Malawi

Full of beautiful beaches, lush green mountains, and friendly people, Malawi was the perfect place for Scott and I to spend 3 1/2 weeks of saved-up vacation time on our Peace Corps budget.  We pretty much hit every chapter of our now dog-earred Lonely Planet book and discovered some places off the beaten path as well as well-known hangouts for other volunteers/backpackers.  We met other Peace Corps volunteers from Malawi and Tanzania and swapped stories, although PC Zambia still takes the cake for an authentic bush experience. 

Scott and I decided to put together a list of a few of the differences we noted between Malawi and Zambia:
- Malawi has more artisans, particularly carvers selling their local handiwork not just at tourist areas but in the main markets
- Substantially more police checkpoints . . . with Malawian police frequently making all members disembark a vehicle to search it
- The presence of coffin shops (not that Zambia doesn't have them--they're just not so public about selling them out in the open)
- Less English spoken in Malawi, especially in the larger cities.  This is probably due to the fact that Zambia has over 70 different tribal languages, where most Malawians communicate with each other using Chi Chewa.
- More tourism, which probably propagated more begging and downright asking white people for money
- More frequent buses and mini buses in Malawi, although the quality of most of the transport we were on was definitely not as good as most buses in Zambia
- Prices were substantially less for us as tourists than in Zambia, although a currency crisis in Malawi is making it extremely difficult for locals to buy certain goods
- Mountains, mountains, and more mountains in Malawi!  Plus an amazing lake that looks like an ocean (Ok, Zambia does have part of lake Tanganyika)

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- Significantly more deforestation and farmland.  Malawi has approximately the same population as Zambia and is a fraction of the size.
- A significant Islamic presence, although still many Christian churches
- The local Malawian restaurants served an option of rice, chips, or nshima with the main dish instead of just nshima.

Overall, we had an amazing time although spent more hours on local transport than I can count.  If you're looking for a relaxed but outdoor-oriented budget vacation, I would highly suggest Malawi.  More pictures to come!