Recently, Duncan and I took a trip through Zambia. Although both of us are well versed in the art of seeking and getting information, there are sometimes when that skill becomes a genuine art.
I have a secret love of trains, so after our 4th day of long bus travel, I was pretty keen to a) get off a bus and b) see if there was another way to travel back from Livingston. We got off the bus, got into a taxi which promptly ripped us off and headed to the lodge. Along the way we got stopped in front of the train tracks where a train was about to pass. The conversation went something like this:
Me: “Hey! It’s a train! Duncan, maybe we could take a train back.”
Me to the taxi driver: “Where is that train going?”
Taxi driver: “Lusaka”
Me: “Awesome! Does it take people?”
Taxi driver: “No”
Duncan: “So there is no passenger train between here and Lusaka.”
Taxi driver: “There is.”
Duncan: “But not this one”
Taxi driver: “no”
Me: “Where does it leave from?”
Taxi driver: “At the station” (Yeah, I could have figured that one)
Me: “How often do the trains go?”
Taxi driver: “I don’t know.”
Me: “So you don’t know the schedule, but where can we find that information?”
Taxi driver: “I don’t know.”
Duncan: “Does the train leave on Monday?”
Taxi driver: “Oh no, they only leave Wednesday and Friday, but they are not very safe and they take a very long time, so you shouldn’t take it. Just take the bus.”
Duncan and I sat there looking at each other, amuzed and astounded. All of that to get to the information we really needed. Such is the art of persistent questioning. It’s not elegant and it’s not smooth, but it is generally effective.
We took the bus, not the train back, although luckily for me, we did see a Zambia Railways train.
Cool shot! I heard the train is incredibly unreliable but my host brother used it to transport himself and some suits from Botswana to Kafue..
It breaks down often so the trip could be 18+ hours.
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I had so many similar experience in East Africa. The worst by far, was India.
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