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| Entertainment |
| Nightlife drives Nkhata Bay |
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by
Francis Tayanjah-Phiri, 25 July 2003
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13:29:39
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Very few people can resist the temptation to revisit Nkhata Bay, the growing town on the shores of northern Malawi after their first night out. Unless you are confined to strict religious helms, Nkhata Bay swallows everybody into its entertainment tummy.
Any doubting Thomas can be challenged to read each issue of The Lonely Planet, a book that guides tourists to wonderful destinations in the world, and they will read that Nkhata Bay is one of the best global tourism.
The Lonely Planet should not be dismissed for its praises of Nkhata Bay, because anyone visiting this place for the first time takes with them fond memories of how a lake and rocks—which make the place unique—could garnish a holiday.
But ask locals and tourists, they will alike tell you that what makes Nkhata Bay even more unique is its nightlife.
“I have travelled to many places in Malawi but I can challenge you Nkhata Bay is the best night entertainment haven. Almost everyday is a weekend here, our drinking joints and discos make many forget their home districts,” says Charity Chimwemwe Banda, a resident of Banana Grove, a joint that was formerly owned by veteran politician, Kanyama Chiume.
Like Banda says, the battalion of bars and drinking joints that scatter around this resort town are more than enough to make people from overseas forget their hometowns.
“I first heard of Nkhata Bay when I read The Lonely Planet, but later I met this other friend of mine who told me of the experience he had with his girlfriend when they had visited this place. Then I decided to include Nkhata Bay as part of my holiday package in Africa and I have not regretted,” says Monica Langton, a 21-year-old tourist from Europe.
Trek to Nkhata Bay and you will find many of tourists who came just for a visit, but have ended up either staying or coming back for another holiday stint. The secret? Well, the rocky beaches and the nightlife around the town.
Ask Ali Chipopo Chirwa, a local and he will tell you that nightlife at Nkhata Bay starts at drinking joints like the Golden Dawg, Bush House, Oversees and Illala Bay Lodge, then concluded at Sankhulani and Wazilala night clubs.
Even opaque beer guzzlers, whose drinking paradise are the likes of Sun City Tavern, usually converge at Wazilala and Sankhulani to sample the music and the mix-up atmosphere. Here, whites and blacks share the same merry and colour and race is not significant in twisting of the bodies on the dancing floor.
The nightclubs even become merrier on the days when the MV Illala or Mtendere passenger ships or the Tanzanian ship Songea docks at Nkhata Bay.
On such days, people from all walks of like and tourists inclusive, find fun on the ships’ decks—especially on the MV Mtendere—drinking and sampling snacks.
Though drinking and merrymaking in and around pubs make ‘Bay’ tick, cinema lovers also find solace at Golden Dawg. Here, in the evenings, over 200 people, old and young are often found sitting before a big screen, watching cinema.
Further, the Golden Dawg is even more enticing when there are reputable football matches globally—say the World Cup, African Cup of Nations or the European Cup.
People are always jam-packed, so much that immediately after the shows, anyone travelling along Nkhata Bay to Chikale Beach road, they would wonder what mass rally was around. But on being inquisitive, one finds all the people were at the Golden Dawg.
Ison Nyirenda of Kapingama School says given a fair judgement, Nkhata Bay deserves to be recognised as Malawi’s top entertaining resort town.
And, when you set a foot in what is termed as the ‘core of Nkhata Bay’, the Wazilala Night Club, all the remnants of doubt that may linger in your heart about the reputation of the resort town, completely evaporates.
Life at Wazilala Night Club starts at midnight. Before that, it looks like any other pub, but go there beyond midnight, the place goes crazy and so do the souls available, with both the drunk and sober getting excited, courtesy of loud blast of disco music provided by the joint’s DJ, Captain Chinambalala.
Captain Chinambalala, sitting in his cubicle just adjacent to the bar area, boasts of a wide selection of music, most of which is a darling for both locals and tourists, that throng the night club.
You may talk of Malawi music, reggae, R&B;, kwaito, ndombolo, rhumba, or the oldies like simanjemanje or kanindo, you find them all at Wazilala.
If you are early in your patronising Wazilala, say around 10 PM., you will not leave it until the rays of dawn. It is even worse when you enter the pub after having one or too many at the likes of Bush House, Mayoka, Chikale Beach or Njaya.
“Music is the centre of attraction here, you know Nkhata Bay has other good places when it comes to night life, but ours surpasses them because of our range of music,” claims DJ Captain Cinambalala.
If you have the feel of these joints, and the taste of the resorts, compounded by the lake breeze, you would straight away be planning for come back.
Nkhata Bay, you would be convinced, sizzles your mind, more especially if you try its nightlife.
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