11.11.08
Posted in Hollidays, Madagascar at 1:29 pm by tesstess
Tuesday the 11 November
Day of return to Tana. Early in the morning we took a taxi, which was not a taxi but a family going to Diego in their old 4×4. Almost arrived in Diego the car broke down, the cooling liquid ran out on the ground under the car. We felt sorry for the guy and his family. Luckily for us there came a yellow taxi just after us and we could go with it to the airport.
Everything went fine. We managed (hm, no, Anthony managed) to negotiate the price of the taxi from the airport to Tana from 40 000 to 25 000, and on top we got the most modern car of all our stay on Mada.
The hotel had nice personel and the room, on the third and top floor was charming. They also had kittens which lay in my knee when eating breakfast = happy Tess.
In the evening we ate in a nice, quite cheap restaurant. It took about 10-15 minutes to walk there from our hotel. I was scared all the way. Compared to the place we stayed in at the arrival to Mada this area of Tana was really calm, on the way to the restaurant we didn’t see a single person, which is scary in another way than when surrounded by strange people.
Wednesday the 12 November
The big market day. And also last day on Madagascar, at least that’s what we thought… in fact, late in the evening Anthony ade the reflection that if our flight left at midday, there would be no change to get the flight Paris-Nice at ten in the evening which we had planned. So, we double checked the AF tickets and – indeed they were on Friday, not Thursday. What a miss! The hotel had internet so we verified the Corsair flights and saw that the one we had initially planned to take was Friday (there are no dates on the GP tickets). Suddenly we had one more day of vacation!
We spent all morning in the biggest market in Tana, just looking around, then ate lunch and planned to do all the shopping of souvenirs in the afternoon. The weather didn’t want to play our game but decided to rain so our shopping was quite hectic. When we bought vanilla we got surrounded by ten people, all trying to sell us their vanilla, showing us why this or that one would be better. We had the hands full and got a bit stressed. How to know what is good quality and not? We had read they should be long, dark, a little bit towards red but not brown. And not too dry. It took Anthony half an hour to negotiate the good vanilla and price.
The last evening, which was not the last evening, we had decided to eat in a more expensive restaurant. It had a décor in warm red colors and servers everywhere. The first menu we got was only for aperitifs We ordered a drink each. After finishing the drink we both wanted more, and since it was the last evening… hm, anyways, we bought another one. When I had trunk one third of my new cocktail I was starting to get drunk. The food arrived but I couldn’t eat. Anthony told me after I had gone all white in the face. I had probably not drunk enough water during the day. Then I was happy we had one more evening so that our vacation didn’t end with a failed restaurant visit.
Thursday the 13 November
What would we do with this extra day? In fact I didn’t managed to buy all the day before, being so stressed by the rain and the sellers. We decided to visit another market. The sun was with us and we found lots of funny things. The market itself was an attraction, there were everything to be found, from furniture, to hats and jewelry, to animals, dead or alive.
In the afternoon we made a walk in Tana that the guide book had recommended. It went up on the highest hill, to the palace of the queen. From there we had a great view in all directions. We took a guide who explained us a bit of the history of the kings and queens. The palace itself what not a lot to see, it burnt down ten years ago and now they tried to rebuild it. The history were starting 700 years earlier, we saw drawings of kings with palaces more like huts, very different from our own history.
In the afternoon there was a thunder storm, it was the beginning of the rain season. And in the evening we returned to our very first restaurant. The musicians were there again. We were the only guests this night and the owner took well care of us. We ordered gabons and got four mega shrimps each. It was a memorable evening, and a good ending of our vacation.
11.05.08
Posted in Hollidays, Madagascar at 5:25 pm by tesstess
Wednesday the 5 November
Luckily this night it didn’t rain. It was time to leave the nature and go to Diego.
On the way we visited the Tzingy Rouges, having a private taxi, the famous Roger. (på franska uttalas det rocheeer). He was the only one driving a 4L on the tracks between the road and the Tzingy Rouges, he even had made his own track in a place where the normal path was too slippery and bad. I’m sure he would be successful if he tried to compete in rallies, I’ve never seen such a skilled driver! And I’ve rarely been so worried to get stuck in the nowhere.
The ‘road’ was in so bad shape that the car was leaning to one side, then to the other, I almost thought it would fall. And to not get stuck in the uphills he had to go fast. The car sounded like it would break any moment.
We made small stops along the way and Roger told us some history of the villages, mountains, rivers and seas.
The tzingys were beautiful, very special. A bit rounded, formed by the rain, staying up because of the clay, but they’re mostly consisting of sand. Roger told us that they change each time it rains, the ones closest to the river melts, and new are formed next to the canyon wall.
We saw another car, a 4×4, with tourists, they were slightly before us. When we came back to the real road and got our bags back (we had left them there to not be too heavy in the car), the tourists took photos of us and the yellow 4L, their driver had told them stories about this famous Roger.
On the way to Diego we stopped to buy mangos, Roger bought us a whole bag full, about 20 mangos. They cost 50Ar each.
Thursday the 6 november
A middle day, we didn’t do much. Walked around in Diego, an ok city, not very beautiful, but not too bad either. We ate lunch in a nicer restaurant with sea view, then wrote the post cards.
For dinner we ate mangos. The hotel was nice but a bit boring without windows.
Anthonys cold didn’t want to leave, even with the antibiotics. Sad, it removed quite a lot of the fun for him, even though it didn’t stop us from doing things.
Friday the 7 November
Today we went with Roger to visit Montagne d’Ambre. (Ambre = koda eller sav). We made a five hour walk with a guide who showed us lots of funny animals and plants. On the way there was a couple of waterfalls and a lake.
The nature differed in different places of the forest.
Lemurians of another species.
A very touristic photo. And a Fikus Etrangler.
Do you see them? We never would if the guide didn’t point them out for us. Click on the photos to see them bigger.
These will rest my favourites. So cute! And they will not get bigger!
Incredible this cameliont! Very funny way of walking.
We then moved to Ramena (pronounced Ramenn), a small fishing village just at the sea. The sea on the other side this time, the Indian Ocean.
We saw these Baobabs on the way between Diego and Ramena.
The streets in the village were of sand. In the evening some friends of Roger helped us to find a restaurant. It was located in a small house a bit aside from the main street, we would never have found our way there ourselves. When we came there was no lights on, but when the owner saw us she turned them on. We were a bit sceptic at first, strange to be all alone in a restaurant, but it turned out to be the best restaurant of the village. The woman went down to the center to buy fresh fish, then fried it, and served it with rice cooked in coconut milk. Delicious.
Saturday the 8 November
Contrary to the restaurant the night before, the hotel was really crap! We panicked with hundreds of mosquitoes, especially in the toilet. The neighbors of the hotel put super loud party music (dunkadunka) on up to nine in the evening, starting again seven in the morning. And then all the flies at breakfast. We simply couldn’t stand it.
We visited three other hotels in Ramena before finding one with a free room. Seems like a very popular village.
The new room was more expensive than any up to now, but also the far best one. Clean, no mosquitoes (protection on the windows), big private bathroom with hot shower and a normal amount of water in the shower instead of ¼ speed that we’d had up to now, calm, not a single noise around, and then the best of all – right at the beach. 10 to 20 steps in white sand to reach the water (depending on the tide).
These photos are taken ten steps from the door of our hotel room. We spend the whole day at the beach and in the hotel room. And, do you know what!? They even had four lemurs in a tree close to the hotel! Free, traveling around in the trees in the neighborhood. We were counting the money left, realizing it was not a lot, hardly enough for the days to come at Ramena. We already took out money with my visa card once in Diego, I’m a bit afraid that will cost…
More Madagaskisk Daggecko.
Sunday the 9 November
From Ramena there is a known walk to do, called ‘les trois baies’ = ‘The three bays’. We discussed a lot with different people to know if we could do this walk alone, without guide. Most of the people told us it was preferable to have a guide. After all the people here are very poor, not always secure for tourists to be alone. This is a trend just starting in the north, some areas being less safe than before, but it’s still far from as in Tana.
Since we had already gone over our travel budget we decided to go alone.
The first small bay was an old military zone. Abandoned huts everywhere, and a beautiful beach. The only military in view was at the road at the entering of this area, taking an entry fee, we guess specially put there because there are tourists that pass.
A black dog followed us from Ramena and kept with us like if she belonged to us.
At the first bay we stoped to swim a bit. The dog lay down close to our bags, like if to guard them. So, somehow we got a guide anyways. A bit later we crossed a couple of houses and a woman grilling prawns, and here our dog decided to stay, hoping to get some rests.
Between the bays we were completely alone. At one point Anthony saw a man behind us and we got worried to be attacked. We walked faster, and even missed the second bay. The third bay, Sakalava, also known for surfing, were very big. We ate our lunch and took a swim.
We took the road (which of course could hardly be called a road) back. It was a long and hot walk. We hoped that we would get home before the dark. When getting out on the bigger road between Diego and Ramena we bought some beautiful shells in a small stand. A small truck came by and offered us a lift. It was a truck with the two seats in the same direction as the road, like an old military truck. It was a funny.
This day we had an uncomfortable story with langousts (also called spiny lobster, or rock lobster). Madagascar is a bit famous for it’s langousts, we had spoken to several tourists who told us how good it had been. Already at Nosy Komba we wanted try it out but they told us it was not allowed to catch them at the moment, since it was reproduction time. On the path along the three bays the met a fishermen who had caught two langousts and wanted to sell them to us, and after a long discussion we agreed on meeting him in the evening at our hotel, where we pay and ask the hotel to cook them for us. However, when the fishermen came by in the evening and we talked to the hotel owner we understood there was a problem. The fishermen had left the langousts there in the morning, apparently this hotel have a deal with this fisherman and since the owner didn’t want to make the fisherman or us angry they had accepted to the langousts and put them in the freezer. But they didn’t want to cook them for us since it was not allowed. Everyone was a bit pissed off. The owner, who was French and drunk every evening, decided in the end to pay the fisherman for the langousts, to not loose his confidence. We felt really stupid.
Monday the 10 November
Last day on the beaches of Madagascar. Three fishermen came in the morning with their boat just infront of our hotel and brought us on the expedition to ‘La mer d’Emeraude’. There were some clouds but at midday it cleared up.
The color of this lagoon is crazy, so beautiful! We saw some flat fish swim next to the boat, about one meter wide!
We stayed all afternoon at a beautiful beach where there were some huts to eat in. The everyday life of the fishermen of Ramena is to fish early in the morning, and the rest of the day bringing tourists over the lagoon to this beautiful beach. It’s the day where we saw most tourists on the same time.
We did some snorkeling and some relaxing in the shadow of a palm tree. The fishermen prepared a nice lunch with crab and grilled fish.
11.03.08
Posted in Hollidays, Madagascar at 4:41 pm by tesstess
Monday the 3 November
Alarm on 4.30. Tired. Fast do the packing. At 5.30 one of the guys from the blue boat came to help us with the bags. They let us on first, then they filled the rest of the boat with local people. The boat left at 5.50, ten minutes before time. Sometimes they surprise us. Everywhere we seem to be the only tourists! Well, on Nosy Komba we saw around then other tourists. Maybe two older couples, otherwise only white, fat men around 50, only there for the beautiful young malgash girls. They made me angry.
At Nosy Be we made sure to carry our bags ourselves to the big harbor. Along the way a guy tried to convince us to go with a boat, and then he presented us to a taxi brousse driver who would take us directly at the depart to the nature reserve of Ankarana. The price was a bit expensive, but the driver said we would be only three on each row in the bus, to not have it too crowded. Anthony managed to get the price down from 30 to 25 for boat + bus. The driver wanted us to pay him half before the boat left but Anthony refused and we paid 15 before leaving. Anthony didn’t feel secure with the guy and was worried for our bags, he was surprised to see the driver on the boat, he thought he had fooled us completely and wouldn’t come.
The boat was completely crowded of people. We were sitting in the front, like VIP with 20 other people who I think paid more than the ones who were very crowded outside.
Getting of the boat I followed one of our bags carried away by a big guy. Five other guys also wanted to carry it and they started fighting. Someone stepped on the shoe of the big guy so that it broke, he was really angry. I was happy the bag didn’t break and that we didn’t have anything fragile inside. In the end he found our bus and the bags were put on the roof. We went to eat some bananas and a café (in a place where we could still keep an eye on the bags).
When getting into the bus we understood that the driver was not they guy who we had paid, our guy was just a middle hand finding clients early and taking money in between. They put a small girl between me and Anthony. First I tried to refuse, we were already three on the row, but Anthony told me it was ok. Then they took her out and wanted to put a man in her place. Here I had enough and said clearly NO. They didn’t agree and tried again to push in the man in the bus. I was getting panic and screamed so I scared everyone, including Anthony. Anthony tried to calm me. I felt like I needed to throw up. We put the man next to the window and me between him and Anthony on top of the 10 cm wide hole between the two seats. We were all swimming in sweat. It took four hours.
The bungalow in the park was ok, clean sheets and mosquito protection. Common but fresh shower and toilets.
The guy helping us with the bags turned out to be a guide and we decided to take a smaller walk already the same evening.
It turned out later that the guide was not a real guide but a “pisteur”, the step before becoming a guide. His French was not very good and resulting in quite a few misunderstandings. However he was nice and knew all the latin names of plants and animals. Just that we would have been more interested in pedagogic explanations and French names…
We saw a view point and a cave with bats and skeleton. It was impressive and we were happy we decided to make this evening tour. On the way back it was completely dark and we could see night living lemurians in the trees, or at least a couple of eyes.
Tuesday the 4 November
The big excursion day. We had decided to make the ‘grand tour’ to the green lake. We also wanted to include the smaller side tracks on the way which normally was the ‘medium tour’. Our guide had a funny way of calculating the total price, he added the cost of the big and the medium tours together, even if the medium tours was just twenty minutes side tracks from the path of the ‘grand tour’. Anthony managed to negotiate this to something a bit more reasonable. In total this day we walked 26km.
During the night it had rained. The mice had eaten on the palm leaves on the roof, leaving small holes for the rain to come in through. It’s kind of hard to sleep when it’s dropping on your legs.
However, the dropping at night was nothing compared to how drenched we were some hours later. Walking in the rain forest under tropical rain doesn’t leave a centimeter of your clothes dry. I kept thinking about Karin and Andreas who would have loved the rain, and I managed to find it amusing. I held out my hands and felt the big warm drops.
We saw trees, birds, lizards and cameleonts. Not a lot of birds, maybe because it was still kind of winter. There were only one kind of perot, a dark grey one making lots of noise and different sounds.
This bird is just swallowing a lizard, tail still outside. It stayed on the branch and didn’t let himself be disturbed by us during his meal.
The rain finally ceased and we could take out the camera. At the lake we took a one hour, well needed pause. The guide put banana on the trees to attract the lemurians that usually arrives in ten minutes when smelling the bananas, but this day none came. They had probably went down deeper in the forest to get more protection from the rain.
On the way back we got to see several groups of lemurians. So cute, especially the mother with the child on the back.
We saw beautiful tzingy with a newly built path and even a hanging over a small canyon. This was one of the most spectacular nature views we saw, but the battery of the camera was dead. The grey sharp rock, contrasted with the fresh light green leaves on the cactus trees.
When we got back at six it was just getting dark. Ten hours of walking.
10.29.08
Posted in Hollidays, Madagascar at 2:18 pm by tesstess
Wednesday the 29 October – Nosy be and Nosy Komba
We arrived at seven in the morning in Ambilobe where we had to change taxibrousee.
School taxi and banana shop.
Between Tana and Majunga the weather had changed from cold to hot. This time, on one night it was the natures turn to change - from brown and try to green and humid.
We took a boat out to nosy be. In Hell-Ville all prices are at least twice as expensive than we’ve seen before. We ate lunch in a restaurant, it was nice to relax after so many hours of bus, change of bus, and then the boat, not to forget the super-heavy bags we had with us. Full with climbing shoes, tent and sleeping bags… which in the end we didn’t use.We soon learnt that there were no boats out to Nosy Komba after lunch (our selected island which should be a bit less touristic than Nosy Be), because then the waves were becoming higher. We hurried down and found a small boat. It took us half an hour to negotiate a reasonable price. Only people and bags on this one, no furniture. Anthony was a bit worried when the waves got higher, but I felt safe. Once I got a wave up on my back and was all wet but what does that matter when the water is 27 degrees? We discussed with a student who knew both French and English, who came from the island.
Finally we arrived to our paradise island. White sand, turquoise water, pirogues along the village beach, smiling people, broderies hanging for sale, moving in the wind. And, the best of all – no cars, no electricity, no noise.
I guarded the bags on the beach while Anthony walked around in the village and watched the different rooms available. Unfortunately we didn’t find one with both see view and private duch/wc, so in the end we took a room in the middle of the village, it was the most fresh one.
Slowly a new feeling filled me. A feeling of calm. After 24 hours of traveling we were finally installed. We found a restaurant with sea view and one tourist in which we ate with and discussed all the evening. He had been traveling a lot in his life and had lots of stories to tell. We ate shrimps and fried vegetables. Delicious. And much less expensive. At lunch they had had 60 people eating (compared us three in the evening), it’s because the tourists comes out to the island from Nosy Be in the morning and returns in the afternoon. We actually saw them and their flashy plastic motor boats just leaving when we came in.
The house in the corner is our favourite restaurant and to the right is our favourite food shop. What do you need more than fruits and rum?
During the night I had problems to sleep, even though I was so tired. First it was the mice eating on the roof, then the fact of being so far from the civilization, surrounded by people and a culture you don’t know, and then a then a tropical thunderstorm with enormous amounts of rain.
Thursday the 30 October
A day in relax mode. Walking around in the village, eating some fruits, swimming a bit.
Nosy Komba is famous for it’s broderies, there were women sitting everywhere making those cloths.
Friday the 31 october – mountain trip on Nosy Komba
Yvonne is an old woman specialized in guiding the tourists up through the jungle to the top of the island, 600 in altitude. When asking someone in the village who to take as guide, everyone talks about Yvonne.
We had appointment 7.30 but we had put the alarm wrongly and left an hour later. Even in the morning it was killing hot outside. Imagine then the big mountain shoes, long pants and long sleeved shirt. We walked very slowly.
Every ten meters Yvonne stopped to show us a new plant and each one had different medical powers. She gave us a leave of this, a leave of that, some seeds and then lots of flowers in all possible colors. Our pockets and hands were completely full.
Every 100 meters she told us how high we were. Sometimes a breath of fresh air came, but most of the time it was only this heavy air.
Funny to think of Anthony going up so many thousands of meters on Alaska and here it was so hard to go up 600. In the end I was so tired and hungry that I could hardly walk or listen to the explanations.
Finally we reached a village, one of the cutest ones we’ve seen. There were chickens in all sizes, ducks and a cat walking around, all in a good health. We sat down at t table in the shadow and watched the whole village preparing us a meal.
No half fabricate here, no, all was from scratch: we saw them bring away one of the hens, then prepare it, take of feathers etc. They dipped the hen in boiling hot water to make the feathers etc.
An hour later the most fantastic meal was served, just for us two. The guide and the people of the village ate after us, next to the houses. For dessert they came with a whole ananas (that Yvonne had bought from a girl on the way up) and it was full of flowers in it’s ‘hat’. Taking of the hat it was an ‘ananas-papaye-soup’ inside. They had taken all the ananas out, prepared it and put it back again. It was very sweet, we thought they had added a lot of sugare but a day after, when tasting an ananas we opened ourselves we understood that they really are that sweet. Anthony was surprised I could eat so much of it, about two thirds. Mjam.
Then we started the way down. This time with more speed since we had started late in the morning. Yvonne still stopped often to explain things but right after she said ‘on avance’ and we had to go on.
Jackfruit (Jaquier in french and Jackfrukt in swedish), like chewing gum to eat. Ananas on his plant. It produces one ananas, then it dies.
Pepper and Vanilla.
Cacao trees.
Clove, (Girofle in french, Kryddnejlika in swedish).
Traveller’s Tree (Arbre a Voyageur, De Resandes Träd). There is always water inside, and from the leaves you can make a roof to protect you from weather and wind. The plant is originally from Madagascar and the latin name is Ravenala Madagascariensis. It’s often used to build roofs.
In a small shed, Yvonne called in a bell and two girls came to show us how they make syrup from sugar plants. We got to taste both the plant itself and the syrup. Very sweet, of course.
Further down we passed a village where they were preparing coffe and insects.
Down at the sea again we saw a nice school house. We tasted one of the funny big fruits. It was too dark to take a picture of the inside of it. It was like a chewing gum in taste and consistency, but quite good. We also saw our first lemurian.
The last part from the small village to our own village was with a boat with oars. There were no paths along the coast of this island, only up on the top and down from there to the different villages. The people took the boat like we in france take the car.
Tiering day, full of impressions. We ate crab for dinner.
Saturday the 1 November – Nosy Tanikile
Today we wanted to go around the island but Raymond-Papa was already taken. We started to ask for someone that could take us to Tanikile and at once there was a guy who took us across the village to another guy who proposed us to go with him and his boat for 60 000 Ar.
So peaceful and beautiful to be on the sea. Just before starting we bought a beach bag. In the shop I managed to be eaten five times on the legs by mosquitoes, didn’t expect to find them like that in the morning. They left big marks on my legs, very itching. We put cream on. Then when putting sun cream I avoided the bites to not remove the other cream – resulting in funny sun burns after…
It took maybe one hour with the boat. On the island we put our towel under a palm and went into the water with mask and feet. It was like an aquarium, full of fish and coral. We saw several sea turtles. One big bläckfisk. There were so many things to look at! The guide told us the fish hade been really tame before, eating bread directly from the hand but now there were people who were fishing illegally at night, so they went more wild.
We stayed all day, which is up to two, because then the waves get higher. We ate ananas and mango for lunch. The guide had brought a plate and he cut and prepared the fruit for us without asking, I found that nice.
Sunday the 2 November
We went on the blue plastic boat around the island. The first stop was not on a beach, but I and Anthony wanted to snorkel a bit from the boat. There were some coral but not a lot and not so many fishes.
We swam into a small, beautiful and completely empty beach, sat down for some minutes, then went back to the boat.
The second stop was on a big beach, here they told us we would eat. We went for a walk and visited the hotel “Jardin Vanille” which is also in the guide with a very good note. Guide says 65eur for half pension, but the price was 80eur in reality. Per person. Seemed like a really nice place and the view was magnifique.
Then we went snorkeling and found a really beautiful coral reef. Not as many fishes. There was a current sideways that went stronger later on in the day, so the next time we went in the water we only could swim in one direction. Didn’t feel dangerous though, we could always easily swim into land.
The tree guys we had with us didn’t talk much, I think they were young and shy, and not enough good in French. However they knew what they were doing when cooking. The meal they served us under a big tree was consisting of a salad carrot/mange/cucumber as starter, then rice cooked in coconut milk with prawns in sauce – which Anthony found as one of the best made things we’ve eaten in all our time on Mada. I agree with him that it was very tasty. And then they grilled fresh fish, also really good. Mini-bananas for desert.
We made some more snorkeling after having eaten, but this time we didn’t find the coral reef, it was gone, very strange. I think we were fooled by the tide and the current was so strong that we decided to stop searching. In the end Anthony held on to a ‘boy’ and me in Anthony and we were ‘flying’ like a flag… hm, not the clearest explanation there.
We stopped in a small village on the way back where they were constructing pirogues. Fun to see them from the very early steps, to half finished and finished boats.
10.23.08
Posted in Hollidays, Madagascar at 1:49 pm by tesstess
The vacation of this year was our trip to Madagascar. Three weeeks of adventure. I’ll split the story here in five parts: Tana/Majunga, Nosy Komba, Ankarana, Diego Suarez and then again Tana.
I kept a diary each day, it’s pretty detailed so you’re not obliged to read it all, it’s more for me and Anthony to remember our trip. But look at all the photos, they’re put on my photo site with start here.
Only the first day is in swedish, then the rest is in english. Probably with quite a lot of spelling misstakes since I was writing fast and here I’ve only copied what I wrote in my notebook along the way.
Torsdagen den 23 October
Det är tidig morgon, vi är på planet till Madagaskar. Si och så med sömnen när man sitter upp. Oj, nu kom en röd sol upp vid horisonten. Vi är förväntansfulla, speciellt jag, det är ju första gången jag besöker en så helt annorlunda kultur, fattig, afrikansk, vänliga vad jag hört. De malgasker vi sett på flygplatsen verkade i alla fall trevliga, öppna och glada.
Så himla kul igår på jobbet att säga hejdå, vi ses om tre veckor. Det är min första riktiga semester. När vi kommer tillbaks har Xavier lämnat teamet och Vincent är där istället, tredje teamleadern på ett år. Verkligen trist att mista Xavier, jag hade så mycket kvar att lära av honom, men Vincent är bra, det tvekar jag inte det minsta på.
Jag har med mig kapitel 3 till 7 av java certificate boken. Hoppas jag kan få mig till att läsa dem. Det första jag gjorde på flygplatsen i paris, mina första timmar av semestern var att göra en ritning på ett hus, det är att vara ledig, då har man inget viktigare att göra för stunden. Det blev ett sluttningshus med först ett plan, och sen två, och högt till tak i mitten med en liten bro mellan två delar på övervåningen. Anthony tyckte det var bättre att ha barnens rum på övervåningen så jag får nog göra om lite, ha föräldrarnas suite på entree-planet. Jag som hade löst det så bra med toaletter och badrum, som alltid är så vårt – Anthony vill ha föräldra-badrum med toa och dush, barnen ska ha sitt badrum, och sen då, gör man en tredje toa till gäster, och nära ytterdörren så man kan gå in med skor?
Nu är solen helt uppe, fullt av moln och vi ska snart landa.
Friday the 24 October
First day on Madagascar. The impression from the plane before landing was that the ground was brown, there were no trees and all was dry. How disappointing, we were expecting to see rainforest.
The visa was more expensive than we expected, and then the plane to Diego was full. But here we are, ready for the adventure! We fast changed the plan, instead of going by plane to Diego, the most northern city and slowly move down the west coast to Nosy Be, we would go the other way around, start by going by taxi brousse upwards, then taking the plane back down.
There were taxi drivers everywhere, trying to convince us to go with them. It was hard for us since we didn’t know how much was normal to pay.
A taxi took us to three hotels in our guide but all were full, at last we agreed on being brought to a hotel he knew (where he of course would get money for bringing us…). The street was dirty and we didn’t like the look of the people on it. The room was ugly and simple, but clean.
We spent the day walking around in Tana, sometimes taking a taxi.
Getting a taxi brousse for going to Majunga was a bit of an adventure, or more “cultural chock”. We took a taxi and said we wanted a taxi brousse for Manunga. He asked if we wanted to go through a collectif or not, we didn’t know… When arriving on the big taxibrousse street a man started running next to the car, put his head in the open window and then opening the door and jumping in, all without the car stopping. We thought it was someone crazy, but he discussed with the driver and we stopped. Then he begun dealing with us for taxibrousse, and first then we understood that he was actually a seller. We were confused but managed to get an ok price and then made him mark our names with pen in his bus plan (if not he can book many people on the same seats). The taxi took us back to the center.
All day we felt a bit uneasy with our deal, and when reading again the guide we saw names of more secure cooperatives, that would be safe and give you the three seats in the bus you paid for.
We decided to go back in the afternoon to find a better taxi. Also we wanted to travel daytime, we had heard there could be attacks on taxibrousses at night were all luggage could be stolen.
We found Vatsy, one of the cooperatives from the book and bought new tickets. Apparently all of them go at night so there we didn’t have a choice, but at least we felt more secure to have the three seats so we could lay down a bit.
In the evening we took a taxi to a restaurant from the guide (Guide du routard) and was very happy. The decoration was really nice, lots of colors, there was a live band playing traditional music. I bought a cd from them in the end. Me, I ate zebu steack rolled with foi gras inside. We took a taxi home direct to outside the hotel door, it didn’t feel safe to walk even five meters on that street, which was also confirmed by the taxi driver and the hotel receptionist.
Saturday the 25 October
We walked around in Tana. Discussed with a French man in a café who had been many times on Madagascar. Good to have some advice.
We found a small market and bought a watch (which we used a lot until Anthony swam with it two weeks later and the “waterproof” watch got filled with water and stopped). Other than that, the market was not very interesting, and on top it was starting to rain.
The taxibroussse travel took 10 hours, starting at 6 pm. At 8 it stopped so we could eat in a small road-restaurant. Lots of rice and chicken for 2500 per person – one euro.
I found it hard to sleep, I was so worried we would be attacked. Each time the bus slowed down or stopped I listened and expected to hear men shouting. Of course nothing happened. Anthony had also problems to sleep, but more because of lack of space, and because of the heat. It got more and more hot, the closer we came to the coast.
Sunday the 26 October
We arrived 4 am, and stayed to sleep a bit in the bus until the city began to wake up. Then we took a taxi to one of the hotels in the guide, some minutes outside the city center, which luckily had free rooms. We spent the day in a very relaxed mode, walking around in the city and sending some emails to say we survived so far.
A strange city, all empty. We called it a ghost city.
In the afternoon we took a taxi to a beach, about half an hour from Majunga. The firsta five minutes on a real road, then the rest on a dust road in very bad shape. For the driver and the taxi all afternoon we payed 33 000 Ar, about 15 eur.
When it was close to sunset we took a walk to the “cirque rouge” which was marked in the guide as something to see at sunset. We arrived a bit late but saw a bit of the warm colors. I didn’t find it that spectacular though.
Monday the 27 Majunga
A day full of impressions. We’re tired. Very happy to be back at hotel and take a shower (especially for the feet, but I’ll tell you about that later).
We started early. Crazy idea we thought when the alarm went off at six o’clock and we just wanted to sleep three more hours. It was after all the first night of this vacation in a place with slower pace than in Tana – a place more for relaxing (but not as Nosy Be of course).
Anyways. We went up, ate a ‘continental breakfast’: baguette (not very good, a bit dry), butter, mango ‘sauce’, and honey to put on bread, a small glass of good juice (abricot?) and hot chocolat/coffe. Ah, I have to not forgot to mention the sea view. Nice (but not exceptional).
We both thought that by going down on the bigger road we would directly find a taxi, there have up to now been taxis asking us if we want to go somewhere at any moment, so we didn’t ask the hotel to call for one. Misstake. Empty road and we started walking. It’s not very far to town, maybe a quarter, but then the boat-station is on the other side… luckily we found a taxi close to the baobab. We reached the boat station 7.35, boat should leave 7.30, boat gone. One of the ten men gathering around us explained it had left 7.15. Ok, seems people here are on time. Since there are only 2 boats a day we were disappointed. Hm, in fact I didn’t say yet what we wanted to do. Plan was to cross the channel to come to Katsepy, spend the day there and go back with the boat in the afternoon. The guide said there would be a nice walk to do to a light house and that one of the best restaurants in this region would be there. There would also be beaches, even if one of the guide books says it was not recommended to swim (because of the red water I think).
People around us suggested us to go with this or that small boat, for this or that price, special boat for us or boat that would leave when full. It seemed really expensive for a while, until we finally got a “vingt cinq mille ariar” from someone and everyone pointed towards a small boat and said we had to hurry. The boat was filled with people, bags, chairs and a table, just in some minutes. We got all a life vest each, and then we left. We were surprised but happy. In the end much more fun to do what the locals do, and in fact, there were only locals on the boat.
45 minutes later the boat touched the beach on the other side, before the big boat had arrived. We were waiting for people to get of so we could go off, but in fact they were so fast to change that the new ones were already in place. We walked in the water up on the sand, then on into the village. Difficult place to describe, don’t think I took it in picture since it was quite ugly. Small houses with openings where people sold small things, food etc. It was dirty, I didn’t see any fridges. Two minutes of walk and we were out of the village on the only road leading away from there, most people and cars on the big boat went this way directly towards other villages further away.
We asked an old man how far it was to the light house, he estimated it to 8 km. Pah, a bit long. We turned around and went along the beach instead, hoping it would be shorter.
The sea was red from the beach and ten meters out so we didn’t felt so invited to swim. It was getting hot. We found a tree under which we ate our two mangos. We saw a tiny bird, black I think with a bent beak, funny with animals that you never saw before.
We passed two women picking mussles, Anthony went to talk to them, to see what they were doing but I don’t think they spoke French because they just looked down shyly and continued. So we continued as well. It started to get really hot and we wondered how far it would be still…
A lady came with a basket with two fishes and two big langoustes, so beautiful with lots of colors. She didn’t speak many words French, she wanted to sell the langousts to us and we wanted to have them. Anthony tried to make a meeting with her at midday in Katsepy, one hour from then, but the only thing she said was “trop tard” and “madame chabeau”, which is the restaurant.
We continued. There were some houses next to the beach, well houses I don’t know, rather leave huts… we asked a woman how far it was to the light house, she didn’t speak French at all, but she made us follow her in a fast walk away from the beach, in the direction of the light house. It showed out to be still very far, and we showed her that it was to far, that we were hungry and wanted to go to Katsepy. She showed us where the path were, we gave her some money and started walking.
The light house can be seen on the first picture, tiny and close to the horizon.
The path led away from the sea. We were worried we would get lost but calculated that we would sooner or later end up on the bigger road to the light house. Which we did. We drank the last drops of water and walked as fast as we could back.
We were almost dead when we arrived. We met actually the lady with langoustes again, but she couldn’t communicate how to do, where to cook them, so we went to Madame Chabeau and ate. Clean, good looking place. Very calm. Only one other couple eating there, and only one man in the kitchen. The fish he made us was delicious, with algae, haricot verts and rice. And grean fresh pepper on top! We drank a big bottle of coca cola and one of water, and slowly we came back into life.
Anthony took pictures of flowers and lizards. Since there seemed to be nothing else to see or do in this village we stayed there reading our guidebooks for some hours.
On the way back we took a pirogue. It was a wonderful experience. Very funny boat! The wind in the big sail made it go fast, we were back in 30 min. We payed 15000Ar = 7 eur.
Just when we thought the adventure was over for this day we saw that the guys of course had to park the boat on a beach – that is, not in the harbour… the beach was in a zone of poor people. Me, not being very clever took a picture of the boat. Not clever to show these people we have a big camera. There came a man with a ’skalbagge’ on his hand, he said it was rare and that we could sell it expensive in france. We said no, and went after the guys from the boat to have some company out of the zone. Suddenly there was water on the road. Dirty water. Not only red, filled with all what a household doesn’t want. When the sea is high it goes in there. So it was only to keep the shoes on (no chance we’d walk barefoot in there) and keep walking. After several sections of the road like this, 15 meters each and half a meter deep, we came out on normal roads again. I’ve never felt so dirty in my life. But we survived.
After, we took a ‘pousse pousse’ to a toursit agency to ask the price to go down the river in boat. Far too expensive. We decided to skip it. We took a taxi to the bus station, decided to go to Nosy Be instead of first going to Diego, and then same taxi back to the hotel.
And here I am, writing, hungry.
Tuesday the 28 – market and taxi brousse
This was meant to be a market day since there is a lot of nice artisanal in Majunga. We had heard about beautiful jewelry, semi-precisous stones etc.
We slept late, ate breakfast, packed and planned a bit, then we left to the bus station to pay. Hungry, time for lunch. Hot. We stayed long in the shadow of the small restaurant.
Only an hour left for shopping, but we found some nice things (but no jewelry).
In the bus station the bags got up directly on the roof of a mini bus. While waiting we talked to a guy and he wanted to try our sudoko. He had a funny tactic, only matching one square of nine at a time. We showed him how to do it with the right rules and some techniques. He was happy, we gave him a page with sudoko to solve from our book.
In the bus we had three places, next to the last row, just like last time. Less places for the legs though, Anthony could not have them straight forward.
Behind us were four people of which one was an old and very sick man, and one had an infant. In the row infront of us there were three adults and two children.
In the beginning of the journey there was a long section without asphalt and the bus had to go slow, impossible to sleep, but after that we managed to sleep quite well (one on the top of the other).
We ate around eight in a strange but cheap restaurant. When asking for the toilet they show you the ditch outside of the house.
We understand now why they go by night, it should be too hot daytime.