MADAGASCAR REVEALED

WEATHER: Low of 13C – High of 27C

HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY: Getting my shopping mojo back again

BUMMER OF THE DAY: Awkward dinner – see below for details

BUYS OF THE DAY: A woven bag I didn’t need for 5AUD

WORD OF THE DAY: Selama – hello

GOOD MORNING ANTANANARIVO,  And yes I can say it now after I got Alan to say it like 5 times, but for obvious reasons the capital city is also known as Tanna.  I still like to say Antananarivo just because I can…now. I set my alarm a little earlier, as I wanted to jump online again to try and get an album up before hitting the road and heading into the country of Madagascar.   I like saying that as well, Madagascar, man I am in MADAGASCAR!!!  Breakfast was from 7am so I headed down at 8am and the juice man was there again with a glass of fresh juice for me and walked me to my table again.  I’m starting to feel a little lost and a smidge out of place after camping for 60 days.  I miss the camp chairs (as uncomfortable as they were at times), I miss my tentie and tent and I miss my locker number 16 oh and 20.  Well they say it takes 21 days to break a habit, so I will just be getting used to warm showers, beds and TV when it is time to hit Ethiopia and back to tents and trucks again.  This is the life of travel.  Breakfast was awesome.  I had continental, but you could order eggs 20 different ways, but pancakes and fresh rolls was enough for me.  I also ordered tea and got a whole pot, which they poured for me and it was vanilla flavored which is also one of the main exports for the country.  I LOVE vanilla.

I am leaving a few bags at the hotel, as I come back to this lap of luxury in 8 night’s time before flying out to Reunion Island.  So I have left things like sleeping bag, pillow, certain clothes etc. in their storage room and will collect them on the way back.  So after paying 4200 for my beer last night with dinner, we saddled up the 4WD, she started with no problems and we hit the road.  We only have 170km to travel today, but after being in the car for only 30 minutes I can see how the journey would eventually take us over 3 hours.  Right from the start there is only one road, so all the traffic use this.  It is just wide enough for 2 cars to pass, but to try and paint you a picture, the road is used by everyone.  We have women and children walking on the side of the road, some are carrying loads which we would never contemplate back home, from 10L bottles full of water balancing on their heads, to baskets, to firewood, to bricks to anything that they need, they carry.  Add that to children playing by the road, or they too are also carrying loads that children in any western world would be unheard of (this breaks my heart seeing this) to bicycle riders, cart pushes, cattle, dogs, chickens, trucks that take up more than half the road and the list goes on.  It really is an accident mine field out there, and you are continually beeping a horn to let people know you are there and they step over a bit to let you pass.  This is continual for the whole journey, not just in the cities; the whole road the whole time has the same traffic and the same conditions.  I think Alan and every other driver on a Madagascar road needs a medal.  The roads are not your conventional roads.  They are the windiest ones I have ever seen, and it isn’t just a section, their whole road network is bendy and windy.  So when you get stuck behind a truck for example you are stuck till you can see a few bends away if there is oncoming traffic, you then need to beep the truck to let him know you are passing so he doesn’t knock you off the road and then you pedal to the metal.  As I am in a tourist car, Alan I think is erring on the side of caution, but there are some crazy drivers that will just go to overtake on a bend and then a car will loom from the other direction and they serve in front of you to squeeze in and avoid getting done.  So just add that to the list of things to watch out for when driving.  You would have to be insane to choose Madagascar as a self-drive holiday that is for sure.  It makes for some interesting entertainment while on the road.

As we drive I notice the people are a chocolate colour.  They aren’t as dark as their African neighbors and every time I see the county folk I think of the Mongolian people.  They have broad faces and they seem to have a nice nature about them.  I get a good vibe from the Malagasy people and they have wonderful smiles.  It’s Sunday today, so there are a lot of markets as we drive through the villages.  They are full of colour and bustling with people and their wares.  In this part of the country there are a lot of tomatoes, strawberries, cabbage and lettuce for sale.  The produce all looks so good and fresh and very photo worthy.  It is so hard to get back into taking photos of people and scenery as it was a dead set no in Africa, but the Malagasy people don’t mind, so I need to change my mind set back to my point and shoot mode.  I am sure it won’t take too long, but I currently feel bad taking photos of people after such a long hiatus.        

We stopped only an hour into our drive at some roadside markets.  It had a lot of the woven bags and boxes.  I wasn’t going to buy anything, but the bags were beautiful, and I was after all helping the local economy, so I bought this beautiful woven bag for 10,000 which is like 5AUD and then I also bought these beautiful woven boxes for 15,000 which is like 7AUD and they are so cute.  I don’t know any French but know she originally asked for 40,000 – yeah like I was going to pay that.  I was happy with the final bargain of 15,000.  Don’t ask me what I am going to do with the basket!  I will probably use it a bit on this trip and then try and send it home with the rest of the stuff late next week before I leave. It is a nice bag though in my defence.

Our final destination today was Antsribe, which also happens to be Alan’s home town.  We stopped for lunch at a local restaurant for lunch just after we arrived and I ordered a chicken pizza, Malagasy style and it was one of the best pizza’s I have ever had.  They use what looks like a pita as a base and it puffed up in the oven and it was crunchy and not the least bit greasy at all.  It was a great lunch and for the pizza, a bottle of coke and tip it cost me 6AUD! 

Just a 10 minute drive away was the hotel where I would be staying for the night.  I use hotel loosely as they were free standing cottages around the main house which was also the restaurant, reception and bar.  It was so cute and quaint and they had pebble paths that led you around a grassy middle that had deck chairs and a few tables under umbrellas to get to your cottage.  It was a magic place.  My room was amazing, it had a massive king bed, a massive bathroom and a small desk and chair to which I used before heading to bed to punch out some blogs.  So by the time I got to the room and Alan had checked me in it was 1.30pm, so we decided to have some free time till 3.30pm and then we were going to go for a rickshaw ride around town.  He was going to go off and see his brother and I decided to sit outside and start to catch up on some blogs.  As mentioned I am like 6 days, well more than that but I have decided to lump my 4 days of Cape Town into one entry, so technically I am 10 days behind, and I get this fear if I get too far behind I won’t ever catch up, so I sat and after consulting my notes managed to pump out 2 entries in 2 hours.  Once I get back from our rickshaw ride I’ll try for another 2 before dinner and then one after dinner which will well and truly get me on my way.  That’s the plan Stan.

So Alan was back at 3.30pm and I was a little apprehensive about the rickshaw ride.  I just had this mental image that the rickshaw driver wouldn’t be able to pull me or that it wasn’t made for my weight and something would break.  Well when I look back now it sounds a bit crazy, if you could see some of the loads that these rickshaws carry, from TV’s to crates of soft drinks to some of them carrying 6 people, I really had nothing to worry about.  We pulled up to what was a rickshaw rank where there had to be at least 15 drivers all waiting for work.  The second they knew we were going to hire 2 of them they were all over the car yelling out their rickshaw numbers and waving their hands like crazy!  Holy schmokes Alan get me out of here……  We decided on 3 and 7 for the job and I asked as a joke to see my rickshaw man’s guns (biceps) to make sure he was strong enough to pull me along.  With a toothy grin he showed them to me, introduced himself in French as Michelle and we were on our way.  The rickshaw has long arms around 2m long attached to the main compartment and the wheels.  So the arms were rested on the ground as I got on and then he picks them up and we started to roll.  I rekon it would be quite easy to tip backwards if Michelle let go for any reason, which is why I decided to sit as still as I could as to not rock the apple cart so to speak.  So around Antsribe we travelled for 40 minutes before heading back to the car.  I got a photo with Michelle which all the other rickshaw drivers wanted to have a look at and then some general ribbing went on about having a photo taken with a vazzar (white person) and a lot of smiles and laughing.

So all going to plan I checked what time dinner was and then ordered a beer and continued to blog and upload photos on the free Wi-Fi that was available and strong enough to reach outside which was a bonus as I hadn’t expected to be able to get onto the internet here.   7pm came and it was time for dinner.  Well little did I know when reception said 7pm was cocktail hour, which was fine, no-one was over dressed so that wasn’t the problem, but as soon as I walked into the fire warmed room everyone was sitting around in a circle, around a glass table with horse-e-douvers on it with French music playing in the background, it was really cute but AWKWARD.  There were no spare chairs, but the wait staff were all over it and shuffled in a chair between 2 old ducks.  Well this is where the fun begins.  I left my book in the room, which I was going go back for and decided not to, well I wish I had.  They were all French, all clicking in French and I had no idea what they were talking about, so I had to pretend I was looking around the room that was decorated in authentic Malagasy stuff.  The old duck to the left of me felt sorry for me as I was left out, so she switched with her husband who knew a little English to try and include me which was nice.  The rest of the group then asked me some questions which the dude had to translate for me and then back to them and as this was all happening I was taking in the seating arrangements for dinner and I had a feeling I was going to have to sit with some of them and that they spoke no English was going to make for an awkward meal, more for them than me, as they feel bad that they don’t speak English.  We got the menu read out to us, which the old dude translated for me and we had to pick our main course, which he translated back to the waiter.  Well there was a saving grace, and they both walked through the door about 15 minutes before 8pm, and they were a young French couple from Paris and they could speak English – thank god!  They sort of got saddled with me for dinner, as the old Frenchies, all 10 of them, wanted me to pair up with them as they spoke English.  I hope they weren’t counting on a romantic dinner cause they didn’t have much choice in the matter.  It turned out they were both air traffic controllers and really nice people.  The funny thing is we had a great night, conversation didn’t stop once, lots of laughing and at the end of the night we said our farewells and choofed off to bed and I didn’t even get their names!  So an awkward start to the night ended up being quite an enjoyable night and I am glad I stuck it out.  The food was 5 stars again, the presentation was amazing and the chef even came out afterwards and spoke to all the tables and asked if we enjoyed our meal.  Pretty snazzy hey!

So that was my first full day in Madagascar and I am loving it.  I am enjoying my own company, with Alan by my side during the day.  Once we get to the hotel he scoots off, which I’m okay with and I’m also okay with having some free time in the afternoon to just do nothing or something, but the option is mine.  So this was a great place to have a break from Africa in between tours and I am going to make the most of the time I have in this amazing country.