Walking in Lusaka

Since I got off to a late start this morning I didn't end up tackling any major sight-seeing today. Instead I decided to take off on a long walk. Unfortunately, there's not a lot to see right around the hotel. However, that's never stopped me in the past so I took off to see what I could see. So, I took a right turn, heading west, on Church Road and followed it a couple miles until it deadended into Cairo Road. My Lonely Planet Guidebook had warned that there the area around the corner of Church and Cairo was a haven for pickpockets, but it seemed OK when I was there - of course, it was also mid-afternoon and many of the shops were closed. The guidebook had also warned against going there at night, but I had no trouble today - that is, no one came up to pester me, offering to walk around and accompany me before asking for a loan (which has happened to me in Mumbai and Nairobi and Johannesburg, etc.). According to the guidebook Lusaka is a town of few charms - that is, not a lot of history or architecture. I did see a few substantial buildings, including the Bank of Zambia building which is pictured. I didn't see any western chain stores - no McDonald's or Burger Kings or Starbucks - but maybe that's just because this was an older area. I did see groupings of what I took to be local chain stores - Chicken Inn and Creamy Inn and Bakery Inn, which usually shared a common space. I went into a very modern grocery store called Shoprite on Cairo Road. It seemed very well-stocked with just about anything you might imagine buying. The prices were cheaper than you'd find in the US, although less than you'd think. I've included a picture of a ten pack of eggs that went for just over 9100 kwacha (about two dollars), which doesn't seem noticeably cheaper than than you'd find at Shaw's back home. Of course, I don't suspect that most Zambians would do their shopping at this particular grocery store.