Day 41 – Pickpocketed for 26,200

 Lusaka, Marble Inn

Today’s plan was to spend the day in Lusaka. We headed off to the bus station to book our tickets to Lilongwe. We had originally planned to do it in two stages overnighting in Chipata, but because the bus from Livingtone was so cruisy we decided to do the 18 hours in one stretch. It remains to be seen whether this was a good idea or not!

Bus tickets in hand, we walked into town to check out the Central Market. It was very very busy (maybe because it was Saturday?) and the items for sale ranged from the usual fruit, fish and meat, to piles of used shoes (which you wouldn’t find back home!).

As we were heading up the main street, M’s was jostled, then his arm was grabbed by a smiling man. After he let go, it was a few steps later that M realized all of the money in his shirt pocket had disappeared. Later we worked out it would have been about 26200 Zambian Kwacha – about $5.40 back home. We hope they were disappointed with their haul – and we’re considering it to be a very valuable lesson as it could have been a lot worse!

 

The afternoon was pretty quiet, more walking, more getting lost (which is a common occurrence for some reason) and then an early night to prepare for the 5am bus in the morning.