Originally uploaded by chris.warn
Hello all,
We are back in the land of the living after disappearing into Madagascar and beyond.
We left Marco in J’burg airport after an all night driving session.He had clocked up 5000 miles and we were sad to say goodbye to the fella.vw polos are great cars, I actually kissed him goodbye.
We flew that morning feeling pretty weary but very glad we had not been car jacked in J’burg. Arrived at Madagascar after a flight of 4 hours which we spent snoring and drooling on each other to catch up on sleep.Our french conversing began,lots of “pardon’s and ca va’s” with enthusiastic nodding and thumbs up signs.I do wish i had paid more attention in school instead of messing around now.I also blame my cousin Emma for hiding behind the cupboard with me during our french lessons.
Drove to our hotel through weaving streets lined with masses of people(not out to welcome us)and got our first glimpse of hectic island life,lots of people carrying things on their heads,carts,cows,huts,bikes.
We were staying at the capital of Madagascar called Antananarivo,very excited as booked posh hotel as top dollar treat.
Very nice you may say! We said so ourselves and we did discuss the advertised egyption sheets we were about to lie on and the welcoming fruit basket potentially on the cards as we journeyed towards it.
Things began to look a little less than brilliant when our “Sunny Hotel” looked very grubby from the outside and appeared to be above a car sales shop.And indeed as we walked through the car shop to go to our reception we began to feel the feeling every traveller dreads,the sinking heart if someone who has arrived at a really crap hotel!
We were greeted by a man ,looking a little annoyed at our arrival who had teeth like the ones you can buy in joke shops. We have talked about the teeth since and feel the best way to describe them is as having the colour of Sugar puffs with the structure of a Monster Munch crisp.
Not a great look for front of house we agreed and as he led us to our dirty,musty,ugly hotel room you could feel that moral was low.
A plan was hatched and we agreed to leave the island and hotel a.s.a.p for a cheeky jaunt to a nearby unspoilt island called Nosey Be.
We arrived at the airport at 5 in the moring and were still at the airport at 11 with the promise of a flight the next day.To sooth our souls we ate at what was described as “the best restaurant in Madagascar”,we later found out that we had gone to the wrong part of the posh hotel and therefore wrong restaurant. We tried the local wine and would recommend that no one else ever did.Chris perservered with it but only managed half a bottle,which shows just how bad it was.Grey wine as it is called is pretty grim,but very cheap.
Next day off to Nosey Be at 5 and landed on runway so close to the sea that you could nearly see the fish as you went in and yes i did think we were going to crash but didnt tell Chris as i am always making such a fuss!
Our paradise was a sandy concaved bay ,lined with palm trees,a few huts and an outdoor restaurant .The sea was warm and you had to walk for miles to get out of your depth,i personally prefered to run into it after standing on something that moved when i first went in,possibly a crab.Chris was greatly amused by my emergency running and generally jumpy state throughout the week and the highlight of his week appeared to be when he pretended to throw a big slimy sea thing in a shell at me.
The week was spent sunning and swimming and eating very basic food. We would ask for things on the menu and the waiter would just say “no”.our mornings went a bit like this
us”can we have an omlette.”
waiter “no, no omlette”
Us”can we ahve some bread and butter?”
waiter”no,no butter”
Us “can we have a bottle of water?”
waiter”no,no water”
Very funny and not a crisp,cheese sandwich or bar of chocolate passed our lips.
The sunsets were amazing but after 5 pm the paradise became a bit of hell hole,no electricity,no hot water at any time,mosquitos,bed bugs,no exciting meals and the room was so hot without a.c that we used to lay awake at night saying to each other”its so hot,how can a place be this hot?,”and various other moans and curses about it being hot. One night there was also a huge tropical storm which we could see rolling in, masses of lightening and scary thunder.
We later learnt to self medicate with coco rum punches which guarenteed you would sleep in a drunken bliss for about 4 hours before we had to have the “why is it so hot?”converstaion.
Great tan though and think we lost some of our large tummys. Women would walk a long the beaches in the morning selling fruits and i often caught them staring at my white pot belly with great curiousity when talking to us. One of them even prodded it when i was laughing at something.They also robbed us blind by charging Waitrose prices for pine apples and one would get in a right benny if we didnt buy mangoes(the same one who prodded me)
The local people were great and the kids were just gorgeous,all little water babies and very gobby! I had 2 full body massages from the lady in the photos, who was very skilled. Chris also had one, but turned down the second as it brought up his bites!
The taxi driver who drove us to our little beach came to pick us up on our last day , Meme was his name.He told us our plane had been bough forward and with choruses of “”Thanks Meme” and” well done Meme” we chatted all the way back to the airport and laughed together. When we arrived at the airport however we found out it was all lies and he had said it so he could get other fares.This meant the laughing fools that we are,we had to wait another 2 hours extra at the airport.We should have realised from his name that it was all about him.Chris and i spent the 4 hour wait saying to each other “Pour quoi Meme?.pour quoi?” Though it was pretty cheeky it was quite funny. It has also prepared us for the schemes of taxi drivers in India.
We weren’t sorry to leave Madagascar especially as we both have dodgy tummys and Chris has 120 bed bug bites that are driving him mad with itching.
Our beach was beautiful and indeed unspoilt, as was our hut on the beach. We saw that 2 new hotels were being built on the beach as the tourism is beginning to take over. Soon there will be loads of people,sunbeds,ringo rides and Chris and i talked about how it will change so much.We asked ourselves would it be better with more shops,air conditioning,electricity?And like true hardy travellers we agreed that ,yes it would be and a costa coffee would go down a treat there as well.
Glad we did it though and feel like we are a bit more rough and ready. We arrived in crazy India last night which feels like it is a completely new adventure!
