I've been doing some research for my trip and I'm having a hard time finding out how to get from Mbamba Bay (where the ferry from Nhkata Bay lands) to Dar Es Salaam. I'm a bit nervous about this leg of the trip and am especially nervous about staying in Dar Es Salaam overnight. Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks.
1
fnm
Hey!
We just did the same trip about a week ago, no prob! The walkthrough
1. Get a matola or minibus to get to the frontier.
2. Change all your malawi cash in the frontier's bureau
3. Get a bike (yes) for 500 tsh to get you to the Dalla-Dalla station, like 2 km from the border.
4. Get a Dalla Dalla (much better than the malawians!) for 5000 tsh to Mbeya.
5. Stay in downtown, eat at Sombrero's (great and cheap) and you can ask the Sombrero's hotel owner for a discount (which we had... when we assured him we would go to his restaurant too). Alternatively there are some other cheaper hostels around.
6. Wake up early! Scandinavian buses, hmm... around 25.000? not sure, all the way to Dar. Or you can get the train if its Wednesday.
7. Pay 3000 to the taxi and stay in YMCA, NOT YWCA, which sucks.
8. Dar is pretty safe, enjoy!
2
milkentoast
Okay so I found out that if we can get to Songea there is a bus (scandanavian express) that goes straight to Dar Es Salaam. It looks as though there is a daily bus that goes from Mbamba Bay to Songea. Can anyone either a) confirm these details as they were culled from the web and b) give me a sense of how it was traveling through this area? Thanks for the help and also for letting think 'out loud'.
3
keay
from mbamba bay there buses to songea town or kyela where you can get a bus from songea town to dar es salaam but from mbamba bay to songea town its depends at what time you will arrive with ferry becouse all the buses from those towns depart early in the morning so may be once you will arrive to those towns you should have to sleep then tommorrow you boeard a bus to dar es salaam which its about 25000 to 30000 tsh and here in dar es salaam its depend what type of lodges or hotels you want but there is cheper lodges which good and clean for about 10000 to 30000tsh
yo may mail me for further assistants kisanjis@yahoo.com
4
milkentoast
Okay, so you are saying: don't take the ferry across but rather cross the border up north near Mbeya, get there and then take a bus to Dar? That sounds like a lot less fuss than taking the ferry. Thanks for the advice!! One more question: How much was the YMCA? THANKS for amazing response.
5
malaika03
there are two ways of getting into tanzania from malawi:
first: #1 described it clearly (via the border post of ibanda). good thing: pretty reliable, safe and planable, downside: less adventurous, less pretty scenery
second: via Nhkata Bay, crossing lake malawi into mbamba bay. good thing: stunning scenery, local flavor. downside: absolutely not planable (as the ferry comes and goes seemingly without any schedule), immigration in mbamba bay is limited, rather adventurous (old rusty, heavily overloaded ferry, no communication, no telephone network, no electricity in mbamba bay, nobody speaking english in mbamba bay...)
if you decide to go by ferry into mbamba bay, make sure to stay at the convent (which is situated halfway up the hill with stunning views on lake malawi, wonderful swahili-food, clean rooms and a generator at night, just ask for the "sisters"). all the other places are crap, and i mean really really bad shitty places.
transport from mbamba bay to songea is limited, only with pick-up trucks, as the roads are so bad that they are not passable for regular daladalas. the drive is very scenic yet seriously dangerous (especially in wet conditions), as the road goes along a ridge (or actually many ridges)...
from songea transport to dar is not a problem, all tarmac-roads, take scandinavia or royal coach (if available), they leave early in the morning, accomodation in songea is local but quite decent
cheers
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