Grand Port District

Waking up the last morning on Mauritius, we ate our breakfast in peace and packed our luggage again. It was quite a tough task, as we now obviously wanted to put our big autumn clothes into it and only wear some light summer clothes. Nevertheless, we could get everything inside and checked out, thanking Rajesh for hosting us.
We got in the car and took off to the airport. An hour later, we have filled up the petrol, and gave the car away. Another hour later, we've checked in, got rid of our heavy luggage and sat down at Burger King. Usually, we'd never eat there, as it doesn't really go with our values. However, we craved for some western food and as we weren't sure when we'd get some chips again, we just allowed us to treat ourselves to very unhealthy food. The chips were amazing!
Finally, boarding time arrived and we took off to yet another francophone country.
Air Mauritius surprised us with its board entertainment and food, because it is rather unusual for a flight that's only 2hrs long. I played some 2048 and gifted my food to Seb, as I was still full from our BK lunch. Then we descended and landed in Madagascar. After we paid for our On-Arrival-Visa (10€) we got the stamps in our passports and got our luggage. In the entry hall, someone was already waiting for us with a sign, like in the movies. Eugene would transfer us to the hotel today. He was a small, Asian looking guy who had a lot of smiling lines around his eyes. He brought us to the money changer and said "Don't change everything, you can change on the road". We have actually planned to change 1.000€, as we've calculated we'd need about that amount of money for everything. However, when we changed 250€ for a start, we understood why Eugene has said don't change everything. One pack of 20.000 Ariary after another was smashed on the counter until we were literally millionaires. 1€ is 4.773 Ariary... Oh dear. Our wallets aren't used to such a stretch!
Luckily, we could pay for my data SIM card with cash, and after that was done, Eugene, a porter, Seb and I made our way across the parking lot, until we arrived at a white Toyota that looked as if its best days have been in the last millennium. Our luggage was put in the trunk and Eugene took off to pay for the parking ticket, leaving us alone with the porter. We knew that we should tip him, but what? As we weren't used to that huge of money, and he was saying that the 2.000 Ariary wasn't enough, we just gave him 20.000 and he happily departed. Not ten seconds later, another Malagasy came to us, asking for money and complaining that we would give our porter but not him. "You didn't do anything for us, why should we give you money?", Seb asked and the man got rather angry, but got lost after a few more seconds anyway. Eugene arrived and we took off into the city of Antananarivo (or short Tana). We asked him about the tipping and he said a porter would usually get around 2.000 Ariary. So we made a man very lucky today. As 20.000 Ariary is only a bit more than 4€, we just learned our lesson and moved on from the topic.
We drove through rice fields and poor looking huts. As we got stuck in a traffic jam, suddenly children were begging on our car windows to give them money. It was hard to ignore them, but I understand why Eugene told us to never give children money. If you give them money, their parents will always use them to get it, e.g. for alcohol or cigarettes. Also, if they beg, they won't go to school, which is the only way in Madagascar (or really anywhere) to become something. Leaving the sad brown eyes behind, we finally arrived in an alley, where Eugene turned the engine off. For a very short second, we thought "Shit, he's going to murder us now", but when he took out our luggage and I saw the sign "Hotel Belvedere", I was relaxed again. Eugene brought us to the reception and gave us his number to contact when we'd need a ride back to the airport. We checked in and went up to our room, which was on the second floor right at the end of the balcony, where you had quite a nice view over Tana. The city was covered by a dome of smog, the loud noise coming from market criers and old engines. Looking down to the hustle and bustle underneath, an older couple came to us and we asked them whether they belonged to the G Adventures tour as well. They did! Paul and Tracy, a retired Jaguar engineer and a retired teacher from Birmingham, England, were a very nice, funny couple we immediately got along with well. We decided to spend the evening together, chatting about old travel stories over dinner in the hotels restaurant. It was very relaxing and if everybody of the G group would be like this, it would be an easy time.Read more