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11 may 2004

Madagascar 2004: Toamasina to Tana (day 23)

DylanL
2006-04-25 20:01:45

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Our time on Île Sainte Marie is over and we have to go back to Tana, from where our plane to Holland leaves tomorrow night. The Lakana pickup takes us to the airport. Despite the hard rain (today as well) the plane arrives on time. Only a handfull of tourists gets out of the plane and a handfull gets in.

We fly back to Tamatave, the coastal town we passed earlier. The connecting flight to Tana turns out to leave much later than it's supposed to, so we have 4 hours time to visit Tamatave. Actually, a welcome surprise.

There's a long line of cabs in front of the airport and everytime i lay my eyes on them they make exaggerating, simultaneous signals, which looks very funny. We get in the one in front of the row and let us drive to Mazy Be (big market). It's a colorful market full of fruit, food, furnitures and an ideal place for buying souvenirs, as it costs almost nothing. Soon we are carrying bags filled with stuff and take a pousse pousse to a nearby restaurant. It's on the see where rich malagasies have dinner, cellphones exposed on the table. For one last time we enjoy the fish and lobster.

Our taxidriver is waiting and ready to take us back to the airport. Once we're there it turns out we got there just in time to jump in a Twin Otter, a miniscule 2 engine airplane, ready to take off.

When we arrive in Tana we go look for a taxi. A fellow walks up to us, names a price and signals us to walk with him. "The car's righ there" he constantly says but we're already dragging our luggage for 5 minutes, all the way past a police checkpoint. We get suspicious, take our luggage and jump in something that has a taxi sign on its roof. 'Taxi clandestine' says the driver with a smile and points to the fellow, who gives us an angry look and wishes us the worst, probably.

After a long ride through busy Antananarivo we arrive at Hotel Mellis, without much atmosphear but cheap. It's located nearby Tana Plaza, the most important street of Tana. For dinner we go to the nearby chic Hotel de France, which gets mainly visited by western business people. There we meet, who would have guessed, the frenchman from our adventure on the boat. With the three of us we have a party at the bar and and have an extensive dinner untill late in the evening.