I love crossing land borders, and a lot of this blog is about exactly that: arriving one way or another at a remote frontier, walking from one country into the next, reaching the other side just in time for a new adventure. Sometimes those days really (really) don’t go as planned. The stories here are about some of our favorite border-crossing experiences so far.
This post is a report about our experience crossing from Botswana to Zambia at the Kazungula border. The border crossing in question is very straightforward, so this is a quick rundown on how to get there and what to expect.
Coming from Angola there are a few crossing points to Namibia. According to our friend Maputo you can cross wherever you’d like, but he’s about ten years old and honestly, he’s way more relaxed about that type of thing than we are. I’d stick to legitimate crossings.
After being all but closed to outsiders for many years, and implementing a highly restrictive visa policy after that, Angola is now visa-free for many nationalities. Crossing the border from DRC is easy. Delightful, even, in comparison with the bus trip from Kinshasa to Matadi that we undertook first.
The Congo river separates the two closest capital cities in the world: Brazzaville and Kinshasa. You can cross the river border in a ‘canot rapide’ – boats that make the trip from one city to the other in about fifteen minutes. Too easy? Don’t worry. There are plenty of obstacles in store, thanks to infamous levels of corruption. Still, crossing this mighty river from one Congo to the next has been pretty high on our ‘to do’ list for a while. And here’s how it went.
Here’s what you can expect when you travel by road – on public transport, no less – between Gabon and Republic of Congo. Buckle up, buttercup. Just kidding, you won’t find a seatbelt.
You can of course fly from Kuala Lumpur to Sumatra’s capital city Medan in less than two hours. But if, like us, you’d vastly prefer a lengthy overland excursion instead, you can travel from one country to the other on a combination of public transport offerings by land and sea. Crossing by ferry between Malaysia and Indonesia is easy, it’s just time consuming: it took us a bit under three days to get from KL to Medan. Here’s how.
You can of course fly from Bangkok to Kuala Lumpur in no time. But if, like us, you’d vastly prefer a lengthy overland excursion instead, you can travel from one country to the other on public transport. Travelling by road between Thailand and Malaysia is easy, it’s just a bit more time consuming. Here’s how to do it.
This post is based on our experience crossing the border from Erenhot (China) to Zamiin-Uud (Mongolia) in May 2024. There are two typical ways to do this border-crossing. You can take the Trans-Siberian train from Beijing to Ulaanbaatar. Or, you can string the journey together with a bus on one side of the border, and then a train. So, if you ever wondered how to cross the border between China and Mongolia by road, then read on.
A travel guide to crossing the border from Kenya to Tanzania. How to reach the border near the Kenyan coast; cross it; and get to Tanga, Tanzania.
A guide to crossing the border from Malawi to northern Mozambique. How to get to the Chiponde/Mandimba border crossing and then to Cuamba. Plus, catching the train from Cuamba to Nampula.
This post is a report about our experience crossing from Botswana to Zambia at the Kazungula border. The border crossing in question is very straightforward, so this is a quick rundown on how to get there and what to expect.
Coming from Angola there are a few crossing points to Namibia. According to our friend Maputo you can cross wherever you’d like, but he’s about ten years old and honestly, he’s way more relaxed about that type of thing than we are. I’d stick to legitimate crossings.
After being all but closed to outsiders for many years, and implementing a highly restrictive visa policy after that, Angola is now visa-free for many nationalities. Crossing the border from DRC is easy. Delightful, even, in comparison with the bus trip from Kinshasa to Matadi that we undertook first.
The Congo river separates the two closest capital cities in the world: Brazzaville and Kinshasa. You can cross the river border in a ‘canot rapide’ – boats that make the trip from one city to the other in about fifteen minutes. Too easy? Don’t worry. There are plenty of obstacles in store, thanks to infamous levels of corruption. Still, crossing this mighty river from one Congo to the next has been pretty high on our ‘to do’ list for a while. And here’s how it went.
Here’s what you can expect when you travel by road – on public transport, no less – between Gabon and Republic of Congo. Buckle up, buttercup. Just kidding, you won’t find a seatbelt.
You can of course fly from Kuala Lumpur to Sumatra’s capital city Medan in less than two hours. But if, like us, you’d vastly prefer a lengthy overland excursion instead, you can travel from one country to the other on a combination of public transport offerings by land and sea. Crossing by ferry between Malaysia and Indonesia is easy, it’s just time consuming: it took us a bit under three days to get from KL to Medan. Here’s how.
You can of course fly from Bangkok to Kuala Lumpur in no time. But if, like us, you’d vastly prefer a lengthy overland excursion instead, you can travel from one country to the other on public transport. Travelling by road between Thailand and Malaysia is easy, it’s just a bit more time consuming. Here’s how to do it.
This post is based on our experience crossing the border from Erenhot (China) to Zamiin-Uud (Mongolia) in May 2024. There are two typical ways to do this border-crossing. You can take the Trans-Siberian train from Beijing to Ulaanbaatar. Or, you can string the journey together with a bus on one side of the border, and then a train. So, if you ever wondered how to cross the border between China and Mongolia by road, then read on.
A travel guide to crossing the border from Kenya to Tanzania. How to reach the border near the Kenyan coast; cross it; and get to Tanga, Tanzania.
A guide to crossing the border from Malawi to northern Mozambique. How to get to the Chiponde/Mandimba border crossing and then to Cuamba. Plus, catching the train from Cuamba to Nampula.