 Madagascar sucks... |
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Or maybe not.....
So first of all in this Blog you'll find:
1) PLENTY of photos
2) A very negative comment as I have to get it off my chest
3) a text that Nadja wrote about most of what we did till now. (I use her text as I have spent a lot of time uploading the pictures.
So what's wrong?????
We have been very dissapointed by the "friendliness" of the Malagasy.
Madagascar is not a country to travel "independently". As long as you travel in group and pay a LOT of money, you get plenty of nice smiles. But we are trying to do it the real way and travel with the locals and local transport. Again and again they try to rip us off. Over charging by 2 or 3 times the normal price, even laughing in our face that we are being ripped off. Only once did a Malagasy point out we were paying way too much, and there the others told him to SHUT UP!
And today again a taxidriver tried to charge 2 times the agreed rate on arrival at the airport.
I think they really see us as big moneybags and try everything they can to get as much out of us as possible.
We have seen plenty of happy travellers (75% from France) but they were all travelling organised and with 4x4.
We also have had almost no friendly experiences from people who were not wanting something from us, even in small towns.
For the food: being vegeterians, it is a bit of a hassle to eat no meat but there is a lot of fish. Although it was often so bad we nearly threw up in our plate (fish not cleaned, etc...) Only in "tourist" restaurants you can find ok food.
Saying this in one town, I ate in the best restaurant I have seen in a long time, even in Europe!
And I was lucky as I could eat there for 4 days : Nadja was Puking and Shiting Diarhea every 15 minutes from the rotten fish... and it took her that long to recover with antibiotics and all.
I also vomited, but that was before and only one BIG time.
Voila, now we change to a completely new area and hope it'll be better.
Extra note: in Antsirabe we went to a Famadiana. It is a ceremony, held every seven years where they take out all the dead bodies of one family to wrap them a new "sheet". There they also ask for the blessing of the deads and tell them the new stories of the family!
NOW the nice text from Nadja:
Hello All,
Frédéric and I are back in Antanarivo, the capital of Madagascar. We have 3 rough weeks behind us, travelling towards the west coast. Most of the time we had no electricity, no running water, shabby "hotels" or camping without any commodities (no toilets, no showers...) and not a lot of food... especially for vegetarians...
We travelled hours and hours in bush taxis to get from one city to the next and then we paddled down the Tsiribinha River for 4 days in a wooded pirogue with 2 malagasy piroguiers. At the end of the pirogue trip, first we had to take a zebu cart for a few kms, which shook all of our bones up and down and we very closely observed how zebus take a dump every time they make an effort ;).
Then we wanted to continue by boat taxi... and had to wait with other malagasy travellers on the beach for 2 days as there was no boat! When the boat finally arrived it looked like a tin can who should have retired a loooong time ago... and it was of course hopelessly overloaded with all these passengers that had been waiting on a boat for so long...
10 minutes after the boat had taken off, we all had to get out again because the river didn't have enough water and we had to walk in searing heat for about an hour and catch the boat again at a point further down the river... the boat ride was far from nice and comfy... hopelessly overloaded, no seats and everytime we turned, the boat nearly capsized... when night fell, we realized there were no lights at all on
the boat... only a torch held by the guy in front, whereas the guy in the back steered with his feet and held his head above the boat's roof...
After our spectacular boat ride, I got so sick I thought I was going to stay here and reincarnate as a Malagasy in my next life... I had the worst shits I have ever had... I'll pass on the details, but had to take antibiotics and was out of it for 4 days... when I finally recovered we went to the Tsingys, a spectacular region and the Allee des Baobabs. Our trip to the west coast ended in Morondava were we spent 2
days on the beach. All in all, we have had some quite negative experiences on the road and after eating all this dust and dirt on the road, we have decided to take a plane to Antananarivo and now head over to the east coast where we also want to spend some days on the beach.
Lots of love and kissssssses from both of us
Peace on earth and hopefully in Madagascar too
11 Comments - Add Public Comment or Send Private Message
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September 23rd 2007 - KRISTEL: cordoba enzo
Dag Frederik ! Blij iets van jullie te horen ! Op het ogenblik dat ik je mail kreeg was ik weliswaar een jaar na dato maar met veel plezier en goede herinneringen begonnen met de foto's van Cordoba in een album te 'plakken', als dat geen telepathie is ! Benieuwd naar je verhalen !
September 23rd 2007 - Jude & Glynn: A Familiar Story
Hi guys
I have just been reading your blog and I am truly sorry to hear you are having a bad time in Madagascar. We had considered travelling there on our round the world trip so I am glad we changed our plans. I hope things improve for you soon.
Unfortunately we still had a similar bad experience in Vietnam, where the people only wanted our moneyand didn't care how they got it. I hope you are not going there too!
Good luck with the rest of your journey. May all your future experiences be happy ones :-)
jude & glynn (inspirado)
September 24th 2007 - JF: Ben dites donc
Ca faisait longtemps sans nouvelles!!! Je comencais à m'inquiéter. Expériences pas toujours faciles je vois !! Essayez tout de même d'en profiter. Les paysages visités ont l'air superbes.
September 24th 2007 - Fred: Madagascar on a different planet?
Hi F, so strange to read about ur bad experiences in Mada.. I have 2 friends who traveled around Mada for many months some years ago and they where so delighted by the country and the people.. 1 of them even found the love of his life overthere, they re happily married, have a baby already and are planning to move out from Belgium and go live on Mada as soon as possible... I ve send the link to ur blog to my friend asking him if u and him traveled the same Mada on the same planet :-) Anyway, hope ur trip will return to get back to smooth, with nice food and clean sheets ;-) Bye and take care! Fred.
Hi Fred!
Glad to hear from you.
to reply to you:
First of all our experience does not necesarely represent the only truth.
And your friends travelled here several years ago, so maybe it got worse as the poverty here is defenetly not improving.
As for finding a girlfriend here, I can assure you it is no problem, you can pick one up at every corner in Tana. I also have a friend hapely maried with a Malagasy woman and lived here for quite a while until he got totaly ripped off by his in-laws that they had to come and live in Belgium again.
On the positive side of things tough: we have had some nice experiences with people and nature too, but far less than what I have experienced in all my previous trips...
Hope to see you when I get back.
September 27th 2007 - Alya: et toujours le sourire!
Coucou Nadja et Fred! Avec tt ce qui vous est arrivé jusque là je vous décerne la palme d'or du sourire que vous avez malgré tout gardé sur toutes les photos (ou: seulement sur les photos?!) bonne route et à bientôt via blog - bizz de bxl à tous les 2, Alya
September 29th 2007 - alexia: ile sainte marie
salut Fred and Nadja (que je ne connais pas encore mais ça va viendre!)
j'ai un ami qui est allé à Madagascar, à qui j'ai raconté vos mésaventures. Il me suggère de vous recommander l'île Nosi Ste Marie si vous voulez de la nature et du paradis. Du vrai et de l'authentique.
Voilà, s'il est encore temps...
October 1st 2007 - alex: Hello Fred !
Encore une fois des magnifiques photos, waw, je bave sur mon clavier ! Mais je suis bien surprise que vous ayez eu de si mauvaises expériences, je suis allée à Mada il y a 6 ou 7 ans et j'en ai gardé un tellement bon souvenir ! On a bien eu quelques galères dans les transports en commun, mais après coup, ça fait des bons souvenirs ! J'espère que la suite de votre voyage se passera mieux et gros bisous !
Alex
October 9th 2007 - hans: magacarian haute cuisine
nice shrimp !!! was that the rotten fish that made you vomit ??
December 13th 2007 - Geoff Long: You sound like me!
Hi, Just came across your rant about Madagascar whilst looking for our Travelblog entry (www.travelblog.org/bloggers/Geoff-n-lexa) and it sounded just like me! We spent 3 months in the country (half at a dive conservation project on the west coast) and I had quite a few major arguments with people who as you say were blatantly used to rich foreigners on package holidays where $50-100 for ride was feasible! Anyway I won't go on as you already know the score! We did enjoy our time there, but they have a warped view of tourists and how much money they have.
Enjoy the rest of your trip
Geoff
January 4th 2008 - SjeSja: A little bit of Asia in Africa (anno 2006)
We used to travel a lot in Asia and felt like coming home in Mada. For sure people were not as warm heartedly as across the Mozambique channel. Instead they were quite distant like asians. Unlike in Vietnam (indeed Jude & Glynn, our worst nightmare) we did not came in contact with Greenback hunting people in Mada. We even plan to return to Mada forthcoming Easter holidays to visit the North of the red island this time. As our daughter (3 years old at that time) loved it so much.
All Comments
11 Comments - Add Public Comment or Send Private Message
September 23rd 2007 - KRISTEL: cordoba enzo
Dag Frederik ! Blij iets van jullie te horen ! Op het ogenblik dat ik je mail kreeg was ik weliswaar een jaar na dato maar met veel plezier en goede herinneringen begonnen met de foto's van Cordoba in een album te 'plakken', als dat geen telepathie is ! Benieuwd naar je verhalen !
September 23rd 2007 - Jude & Glynn: A Familiar Story
Hi guys
I have just been reading your blog and I am truly sorry to hear you are having a bad time in Madagascar. We had considered travelling there on our round the world trip so I am glad we changed our plans. I hope things improve for you soon.
Unfortunately we still had a similar bad experience in Vietnam, where the people only wanted our moneyand didn't care how they got it. I hope you are not going there too!
Good luck with the rest of your journey. May all your future experiences be happy ones :-)
jude & glynn (inspirado)
September 24th 2007 - JF: Ben dites donc
Ca faisait longtemps sans nouvelles!!! Je comencais à m'inquiéter. Expériences pas toujours faciles je vois !! Essayez tout de même d'en profiter. Les paysages visités ont l'air superbes.
September 24th 2007 - Fred: Madagascar on a different planet?
Hi F, so strange to read about ur bad experiences in Mada.. I have 2 friends who traveled around Mada for many months some years ago and they where so delighted by the country and the people.. 1 of them even found the love of his life overthere, they re happily married, have a baby already and are planning to move out from Belgium and go live on Mada as soon as possible... I ve send the link to ur blog to my friend asking him if u and him traveled the same Mada on the same planet :-) Anyway, hope ur trip will return to get back to smooth, with nice food and clean sheets ;-) Bye and take care! Fred.
Hi Fred!
Glad to hear from you.
to reply to you:
First of all our experience does not necesarely represent the only truth.
And your friends travelled here several years ago, so maybe it got worse as the poverty here is defenetly not improving.
As for finding a girlfriend here, I can assure you it is no problem, you can pick one up at every corner in Tana. I also have a friend hapely maried with a Malagasy woman and lived here for quite a while until he got totaly ripped off by his in-laws that they had to come and live in Belgium again.
On the positive side of things tough: we have had some nice experiences with people and nature too, but far less than what I have experienced in all my previous trips...
Hope to see you when I get back.
September 27th 2007 - Alya: et toujours le sourire!
Coucou Nadja et Fred! Avec tt ce qui vous est arrivé jusque là je vous décerne la palme d'or du sourire que vous avez malgré tout gardé sur toutes les photos (ou: seulement sur les photos?!) bonne route et à bientôt via blog - bizz de bxl à tous les 2, Alya
September 29th 2007 - alexia: ile sainte marie
salut Fred and Nadja (que je ne connais pas encore mais ça va viendre!)
j'ai un ami qui est allé à Madagascar, à qui j'ai raconté vos mésaventures. Il me suggère de vous recommander l'île Nosi Ste Marie si vous voulez de la nature et du paradis. Du vrai et de l'authentique.
Voilà, s'il est encore temps...
October 1st 2007 - alex: Hello Fred !
Encore une fois des magnifiques photos, waw, je bave sur mon clavier ! Mais je suis bien surprise que vous ayez eu de si mauvaises expériences, je suis allée à Mada il y a 6 ou 7 ans et j'en ai gardé un tellement bon souvenir ! On a bien eu quelques galères dans les transports en commun, mais après coup, ça fait des bons souvenirs ! J'espère que la suite de votre voyage se passera mieux et gros bisous !
Alex
October 9th 2007 - hans: magacarian haute cuisine
nice shrimp !!! was that the rotten fish that made you vomit ??
December 13th 2007 - Geoff Long: You sound like me!
Hi, Just came across your rant about Madagascar whilst looking for our Travelblog entry (www.travelblog.org/bloggers/Geoff-n-lexa) and it sounded just like me! We spent 3 months in the country (half at a dive conservation project on the west coast) and I had quite a few major arguments with people who as you say were blatantly used to rich foreigners on package holidays where $50-100 for ride was feasible! Anyway I won't go on as you already know the score! We did enjoy our time there, but they have a warped view of tourists and how much money they have.
Enjoy the rest of your trip
Geoff
January 4th 2008 - SjeSja: A little bit of Asia in Africa (anno 2006)
We used to travel a lot in Asia and felt like coming home in Mada. For sure people were not as warm heartedly as across the Mozambique channel. Instead they were quite distant like asians. Unlike in Vietnam (indeed Jude & Glynn, our worst nightmare) we did not came in contact with Greenback hunting people in Mada. We even plan to return to Mada forthcoming Easter holidays to visit the North of the red island this time. As our daughter (3 years old at that time) loved it so much.
All Comments
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