Lusaka Warnings Or Dangers

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It's a tough business to attract customers to travel on their bus when several other buses are going to the same destination. You are inundated by people shouting the praise of their bus company. Some companies engage unemployed men to track down and get hold of tourists to travel with their bus. At least one of the bus companies engaged local boxers to scare away the other competitors. There were a lot of pushing and quarrels among the unemployed men .
After seeing a serious fight (pictures taken right after), I asked one of the them why. He told me he was a boxer and was protecting the customers against thieves. He also got commission for each customers he found. If another took his customers he would not get paid. It's a scary sight to see violent fights. Taking pictures is not wise.

Buses in Africa does not depart before they are full, so I had the experience to wait for some hours. Since I already had paid for the tickets to Lilongwe, I could not change to another bus.

I have had it twice and it is not fun...! If you are traveling in this region take precautions towards Malaria. If you do not take medication in prevention and you have the following symptoms after your return go straight to your doctor and tell him you were in a Malaria region: Flue like symptoms, combined with headache, backache and fever. Remember malaria kills almost a Million people each year and the longer you wait the more the parasite will multiply in your blood – the result is fatal!

        Remember that the rate of HIV infection in adults (aged 18-45) in Lusaka is between 20 and 30 percent. Be careful! Malaria prophylaxis isn't the only protection to consider!

        I experienced a coup attempt, harrassment from the police, but never the threat of being mugged, or any personal threat as a result of war in neighboring countries. (And you can see from the photographs above that I am not averse to taking risks.) I think it is important to establish relationships with a small group of people you trust and to go with them -- not alone. This is true if you are going to town center to email family back home, trying to exchange foreign currency, going out for a drink at night, or travelling between cities.

        A more banal precaution that I always took was I boiled and filtered my drinking water.

        (PS The photo is a vulture, taken in South Luangwa National Park, Zambia.)

Taking a taxi during the night is something that even the locals avoid doing because of the high number of fake taxis and robberies. As a tourist, you shouldn't do it UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES!

While Lusaka is generally a safe place during the day, it's not a good idea for a tourist to hang outside during the dark hours.