Tanzania

As time had run out for me in Malawi, I got onto a night bus from the Malawi town of Msuzu to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. I had arrived from Nkatha Bay in that wet taxi to a 12 hour wait for the bus to Dar es Salaam. After a short walk through the town, a visit to the bank and a visit to an internet cafe there was nothing else to see, so I returned to the bus station. To pass the time I sat listening to some of the music which Leila had taped for me. This was going to prove costly because I forgot to switch the phone music player off. The battery was flat in the morning. The bus arrived from LIlongwe, when I boarded I checked the seating to find mine but there was already a person in there. I then decided to let this ride and proceeded to the back of the bus. Everything and I mean everything on the bus shook, I drifted in and out of sleep the whole night. It is amazing when travelling in this way one still feels that you slept but just too little so it seems as if my scalp is not fitting snuglly to the coconut and there is a space between the eyebrows and the top of the head. We were at the border by 5.30am the next morning. Here we had an hour wait for the border to open. Meanwhile we could do the morning thing which was going to cost 30kwatcha, maybe this is where the conotation for a thousand "K" comes from kwatcha the currency for Malawi in order to have a kak. The toilet attendant was there in his full glory at that early hour, do they sleep in the toilet? I dont know anyway the last time I paid to use a toilet was in Europe. Did"nt expect to find this in Africa.
I started speaking to somebody cleaning out one of the offices and noticed that he had his phone on charge. I asked him if I could plug mine in also he readily agreed. It turned out that he is in charge of The Bureau of Standards at the border post. He expected some kwatchas of course which I had him have when the phone was charged. We sat in front of his office in the early morning chatting while the phone charged. Soon it was 6.30am time for the border to open. I was duly stamped out of Malawi after I was asked to remove my cap. Collected my phone and walked the short distance to the Tanzanian side of the border. On the bridge a policeman (Malawi) stopped me and asked to have a look at my handbag. He scratched around in the bag and I realised that he was,nt really looking for anything and that he expected a few kwatchas from me before I leave the country. I kept myself dom and just smiled took my bag and greeted them and proceeded to the Tanzanian side for entry.
The bus was unloaded and we were lined up to have our baggage checked. I passed easily, a backpack is not a comfortable thing to search.
Before I could get the stamp in my passport I had to pay 50US$.
That done we could pack up again and proceed into Tazania. We had hardly gone 10km when we were stopped by the police and I saw the bribe being passed on on the side of the bus. This was going to be the trend for the next 20hrs of travel. To me it seemed as if the cops were just collecting their monthly pay as a matter of course. Many interesting things happened on the ride across Tanzania to Dar es Salaam on the east coast of Africa. I am a bit tired now after todays running around I shall continue the posting when I get back from Zanzibar.