Blantyre shoe shopping

Blantyre was only a one night stopover. We stayed at Doogle’s, which was not what we were expecting, as it should have been the best camping around, but turned out to be nothing more than a glorified bar with dorm rooms.

The bar itself is very cool and here we met Andrew and Philip, with whom we had a great evening chatting away. Both are in the logistics business in Blantyre and we soon found lots of common ground to discuss.

Astrid at some point indicated her need to buy some shoes and Andrew and Philip immediately suggested that they would take us to the best shoe shopping around. So after a number of beers, we agreed to meet the next morning to do some shopping in the market of Limbe.

At 09:00 AM, Andrew and Philip picked us up and we headed off. After parking the car, we found that the bottom end of the market consisted of shoes. In all shapes and sizes, in any colour imaginable. Stallholder after stallholder showed us their footwear, but Astrid couldn’t find anything.

Amongst the huge selection Astrid finally found a great pair of Birkenstock and after some haggling, settled on a fair price.

All the while we enjoyed the intense market atmosphere around us. Goods were being hawked and bartered all around us and despite the seeming chaos, the market was very structured and well run. Beyond shoes, you could find haberdashery, materials and seamstresses, electronics, tools, clothing, vegetables and fruit, and a whole section for automotive spare parts.

What was great about this market was that it had a very large selection of goods and we didn’t get treated like tourists, without extortionate prices, constant harassment etc. It was very liberating to just do what you came for, and not end up being “chased” out.

However, it wasn’t all good news. Astrid had set out to get two pairs of shoes but despite the huge selection, she could only find one pair. So with all of us fed up with looking at shoes, Andrew and Philip took us back to Doogle’s showing us Limbe in the process and introducing us to all the local police officers at the road blocks. 🙂

Thank you again to both Andrew and Philip for an amazing time! And yes, Astrid is still looking for the second pair of shoes… 🙂