Visiting the red island – Madagascar
May 5, 2018
In May, I decided to fulfill one of my many dreams and go to Madagascar.
This time, I used the services of a travel agency – STA Travel, which sells trips to G Adventure, a Canadian travel agency. They don't offer all-inclusive vacations, but rather trips for adventure seekers. You always fly in independently and meet the rest of the group at the destination.
From London, I flew with Kenya Air, whose CEO until recently was a Pole. The flights were mediocre, the seats were upholstered like bus lines here, you could feel them soaked in sweat, and the movie selection was minimal, but the plane was in good working order, which is the most important thing. There are no direct flights to Madagascar, so I had to fly to Nairobi, Kenya, and from Nairobi to Antananarivo, the capital of Madagascar.
I don't usually exchange money at the airport, but I heard it was worth it in Madagascar, so I took the risk and it turned out that the exchange rate at the airport was actually better than at the currency exchange office! The line may not have been very long, but the wait was long. Every visitor there is a millionaire; 1,000 złoty is almost a million ariary.
I hadn't booked a taxi, so the hustle and bustle started immediately. It's a known fact that taxi drivers rip off people at airports, but I decided not to give in. I didn't realize how far the airport was. If I had known, I probably wouldn't have haggled so much. In the end, I took a private car. Perhaps it wasn't wise for a woman to get into a car with strangers, luggage, and money, in one of the poorest countries in the world. Fortunately, I'm always luckier and smarter, and I managed to get to my hotel safely.
Arriving in Antananarivo, I experienced a bit of shock. I knew I'd arrived in a poor country, but I didn't expect the capital to look so awful. Dirt, stench, and poverty are an understatement. People were piled high, cars from the Flintstones era, dilapidated houses, and homeless people everywhere. I immediately regretted having two extra days in Antananarivo after the tour ended.
Upon arrival at the hotel, I met the pilot and my travel companions, a local pilot, an international group—17 people in total, mostly German, a Swiss woman, Australians, a British man, and myself, a Polish woman. My roommate turned out to be a 65-year-old Australian woman—a super woman, as it turned out, in better shape than all of us combined.
A quick dinner, a shower, and it was time to catch up on the long flight. Wake up early the next morning for a long journey to the Andasibe National Park to see our first lemurs!
