situations when he reigned the country.
The guide for the memorial tried to be witty, but he just tried too hard. I could easily outwit him. However, I have to admit that his English was excellent and he learnt to use some very adequate phrases.
He was wrong on one thing though. Let me explain. When the king Sobhuza I died in 1839, the Boers occupying what is now the Republic of South Africa, sharpened their fangs and wanted the entire Swaziland become a part of their territory. Swaziland was then at least twice as big as it is now.
The Queen of Swaziland wrote a letter to Queen Victoria of England appealing for assistance. She said that the Swati people always considered the Queen of England as their mother, so how was it possible that the mother was letting the wolves plundering the country of her children.
In fact, such letter was written, but the guide claimed that Queen Victoria intervened were not true. She simply ignored the letter. It was the society of England who was appalled by the situation in Swaziland and appealed to the press to do something. Only then, the government, officially based on the consultation with Queen Victoria, that Swaziland should become a British Protectorate, but this process took years.
I told the guide that he should never again give the credit to Queen Victoria for protecting Swaziland from the greedy Boers. The credit should go to the society of the United Kingdom, because it was them, who saved Swaziland.
He was shocked and I was happy I could educate another one. At first he felt a bit embarrassed, but after a while was happy he learnt the truth.
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Jun 08, 2005 02:00 PM Mantenga (SZ) - name for many things
The name Mantenga is associated with many things in Swaziland and they are all located next to each other. It is a lodge, a village, a mountain and a waterfall.
I went there to see the waterfall, but ended seeing the village, which was a good thing in fact.
The Mantenga Falls are so overrated. The fall is only average and the location is not hugely picturesque. For a small country like Swaziland, however I am sure it is a big deal, and had I come in a rainy season, it might have been more dramatic.
The descent to the falls is more interesting because of the bushes and a small forest, which many monkeys inhabit making all noise of the world, but do not want to be photographed. I guess they were a little vulnerable, because they had offsprings around.
The village of Mantenga is a very tourist orientated piece of art, or semi-art, with a singing and dancing show performed with an effort and a very short tour around a few traditional beehive shape reed houses.
I must have spent an hour there, watching some traditional dancing, which, as I later found out, was delivered by a team of people who do such performance on official occasions. That includes events organised by the royal family or the kingdom’s government.
It was a fine spectacle of girls shooting their legs high in the air followed by half naked men doing the same thing, but holding a twig in their hands at the same time. I could see some emotion in it, as well.
Although it was very artificial, I did fully appreciate this cultural showpiece. I think it is important there are tourist who want to see this. It makes the locals learn all the cultural and traditional singing and dancing, and as an award it provides them with some income as well. I seriously struggle to see shortcomings of this approach.
The tour around the cultural village was short, but it happened during the hours of the sunset, so the scenery had a wonderfully lighted background and shadows.
The guide was knowledgeable and welcomed questions, which I had, as always. The tour revealed the eternal problem of equality between men and women. It never existed before the early twentieth century. Well, not in Africa at least. There were clear distinctions what women (and men) could and could not do.
The interesting element was that although the man was always more important than then woman, it was the woman who was more valuable to the village. If she was getting married as virgin, the parents (or the village) had to be paid seventeen cows. The price was always set at seventeen. That is for a virgin. If, gods forbid, she was not, then the groom, provided he still wanted her, could negotiate.
This tradition is still true today. When I had conversations with a few boys, they said that they must wait until they are thirty years old and when they have saved enough money to pay for a girl, before they can get married.
I could not agree more with them. Having a wife is very expensive.
It would not be fair if I did not tell you that this applies to traditional marriages in villages. The more liberated, oops wrong word – I mean emancipated, women, do not enforce the rule of seventeen cows. More emancipated women are rarely virgins anyway, and their maintenance throughout the marriage costs more anyway.
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Jun 07, 2005 02:00 PM Maputo (MZ) - on the way to Swaziland
There is an interesting pearl of architecture in Maputo – an Eiffel designed train station (picture above), the very same guy who erected a 300 meters iron tower in Paris for 1889 expo. The station’s main attribute is a great dome over the main hall. I was not sure if it was okay to take a picture of it (my outdated travel guide suggested it was absolutely not), so I did it from a distance.
Another interesting structure in the city is a town hall, which is predominantly kept in neoclassical style. Sadly, it is all grey and therefore extremely boring. It would have made a tremendous impact had it been of the colour ivory or stone-cream.
There are unfortunately many high rise concrete blocks of flats dotted around the city, which spoil almost everything. They are so plentiful and ugly that they make it rather difficult to anyone, including myself, to like Maputo and wanting to come back there.
There is potentially a beach in Maputo, but I failed to establish weather this is a fact or a myth. I saw a few pictures of the Holiday Inn based at the beach but the picture looked like it was over edited on the Adobe Photoshop 7. I think the city needs a beach, because otherwise there is little else to do there. Well, one can take a walk about the town in one afternoon and that is it. It is not the one of the most exciting cities I had a chance to visit.
From a practical point of view though, ATMs in Maputo are plentiful, and most of them are linked to the international Visa and some to the Europay (Mastercard) systems. This places Mozambique ahead of many African countries. I used them on several occasions and they worked perfectly well.
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Jun 07, 2005 02:00 PM Tofo to Maputo (MZ) - a long day
The trip to Maputo next morning took forever. Firstly, the mini bus from Tofo did not leave at 5am but 30 min later and secondly, it picked up absolutely everyone and everything on the way to Inhambane getting there too late for the connecting bus to Maputo.
Luckily, I caught up with the bus in town. It was no express though and I arrived two hours late making it impossible for me to travel to Swaziland the same day. But I managed to see a bit more of Maputo.
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Jun 06, 2005 02:00 PM Tofo (MZ) - a wonderful beach and party place
I heard about Tofo from two South African teachers I met on the Ibo Island. They highly recommended the beach saying it was worthwhile to spend a few days there. That was why I was happy that the new owner of Pensao Pachiza wanted to take me there.
I waited for the car to take me there until 10.30 am, and, as it did not come, I decided to take a hike. I thought it would not be too far or too hard as the terrain was reasonably flat and the temperature did not exceed 30C. I actually thought it was about 4-5 km from Inhambane to Tofo, however it was more like 14-15 km. A few elderly local women shook their heads seeing me hiking with my backpack along the road.
Luckily, two South Africans in their air-conditioned Jeep gave me a lift. It was very nice of them to pull over the road as I was walking and with no questions asked invited me. I never stuck my thumb out or anything, so I was very pleased with them. They did not have to do that at all.
Tofo beach is clean and very nice however, there are no palm trees directly on the beach, and instead various pine trees took all the interesting spots. That was disappointing, as I had been looking for this perfect Mozambican beach from pretty pictures since I arrived. The closest to the perfect beach was Wimbi near Pemba. Well, never mind.
I thought Tofo would be lively with many bars and other action packed venues. No, it is rather quiet and monotonous. It is an excellent place for relaxing for those who want peace and large empty beach. I was looking for something more developed.
I also wanted to enquire about the way to Swaziland, but there was absolutely no-one to ask. From the first sight, I could deduce that I could actually struggle to find out anything on this subject. I decided however to relax and enjoy perfect weather and delicious lobsters.
After checking into the hotel Marinho right on the beach charging MZM 1 million for a very bright room with ocean view and balcony as well as bathroom with skylight, I went to the Albatros restaurant for lobster lunch. The restaurant is on a hill (it is actually a lodge with several house-like cottages) and some tables have a nice ocean view reaching very far – to the top of the bay or peninsula. Their crayfish (medium are approximately 20 cm or 8 inches, I do not know what the large are like, because they did no have any at that moment) grilled to perfection comes in couples, as always, and costs MZM 200,000.
I liked sitting there on the terrace enjoying my ocean view. The staff impressed me by bringing me a whole jar of ice cubes for my coke. I pulled my table forward, so I could be in the sun, and ordered ice cream for desert. And why not?
About 1 km out of Tofo, through a palm tree forest, there is a fantastic place called Bamboozi. It is a lodge with a terrific bar and a good restaurant perched on the top of a dune with an incredible view. It is a lively place and gets packed every night. As I was walking in that direction, the two South Africans, who earlier gave me the lift, told me that I was definitely going in the right direction.
The friendly owner of Bamboozi, Dave, is an American but 90 percent of the staff comes from immediate neighbourhood, and they all are very friendly. In the bar, I met a professional photographer, Mike, taking a break after or between his project on Ova-Himba of northern Namibia. He was an interesting character. Many more other people then joined our table, and the atmosphere was getting great.
Sadly, I could not stay very long there, because I had to leave to Swaziland the next morning. I stayed in Bamboozi well after sunset and still had to make my way back to Tofo through this palm tree forest.
Since I always take a torch (flashlight) with me to Africa, or any other country with poorly lit streets or electricity problems, it was not too bad. I was not sure whether I was going on the right path, though. I could hardly see anything, and simply followed, what looked like tyre marks on the sand. There was no moon, and the forest was so quiet.
Other good and lively places around Tofo include Fatima's Backpackers and Dino's just before Bamboozi, but as I was walking in the dark, I could not hear a thing. That was interesting. Well, a car passed by within half an hour or so and gave a lift to the hotel. I had a couple of lobsters for dinner there. Grilled, of course!
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Jun 05, 2005 02:00 PM Inhambane (MZ) - colonial: yes, but boring
Mozambique's one of the oldest towns, Inhambane, is very well developed with paved streets and civilised, if boring and beachless, waterfront.
There are many villas around which make the town very charming but it is also very quiet and rather uneventful. No beach means there is absolutely nothing to do.
I was planning to stay simply one afternoon there and move on, leave Mozambique and continue my trip to Swaziland. That was the right instinct. I took a stroll around the town for couple of hours with many stops and contemplating, and that was it. I saw all there was to see in Inhambane. That includes both of the cathedrals, the old one (picture above) and the very large new one, the mosque, the train station, the market, the pier, and the waterfront.
Sadly, I have very little more to say about this town.
There is really only one place to stay in Inhambane – Pensao Pachiça (Pachiza) and this effectively results in virtually no travellers in the evening. The only and actually excellent restaurant, Maçaroca, which survives in the town, is truly a miracle. It serves a couple of 9-10 inch grilled crayfish for MZM 270,000 with rice or chips and salad. The service is brisk and very friendly. They actually do thank you for your custom.
The current owner of the Pensao Pachiza told me that he only bought the place a month ago and he was in the process of upgrading the rooms. He also has accommodation in Tofo and invited me there, and I was very glad to accept.
The plane from Maputo to Inhambane takes just seventeen people on board. It is so small that the passengers and the pilots virtually share the same cabin and any small blow of wind shakes the entire machine very easily.
The airport, or airfield really, is not far from town but is in the middle of nowhere and no taxis meet the flights. I was lucky that a bus from a hotel in Barra, a beach a few kilometres outside Inhambane, came to pick four passengers and very kindly agreed to give me a lift to the town. They actually dropped me right outside the pensao, and since it is the only one in Inhambane, that was not too hard to figure out, I guess.
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Jun 04, 2005 02:00 PM Nampula (MZ) - just passing through
On way back from the island, I took three boys with me to Nampula. They all wanted to go with me so much and they actually did not realise that it worked perfectly for me, because they were carrying my luggage all day, and I did not have to worry about sitting in Nampula and waiting for my flight the entire day.
This arrangement worked for all of us very well. The boys showed me the town a little and as we passed through several markets, we did some sneakers shopping. They actually wanted to buy those second hand sneakers. As they were very cheap, I gave them some money so they could get them. These trainers were for sports classes at school.
At some point, we had to part because the sellers were elevating prices seeing me there with the boys. So, we agreed on a budget and then I stayed with one of them whilst the other two conducted the business.
The boys also showed me a more off beaten track part of Nampula north of the railway, which I most definitely would not see otherwise. I was actually surprised this rough and very basic part was officially part of the city. I would normally think it would be treated separately as a village. There I saw that Mozambicans actually did nothing, just laid there in the front of their houses.
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Jun 03, 2005 02:00 PM Ilha de Mocambique (MZ) - new friends
On a stroll around the island, I also found a great gate to the harbour master. It has two large anchors placed beside it and two cannons as well. I could understand the idea of having anchors there, but cannons, hmm…, I am not sure why they were there.
Sadly, there are much too many ghost buildings on the island. Many of them in a catastrophic condition! I had a chat with three boys in the port about it and they could not explain why this is so but blaming the government and lack of money.
When I saw a broken cinema and found out that this is the result of a cyclone, which hit the island on Friday 22 May 1994, I realised there was something about the other ruins. Samuel told me that it devastated not only Ilha de Mozambique, but also many other towns across the country. This explained many things. It was not people’s negligence alone, after all why so many buildings on the island are in this terrible state.
The pier, which is now on its last legs, is the only remains of the old port. Some people would like to have it rebuilt and the port reinstated for tourism purposes. The port and the tourist base is however like a chicken and an egg.
I said to the local boys having this discussion with me that the lack of touristy infrastructure is worse than the lack of a port. People would still need to stay somewhere for the night and eat something. The lack of port means that people cannot cruise into the island, they were arguing. Yet, a cruise is not the only way of visiting the island since there is a bridge, so far. Although I heard that the bridge will only last another two years.
However, there is a rather more disturbing fact about the islanders and the island itself. It is the toilet beach. The southern beaches in particular, but all the beaches in practice, are used by the locals as toilets. They treat it so naturally that passers-by do not stop anybody to take off their pants and skirts and shit among the coral on the beach. The sight of me with a big sexy camera, which you simply cannot miss, did not discourage them either, which simply impressed me. Call of nature is always much stronger than many other feelings, including shame and fear for example. Fear is a good example, because it is often combined with the call of nature.
Nowhere else in Mozambique did I find so many old coins sellers. They are plentiful in the stone town and by the fortress and you realise how many of them there are as soon as you show interest in just one of them. These coins are usually of Portugal or Mozambique still as a colony and most of them were issued in the XIX century.
I mentioned the stone town. Yes, this is the northern part of the island. This is the part with many historical and buildings, the pier, the fortress, the palace and the main mosque. The southern part of the island is very different. It is full of traditional African households – huts covered with straw and bamboo.
It was fascinating to see such contrast. Not only is the architecture so different, the life itself goes on completely unlike.
At the northern part, where the majority of the schools are, is occupied mainly by the youth strolling about the town purposelessly or maybe hoping to hunt a few tourists, tag along and have conversation in English. They could actually spot the difference in the travellers, who likely be speaking English and who – Portuguese. Since I was more blond than not, it was unlikely that I would be Portuguese, so they automatically assumed I was English speaking, perhaps from South Africa.
In the southern part, where the majority of people live, life is more of a ‘business as usual’ nature. People cook, shop, wash, socialise, etc. And hey, there is also a disco, which is a major pick up joint (or a meat market), which often leads to another key southern activity – baby making. I was told that it was a major attraction on the island, since few people actually have television and as the night falls early, there is little else to do. So, people boogie.
Later, I somehow bumped into Samuel, and again he wanted to show me around. I did not refuse, and as a bonus, I am sure, he led me to the oldest door on the island. I am sure he meant the older secular door, because the door of the little chapel outside the fort must be older.
I also had a plan, so I was glad Samuel found me. I was thinking of actually buying some of the old coins for my father. I asked Samuel then to take me to one of the guys who were selling them, and I wanted a good deal.
This is when I met Enzon – the other guide, who was also selling some silver, but not coins. Enzon sold me a seven piece silver bracelet (each bit representing a different day of the week), which I did not want to buy but he was asking me to buy it so intensely that I became weak and gave in seeing he was really poor. Later, we kind of became pals and I gave him some clothes – mainly t-shirts but also shorts (for the gym that he is using regularly) and socks.
When I asked him whom he would like to be in a near future (he was 19 at that time) he said a doctor or an engineer. I asked him to show me his hands and told him he better aimed for an engineer.
I bought some coins from someone else. Actually off two other people.
Then, I met Jackson. A third guide. His English was best and his smile the widest. He was such a funny character. He was attending a college to become an architect. A very wise choice, I have to say, because there is much to do with the buildings on the island.
All four of us, Samuel, Enzon, Jackson (his actual name was Manito Jackson) and I, hang around until the end of the day. The boys were very sociable and friendly. I asked them to take me to a bar where locals and no tourists go, and we had a few beers. We had a very deep conversation about life, the universe and everything – and forty-two reasons why life in Europe is more difficult than in Africa.
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Jun 02, 2005 02:00 PM Nampula (MZ) - hmm... interesting
The city of Nampula was only on my route as a stop over to and from Mozambique Island. Due to flights’ and buses’ schedules, I had to spend a night there, which was not too bad, and an entire day, which was not looking very rosy, but ended up quite nice actually.
On the way to Mozambique Island, I landed in Nampula one hour after sunset, and immediately headed to a hotel. I did not pay any attention what the town looked like, and from what I saw from the taxi, it looked pretty civilised with neat shop windows and bank offices. However, the night was skilfully masking the true face of the place.
Well, I instructed the cab driver to put me to this hotel, which he could not find, and which was unfortunately recommended to me. It was Pensao Marques, and it was horrible. The rooms were not too bad, but the bathroom was terrible. When I found out that the air conditioning was not functioning, I asked the receptionist to give me another room.
The hotel charged me almost MZM 900,000 for this doubtful pleasure of not having running water and instead of proper shower, one had to take a bucket splash. I could not argue, because it was the official price. Well, never mind, I was there only for those several hours, and had to get up early for the bus to my next destination.
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Jun 02, 2005 02:00 PM Ilha de Mocambique (MZ) - lovely
Joy, the minibus driver, surprised me immensely (after my interesting experience of touts in Nampula) when he offered to drive all the way across the bridge from the mainland to pick me up on Sunday at 4am and take me to the main bus station on my way back. I was very happy. However, based on my experience that the Mozambicans are not trustworthy, I was being very careful with my felling of joy about Joy.
He eventually kept his promise and did come for me, for which I rewarded him with a very nice tip. By that time however, I already knew that he would come, because I met a few islanders, who were very nice.
Casa Branca II, under the name of Mooxeleiya, where I stayed is superb. My room was large, comfortable and made in a traditional XVII century style with XX century bathroom amenities, hidden behind a screen made of bamboo cane. It was perfect. The price of MZM 500,000 a night included a full breakfast plus coffee, tea, hot chocolate and ice cold water all day and night. That is a super deal! I could not believe how much better value this was compared with the terrible Pensao Marques in Nampula.
Samuel Anrane, a 16 years old guide, found me promptly outside my accommodation and we made a deal for him to show me around the island. He took me to many places around the entire island and told a few stories.
He said he would like to be a journalist when he grows a bit more. It was actually interesting to hear him saying that he would like to be a journalist. He was the first African man I met who wanted to be one. I challenged him a little by asking him to report to me what has been happening on the island. He struggled a lot actually, but it was funny. I guess if he sticks to this goal, he might actually become a journalist. He must however be good at Portuguese and further improve his English, I told him.
Furthermore, money is also an important factor. I was not amused to find out that the primary school is not provided by the state and costs MZM 300,000 a year and the secondary school is MZM 1 million a year. These are significant costs for rural Mozambicans. Moreover, books, as well all other equipment, cost extra. An average person would make MZM 500,000 a month, by the way.
One has to imagine that not only the cost of school is already a heavy burden for a family. Additionally, there are many families who raise more than five children. This way, not every child gets to go to school. It is terrible to imagine that a family often has to pick a favourite child and that one will go to school.
There are often in excess of fifty students in a class and this means that teachers cannot possibly give every child sufficient attention or explain everything thoroughly. So, there is little value for money.
Samuel showed me many grand houses and buildings scattered around the island proving that yet about a hundred years ago this must have been a splendid place. My favourite buildings are those of a hospital – picture on the previous page – I could not take my lens off it.
The fort on the northern tip of the island built between 1558-1620 is now the only complete large fort in the southern hemisphere. It is an amazing structure. First of all, it is large and well organised. It had a church inside, an execution stand, a hospital, and the quarter of the commander. There are many intact cannons placed on the top of the fort’s walls.
There is even an older building than the fort on the island. It is the church just beside it, which was built in 1522 and which is arguably the oldest European building south of the equator. It changed its purpose from a church to a mosque to a chapel. What astounded me was that the chapel survived all those years. The fort had it own church inside its walls, yet the chapel just outside the wall was kept. Curious, is it not?
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