Posted Tuesday, July 10, 2007 at 4:43 p.m. by Chris Amico in Roadside Blogging
I have a certain talent for making my life more complicated. Somehow, on every trip, for every dollar and hour I save, I can almost guarantee I'll lose it in a feat of gross negligence. I get lost, show up late, or like today, can't fill out simple paperwork.
But I'm here. I arrived in Antananarivo an hour late and made the ever-patient girlfriend (she's waited a year already, not that she hasn't been busy) wait another hour while I stood in line for an entry visa, then went back to fill out a declaration form, then had to follow a guard through a gaggle of touts and passengers with better sense of how things work here so I could get the visa I thought was obtained at the end of that line I'd just been standing in. Turns out I needed a stamp first, or something. I'm still not sure. You'd think I'd have the hang of this entry-requirements tango by now.
But as I said, I eventually made it through. My first impressions of Tana are a bit clowded by 20-plus hours of travel through four countries (China, Thailand, Reunion, Madagascar), and I'm lousy at taking everything in on the first day. Some things stick out though. Poverty is rampant. Shanty towns dot the city, intermixed with French colonial architecture. The finance ministry looks a bit like a run-down Chinese apartment building, with peeling paint outside and crumbling brick steps. I suppose this is what a real developing country looks like.
This morning, sitting on the plane, I saw the bluest sky I've ever laid eyes on. The clouds broke over the Indian Ocean at sunrise, and the pale dawn reached up toward indigo overhead. I forgot what a blue sky is supposed to look like, even in Dalian.
I keep saying things in Chinese, which does me no good here. French is the business language, but most everyone sticks with Malagasy. I don't speak either. I'm told the local language is easy, so we'll see how much I pick up in two months.
This is a bit disjointed. I'm still travel weary and my head is in the wrong time zone. More to come though, and photos, too.
Comments:
Comments are closed for this post. If you still have something to say, please email me.
jul 10, 2007 at 9:05 p.m. // victoria said:
glad you made it and Laura is alive and well (I hope she is well!!) happy vacationing! love, victoria
jul 10, 2007 at 9:10 p.m. // kelly said:
"I have a certain talent for making my life more complicated." haha ~ wish you a good holiday! en ~I have seen the thief,hehe~
jul 18, 2007 at 5:12 a.m. // Mike Kayton said:
Stumbleon. Stumbleon. I'm glad to read that you got there in one piece and I hope things are working out. Keep blogging - although I imagine internet access might not be as reliable there.
Just make sure you don't loose all the Chinese you've learned!
Oh, and bring me back a lemur.
jul 18, 2007 at 9:24 a.m. // Meursault said:
I have a slight fascination with Madagascar ever since I read an anthropology book which had a chapter on similarities between the English, the Japanese, and the Madagascans. Try and keep an eye out for some, will you please?
And remember these wise words: "No man is an island. Unless his name is Madagascar."