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Introducing Miss Mandlovu

Food and Culture with doses of Adventures, Misadventures and Travel Tips along the way

Welcome to my little corner of the interwebs.

I am Miss Mandlovu (aka Tsitsi/ Miss T/ Michelle). I’m sure you are here to know a little about me and how I ended up travelling and starting a travel blog…so here we go…

I was born and raised in Harare, Zimbabwe. My family moved to the United Kingdom just before I became a teenager, and I joined the rest of the family, a few years later.  I spent just over a decade living in the United Kingdom before I moved to New Zealand for about four and a half years.

As a teenager, I had to travel back and forth between Zimbabwe and the UK. While visiting the UK, my parents made sure we went around exploring during my trips. I was also fortunate enough to spend a couple of weeks on work experience in France as part of a language immersion exercise. These experiences sowed the seed of travel and exploration in my youth.

Why do you travel so much?

I’ve always been fascinated hearing people describe their cultures and experiences growing up or living in different parts of the world.  I looked forward to bring and share events at school, work or church as people not only brought their favourite foods, but unlike just going to a restaurant, people also shared stories of said food or its place in their culture. I wanted to experience more of this. 

As a food enthusiast, I’m amazed at how the same core ingredients can be transformed by a few key herbs and spices or cooking methods. Travel allows me to explore different foods, eating some of the loveliest cuisines on home turf with locals, to get more of a sense of different food cultures. As I travel, I always do either a food tour, cooking class or visit a wet market to see their unique ingredients. 

I do not enjoy hiking, but the love of beautiful landscapes and waterbodies has seen me trekking various hills and mountains to get more of a birds-eye view of the beauty of the natural world we live in. I have also found myself in caves or various refreshing waterbodies across the world…and some hot springs too.

I travel, as a reminder that there are so many ways of doing life and to challenge some of the ideas that I have been conditioned to believe, since entering the western education system. Travel opens my eyes, occasionally challenges my values, but most importantly it enables me to take a step back to re-evaluate, reform and grow. 

How do you do it – money and timewise?

If the old addage ‘where the heart is, your money will go’ rings true, according to my bank account, my heart is mostly in food, education and travel related activities (and not just for myself). I always try to travel within my means, meaning I can go on a weekend trip to Brussels for  £100 (including accommodation and transportation) or find ways to stretch my budget so I can spend a week and a half celebrating life alone in Switzerland. My travel style differs depending on where I am travelling to, how much I have and the drivers behind the trip. 

I have generally always taken time off work, as an opportunity to take a trip somewhere new and explore. If I have a work trip abroad, I will try add on a few extra days on either side – I am already going to be there. Even when I could not travel abroad, I also enjoyed exploring more of the country I was living in and hence have visited many places in Zimbabwe, UK and New Zealand.

For reasons outside the scope of this blog, I also have family and friends all over the world and sometimes their experiences incite a genuine reason to visit. This allows me to do two things I love: reconnect and experience a new destination with ‘local’ guides. 

Where have you been and what have you done?

All this wanderlust, has given me the pleasure of visiting over 35 countries across all, but one, of the world’s continents (not yet been to Antarctica). I am continually amazed by both the similarities and the differences that exist in our world. The places I have visited are in the ‘Destinations’ tab of the site. The older I become the more I value experiential trips rather than shopping trips. I love the way taking part in Muay Thai training, a yoga retreat, or going on a village tour helps me better understand a small element of the Thai, Indian or Tanzanian culture, than any video or book ever would. I am also on a quest to find the best massages in the world – the most interesting one I have experienced so far is the Indonesian 4-hands massage!!!

Travelling and meeting people in different parts of the world has taught me more about myself and given me amazing shared experiences. It has allowed me to take part in activities I could only have dreamt about such as learning to ride an electric scooter, hiking down Table Mountain and Sky Diving in Cape Town, South Africa, Bunjee Jumping in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, trying to get my self out of underground war tunnels at the Cu Chi Tunnels in Vietnam, engaging with survivors from really dark episodes of history in Germany and Cambodia, walking and engaging with locals in favelas in Rio, Brazil and Medellin, Colombia, amongst others. It has given me more trust in humanity, as I have been alone in countries where I do not speak the local language and left with nothing but positive memories.

Why not just enjoy your travels silently?

I decided to start this blog to share some of my learnings and adventures in the different places I visit for a couple of reasons:

  1. Some people in my life found my experiences helpful/interesting and thought it would be good for me to write down for future viewing; and 
  2. I looked for travel blogs of people who looked like me over and over again (i.e. Black African women travelling solo) to help me prepare for my trip, and although they are increasing – there are still not many. As I have travelled, I rarely meet black female solo travellers in the places I go, and I recognise that it may be helpful to share this perspective, not only to highlight that we too can do this, but also share how the experience in certain places may be slightly nuanced compared to people travelling with others, our male counterparts or people of other races. 

Travelling longterm was a dream of mine for a long time, and I finally gave myself permission to do it. Travel has given me many breath taking moments, however, it has also given me a few misadventures that almost saw me take my last breath. This would have deterred some, but for me, the benefits still outweigh the costs. 

I recognise that not everyone loves landscapes, food or travel as much as I do. However, I hope some of the posts and pictures on my page trigger conversations, encourage you to try out new foods/experiences or inspire take steps towards the things that you have always imagined. It takes sacrifice, but I hope the draw of the dream inspires you more than pull of comfort.

What should people expect from the blog?

I write about food, culture, travel adventures and misadventures, occasionally I will share some travel tips and reflections from my travels.  If you have any questions or would like to work with me, please do not hesitate to reach out at: info@mandlovu.com

Disclaimer: I share my travel experiences and occasionally, those of my travel companions. A different set of personalities, budgets and attitudes may yield different results. Therefore please read my blog with the acknowledgement that the experiences may or may not be unique to me.

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