Travel blog: Tamatave

Sara LeHoullier is going exploring both on and off the beaten path on the world’s fourth-largest island for three months. She shares her experiences in Madagascar with travelbite.co.uk in her eighth blog entry:

My nightmare has come to life. I have been in Madagascar for one month with practically no problems at all, barring the expected Air Madagascar mishaps, late taxibrousses, and clusters of mosquito bites, but today I opened my computer to find that the screen has partially shattered.

In the bottom right-hand corner there’s a nebulous black and white cloud of discontent. I was so careful, and wrapped it up in a padded case in a padded compartment in my carry-on surrounded by extra padding – alas it was not enough. A word of advice for travellers with computers: get insurance for it!

Luckily I can still see most of the screen so I should be fine for now (don’t worry, blog followers, whoever you are).

We took the taxibrousse (I now have a travelling companion!) from Tana to Tamatave yesterday morning. I assured Nico that it would be a painless ride, a mere six hours on a nice road, and he was very agreeable about it.

We bought three seats for the two of us (Nico’s legs are a foot longer than mine), and settled in comfortably. Travelling from the capital to the coast is such a refreshing journey.

You leave the acrid, polluted air, the strained-looking people and the sparse brown landscape of the plateau and all of a sudden you’re in a mountainous, verdant, tree-filled paradise. Everything seems to be breathing out here.

Probably the best thing about having someone to travel with (other than the fact that he’s my boyfriend and I like him) is that I don’t have to have this conversation anymore:

Random Male Person: Where’s your friend?
Me: What friend?
RMP: You know, the person you’re travelling with? (This is an underhanded way of finding out if I’m married or otherwise attached.)
Me: I’m actually travelling alone for now. It’s just me.
RMP: We should go together. You need someone to share your hotel room. You are lonely.
Me: No, it’s ok. My husband is coming soon. (It’s easier to call him my husband in these situations. The word for boyfriend, ‘sipa’, is too nuanced and just opens the door for more questions).
RMP: Oh, is he Malagasy or American?
Me: American.
RMP: Well you should have a Malagasy boyfriend too, it’s perfectly normal.
Me: No, thanks. [Nervous, far-from-genuine laughing] (I am now forced to extricate myself by walking away to avoid further discussion)

So that’s the end of that, thank goodness. Now Nico just gets stares and comments about how tall he is, which is very entertaining for me, and perhaps for him as well.

The best part of any taxibrousse ride is the stop for lunch. On the way to Tamatave, most brousses stop in Antsampanana, which is at a crossroads and therefore has a huge fruit and handicrafts market.

Kids try to sell you candied bananas in little bags (yes that’s what those weird slimy-looking brown things are – they’re actually pretty good), and you can even buy little stools (this always reminds me of the film Waiting for Guffman, and I have an urge to sing the stool song).

We went to the hotely that looked the cleanest, and the lady was pleasantly surprised to hear me greet her in Malagasy. The worst part about it was the ‘bathroom’ out back – it’s a good thing I went before eating or I may have lost my lunch.

Nico had chicken with sauce, which turned out to be very good. Chicken here is always a hit or miss situation. You can get the breast or leg or thigh – normal parts – or you can get the butt, neck, or even head, which might prove more difficult to the inexperienced weird-part eater.

I had the ravitoto, smashed cassava leaves, with pork; it’s always a delight, but does seem to get lodged in the teeth very easily (it’s sort of the consistency of pesto).

I asked Nico about the ranonampango (I massacred that spelling), which I love. It’s a drink that happens when the rice is burnt to the bottom of the pot, and then water is poured over it and boiled.

He said ‘it tastes exactly like what it is but not as bad as you think it’ll be’. Encouraging. I think it’s an acquired taste.

Our arrival in Tamatave was not without fanfare, as the taxi drivers and posiposy (rickshaws) jostled for our attention. I informed them all politely that we would be walking to our destination and it was commented upon that we needed our exercise.

Also, I tried telling the rickshaw man that we wouldn’t both fit in one (which we wouldn’t, even without our bags) and he said it would be OK, he’d just go really slow. And then he laughed.

We got to the hotel recommended by a friend, The Hotel Nado, and at this time I would like to un-recommend the place heartily. It’s cheap, alright, but the mattress was about as thick as a slice of bread, the bathroom was dirty and only one shower worked (with cold water only), only one toilet flushed, there was no toilet paper, and in the middle of the night some drunk dudes tried to come into our room, thinking it was theirs.

I was so angry, I stayed awake from three until four in the morning, planning on how I was going to ream the hotel owner when we left, and then didn’t have the heart. I just told the front desk about how scared we were when people tried to come into the room. They didn’t seem too apologetic. Don’t go there.

Thankfully, a friend of mine lives here in Tamatave, and offered his home to us while he’s out of town. It’s beautiful and centrally located. This morning we went to my former favorite breakfast place, Chez Myrah, across from the Total Station by the Hotel de Ville.

After a cheap and delicious meal of breakfast rice, coffee and fresh-squeezed juice, and some reminiscing with the owner whom I haven’t seen since last year, we walked over to l’Avenue d’Independence, a palm-lined promenade in the center of town.

We’ll head out to Parc Ivoloina on Friday, and in the meantime I’ll try to collect some interesting anecdotes about this hot, hot city.

Sara LeHoullier

Sara LeHoullier also blogs regularly on her Spotlight Madagascar website. Her Madagascar travel guide, published by Other Places Publishing will be released in 2010.