Antananarivo, Madagascar 
August 16, 2015

Leaving Johannesburg, South Africa, we took a three hour flight to Madagascar. It took us a long time to get away from the airport at Antananarivo as we had to wait for Greg to retrieve his fishing rod (which he couldn’t find anyway), for everyone to get some local currency (either via the ATM or through the exchange) and for Ian to go back for his jacket which he had left behind (he couldn’t find it either) – all this after the usual delays with passports, visas, customs and baggage retrieval.  

We eventually arrived at our hotel after a 50 minute drive. Lovely and cool here and quite pleasant. After the dryness of Africa, we enjoyed smelling the moisture in the air. Antananarivo was built on a 200 m ridge overlooking the Betsimitatatra plains. Lala, our guide, provided us with a bit of a commentary as we passed through the lower town with its rice paddies and huts built on the mud of the paddy banks, the middle town with its wealthier citizens and officials and the upper town with its fancy houses, nobles and royal palaces.

We didn’t expect to see rice paddies here in Madagascar but all the flat-lands throughout the lower parts of the city and surrounds are covered in them. When the land isn’t being used for rice, the clay is scraped up and used for brick making. This being the dry season, we saw brick kilns everywhere across the flats. One wonders how many times they can keep lowering the land by using up the clay.

Being Sunday, the streets become relatively quiet, lots of kids in the open spaces playing soccer, a few shops open and church bells peeling at sunset. Small grubby children begging for money from every white face. Approaching our hotel, the streets became narrower and narrower and the traffic more congested and haphazard. Unloading our luggage was a matter of everyone jumping out and piling everything onto the footpath as quickly as we could, while the cars behind us tooted their horns as loudly and continuously as they could in an effort to get past.

We gathered in the tiny lobby, patiently waited to receive our keys and made our way up a maze of stairways and landings to our appointed rooms. Although old-worldly, our room is a good size, quite cosy with a table and chair, a desk and chair, and a quaint but roomy bathroom. I think we must be in the middle quarter.

Once settled in, most of the group wandered to the end of the street in search of somewhere to eat, but everything was shut, so the only option for dinner was back at Chalet de Roses. We made our way down a narrow corridor and walkway to the restaurant out the back of the hotel, where we were seated along a long narrow table. The food took some time to arrive as such a large party was seemingly not expected. However, when our meals arrived, they were good and the company cheerful.