The TANK

22 days into Malawi and we have purchased a car, well more like a Tank, to navigate the streets of Lilongwe, but most importantly, to go on safari and camping trips!  Now, before I start talking about our car, let me tell you how differently priced vehicles are in this neck of the woods!   There are two kinds of vehicles on the market here: Duty- paid and duty free, just like people working here have different status: tax payers and tax exempt.  So, if a diplomat or an NGO buys a car, their status is tax exempt and they can buy a car without paying the duty.

The rest of us, unfortunately, are taxpayers and we have to either buy a car for which we have to pay the duty/taxes duties (huge percentage, almost doubling the car price) OR buy a car for which the duty was paid by a previous owner.  So, you can imagine that all that tax paying makes cars expensive…and therefore new cars are few and between, while older, well-kept models are what is being sold on a daily basis. 

Now, let’s talk about our new ride: we got a 1996 Nissan Patrol 4x4 V8 Diesel with about 250,000 kms on the counter.  It’s rather well-kept, considering its “grand old age”, and runs with a nice diesel engine sound…  It’s easily seats 8 or by squeezing on the front seat, even 9 with a removable third row bench.  Without the bench its nice sized trunk space will hold all our camping gear! 

So far, nothing out of the ordinary…. except that the wheel is on the RIGHT side of the vehicle, that the driver has to shift gears using her/his left hand, and that the indicator lever is on the right, with the windshield wiper lever on the left.  Yeah, I can see you trying to figure this out…it’s just the opposite of what all US, Canadian, European cars have… which means that we will turn on the windshield wipers more often than it rains in London!!!

The good thing about the TANK is that it’s SO big , cars will move out of its way on narrow roads, a perfect set-up for us, as we’ve just started driving on the WRONG side of the road…  I still have to think where I’m to drive the car…  Only way I know is that, as the driver, I should be closer to the middle of the road than to the edge…  Can’t wait for the weekend to go for a drive… IF we can get diesel to fill its tank up!  But that will be another story…