6. Antananarivo

Tuesday 12. 9. - I do not want to forget to mention my first impressions from Africa. I was horribly wasted, it was quite cold in Tana and what is very pleasurable, we became millionaires. Right after an arrival we changed 400 American bucks for 2680000 Malagasy francs, the rate of exchange was 1 USD = 6700 MFR. It is very strange with money here. Madagascar changed the currency (which was original franc) in year 1974 to the new national currency. The monetary unit is one ariary, what represents 5 former francs. All the coins are in ariary, but in paper money, the franc still dominates, even it is written on it how much it is in new currency. The change of currency was not very effective, because after 26 years the prices are in francs everywhere.

I am going to mention little information from the plane. I found an interesting article in the Financial Times. Its title was: The worst roads in the world, but Madagascar was worth it. Author describes a trip from Antananarivo to Fort Dauphin in the south of the island like as a horror. I am curious if it is really so bad. Madagascans greets salam. They got it from Muslims, although Islam is not very strong here.

In the evening, after arrival, we opened a bottle of slivovica and some other bottle in which was some other alcohol made from fruit. We were at Calvin and it was after midnight. The eyes of our guide opened widely and after 15 minutes the bottle of slivovica was empty. We asked him if his wife do not want to taste it too, because we wanted to be polite. The answer was that Chantal do not drink. So we went to bed, but in 3 minutes was Calvin back and in hand he held 2 empty glasses. So, Chantal drinks…eh. That is stupid and transparent plea. He drank it right when he walked out of door that is for sure. At least he will not get lost among us.

We woke up about 8:00 according to Madagascan time; the time zone was different only about +1 hour. Mosquitoes were doing a little trouble to us during night, but since we were wasted a lot, we did not care much about these malaria disease transmitters. I got fun from early morning. The first thing I tried was a fact, if the water in basin turns the other way like at the northern hemisphere. And it really turned the other way. I repeated the experiment 5 times and I was very happy about it. Calvin’s mother-in-law saw me doing it and she did not understand why I am so happy. She had to think I went mad. Such a trifle can make you so much joy. It reminded me Otík from the movie Vesničko má středisková, who was flushing the toilet again and again, because he was amazed by this invention.

Chantal was ready with the breakfast. Is it a reward for fine slivovica? There were eggs, rolls, butter, coffee and tea. According to tourist guidebook, eggs and butter were on the list of hazardous food. However, as soon we get used to it as better for us. It was really a royal welcome. We did not expect such a welcome. What if they welcome offspring of Móric Beňovský? Calvins house lies on the Shore of Mandroseza Lake, which is a reservoir of drinking water for the whole town. It was not a very boastful residence. A few rooms, except the boastful living room, everywhere was mess. In the house was only cold water, but it was not for drinking. Water closet? Dream on. Sometime we found such a small creatures, cockroaches, comfort. After the breakfast became an important moment. Shopping time. We loaded ourselves into car and we went to the city. Transport communications are on the good level in Antananarivo. I would compare its best roads with our worst in Bratislava. Ja gut. Firstly, we changed some more bucks for petrol. Million here, million there, who cares…Calvin brought us to an unforgettable market in city. Once again, we did not listen to guidebooks advices. This place is dangerous for tourists, but what could we do, when Calvin said, that this is the best place for doing some shopping. Shopping has several phases. We would be completely lost on the market without our guide Calvin. He managed the whole action; he controlled everything with the big calculator. It had no mistake. Orientation prices: 500 g spaghetti – 5000 francs, package of cheese – 7000 francs, big sac of coffee 6000, big roll 800…

Every time we came back to the car with the full boxes, the crowd of curious people and street salesmen was rapidly increasing. Their prices for hats and rattles were at the beginning “ten dolak”, gradually they fell to “sir, one dolak”. We will show them, when we will go back home. We stopped at the SGM agency to send mails home that we arrived alive and healthy. Our next stop was at the shopping center Champion, to buy more food. We nearly fall to the ground when we saw prices for clean water. The water is a real problem here in Madagascar. Eight months of drought is a long time and so the water price is high. The cost of one bottle was 2600 francs. When we found out, that beer O.65 l THB (three horses beer), very good beer, is for the same price, we throw out 20 bottles of water form the shopping bag, and we bought 2 boxes of this golden liquid. Solid cheese 250g cost 6500 francs, nice price, but corn flakes were very expensive. After the shopping, we came back to Calvin’s residence, where a royal lunch was waiting for us.

Nine people will travel under the walls, us six, Calvin, cook Doul (Dul - Calvin’s cousin) and chauffeur Jack- owner of a terrain vehicle ISUZU TROOPER. We paid forward a half of price for hire (37 days x 75 dollars = 2775). Shit, those are prices, but at least nobody can steal us this big cash. Dul and Jack went to say goodbye to their families and we were playing with Calvin’s children Carol and Billy. Calvin got 6 children, the oldest one is 21 and he is the student of Tana University, the youngest is 2-year-old Carol. She was very cute. Children in this country are unbelievably pretty.

Finally at16:00, we loaded everything to cars including ourselves and went to Tsaranoro. I traveled with Calvin and other 7 members went with Jack. Character of country was created by dry bush. Bare hills, sometimes you see some trees, mostly pine trees, because we were at the height of 1500 m above the sea level. This land reminded me a national park Byce Canyon in Utah in USA. It had similar red steeples and furrowed slopes from erosion. During the whole way, we could see street salesmen, women with lot of children who had huge baskets on their heads and many barefooted trekkers. Its unbelievable how these women can manage such a big load on their heads. Pretty girls were everywhere, they did not let us cold and we were shouting at them every moment words zazavavy tsara – pretty girl. Characteristics of their faces were soft and very pleasant. They liked to show themselves in the front of camera objectives.

We went around the boastful president palace in Tana, which lied outskirts. I was asking Calvin information of all kinds form politics to natural beauties. Today’s president shit on people and is greedy. The railways are in devastated condition. The state does not give them any money and all locomotives are broken. That is the reason why we saw local homeless men lying on the rails. Calvin ensured me that according to frequency of local trains they really do not risk run over by train. The most important transport medium became a car. Like a public transport is functioning here something called buxi which is collective taxi. The price is 1000 francs. What is great, it functions here like in Italy. No sidelights and they are using a horn non-stop. Dino Kuráň would have joy. He was the one who, in the country, which looks like a boot, told me: “Vlado use the horn, we are in Italy.”

Calvin used the horn like the others. You could hear his horn every 2-3 seconds. The car transport is widely spread here because of low prices of petrol: normal-3700 (about 25 Sk), diesel-2700 (19 Sk), only the super is expensive 5600 (40 Slovak crowns). Calvin wondered that when he will be rich he would buy himself NISSAN PATROL. He will get that car that is for sure, because he got great skill to earn the money. The road was relatively good-quality amd we were moving forward at speed40 km per hour. Only if we knew that these are the best roads in the Madagascar…Buses are used here for transport between cities (buses are mainly Indian machines TATA). These buses are full of people, most of them are not inside, but they hang on bus outside. I guess, it is typical for countries like Madagascar. The houses are built from the baked bricks in the villages, and they are all nicely red. Bricks are made right aside of communications. They form the square-stones, build a pyramid, stuff a straw into it and then they simply set on fire. Such fires belong to the characteristics of an island. We came to Antsirabe at night. A surprise was waiting for us also here. The men pulling the rickshaws were running around here. This city is completely different than Tana. Antsirabe is an industrial center. There are many factories here. A beer THB, cigarettes are made here. It was quite cold there, because the city lies in 2000 meters above sea level. We spent the night at Christian mission Centre Diantana. Nice accommodation, beds, showers, water closets. We paid 8000 francs for a person, what is maybe 56 Slovak crowns. Simko played the guitar. We used 4 THB instead of lullaby. About 21:30 was everybody dead to the world.