[djmcmath]

For some fun background, I'll be visiting a friend in Malawi, about 500mi to the south, flying in and out of Lilongwe "International" Airport. I said to myself, "If I'm going to be in South Africa, I should look at diving in Mozambique or Madagascar -- right next door, and some of the world's best dives!

After much googling, I discovered that there is no way to get directly from Malawi to either Mozambique or Madagascar. Lilongwe offers direct flights to only 5 airports, so it turns out that it's actually just about quicker to get to the Mozambique coast BY BUS. Flights were roughly $1500 (that's USD, not local currency), and were looking like 30-40 hours.

For perspective, that'd be like visiting a friend in Charleston, SC, and saying "Gosh, it'd be nice, while I'm here on the East Coast if I could hop down to Ft Lauderdale for some beach time," and discovering that it's a 2 day trek with flight connections through Houston and Mexico City.

So I said: Where can I fly to from Lilongwe? Turns out Dar es Salaam is one of the 5 locations, and it's only a 3 hour flight. So I can get to Dar for peanuts. Adding a hop through Zanzibar on the way back from Malawi only added $150ish to the total cost of the trip. Bonus!