A few days in Antananarivo, Madagascar
What a relief after the last trip’s crazy delays on Kenya Airways to
be back on South African Airways whose flights were all on time. Well actually
that is not true – they left on time and both arrived early – always a bonus.
Arriving in Tana is a bit of a trying experience. It takes forever to get
through immigration and once through immigration you have to run the gauntlet of
all the porters trying to take your suitcase to wherever you are going. I got a
little cross though because I managed to avoid all the porters and found the
driver of the hotel’s bus but when we got to the bus there was a smartly
dressed man waiting there who took my suitcase, put it in the bus and then
demanded I pay him. All this while the bus driver was grinning his head off!
Well I just told the guy to get lost because I never asked him to lift my suitcase
up on little step and his shouting at me for a tip was annoying. Eventually he
got the message and moved on to another victim.
So I started the long drive to the hotel thinking how much I don’t
like Tana because of people like Mr GiveMeATip who are in plenty supply here
but then I decided I needed an attitude change. I started looking for good
things along the way. The scenery on the way to Tana is nice. I like to see the
rice paddies with the ducks swimming around and the cows browsing on whatever
they can find to eat. I also got a kick out of seeing the kids on the sports
fields playing not soccer as I expected but rugby!
After an hour long journey
of suicidal driving I arrived at my hotel. This time I am at a different hotel
to my previous trips. My local contact made the decision to use a different
hotel due to the crazy accounting at the hotel we used previously. So I have
been staying at the Grand Mellis Hotel.
The hotel is really quite nice and meets all my criteria: safe, clean,
free internet access and it has a small gym. It is right in the middle of Tana
so quite noisy with my bedroom window open but it has double windows so it is
really quiet when the windows are closed. The windows have to be closed at
night anyway because it is quite chilly after the sun goes down – in the region
of 4C°. My room is spacious and the bed comfortable. The only negative is that
the toilet leaks. I have to jiggle the handle to decrease the amount of water
running into the bowl so that the cistern fills but this doesn’t stop the leak.
It sounds a bit like I have my own private fountain in the room.
My comfy room
Looking down on the street from my room - love these old cars that are used as taxis
The view across from my room
The other nice thing about the hotel is the food. It is a good thing
that there is a gym! The breakfast has been a little strange for me but it
really is just because I am not used to continental breakfasts. Cakes and
pastries are only on my breakfast menu for my birthday and even then only
irregularly. The lunches were in a class of their own! I wish that I had taken
photos everyday but below are the photos from just one lunch. It wasn’t all
that expensive either only about R100 / $8 for a three course meal.
A chicken salad starter
Main course of snapper fish (Lethrinus sp for those who are interested)
Dessert!
On the work front everything went well. We could not use the online
database but worked around that issue again. On the first day we started a
little late because I was waiting for everyone in the meeting room and everyone
else was waiting for me in the hotel lobby. They then asked reception if I was
here, they were told yes I was and they phoned my room to find me. Eventually
it dawned on them that they should look in the meeting room. It would have been
the first place I would have looked! After that though we had no more confusion
and they worked very diligently to finish all the updates in the set time.
The view from the meeting room
Our group
Next stop Mauritius!
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