| Madagascar Afremail Part 8 - Hans To The Rescue | |
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Back in Antananarivo at last! Considering we've been here twice before at the same hotel, this city in a way feels like home. And if I had to choose what city felt like a second home in Madagascar, it would hands down be Fort Dauphin where nine days of our trip has been spent. Fort Dauphin is a coastal beach paradise with visible shipwrecks off-shore. Though, despite its beauty and tranquility, I have to attribute our memorable experiences from this town to the friends we've made here. I'll try to sum things up, however much will be left to tell when I get home.
Upon our first day in F.D., we were fortunate enough to meet up with a group of guys who are members of the "Fort Dauphin Mada Surf Club"; an organization whose soul purpose is to promote surfing around the area. Basically we've been hangin` with Bob Marley lovin' Rastas who live to surf! A small taste of our experiences with them include stellar surf sessions, home cooked meals and music on a shack in the heart of a local village, and yet another serendipitous situation. The daily routine I mentioned in the last email was nothing short of reality for us. Each day we paddled out in the morning, caroused town for lunch, and then headed back to the beach in the afternoon. Our nights were spent relaxin', partyin', and exploring the dense, dark, shack filled labyrinth that is an African neighborhood. The time we've spent here, and the bonds we've made are truly unforgettable. There is defiantly the possibility of a return trip to F.D. in the future, so let me know if you're interested!
Now on to the subject at hand…how Hans saved our day. At this point, I don't know whether the good fortune of our trip is serendipity, fate, good karma, of just a ton of luck! Either way, it's been a great lesson on how sometimes things are "meant to be". I once again need to preface this one, and although is similar to the "band of brothers" story from the last email, its holds more relevance to our means or travel. Ok, so back when we were trekking through "middle earth" and what not, we met a guy named Hans the night before we left for our hike. We were having dinner and celebrating the Sabbath at a hotely, a local Malagasy restaurant. We sparked up conversation with him as he spoke great English. Long story short, we come to find that he is a tourist driver who was in route to Fort Dauphin via Tuléar…coincidently just like we were. He was driving four tourists in a 4x4 and planned to drop them off in F.D., and then drive back to Antananarivo alone. After a few beers and our side of the story, we hit things off and were offered a ride from F.D. to Tana providing our schedules worked out. Oh yeah, and he said it was free of charge because he is headed that way to begin with! May not sound like a huge deal; however, up to this point Aaron and I were planning on flying between those locations. A taxi brousse would've taken a minimum of 5 days non-stop due to terrible road conditions. In a rented 4x4, the trip takes 2 days and costs roughly 500,000 FMG ($55) per day, per person, not including petrol (gas), or driver fee. So not only are we offered a free ride that would've cost 100 bucks by air, 400 bucks in a rented 4x4, or 5+ grueling days of travel in a packed bus, but we now have the opportunity to check out the road less traveled. The situation was really trippy now that I think about it. Picture 2 white guys in a low-ceilinged, smoky, local Malagasy restaurant with 2 lit candles, a bottle of wine and a loaf of bread. We're surrounded by a dozen cats and there's a drunken guy in the corner preaching about God and rum. Then we are joined by the only person we've met this trip who speaks nearly perfect English and who coincidently happens to have the same travel itinerary as us. And finally to top things off, he offers us a free ride between two cities that are over 1000 kilometers apart…ummm…where the heck am I?! We proceed to wrap things up and exchange info. The plan is that we'll call him when we arrive in F.D. and handle things from there.
Great, so now it's the 8th of March and we arrive in F.D. We immediately call Hans but there is no answer, so we leave a message. We then go to check for him at the hotel that he was to stay in…but he wasn't there. It's cool though; we figure that he isn't getting service wherever he is and that he will arrive in a day or so. Plus it's only the 8th and he told us that he was planning on leaving F.D. on the 16th so we had some time. As each day goes by, we call and check the hotel for him but unfortunately he is nowhere to be found. So along comes the 15th... Aaron and I decide to go ahead and schedule a flight back to Tana to be safe. We do so, and make reservations for the 17th. We couldn't buy the tickets on the spot due to a conflict in the mode of payment but our seats were to be held until the day or departure. On a side note, keep in mind that the plane tickets here are non-refundable once purchased...and remember that we didn't purchase tickets, we only made reservations. At this point, Aaron still had faith in Hans, and though normally a forever optimist, I was already packin' my stuff for a plane ride. Unfortunately, once the 16th came... the little hope that was left diminished almost completely. So instead of driving ourselves crazy trying to find him, we believed it was meant to be, and decided to have one heck of a going away party with our friends! The idea was sparked and the plan was to have a bar crawl around F.D.
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Yada yada yada...drinks here and there and there and here and now it's 12ish in the AM. We are stumblin' down a back street (due to bad road conditions of course) towards our next challenge. The street lights are faded and there are dogs everywhere. As we are walking a car is heard, and we move to the side of the street. We look behind us, and out of the shadows appears a familiar looking 4x4. I continue on without any thought because we see the same 4x4's everyday. Not five seconds later I hear, "Holy crap!!! No way!!!" (Minus the expletives) And as I turn around with anticipation, I see our hero, shining in his trusty steed, beautiful silver 4x4, which is actually funny because this truck happened too be a model called the "Galloper" and it had a horse logo on the side. Anyway, I replied with a " é#-&^$@% !!!", and a fist in the air. I couldn't believe it. It just so happened that the guy we've been on a hunt for over the past 9 days, was cruising down a back street at 12am (a day late and just about a dollar short) and somehow managed to find us. Even crazier as we found out, is that he'd only arrived in F.D. a few hours before running into us. And think about this...what if we had been able to purchase our plane tickets??? That's right, we'd of been "shit out of luck" for a free ride. It's funny that we just so happened to have the wrong credit card with us (they didn't accept MasterCard) when we made the reservations. So that was that. The next morning we departed at 5am with giant smiles of relief, along with pounding headaches as well. It took about 28hrs (just under 420 miles) for us to reach paved road...then from there the latter 20hrs was a breeze. We relaxed, listened to some Marley and ate lots of junk food. We drove through the southern spiny forest where almost every plant or tree had sharp thorns that looked like daggers. And we also saw a vicious looking 9" centipede, i.e. very nasty bite, cross the road. Good thing we didn't hike there because my clumsiness might have killed me. Although 48hrs on the road was pretty uncomfortable at times, the lack of cost and anticipation of arriving in Tana once again is what kept us sane.
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Being that this is my final group email of the trip, I figured I'd make it a little longer. So I'll answer the question that most everyone asked me before I left..."Rob, what the heck are you gonna eat over there?!" I really had no idea but at the time, I assumed there would be rice involved... and I was right, a little more right that I would've liked. Malagasy people view rice like the new messiah and they eat it religiously three times a day. So everywhere we went, the menu was rice with zebu (cow), rice with chicken, rice with pork, rice with fish, rice with this, rice with that, and rice with anything else they could find. I wouldn't be surprised if they had rice with rice either. Please, don't offer me rice when I get home because I may wig out! So now let's talk about the obscure menu. If you're the type that gags over Fear Factor then have a seat. The first crazy thing I ate this trip was during the first week and that was a whole cooked, juicy chiropteran. That's right, a bat...head and all. And to my surprise...it was deeeelish!! After that things calmed down and I was left eating a mixture of cow tongues, cow heart, duck, animal liver, and lots of whole cooked fish. In F.D. I got a chance to eat snail fresh out of the sea...it was pretty rubbery but not too bad. Things that I haven't had the chance to try but may before I leave include coagulated cow's blood, boiled 5inch spiders,, and "Boisson de Mahiratra Vatana", which is a mix of pig fat, various insects including roach, and ginger, all blended with milk like a smoothie. Ha-Ha...just kidding about that last one, it doesn't even exist. Needless to say, there were times when my digestive tract wasn't a happy camper. He'd be like, "Bro... you must be outta ya damn mind!!!! Are you serious??!! ...What the heck am I suppose to do with this??!!" He would then proceed to get back at me in ways I'm sure you can imagine but I won't describe. Then he'd throw it back in my face and be like, "How ya like me now!!!" Alright, maybe I got carried away on that last one but you guys get the point. All in all though, the food wasn't' bad at all. We often self-catered to save money. Market food was cheap and amazing. I will probably never enjoy another pineapple or avocado in the States, and I don't think you can get guava's back home either. Our main home made dinners and lunches were basically a salad with tomatoes, cucumbers, onions and carrots. Our sandwiches were made of fresh baked bread with sardines and avocado. Add a fruit salad for dessert and our meals cost about around $2 each.
Well... I think that about sums things up. Aaron and I are catchin' an early departure later on tonight rather than next week to save some cash. Unfortunately prices for certain things skyrocketed and threw off our original budget. But that's alright, our trip has been more than fulfilling up to this point and I don't things could have run smoother. I'm glad ya'll enjoy the pics and emails, and thanks so much for the replies!! Hopefully things go smoothly in Paris and we'll get home soon. Due to the fact that Madagascar has no connection with the worldwide airline database, we were only able to get our tickets switched to get us to Paris...the rest of the way home will be interesting (standby) and might allow for another story!! Take care and I'll see ya'll soon!!
-Rob
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