The Cube

Zimbabwe: Zambezi River Sunset Cruise

February 20, 2025

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Zimbabwe: Victoria Falls town and food

February 18, 2025

Victoria Falls is a town in Western Zimbabwe and gateway to the waterfalls of the same name. We flew into Victoria Falls from Nairobi with a short transit in Addis Ababa. It was round 2 of running across the airport for me (first for sis) as the transit time was short, queue at security check was long and airport was large. The flight from Addis Ababa to Victoria Falls was comfortable though, plus we each had a row of 3 seats to ourselves.

We didn't need a visa to enter Zimbabwe as well as Zambia so immigration was prompt. We flew into Victoria Falls instead of Livingstone simply because the flight tickets were more affordable. Thank you passport.

Getting around

We organised for airport transfer and someone was already waiting for us when we exited the gate. We got another transfer to the airport on leaving. The river cruise included pick up service from the hostel. Otherwise we walked, including across to Livingstone in Zambia.

Victoria Falls town was an easy stroll from the hostel albeit hot but many information online has warned about walking at night because of roaming animals. Our visit to the town were during daytime across the days we were there.

See..? Hot.

Money

We exchanged some USD in Australia and brought along. Most places takes credit card. The only place that we had issue paying with credit card was an eatery in Zambia because there was no electricity and they couldn't use their credit card machine.

Internet

We got an e-sim that covers countries in Africa but Zimbabwe is not in the list of service. Service was limited in Zambia as well. Hostel provided free wi-fi but connections were patchy at times. So we managed with what was available. Victoria Falls is not a big town anyway.

Food
There is a supermarket within walking distance from the hostel where we got bread and biscuits for breakfast. We had dinners at the hostel's restaurant. Food filled the tummy but we couldn't be bothered checking out dinner venues and organised transport (read: lazy). When we went to Zambia, we packed breakfast from hostel as our lunch. We wanted to try Zimbabwean cuiside and had one lunch at the town, and brunch on the day we departed.

Shoestrings Bar & Restaurant

So we had 1 breakfast takeaway as lunch and 3 dinners here. As mentioned above, the food filled the tummy but repeated 'visits' due to convenience.

Mediterranean pizza, USD 12

Chicken burger with side of salad, USD 9

Fish & chips, USD 11

Chicken salad, USD 8 & strawberry milkshake, USD 3

Zulu Bistro Bar

We walked into the tourist information center to ask where the post office is located and casually asked what were their recommendation for Zimbabwean food in town. We were told of Zulu Bistro Bar or Mama Africa Eating House. We initially decided on Mama Africa, purely by name but we were not able to locate the shop. We were hungry and it was too hot to continue walking so we ducked inside Zulu Bistro Bar.

When we ordered this traditional fermented alcohol drink, the waitstaff was a little worried that we won't like the taste. She even pour a shot for us to taste before confirming this order. It tasted like fermented drink, a little sweeter comparatively towards the end which I find nicer.

We chose Inkulu ele dobi or chicken stew with a mild spicy peanut butter sauce for one of our mains, the other Mpongo or goat curry. We initially wanted to err on the safe side and ordered 1 plain rice for both as we saw this big dollop of something at another patron's plate that we learned was sadza.

Sadza is made of white corn though looked like mashed potato. It is made by mixed white corn flour with water and cooked till a thick and smooth consistency. We didn't think we can finish it. We were told that sadza is Zimbabwe's staple food and we were convinced in trying after we were told we can order half portion. Obviously, neither rice nor sadza were half portion as you can see below.

Greedy eyes means we also ordered dessert in the form of fluffy dough balls served with umnyl (bird plum) berry sauce and baobab frozen yoghurt. Frozen yoghurt melted very quickly in Victoria Falls' heat but very tasty. We wished there were more frozen yoghurt and even looked baobab yoghurt in the supermarket after that. Unfortunately the ones in the supermarket came in super big tub (I think it was 2 liters) and we have no access to a fridge and would \not be able to finish it in one seating.

Traditional fermented beer, USD 2

Inkulu ele dobi served with plain rice, USD 13

Mpongo curry served with sadza, greens and beans USD 13

Ama' puff puff served with umnyl berry sauce & baobab frozen yoghurt, USD 7

Cafe Marula

We wanted a more substantial breakfast/brunch that would tie us till around dinner time due to flight time. Also, away from hostel food. Haha.

Iced coffee was a need in the hot weather, as was the smoothie bowl with berry smoothie, homemade granola, coconut flakes and fresh fruits. We also needed more veggies for greens quota so the veggie breakfast of 2 eggs, grilled haloumi, grilled tomato, spinach, mushrooms, potato rosti, toast and marmalade was our choice. Food was good, they had free wifi but likewise Zulu - shaded but no aircon.

Iced coffee, USD 4

Veggie breakfast, USD 10

Smoothie bowl, USD 7

Side note: Cos sis said once a week is too infrequent

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Africa

Kenya: Overnights in Nairobi

February 15, 2025

On flight from Nairobi to Lamu

I thought I had more photos of Nairobi but guess I remembered wrongly. We had 2 overnights in Nairoib, not continuously.

The first time was after we got back from Amboseli National Park and arrived in Nairobi around noon time. We stayed at Ibis Styles - Nairobi Westlands. We had lunch at the restaurant in the hotel but went out to a shopping centre nearby where we got some groceries at Carrefour and takeaway pies for dinner.

Grilled fish & mocktail, Ksh 2,850

You know sometimes a certain item doesn't have price on displayed. This was one of that instances. We thought it was just oats, it can't be that expensive, right? Plus, other breakfast items next to it were reasonably priced. We were so wrong. We bought the most expensive oats that we ever had - 50g for Ksh 699. To save you the trouble of converting, that's USD 5.40 or AUD 8.55 or RM 23.80 at today's conversion rate. A similar product, i.e. 50g quick oats in cup in Australia is around AUD 2.50.

Yes - these are Ksh 699*2

Second time we thought we had more time but our flight from Lamu was delayed and by the time we arrived back in Nairobi it was past 7 pm. Our flight to Victoria Falls was at 5 am the next day. We needed to cater for international flight check-in timing as well as possible long queues following strike at NBO the day before. We were lucky that the strike ended on the same day and our flight wasn't impacted.

Sis found an accommodation that offered airport transfers, dinner and breakfast. We had to top up USD 10 for pick up from Wilson Airport as it is further from the accommodation. We were unsure about the successful rate in getting a taxi or Uber booking, so we decided to go the airport transfers organised by the accommodation. It was a great decision - we were picked up by the driver. By the time we got to the accommodation, dinner was ready. After a quick shower, we went to bed and had at least 5 hours sleep before getting up for our flight. The host packed us breakfast and the airport pick up came on time. The food served were so good.