2 weeks of Road Trip in Madagascar – Travel Diary

We take advantage of the (de)confinement to continue our stories of past trips with this travel diary to Madagascar (2015). This trip is important for us because not only did we go there to attend the wedding of our friends V. and H. but it was also the first time that we traveled in a minimalist way, a small year before leaving on a world tour. Practical advice is, as usual, available at the end of the article.

Note: this article has been proofread and completed by V. and H. Everything they have completed, will be written in italics for ease of reading.

Part 1: Travel Diary
Part 2: Practical Tips

Part 1: Travel Diary

Embassy of Madagascar in Paris

I took a 1/2 RTT to go to the embassy of Madagascar to apply for my visa. Not being French at that time, I was not yet entitled to the visa on arrival. You could go there without an appointment, with some documents (the complete list here). It is however necessary to inquire about Malagasy holidays (which aren’t necessarily communicated on the embassy’s website) because when I went there the first time, the embassy was closed for whatever reason.

Although the embassy is located in the beautiful districts of the capital, the interior was super simple and one was projected to Madagascar in two seconds. The employees were super warm. I had a small course of pronunciation of the names of the cities I was going to visit. Because between what is written and the pronunciation, it’s very different, it’s not like Spanish 🙂

A week later, we had to come back to get the passport. Being used at that time to travel only to developed countries like England, France and Australia, I had until now only super luxurious, glittering visas… the Madagascar visa was the first “cheap visa” printed in colors and stuck with a UHU stic on my passport. There will be others, even cheaper later ahahah

Our itinerary

Date	Day	Place for the night
Saturday 15/08/15	Arrival a little before midnight	Ivato
Sunday 16/08/15	Road to Antsirabe	Antsirabe
Monday 17/08/15	Visit of the 2 lakes + city + crafts	Anstirabe
Tuesday 18/08/15	Road to Ranomafana	Ranomafana
Wednesday 19/08/15	Visit of the national park (forest)	Ranomafana
Thursday 20/08/15	Road to Ivato	Ivato
Friday 21/08/15	Ambohimanga	Ivato
Saturday 22/08/15	Wedding	Ivato
Sunday 23/08/15	Croq Farm	Ivato
Monday 24/08/15	Visit of Antananarivo in small groups	Ivato
Tuesday 25/08/15	Shopping + visit of Antananarivo	Ivato
Wednesday 26/08/15	Road to Vatomandry	Vatomandry
Thursday 27/08/15	Vatomandry	Vatomandry
Friday 28/08/15	Vatomandry	Vatomandry
Saturday 29/08/15	Back to France

Paris – Antananarivo

We were about 20 friends and family members coming from France to attend the wedding of V. and H. He was thus able to obtain group fares from Air France (you can get them for as few as 10 travelers, don’t hesitate to ask). This brought us back to 879,66€/person round trip (2015 fares). Air Madagascar, according to V. (the groom), wouldn’t have been a very safe choice because the company is never very far from bankruptcy.

Note: Air Madagascar and bankruptcy: still quite topical! Besides Air Madagascar as an “independent” company, it should soon be a thing of the past. It should be noted that Air Austral which had entered the capital of Air Madagascar by becoming the second largest shareholder after the Malagasy state (they are currently disengaging) had obtained that the latter cancels the codes of Corsair. In fact, for the direct flights, there is only Air France to be counted on.

In the plane, we were sitting next to two Malagasy people who did not know each other. But the lady was so enthusiastic to meet a fellow countryman that she couldn’t stop talking. At one point, the gentleman went away for a long time… and when the flight was full and lasted a total of 10h35, we found him further on, on a flight attendant’s seat next to the toilets, trying as best we could to avoid his flight neighbor 😀

I remember it because we exchanged a compassionate smile, after which he showed me the landscapes below: we were flying over the Sahara desert and we could clearly see the big dunes from the plane. It was my first trip to Africa and the first time I saw the Sahara desert. I will have the opportunity to admire it more closely later in Morocco and even spend two nights there a few years later. In any case, this view enchanted me so much that I felt the emotion rising. The landscapes were sumptuous and the sand as far as the eye could see.

We exchanged with a stewardess, who took advantage of this flight to go to Nosy Be during her days off. All the crew would take a small plane to go there. We didn’t realize but Madagascar is super big and the transports are ultra slow because of the lack of infrastructures. To travel all over the country by land, one should not be in a hurry.

Day 1 : Arrival in Antananarivo

As of our arrival, we passed in front of a lady who took the temperature of everybody (at the time of the coronavirus it seems standard but in 2015 it surprised us). There followed a scene of chaos in the zone “visa on arrival”. There was no queue but an agglutination of people and V. shouted the name of the people so that they come to get their passport. I’m glad, for once, that I had to pay for my visa before coming.

V. privatized us a bus of 18 seats (the ultimate luxury), and this bus brought us directly to Island Continental Hotel(Booking link, 50€, breakfast included), a hotel in the suburbs of Tana, next to the Ivato airport precisely. For info, Antananarivo (or Tananarive) is too long to pronounce, so everybody, even Malagasy people call it simply “Tana”. V. tells us that he prefers to settle us in Ivato because for the same price, the hotels are better in Ivato. Moreover, we were supposed to spend just one night there, so it was useless to be in Tana.

Here is Etienne, one of Jean-Benoît’s friends and an important character in the rest of the story 😀 He also accompanied us during our mountaineering stay in Chamonix.
The mosquito net was indispensable because there were quite a few mosquitoes at nightfall.

V. came by to advance us 200 000 Ariary each (64€ at that time, but 45€ now). Because according to him, if we all started to withdraw 200 000 each, the ATM would be quickly emptied: “as for the money on the spot (the currency is the ariary, the biggest bill now is Ar 20 000! The current rate (2020) of the ariary is about Ar 4300 for one euro) to avoid wasting time and money at the exchange office, to empty the machines one after the other (the usual ceiling of withdrawal is around 120 €) to expose ourselves to unnecessary risks by queuing all together in the banks, I suggest you provide you with cash upon arrival of what to spend for the first few days. Afterwards, it seems to me that it would be a good idea to take turns to use the cash dispensers (Visa is accepted on all, I do not guarantee anything for Mastercard) knowing that if the need arose I could always provide you with ariary.”

In the end, only JB’s VISA card passed, my Mastercard was not accepted anywhere. We will see later that it was not a useless precaution because with the amounts of our withdrawals, it was not uncommon to empty the ATM completely.

He also lent an old Nokia equipped with a SIM card to each couple, worth about 10€. He preferred that we use the Nokia instead of taking our smartphones out on the street, for safety reasons. JB and Etienne, wanting to have fun, called each other while they were in the same hotel. As a result, after only a few minutes, the communication was cut off because minutes were extremely expensive in Madagascar. We had to beg for another card to Vincent ahaha (the poor guy, managing all these losers at the same time). This card was, moreover, ultra hard to find because it was too expensive for Malagasy people, who only used small credits to send SMS messages to each other. I don’t know if the situation has improved since then.

Note: For the history of SIM cards, the problem was the (recent) need to present ID cards to purchase SIM cards. Previously we used to buy them second-hand for nothing. At that time, these cards without proof of identity were deactivated one after the other. Note that communications and data are still expensive.

During this time, I connected in Wifi (very slow) on my company’s software (I was unable to take real vacations) and my boss in Paris kept receiving suspicious connection alerts from Madagascar ahahah

Day 2 : Antsirabé

After a good night and a few mosquito bites, we took our privatized bus to go to Antsirabe, a pretty colonial city full of charm. Most of the travelers who make road trips here also privatize a Jeep with driver, because it would have been too complicated and dangerous to drive by ourselves. If you make your itinerary by looking at Google Maps, don’t trust the estimated time. It takes much more time than indicated.

Note: it isn’t so much the conduct that is complicated, the problem is the risk of being abused by dishonest law enforcement elements in the event of a check or being the target of hostile popular movements in the event of an accident. Quite simply, I would strongly advise against unaccompanied or uninvolved non-Malagasy to drive.

All our luggage was stored on the roof of the bus and V. sat next to the driver, a microphone in hand, and with a shoulder strap filled with silver, like a guide taking tourists on an excursion. As you understood, we always ended up with huge wads of money in Madagascar and to avoid wasting too much time paying one by one, he took care of all the hotel payments – hence the mountains of money permanently on him. Because no, not all hotels accepted payment by card.

Antsirabé

This city is known for its thermal center Ranomafana, which means “hot water”. Unfortunately, we did not bathe there but if you can, know that the water is known for its medicinal virtues against joint problems. Here it was a little cooler than in Tana. It reminded me a bit of Da Lat in Vietnam.

It is also the city of rickshaws. They used to do it barefoot. Apparently, it was better that way. We were able to test this service, we were all very reluctant at first, but when V. said he was going to take one rickshaw per person (instead of 2 for Malagasy), we finally accepted. We still have difficulty with this practice, which is a bit colonialist, but at the same time, it is their livelihood. If I remember correctly, we paid approximately 1€ per rickshaw from the city center to our hotel. All the “drivers” wanted to take me because I was the lightest ahahah

Note: For rickshaws; you agree directly with the rickshaw shooter on the route and the price, in the end you are much less exploitative than when you buy textile produced in a free zone! Note also that the practice is older than colonization (before it was by means of filanzana, seats supported by two large poles).

We also went to the market. Everybody was horrified to see raw meat spread everywhere like that, or oysters (without ice) brought by car (11am) eaten raw on a piece of sidewalk. But being used to this type of market in Vietnam, I was super happy. I tried to find things that I knew and I was delighted to see that Madagascar had a lot of fruits in common with Vietnam.

V. advised us to try a dessert that looked like roast beef. I think it’s rice based, it’s not good or bad, it’s just fun.

Note: The pastry you are talking about is koba. I hope that you aren’t too much read by Malagasy people because it is a flagship recipe of the country’s cuisine and to know that it is “just funny” would offend them! 🙂 It’s made with crushed peanuts, rice flour and sugar for those in the picture.

The hunt for telephone credit continued. As large credits were scarce, we had to buy several, scratch the code and put them on our account.

We have seen many children fetching water with jerry cans like this. Running water in homes is scarce, even in Tana. There are water dispensers, a lady with a hose fills up the jerry cans for I don’t know how much. It is often the children who take care of it for their families and find a way to make this chore a game. For example, when the cans are empty, they take the opportunity to let themselves slide or race each other. Notice the black part on the pallet, it is made of old tires and is used to “brake”. It’s very clever.

Note: Children equipped with a skateboard with ball bearing skateboards work, it isn’t a family chore. On the other hand, some of them bring the family canteen back by hand after having it filled.

The mother aunt of H. (the bride) lives in Ivato and she pays someone to take care of it. She pays him 1€ per day which is the daily minimum wage and he takes care of bringing the water and filling the barrel. Then there is a pump that pumps all this water to another barrel high up, and it is this system that allows a little pressure in the shower. When we had dinner at her house, the instruction was to flush only when really necessary to save water.

Note: As for the water supply of H’s mother: she gets water delivered when her distribution is cut off (very frequent, in December we only had 2 days of water over 2 weeks). She pays on delivery. There is no question of a pump because it is much more expensive than asking the deliverymen to go up close to the water ton and to pour one by one the cans into it.

It was the first time I had seen so much effort needed to get water and it made me aware of the poverty in the country. Because even in Vietnam, even in the 80s and 90s, public water sources were much more numerous and closer to home.

Garbage collection does not exist. Since garbage collection is random, H.’s mother must also manage all her garbage by digging a hole in her garden to burn it. Frankly, if each of us had to treat the garbage, we would be careful to produce much less.

In the same way, we were surprised by the electricity problems. As the production isn’t sufficient to meet the needs, it is quite a “game” to turn on the light as late as possible (so as not to pay for nothing) but early enough before it is too late because the maximum capacity is reached. Since then we have travelled a lot and I think it is only in Nepal that we have found such problems. In Madagascar, even if we are in the best hotel of the city, we can have regular water and electricity cuts.

We went shopping too but I couldn’t find the pictures. We went to see the carpenters, the tools were very rudimentary and made of recycled materials. In any case, they were doing very well at creating beautiful things from nothing at all.

Day 3 :

We had to visit two very famous lakes in the surroundings. But we had to have lunch first. I put you the menu so that you realize the price and the available dishes. I was very surprised to see a lot of dishes of Asian origin. I was very surprised to see a lot of Asian dishes. V. explained us the why and the how but I forgot, sorry.

The dish that amused us a lot was the “inverted bowl”. It’s the equivalent of Cantonese rice / bibimbap. And it was very good. It will be one of our must-sees during the whole stay.

Another household task that occupied a lot of people’s minds was laundry. I don’t know if you can see well in this picture but whenever there was a water source somewhere, you could see people doing the laundry. And the clothes were left to dry on the ground, on the lawn, or on the trees, everywhere

Lake Andraikiba

Lake Andraikiba is located 7 kilometers from Antsirabe. Legend has it that two women, one of whom was the wife and the other the mistress of one man, competed there to win his love for good. The exhausted wife lost her life by drowning and her last words were “Andraikiba”, the name of the lake. It is said that this woman’s spirit comes out of the lake at every sunrise.

I was mainly interested in buying semi-precious stones. Not knowing the international prices very well, I think I was a bit fooled, but only by a few euros. I found a pear-shaped cut ruby and garnets. The cutting of the stone was done by hand, so it is less perfect than with modern western tools. But I like these stones very much, I was able to set one of them in a ring. The pear ruby is unfortunately too difficult to set myself. One day, I will ask a Turkish jeweler to set it as a pendant.

My salesman didn’t speak French very well, so another salesman led the negotiation for him. V. who speaks a very correct Malagasy also helped me a lot.

We will see later on that the Malagasy are very gifted in business and especially in cooperatives like this, they support each other a lot. The tourist always ends up buying something, because if a salesman does not have the product he is looking for, another salesman will be called to the rescue.

Lake Tritriva

We arrive at the end of the day at the lake Tritriva and a guide gets on our bus. Apparently, the presence of this guide is obligatory. I don’t remember how much we paid for the entrance, but so early arrived at the top, there was a group of children, with some kind of postcards waiting for you (they were all on vacations). The speech learned by heart in perfect French was well polished: “if you buy me a card, I can buy notebooks and pencils for school”. I must admit that I did not feel very comfortable, especially since they kept us on our toes. Giving them something would have encouraged this practice, but at the same time, they were so cute.

Look at these landscapes, with the reddened mountains under the light of the sunset.

When we started going down to the lake, the children were no longer following us because they were not allowed to go down. This lake is an old volcanic crater. According to the legend, Rabeniomby and Ravolahanta, the Malagasy Romeo & Juliet, committed suicide in the lake because of their forbidden love and embodied in two intertwined trees. We could see these two trees because they were the only ones around the lake, but it has been reforested since, and it is now very difficult to recognize them.

The two famous trees at the origin of the legend :

In any case, swimming is strongly discouraged, because on the one hand it is a sacred lake, on the other hand, there would be several deaths. You will find on Google many pictures of tourists bathing at this place but in a country where the smallest piece of tree or plot can be sacred, it is better to respect the beliefs. Important to know also : the lake is very deep, up to 160m !

Note: Swimming in Lake Tritriva is “fady” = traditionally forbidden (some translate “taboo” but this is, in my opinion, a bad translation). It is indeed very badly seen and even a source of big problems!

So that you can see how beautiful this lake is, here is a picture taken by a drone :

On the way back to our bus, the children followed us and ran even after the bus hoping that we would get off at the entrance and buy them something. It was heartbreaking to see them running in the dust, lifted by the bus.

Back at the hotel, I was able to book 1 hour of massage. The Malagasy massage is really very good, I highly recommend it! In addition, it used natural oils + essential oil, it smelled very good and repaired my broken back after several hours sitting in the bus. Etienne and JB did one too which brought back fond memories of a massage in Cambodia 10 years earlier, we won’t know more about it.

Day 4

We had to go to Ranomafana and the trip took all day. We stopped at a restaurant on the road, with a beautiful view of the surroundings.

In the back yard of the restaurant, there was a huge turtle walking around, quiet….

Note: The turtle = radiata turtle whose poaching is forbidden, a pet showing a certain wealth and which is regularly stolen (H.’s grandmother, who died last year, had her own stolen a few years ago).

Unfortunately, we hung out at the restaurant a lot and ended up driving until 7pm, when it was very dark.

Note: Concerning the road between Ambositra and Ranomafana we found ourselves driving at night because we finally preferred to take a longer road. The previous days there had been several attacks on the direct road (we continued on the RN7 to turn on the RN45 instead of taking the RN25 directly).

V. au micro had the good idea to tell us that there were regular ambushes. He started by telling us how dangerous it could be to drive so late, how H.’s aunt was dispossessed of all her belongings while she was taking a bus I don’t know where. Apparently, the technique would be to throw a stone to break the windshield, and then the thieves will make everyone get off and take absolutely everything. Meanwhile, H. was calling her on the phone and V. wasn’t picking up for fear of being yelled at ahahah. Frightened by this story, I tried to find a place in the bus to hide a 10€ ticket ahahha panic made me stupid, and then not finding it, I told myself that this is what life is all about, come what may.

It isn’t without relief that we arrived safe and sound at our hotel, Hotel Manja, with its cute bungalows. Unfortunately, this hotel lacked privacy, i.e. the bungalows were placed in such a way that one could see, by being high up, directly the bathroom of other guests. After having accidentally seen two or three guests in panties, we were very happy to have a bungalow high up and not overlooked. It was the worst hotel of all our stay, but apparently at that time, one couldn’t find better in the surroundings.

I think that the country is less dangerous than we thought, but as we were about twenty pigeons on legs, the Canon camera hung around our necks and could be spotted from miles away, it was better to be careful. Besides V. told us about it before the trip: “In Madagascar we very rarely feel insecure. However, although quite acceptable, the risk of theft or attack exists. For this reason the inhabitants go out little once the night fell (around 6:00 pm). It seems to me wise to stay in the hotel or to go out only furtively to go to the restaurant”

V. had a young Malagasy family friend travel with us, to make sure that we don’t lose anyone on the road, and to translate for us in case we get lost. He was fascinated because it was the first time he was traveling and discovering his country. In the end, we spent more time taking stylish pictures of him with his sunglasses for his Facebook page than asking him to translate anything ahahah. But he was our only permanent contact with a local and through exchanges with him, we discovered the interests of the Malagasy youth. Seeing the stars in his eyes when he discovered the beauty of his own country made us extremely happy. Years later, Etienne and JB are still enjoying this dinner where he ended up sick from having eaten too much, not having been able to stop in front of such an abundance.

Because of the group effect, I find that we didn’t dare to go towards the Malagasy. It was the first time I was traveling in a less developed country and I didn’t know how to behave, until I saw one of V.’s uncles exchanging very naturally with a craftsman, through gestures, and he even offered him a small wooden heart to show him the sawing technique. Fortunately, during our world tour, I was less lost and dared to go and exchange a little more with the local population.

Day 5

Here is a picture to explain you the luggage protection technique on the roof of the bus. We had the same driver during the whole stay and we were very admiring to see him perfectly manage all these long trips.

A small parenthesis on our luggage. We were in August 2015 and we had already decided to leave in tour of the world but we did not know yet when and how (finally we left in June 2016). I was super afraid to find myself with few clothes so we decided to leave to Madagascar as light as possible to see if the trip in backpack was convenient for us. JB already had a 70L bag at Decathlon and we brought it with us. 1 bag for two, 19kg in all. I put on clothes that I thought were compatible with the round-the-world trip, in a minimalist way, to finally find myself with only one pair of (yoga) pants that were much too light and tight, too many tops, in addition to only white tops, which got dirty very quickly because of the red soil in Madagascar. I had only one coat, too warm for the day and too cold for the evening.

Moreover, the Decathlon bag quickly showed its limits: JB was already having trouble carrying this 19kg bag from the bedroom to the bus, because the weight was not well distributed and the structure of the bag was not able to support heavy weights… In short, we had it all wrong and fortunately we noticed it before leaving for 11 months. That’s why I recommend you to test your gear for at least 2 weeks somewhere, before going on a world tour. Note: if you’re interested, the list of our round-the-world gear is available on the blog: man (15-16kg) & woman (7-8kg ). The trip to Madagascar was very useful for our preparations

So, we went to the natural park of Ranomafana to see lemurs in total freedom. Before this trip, I didn’t even know they existed, what they looked like so I didn’t share the same enthusiasm as the rest of the group.

We were divided into small groups and accompanied by a park guide. During long minutes, we did not see lemurs and the guide showed us trees, plants, flowers, … JB thought that it smelled scorched when the guide, in an enthusiasm which sounded false, showed us a common flower which was “very very rare” according to him. Note from V. : A common looking flower can be very rare!

Then finally, many lemurs appeared, jumping from liana to liana above our heads. Magnificent.

Then we went to see the artisans, and ended up in a super luxurious hotel created by French-Malagasy people in Fianarantsoa. They transformed a family house.
It was good for the whole group to eat French food because we had a little too much abuse of the spilled bowls.

Day 6

I have an excellent memory but it can be selective at times. I don’t remember where I took all these pictures (V. helped me to identify them), I put them here because they are beautiful, but I have no memory of what we did there 😀

On the way to Tana, we noticed a lot of stands selling small wooden trucks. We asked to stop to admire the work of the craftsmen. They were toys made of wooden pallets, sanded and painted by hand. It was super nice! There were snack vendors on the spot and we tested a lot of good things. If you don’t see pictures of food, it’s because I was too busy eating and it was good (sorry).

Days 7 & 8

From the 7th day on, the memories are mixed. We came back to Ivato, and had to prepare ourselves to attend the wedding of V. and H. The groom being busy getting ready too, we had free time to discover the surroundings of our hotel, the biggest in the city. So big that they take a lot of water from the surroundings. Moreover, it was the only hotel where we had a little pressure and warm water. On the other hand, there was a bucket filled permanently in the bathroom because there were many cuts.

Even in a hotel like that, V. advised us not to have our clothes ironed because contrary to what we thought, the ironing was still done with an iron full of coals! And he wanted to avoid at all costs that we find ourselves with a hole in the dress or in the suit. As a result, all the French guests went to his wedding with more or less wrinkled clothes 😀

We really enjoyed hanging out at the market next to the hotel. I stocked up on fruit. Seeing the cooking oil being sold at the pump surprised us a lot (it is possible to buy only the quantity needed for the day’s cooking), and I jumped with joy when I saw tamarind and bought all the available stock. On the other hand, I found my look-alike, look at the lady in black next to me, she looked too much like me in profile ahahah

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We really enjoyed the interaction with the children in the neighbourhood. They were playing with very little. After this picture was taken, they all asked to look at their picture on the camera. They were very happy to have their picture taken, it’s so cute!

We also went to the Croq Farm, where lemurs were much easier to observe, thanks to the bananas we offered them. We also saw hundred-year-old turtles and a lot of crocodiles. Note: The lemurs are there in freedom, fixed in the park by feeding. At the base it is a crocodile breeding intended for the production of leather.

This is the view from Ambohimanga, an ancient royal city.

We walked a little everywhere in Tana, I confess that I don’t remember very well the places we visited…

Etienne and JB played soccer with children. Due to the condition of their ball, it had to undergo many survival operations. We would have liked to offer them a new one but we couldn’t find one. The children here played with little. At another place, we could see that table soccer was very popular and we played a few games with the children.

Things that made us laugh: the “no pigs” sign and crocodile foam sold in supermarkets (it was expensive too)
note: As you can see, the “no pigs” corresponds to a “fady” I was telling you about earlier (fady kisoa, kisoa = pig).

We were walking around when we were surprised to hear some piano. It was a music school and the teacher invited us in. As a result, I was able to play a piece 😀

As we drove around Tana in a private bus, we realized how crazy traffic was and how far H. had to go every day to go to the French high school. Fortunately we were staying in the suburbs otherwise it would have taken us too long to get out of the city center each time.

We went shopping too, in one of the handicraft markets of the capital. The zebu horn is used to make many things. And I fell in love with a wooden leopard. I was looking for a smaller leopard and was ready to go when another salesman ran up to me with a leopard matching the size I wanted. I told you they were good Malagasy in business, so obviously, weak as I was, I bought it! By the way, it is still in a box at JB’s father’s house. Before leaving on a world tour, we separated most of our possessions but this leopard is one of the objects that I like very much and that I kept.

Note: If you were able to buy a leopard in Madagascar it is because a good part of the handicraft is for export, especially to Kenya for example for leopards (as you know, there are no leopards in Madagascar).

For JB’s father, we bought an incredible wooden box with a hidden opening mechanism. It could have been a treasure box. They had a lot of boxes like that, it was hard to choose.

Not being able to live without treatments of all kinds, I was able to try out all the services in the surrounding area in record time: manicure and shampoo at the hairdresser’s, and massage at HomeopharmaTHE organic brand to bring back absolutely from Madagascar. Besides, I robbed their store. It is unfortunately a habit that I have kept until now, despite the protests of JB: I always try local cosmetics and care, systematically! As a result, V.’s cousin R. trusted me and we went together to the local hairdresser to make her a star bun. The hairstyle was so successful that even the Malagasy ended up asking me the secret address. In short, always count on me to find the best spas and salons, I have the flair as they say.

After that, we attended the beautiful wedding of V. and H. It started in a small church too cute to end with a big party. Contrary to the French wedding, between each dish, everyone danced and there were artistic participations from the guests. There was live music, it was super festive. We felt a little ashamed that we hadn’t prepared anything on the French side so, at the end, we timidly asked the musicians to accompany us to “aux Champs Elysées”. V.’s family being naturally gifted in music (with several musicians, playing several instruments, V. himself sings wonderfully well) so this number was a success despite the drop in average level because of Etienne and JB. Phew. At the wedding, a guest from the French side was missing, who caught the tourista. He arrived in Madagascar after us, missed the wedding, and went back to France. End of the stay. Tough.

After the wedding, the brave ones took local buses, piled up like sardines to visit “crappy” corners of the city. Nothing happened to them, so there were no anecdotes to tell.

Note : It was not the “craignos corners” (just as one cannot visit the city of the 4000 in France, the great majority of Malagasy never went in the craignos districts), it was in fact popular and commercial districts where one can meet pickpocketing and pickpockets.

The stay is over for us, we are welcomed in the house of an uncle and an aunt of H. The restaurant next door delivers us spilled bowls and shows us how to prepare them.

The stay continues however for Etienne (the handsome kid hidden in the middle of the curtains in the first photo) who traveled solo, taking the famous Taxi B (where people hang as best they can on the back of the van). Here is his story and his pictures (thanks to Etienne for allowing us to copy/paste his email in this article)

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“First of all, I took the famous Taxi Brousse to go to Vatomandry on the East coast (the seaside town closest to Tana). Contrary to appearances, the trip by Taxi Be remains relatively comfortable. The buses are good and the drivers drive rather moderately. I still saw two accidents, but this means of transport remains reliable and inexpensive.

Note: TAXI BE (big cab in Malagasy), not “cab B” (even if, indeed, in written language such as sms it is often written “Be” with a “B” only). To be precise, Taxi be are city buses and bush cabs are the buses that go from one city to another. To be quite precise, Vatomandry isn’t the closest coastal town to the sea, it is Ambila-Lemaitso. It is the second closest coastal city!

I was welcomed in Vatomandry by Laure who is in charge of the boarding school of the association Jeunesse Malgache de demain. I spent two very warm days there where the children showed me around the town, along the beach and the market. We even played a game of basketball against the other children of the neighborhood. I ate with them, prepared the meal sitting on the floor in the straw mattress, cooked on charcoal and washed the dishes with the water that had to be pumped out. We laughed, ate hot mofo akondro (banana fritters) on the beach, juggled with the fruits of the pine tree and unfortunately I lost at the petanque. They are indeed world champions !!!

I then returned to Tana where I stayed with the religious brothers of the ESCA. Like any religious establishment, they are very well housed, equipped (internal dispensary, fenced property, janitor, water & electricity…). I was welcomed by Virginie who takes care of the brothers’ accounting for their school. Once again, the welcome was wonderful and very warm. I met the aunts, uncles and nieces. They live 10 in 25 square meters, but it is no problem to party, dance, have fun.

We revisited Tana, including the popular districts, the zoo of Tsimbazaza, the mandraka park on the road to Andasibe, the dispensary where the pharmacy students of Tours intervened and even walked through one of the famous hyper-polluted tunnels (there are two of them). We were also able to attend a mass of Father Pédro. A very lively mass where everyone sang and danced for 2h30.

In short a different end of stay, but just as charming and friendly. On the “gastronomy” side, I also continued the discovery of the local cuisine: ambaja, maskita skewers (mini skewers), inverted bowl, romazava… We even had the opportunity to make pancakes (flavoured of course with vanilla rum) and dance the afindrafindrao.

I landed on the last day at M.’s sister’s house.

The last reception couldn’t have been more perfect: rum, THB beer, first viewing of the wedding montage, harmonious singing of karaoke or not, then sweet potato and vanilla tea.

I even ended my stay with a funny anecdote at the airport:

• SHE (typical Malagasy) : Good evening
• ME (more like vazaha) : Manao ahoana tompoko
• ELLE : Excuse me, do you speak French ?
• MOI : uh… Yes
• ELLE: Do you know if the boarding has started?
• ME: Yes, it’s in progress, but we have time
• SHE : thank you and excuse me, I don’t speak Malagasy at all ..
• ME (smile) : tsy maninona, veloma

To understand this exchange, you can download an audio file and a lexicon (French-Malagasy-crafted phonetics) created by the Malagasy student association of Tours (M’Endrika). V. encouraged us a lot to learn and speak Malagasy and at the end of the stay, we could say some politeness in Malagasy.

I hope you liked this travel diary, as we liked this trip. A huge thank you to V. and H. for the organization of this unforgettable stay, thank you to H.’s family for the warm welcome and for having made us discover their beautiful country, thank you to V.’s family and his French friends for these beautiful moments together.

Part 2: Practical Tips

I will copy/paste some information on the itinerary, sent by V. before our trip. There have been some adaptations to the program that was planned but the tips may be of interest to you. Please note that these tips are from 2014 and aren’t necessarily 100% up to date.

• The day after the arrival after a night in Ivato (city on the outskirts of Antananarivo, commune of the airport relatively little frequented), direction Antsirabe. It is also a spa town, well loved by the settlers at the time, typical of the central region of the Highlands. The surrounding countryside is charming, we will discover it by going to the Andraikiba and Tritriva lakes. Anstirabe is also a Mecca of Malagasy handicrafts, a little tour through the workshops of natural silk weaving, exploitation of zebu horn, embroidery (among others!) seems to me to be a must.
• The next step is Ranomafana, a thermal village on the edge of a national forest park. We will take one day to walk in the jungle to discover the fauna and the flora (lemurs, chameleons, endemic plants etc.) with a guide.
• We will then return on Thursday to Ivato, without hurrying, the culinary stages or curiosities not missing on the road.
• On Friday I suggest you to visit Ambohimanga which is one of the great sites of the Malagasy royalty. The site is pleasant and well preserved, it will be the occasion to approach the history and the Malagasy cultural foundations (at least of the center of the country or “Highlands”).
• The weekend: wedding!
• On Sunday we will try to make a tour in a crocodile farm which also presents other reptiles and a family of lemurs, or maybe on Monday or Tuesday according to the tiredness and the schedule. I suggest for Monday and Tuesday to visit Antananarivo (especially the “Rova” or Queen’s Palace) and to discover one of the handicraft markets of the capital. However, Antananarivo being a bottled city, very lively and full of intrigues, it does not seem reasonable to us to go there in a complete group (17)… So we will go in smaller formation. For the most willing and intrepid, we will be able to go by bus to more popular, polluted and populated neighborhoods which, if we can consider them as the heart of the economic life of the capital, aren’t the safest and do not constitute, in my opinion, an unavoidable stage.

Practical information

• In August the temperature varies between about 10°C at night and 25°C during the day (with of course some cold and hot peaks possible). It is thus interesting to bring a light fleece or a sweater for some evenings. In addition, considering the risk of mosquito bites and to reduce sun exposure, light tops with long sleeves can be appreciated.
• As for the risk of malaria, apart from long sleeves, repellent products for textiles, environment and skin (Cinq-sur-cinq and Insect Ecran seem to be the most effective, it should be noted that the perfume of the latter isn’t the most pleasant…) are indicated. It is also classically advised to take a preventive antimalarial treatment throughout the island by atovaquone-proguanil (generally well tolerated, now 15 euros per 12 tablets) or doxycycline (which sensitizes to sunburn). In practice, it turns out that some areas are much more infested than others. Concerning our trip, Ranomafana is the most risky. However, I could observe that if we correctly respect the rules of clothing and repulsion, the risk of bites during the period of our trip is less even in infested zones. I don’t feel like advising you on how to behave, but a reflection that you should have with your attending physician can highlight, among other things, the duration of exposure, the infestation, your previous experience of preventive treatments, your motivation to respect other means of prevention. As far as intestinal disturbances are concerned, probably less than in India or the Maghreb, the usual rules of common sense specific to life in developing countries apply.
• In Madagascar one very rarely feels insecure. However, although quite acceptable, the risk of theft or attack exists. For this reason the inhabitants rarely go out after dark (around 6:00 pm). It seems to me wise to spend this hour to stay in the hotel or to go out only furtively to go to the restaurant.
• We will move during our stay in a vehicle of about 7 seats, most certainly all-terrain minivans driven by driver-guides. We will also be accompanied by 2 young Malagasy people that we know well who will be able to help with language problems and will make sure that everything goes well.
• The visa is free of charge for the duration of our stay.The visa isdelivered at theairport, it isn’t free anymore, I don’t remember the exact price but it is usually between 30 and 50 euros.
• It is very important to leave with cash in euro, currency of payment of the visa, because the ticket machines at the airport are regularly out of order and we cannot pay by card. (In December 2018 I also helped a Frenchman who was stuck).
• The visa is delivered at the airport for French people, I don’t know exactly how it is done for other countries.
• Finally, a little point about the language. About 80% of Malagasy people speak little or no French. They are especially the poorest, the common visitor most often frequents the 20% of total or partial French speakers. However, because the Malagasy language is almost always the mother tongue in Madagascar, it is the language of everyday life and an essential door to a good cultural understanding, it seems good to me to know a few basics. You will find here an audio file and a lexicon (French-Malagasy-Craft phonetics) of some of the most useful Malagasy words and expressions. We made it with our friends from the Malagasy students association of Tours (M’Endrika). Saying even 3 words will bring smiles and will open the hearts of many Malagasy people.
• As far as money on the spot is concerned, the usual withdrawal ceiling is around 120€, the biggest ticket (10 000Ar) being worth a little more than 2,4€. The biggest bills are now Ar 20 000. (The current rate of the ariary is about Ar 4300 for one euro!) For withdrawals, Visa is accepted on all, Mastercard much less or not at all