Travel Stories

A travel blog by members of club 54. Follow the adventures of your favorite travelers, you might learn a thing or two about Africa that you can not find anywhere else.

MALAWI: Yole and the Biker boys

Conventional wisdom says; When a new town is established, wait for roads and infrastructure to be built before starting a transportation or taxi business. Yole and his biker boys disagree; When they started seeing people using bicycles as the local Uber, to reach new fields and homes up to 5kms from the nearest road, they decided to cobble some money together and buy motorbikes affectionately known as boda-bodas. Charging K1000 a trip, and up to two passengers at a time,… Read More »MALAWI: Yole and the Biker boys

MALAWI: An education of a lifetime

Conventional wisdom says: women’s bodies belong to them and they are free to do with them whatever they want. Fulu and I agree, but we were met with immediate and angry retribution for that belief. Yesterday morning we left the backpackers without taking cultural and African wisdom into consideration. Coming from a world where mini and microskirt are a norm, Fulu wore her favorite mustard colored dress. But we didn’t realize that this skirt would be deemed too short for… Read More »MALAWI: An education of a lifetime

MALAWI: Dennis’ house of stone

Conventional wisdom says: to build a house you need to buy clay bricks from a builders warehouse. Dennis and the people of the Mitengo village disagree.  During the dry season, they harvest muddy clay from their backyard and pack it into the brick-maker mold called chikombole. In a brilliant piece of engineering, they then stack the bricks together to make a home-made kiln. They feed firewood into it using the bottom holes and set it alight. The heat bakes the brick into… Read More »MALAWI: Dennis’ house of stone

MALAWI: Pack a bag, stamp your passport

Conventional wisdom says: I am an African; I do not need anymore authentic African experiences than that. Malawi as a whole disagrees, it has taught me that you are not really African until you have greeted your neighbors and taken the time to listen to their stories. Something strange happens when you become curious about someone else’s life: First, a sense of wonder washes over you as you see an old world with new eyes. Then a sense of helplessness grips… Read More »MALAWI: Pack a bag, stamp your passport

UGANDA: The Coriolis Effect HOAX, or NOT

One of my biggest bucket list items is to see the Coriolis effect at the equator. Uganda lies on an equator so I was excited to be traveling there and having the opportunity to see this effect in person. Until I googled it that is and discovered that my favored bucket list item could be a hoax. To understand why I first need to explain what the Coriolis effect is. What is the Coriolis effect  When a mass rotates, there… Read More »UGANDA: The Coriolis Effect HOAX, or NOT

UGANDA: This is why you travel light

Conventional wisdom says: when backpacking; travel light. After the ordeal of losing their backpacks, our travel companions @Xolile, @Marcus, and @Busi totally agree. When boarding an international flight, your luggage is weighed, measured and its destiny decided. If you don’t watch how much you pack you get the pleasure of watching your bags tagged, wrapped and ushered away from you with the promise that you will be reunited 4,000 kilometers and 24 hours later. From that point on, you and… Read More »UGANDA: This is why you travel light