The Web Address Finally Makes Sense

So, after the adventure of retrieving my camera, I went back to the hostel and packed so as to be ready nice and early for my 6am flight to Madagascar via J'burg.

I got to Antananarivo, the capital, hit the bookstores looking for a bird guide, didn't find one, and generally wandered about. Tana has THE most persistent street vendors I've ever seen. Thursday I visited the former queen's palace, or looked at the outside since there was a fire after elections some years back and the wood inside burned. The money to repair it stopped/disappeared after the most recent coup. I also visited the memorial to Malagasy soldiers who died in WWI. The guide at the palace commented that tourists don't stay in Tana, and I decided that's because it is dirtier than Dar (which is pretty dirty) and there is nothing to see. Not knowing French has been problematic, but I'm an expert in pantomime and generally being ridiculous, so I just wing it. I find most people know enough English to get us through simple transactions. I tried to buy a souvenir in a shop, but we were facing a language barrier when it came down to settling on a price. We ended up punching our bids into a calculator and passing it back and forth across the counter until we reached an agreeable number. Later I was trying to buy some street food. They sat me at a table and asked what I wanted. Everyone else was smiling at the tourist slumming it at the local hotely. I told the waitress I don't speak French and she looked exasperated, so I signaled her to follow me and led her to the glass cabinet of various fried goods and pointed to what I wanted, said how many of each, and ordered some chinese soup. I had no idea what the things in the cabinet were, but for those prices, I could have a sampler, and I saw chinese soup on every menu in town and figured I couldn't go wrong there. It was delicious and all cost about a dollar. :) I topped that off by going to a bakery to have tea and cake. I'm OK if that's the closest I ever come to a French cafè.

Like I said, Tana is boring, so I'm now in Fianaratsoa. I went by bush taxi, and it was way more comfy than a Tanzanian minibus. More later.