Julia's Travels: June 2010

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Meeting my chicken bus match

We purchased our initial Jo’burg –Madagascar tickets through an American travel agency in May and decided at that point to organize domestic flights for the majority of our trip. The first leg of our journey was to be the only exception, and we planned to brave the Malagasy public transportation system for two “short” (think ~150 km) segments of our trip.

I am generally game for the occasional developing world public transportation adventure (e.g. the infamous “chicken buses” of Central America), but I promised my mom that I’d make an effort to avoid sketchy transportation in Africa. I figured that we’d e able to spend a little extra for nicer/safer buses in Madagascar, and in our absolute worst case scenario, we’d end up on some decent rural bus akin to what I experienced during my time in Asia and Latin America. Wrong. Sorry mom, we definitely tried to avoid it, but sometimes, the chicken bus is inevitable.

We had a couple of elements working against us. First off, there is only one class of bus transport in Madagascar. These buses are called taxi-brousses (literally “bush taxi”), and are actually large vans. The government fixes the ticket price by distance, so there isn’t any incentive for the companies to invest in snazzier buses that command a higher ticket price. Second, our mastery of communication with hand signals can usually get us to the bus station and to the point where we can buy tickets to our destination, but beyond that, we pretty much have to cross our fingers and hope for the best. Complicated questions about road worthiness leg room are totally out of the question.

The first leg of our overland trip was rough, but manageable. The second leg was where things got really interesting…So we arrived at the rural bus station in Moramanga Madagascar, bought our tickets to Tamatave, boarded the bus and proceeded to wait for the bus to fill up before leaving (there aren’t any set departure times, and buses just leave when they are full, which can take several hours) - bear in mind that we couldn’t talk to anyone, so we were a bit confused about why the bus wasn’t leaving. After a good hour or so, they had loaded up the bus with people and luggage to the point where the bottom of the bus was only just clearing the ground, which meant that it was time to go.

The ride was long and hot and dusty. We were crammed like sardines into our seats. I got stuck in a middle seat, which was pretty bad, but Chris was caught between two car-sick kids and a woman who was also having a rough time with the windy roads, so I actually think that my knees-in-the-chest middle seat was pretty ok.

We made about 20 stops along the 130 km journey. Mostly we stopped to cram additional passengers into the bus, but we also paused frequently so that the driver could pull over to buy snacks and fruit from road-side stands (fortunately the windy roads didn’t get to him too). We also made a couple of stops to help out buses that were experiencing mechanical trouble.

Around km 90, jus when Chris and I were starting to feel confident that we’d make it to our destination on-time, the bus started making strange noises, and pulled over to the side of the road. The other passengers seemed to be pretty familiar with this routine, and everyone piled off the bus and looked for a shady spot on the side of the road. The driver got a pair of coveralls and some tools from the trunk and climbed under the bus (you know it’s bad when you permanently keep a pair of coveralls on hand for breakdowns). Unable to communicate with the other passengers, we had no idea if the problem was minor or serious, so we plopped down in the shade and hoped for the best (you will notice that “hoping for the best” has become a theme of our trip to Madagascar). After an hour or so, the driver changed out of his coveralls, we all piled back into the bus and continued on to Tamatave.

The trip was supposed to take 5 hours, but we’ve learned that Malagasy time is +2 to 3 hours in pretty much any circumstance, so naturally the trip ended up being a little over 7 hours. We arrived in Tamatave just before dark and totally exhausted from the journey.

As if the bus ride itself hadn’t been enough, when we arrived in Tamatave it had been raining for several hours and the city had lost power, so the bus station was a giant, unlit swamp pit. For those of you who don’t know, I’m a bit of a neat-freak, and the idea of maneuvering through a giant, dark mud pit wasn’t the most appealing scenario. Eventually we made it to our hotel, and kissed the ground.

Our taxi-brousse adventure in Madagascar was definitely a character building experience, and it tried my patience more than almost any other bus trip I’ve made to-date. Let’s just say that Chris and I were happy that we’d booked domestic flights for the rest of our trip in Madagascar.

-Julia

From 06-10-10 Andasibe web

These taxi-brousses aren’t made for tall people

From Misc Africa 2010

Our bus pulled over onto the side of the road

Monday, June 21, 2010

Lemurs!

After two days in Tana, Chris and I headed off to Andasibe national park. Our plan thus far had been to work our way from the capital of Madagascar to Sainte Marie island over the course of a week, stopping at some of the highlights along the way… one of which was Andasibe national park.

The park is set in a lush rain forest in the mountains on the East coast of the Madagascar. This is one of the only places where you can see the indri indri, Madgascar’s largest lemur. Andasibe was a brief stop, as we only stayed there for two nights, but our morning hike through the misty rainforest listening to the call of the indri indri was truly unforgettable.

-Julia

From 06-10-10 Andasibe web

Malagasy countryside en route to Andasibe National Park

From 06-10-10 Andasibe web

Indri indri lemur

From 06-10-10 Andasibe web

You have to admit, they are pretty darn cute

From 06-10-10 Andasibe web

A family of lemurs sitting in a tree...

From 06-10-10 Andasibe web

We also saw this cute little wooly lemur and he baby resting in a tree

From 06-10-10 Andasibe web

And the didamed sifaka lemur was pretty cool too

From 06-10-10 Andasibe web

Hiking through the jungle

From 06-10-10 Andasibe web

A sign posted outside the park. Yes, the language barrier has been a major challenge here.

From 06-10-10 Andasibe web

This chameleon was chilling outside of our bungalow

Madagascar – not for the faint of heart

After a little over a week in Cape Town, we hopped on a plane to Madagascar. I’ve always been intrigued by this mysterious island that some call the 8^th continent and have really been looking forward to this portion of our Africa trip.

We arrived in Antananarivo, Madagascar’s capital (aka “Tana”), and spent two nights in the city getting settled and figuring out our travel plans for the next few weeks.

During our one full day in Tana, we decided to try one of Lonely Planet’s suggested self-guided “walking tours” so that we could get a sense for the city and a little taste of the local culture. I have a pretty good sense of direction, and when provided with a map, I can normally find my way from point A to point B (Chris is pretty good at this too, which helps). This city, however, proved to be the ultimate navigation challenge. Allow me to set the scene for you: the city is located on a series of hills so the all streets wind around in curves and circles, traffic is insane (I have yet to see a stop light and traffic signs are rare), the streets have incomprehensible 5-syllable names that ALL start with the letter “R” (like “Ravelmanantsoa”, “Ratsimilaho” and “Razafindranovona” … no I did not make those up, they are actual street names), and to make matters worse, none of the streets have street signs, so even if we could understand the names, there was no way to figure out where the heck we were going. Outcome: we got totally lost and spent the better part of a morning aimlessly wandering around Tana. Fortunately, city is pretty safe during the daytime, so it wasn’t like we were going to accidentally wander in to a favella or anything. Eventually, we found our way back to our hotel and rewarded ourselves with a tasty meal at one of the upscale French-Malagasy restaurants downtown.

Since arriving in this country, I’ve been struck by a couple of things that have led me to suspect that traveling in Madagascar is will be rewarding, but also very challenging. My gut feeling is that this country will be unlike anywhere I’ve ever travelled before. First off, the poverty here is extreme and profound. In most developing countries, you see the stark contrast between the rich and poor with glimmers of a small (but normally growing) middle class, but here I have seen almost nothing but severe poverty.

Second, communication is really tough. I can say approximately 4 things in French. The local people here primarily speak Malagasy, and most also speak varying degrees of French. No English. Zip, zero, zilch. I have already resorted to hand signals multiple times during the first few days. This could get interesting.

Third, there are very few other western independent travelers. Of those we have seen, about 90% are French and don’t seem really interested in striking up conversation with the two lone Americans. There is, however, an abundance of crusty old European guys accompanied by beautiful young local girls. I saw a lot of this in Thailand and the Philippines. I’m sure that some of them are couples who are genuinely happy, but it’s tough not to make my own conclusions, and as a woman it pains me to see this scenario played out over and over…

On the other hand, Madagascar is also an incredibly beautiful place with amazing plant and animal life that can’t be seen anywhere else in the world. Also, the local people(the few that we have been able to connect with) have been very warm and kind, and the local cuisine is pretty tasty…which is always a major plus.

If nothing else, I know that Madagascar will be an adventure…

-Julia

From 06-08-10 Tana web

Tana - Madagascar's capital

From 06-08-10 Tana web

Wandering the hilly streets of Tana

From 06-08-10 Tana web

Chris blending in with the locals

From 06-08-10 Tana web

Testing out my sweet new mosquito net and headlamp at the hotel in Tana

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Touch down in Cape Town

We’ve been here for nearly a week now and are happy to report that we love our new city! Cape Town is a beautiful, cosmopolitan city, and I really think that we are going to like living here.

We landed on Thursday morning and used some hotel points from my consultant days to check into a Westin. It’s probably not the best place to get exposure to real Cape Town culture, but it was an extremely comfortable landing pad for jet-lag recovery and getting oriented with the city…which we REALLY needed after 3 days of traveling and the luggage catastrophe at Heathrow (we are still waiting for our bags and discovered that, in the frantic moments of unpacking and repacking our bags at the airport, we managed to leave some really important items in our shipped bags and both ended up with a bizarre hodgepodge of clothes…this has resulted in some very “creative” outfits).

After a solid 24 hours of hibernation/recuperation in the hotel, we emerged into the light of day and began exploring the city. Since then we’ve been doing some of the typical touristy outings, while also checking out potential neighborhoods and getting to know the city. Some of the highlights have included: hiking atop Table Mountain (stunning 360 views of Cape Town, anyone?), late afternoon lunch in the BEAUTIFUL seaside neighborhood of Camps Bay (prettier than Malibu), and our excursion to the Cape of Good Hope (where else can you see views of two oceans, an ostrich, a baby penguin and a baboon in the span of 15 minutes?).

I also should report that we feel MUCH safer in Cape Town than we thought we would. Quite to the contrary of what we’d heard from some people before we left, there are NOT gangs of thugs roaming the streets of downtown Cape Town attacking innocent bystanders at random. What we did see, however, during our first day wandering through the city were families picnicking on the grass at Green Point, couples enjoying lunch at outdoor cafes, and moms riding bikes with their kids on the promenade. I felt a little silly for being so nervous when we left the hotel earlier that day. Sure, South Africa has a high crime rate, and yes we are still being careful and using a healthy dose of caution, but we are both relieved that the safety situation in Cape Town is not nearly as dire as the typical American perception.

-Julia