Malawi Sun Hotel

The Malawi Sun is an odd mix of a full-service hotel and a nickel-and-dime operation, catering especially to those locals and foreigners who seem to subsist on aid dolla rs which, curiously, seem to end up paying at least as much for hotels and cars as for aid to the people. The quirks began to manifest soon after my arrival: Having drunk all the water in my room to re-hydrate, I asked at reception for another bottle for the night, only to be told that housekeeping was closed for the day and therefore no bottled water could be obtained. (Parched, I resorted to boiling tap water in the kettle, then drinking it hot.) Currency exchange at reception is, likewise, unavailable after hours. The wifi in the centre of the building doesn't reach the rooms on the very end of the building. My room, 904, was one of these and therefore I found myself always traipsing up the corridor to sit in the lobby. One does not come to Malawi for the cuisine. Breakfast in the hotel restaurant is an underwhelming buffet of chicken sausages, chips, and the like, with- amazingly, in the country that brought the world mzuzu- either weak or instant coffee. The fresh fruits are a high point, though. Precisely because the buffet is so sp**** and uninspired, I took four of the dessicated, sad-looking chicken sausages: Immediately, one of the staff dashed out from behind the buffet table to inform me "The limit is two!" "Sorry," I replied as I shovelled all four from my plate back onto the serving tray, "I had no idea that they were so valuable!" Although there isn't much option for breakfast, if you're looking for a tasty and hygienic dinner outside the hotel you can't go wrong at the nearby Bombay Palace which is reliably delicious. If you're looking for an alternative then 21 Grill is OK too. At the hotel's own "Aamari" restaurant even the chambo fillets come deep-fried; instead stick with the North Indian dishes in which they specialise (although if you're going to eat North Indian then you may as well go to Bombay Palace instead). Avoid the Hong Kong like the plague; everything is deep-fried and in fact, plague is an apt term for it because it gave us all gastrointestinal trouble: two of us upset stomachs and the other one, well, I won't mention. If you're looking for a local excursion then try the Huntingdon House and its surrounding Satemwa tea estate, but do try to book ahead via their web site or by telephone. A bit farther afield is the Majete Wildlife Reserve. And just a thirteen-minute walk from the hotel itself, along Glyn Jones Road and Livingstone Avenue, is Blantyre Market. At the end of the day, the Malawi Sun is safe and clean and its quirks are easy to handle once one knows what they are.

Excellent value for money.

was great