Madagascar - An Island Apart

We didn't know what to expect when flying from South Africa to Madagascar except that the island is a place unlike anywhere else on earth. Our arrival in Antananarivo proved us right - with the hustle and bustle of India, French bread and cheese on the street corners, locals with complexions and facial features reminiscent of Philipinos or Indonesians, the cattle culture of African Bantu peoples, and rice patties galore a la SE Asia, we couldn't easily categorize this unique place. Like other under-developed countries, Madagascar suffers from crowded, slow, uncomfortable public transportation (bush taxis), a general lack of travel info, and crumbling colonial era infrastructure, all conspiring to make getting around this large island very difficult and convinced us to hire a car and driver to help us take full advantage of our brief 8 day visit. The sinuous roads and crazy city traffic, as well as JC's (our driver) jovial personality, made us glad we hadn't braved the transportation on our own. In Tana, as the capital is known, we had panoramic views of the hilly city from our small hotel. Led by Madame Janet's French, we explored the twisted streets, staircases, markets, and shabby semi-abandoned royal palaces, while enjoying cool mountain temps, eating fried bananas, French pastries, and min sao (the local version of chop suey), and trying our best to kindly decline persistant requests for us to buy vanilla beans and butterfly collections. We also stayed in Tamatave, Mad's second city and largest port. We were fortunate to be there on a Sunday when everyone descends to the oceanside to walk near the water, ride ponies or the ferris wheel, or just enjoy the mellow carnival atmosphere while eating ramen noodles and drinking Three Horses Beer sitting on very low stools at one of the many tiny tables set up on the sand. The real highlight of our trip was our visit to Andasibe Special Lemur Reserve and Mantadia, the largest piece of tropical forest still intact on the island, but this deserves it's own blog post.