Madagascar Day 1: Johannesburg, South Africa to Antananarivo, Madagascar, Thursday, April 4, WTRD 19 of 36

Madagascar Day 1:  Johannesburg, South Africa to Antananarivo, Madagascar, Thursday, April 4, WTRD 19 of 36

We awake at 6:00, eat at 7:00 in the Garden Court Restaurant, board the shuttle at 7:30. We meet a family of 4 ( two young children) from Berkeley, CA.  They are off to Tanzania this morning.  When we reach the airport, we check our bags, go through security, immigration control, shopping area where buy a few things, and reach the gate by 9:20. Boarding is supposed to be at 9:35.  It is,  but we wait on the bus to take us to the plane and on the tarmac for an hour before finally taking off at 10:45.  

We eat lunch, and settle in for the balance of the flight.  We expect to be met at the airport by a National Geographic representative.  Prior to  leaving the states we were advised to get our Madagascar visa application in order with two new passport photos.  We made a special trip to our triple AAA office for the photos and Russ and I completed the page long forms and tucked them away for this occasion.  

As we arrive and go through the immigration line, our first stop is the health office.  They hand us a form to complete.  It’s about 1/6 size of a full 8 x 11 sheet - tiny print and even smaller boxes to fill, but it probably cost them nothing to print as it was a part of a small advertising booklet.  We recognize the form and have at the ready the ones we have already completed, photos attached. No says the woman, she doesn’t want that one, she wants the form from Lilliput.

We spend 15 minutes completing the form and hand it in.  The woman doesn’t even look over the applications, she asks for $76.00 and hands us a receipt which we take to the next station where the actual immigration officers are.  Perhaps they will want the form, but Noooo, they just want the receipt for the $76.00.  We show them the receipt, they had a visa to each of our passports, and we are done. The forms the ones we completed before we arrived and the ones upon arrival are apparently an empty formality.  Oh well.

We are relieved to see our bags appear on the old fashion conveyer belt.  Once collected, we meet up with a young man who is holding a National Geographic sign with our names on it.  His name is Hari.  He advises us that we will want to get some MGA Malagasy currency for tipping.  We do.

As we navigate through the rustic airport’s parking lot, children approach us to beg for money.  Hari prompts us not to give them anything.  He said these children should be in school.  If they bring money home to their family, their family will think it is better for them to beg than to be educated.  Most of the people in Madagascar are poor and uneducated.  There are 24 million in the country, 3 million live in Antananarivo, the rest live in smaller cities and through out the countryside as subsistence farmers.

Carrying loads on their heads is the norm.

High crime, many gated buildings and residences.

Hari delivers some documents to us, welcome letter from National Geographic, air flight and national park tickets, and  drops us off at the Relais Des Plateaux Hotel and will collect us at 5:10 tomorrow morning for our flight to Diego Suarez (early Portuguese city) in the northern top of Madagascar. There are two small boxes of Madagascar soaps as a welcome gift from National Geographic Expeditions. 

Originally, we had booked a Safari with National Geographic Expeditions, but switched to a Friendship Force Journey to South Africa with an extended  Safari opportunity with our Friendship Force Group.  National Geographic does not return deposits (which we had already paid), but keeps them in trust for another trip.  While we were already relatively close to Madagascar we decided to use the deposit for a journey to this country.  The country's infrastructure is so poor, our only choice was either a private or small group (4 people) so that we could travel in a four wheel drive van and find comfortable small scale accommodations.  We were willing to share with another couple, but we were the only ones on this trip.

Our private expedition was far less costly than the safari we had originally booked, and we loved it!

We have a nice room with air conditioning. The hotel has a beautiful swimming pool, exercise room, and supposedly the “best” restaurant in the capital city.  We do enjoy fillet of sole and lamb shanks for dinner, then retire early for our flight out in the morning.

All is Well with the Worrall Travel R's in Madagascar.