On the way to the border, we filled our fuel tanks and carried an extra 100 litres of diesel in canisters, as fuel supplies in Malawi can be unpredictable. When we arrived, we discovered that the crossing is not the “one-stop border” as they proudly mention on the website.
First, you need to register your TIP at the gate before proceeding to the main building on the Tanzanian side. There, after presenting your yellow fever certificate, you get your passport stamped and your CPD carnet processed. A few fixers offer assistance for around USD 10, but their help is not really necessary—the procedure is straightforward to navigate on your own.
You can also buy a local SIM card at the border. We chose TNM over Airtel because of its better coverage. The seller registered our passports in the system. Still, when the confirmation SMS failed to arrive, he promised to meet us on the Malawian side to activate the SIM, load an internet bundle, and collect payment. We never saw him again. Fortunately, the confirmation message eventually arrived, and the SIM worked perfectly, so we purchased the data bundle (30 GB for 18,200 MWK) in lovely Pusi, the first bigger village after the border.
Later, however, we received a text message informing us that another phone number had been added to our account profile and that mobile payments had been activated. That was when we realised we had encountered our first scam in Malawi. The seller had apparently hoped we would top up the account with money that could then be accessed and transferred elsewhere.
The second scam attempt involved currency exchange. We agreed on the standard rate of 3,800 MWK to 1 USD, but during the counting process, the money changer handed us only about half of the amount we were due. He tried to pass off bundles of 50,000 MWK as 100,000 MWK. After we challenged him, he reluctantly handed over the rest of the cash.
On the Malawian side of the border, the process begins with paying for the visa (USD 50) and having your passport stamped. Next, you proceed to a window for CPD verification, followed by another window on the opposite side, where staff will photocopy your passport, driving licence, and CPD for 2,000 MWK. For an additional 3,000 MWK, they will complete all the required paperwork on your behalf.
We then paid USD 63 in road tax and 90,000 MWK in carbon tax at the next bank window. After that, we received our stamped CPD along with several receipts. Customs officials wanted to inspect the truck, but when we explained that it was parked about one kilometre away on the Tanzanian side, they were satisfied with a photo on our phone. The whole process took us around 3,5 hours.
Back at the truck, we drove through the Tanzanian exit gate, where they took our TIP. Then we drove to the Malawian exit gate, where officials briefly checked our stamped CPD and passports. From there, we continued towards Karonga on a paved road riddled with potholes, taking it slow as we crossed our first stretch of Malawi.
