May 25 – Nosy Be, Madagascar

Weather – 30º

Steps – 7,855

Humidity – 74%

Today is Sunday…caviar Sunday!!! Not a terrible way to start the day. It was even pleasant enough to sit outside of the La Veranda, the buffet restaurant. We watched sail in as we weren’t docking until 10:30. We also watched many dragonflies, I’ve never seen so many! They didn’t land but flew around just off the back of the ship.

We also watched 4 small, one-man fishing boats. At one point the authorities

our room in the red circle

zoomed over to them, we couldn’t figure out why – the fishers stayed, so who

our tender and the fishing boats

knows. As we were watching this drama, we also saw a giant turtle in the water, it let us watch us for a while as it came up and went down, came up and went down.

Our noon excursion ended up starting one hour late. I’m not exactly sure why, but all excursions were that late due to the tendering. We tendered (small boats that ferry us to shore because there is no where for the ship to dock) today. At

ruin of an old house

first, I thought we were using local tenders rather than the ship’s tenders, but that wasn’t it. Who

abandoned boat with kids in the distance

knows, something with the local authorities maybe, no clue. I was surprised how few people were revolting.

All tours, everyday gather in the ship’s theatre. We were one of the later tours to go, and when we got there no one had left yet! Callie calmed everyone by telling jokes, asking trivia questions and doing a Q&A. Nonetheless, my opinion is that everyone should have been told not to come to the theatre until later. We’ve experienced this before, and it works nicely. It was OK, this

resting up for the performance

way, but could have been better. They

fan screwed to the top of the bus!

also never did tell us WHY we were an hour late to go on tour – I think more info is always better than less, otherwise people make up their own theories and just get annoyed.

Once we got going, it was a 10-minute tender ride, that despite the heat was breezy enough to be comfortable.

About 20 of us packed into small island busses like the ones I described in

ylang-ylang 

Seychelles. Chris had to sit next to the driver because one couple decided to sit separately as they didn’t exactly fit into the small seats. Ah…no one enjoyed

lemurs

being packed into the tiny seats. In all honesty, I’m not sure what he could have done, but I’m not sure how that is OUR problem – half of me sat next to the wife, the other half hovered in the aisle. There wasn’t much bus time, so it wasn’t a huge deal, but sheesh!

This bus was an experience in itself. As I said, it was a tight squeeze, today there were bench seats for 2 on each side, a 5er along the back where the big guy sat and 2 singles one behind the other next to the driver. I thought Jocelyn, our guide, would sit in the very front seat next to the driver or I would have sat there – Chris sat behind that

lemur

very front seat. Anyway…as many guides do, Jocelyn stood in front of the door. Being a tour guide is dangerous business,

lemur

these bifold doors would fly open every so often as we picked up speed and took a corner. Jocelyn didn’t bat an eye, I’m sure this isn’t the first time he’s had to shove his butt against the door while travelling at top speed. Again…an island bus. It was like déjà vu from the Cayman Island bus we were on at Christmas. 

checking each other out

Did I mention there was no AC? There was no AC. It was hot, but once you surrender to the heat and humidity and think of this as part of the experience it’s almost fun – almost. Then there was a problem with the engine/clutch/gear box I don’t know, but we stalled more than once. If we had no other vehicle in front of us and

bread fruit

could go any kind of fast, we were fine, however there were many, many other vehicles, including what seemed like as many tuk-tuks as we saw in India. Plus, there were many speed bumps and valleys which we needed to slow down for. Again…it was an experience.

I didn’t worry for a minute that we would be stranded in the middle of Madagascar. We were on a Regent tour and no one on a ship tour will be left

what is it...another lemur!

behind. Tour independently, even if with a tour or guide you found for yourself, and all bets are off - I’d be very worried. We’ve been on Regent tours in the past with the vehicles have broken down…all was good in the end, another vehicle comes you jump on public transport – who knows, but you’re sleeping on the ship tonight.

Most everyone on the bus was completely fine with (or seemed fine with) the engine troubles except for the couple who sat separately…they were anything

old ylang-ylang distillery

but fine with it. After one of the stops, they went back to the ship on their own. I’m not sure what kind of transportation would be more to their liking…the only other option seemed to be tiny, ancient tuk-tuks – not my problem.

Driving through the streets of Nosy Be, reminded very much of being in India. There were tuk-tuks, roaming chickens, a few roaming cows, roadside shops and

Nosy Be street life

restaurants, very rudimentary buildings, people everywhere – many of these people were kids. According to Jocelyn education isn’t free and the people are so poor that they usually stop sending their kids after elementary school. Obviously, this

Nosy Be street life

broke my heart, but I wasn’t surprised. Jocelyn said some of the rural families have 10 or more kids - wow.

OK, on to the actual tour stops. First, we stopped at a ruin of a 3-story building and an old, abandoned boat that had something to do with slavery. Unfortunately, I didn’t get any of what Jocelyn was saying. Here we had a cup of cinnamon tea and a couple of sweets. It was here that we also watched a group of women do a cultural dance.

Next, we visited a zoo kind of place where the main attraction were different types of lemurs. You can’t come to Madagascar and not see lemurs. I say a kind of zoo, because the lemurs roar freely. I’m not sure how big the area of land is

tuk-tuks

where the lemurs are, but we didn’t see the edges of it. I’m not sure how many individual lemurs there were, we saw about 50.

local beer

We wandered around with Jocelyn and another guide while they told us all about the lemurs and plants we were seeing. I tried to keep the types of lemurs straight, but eventually gave up

By this point we were plenty thirsty. We stopped at a hotel along the beach for a drink. Chris and I both had local beers. The beach was thronging with kids frolicking in the surf. Where we had our beers was a kind of low balcony area overlooking the beach. It was here that a ton of sellers approached us with their wares – we didn’t (as most people) didn’t buy. These sellers were (women and kids) persistent! Not as aggressive as i

mansions on the hill

n India, but persistent. It was easy to say no ‘thank you’ or just ignore. Some people were bothered by this, but we’ve experienced this plenty and although it seems rude, I just ignore.

At one point a group of about 5 boys around 9 years old, tried to sell us bananas as we were sitting on the bus waiting to leave. Their sales pitch was ‘these are the best bananas for a very good price’, in their sing-songy voices - they must have said it over a hundred times. It turned into a bit of a game for them, they were laughing, we were laughing. 

kids playing soccer

Up on the hills around the beach hotel were very fancy looking houses. Jocelyn explained that there were rich people living here from France, China, South America. It is a very striking contrast looking up there remembering the shacks you just drove through.

Our last stop was for only about 10 minutes at a souvenir markets – almost no one bought

 me and kids chasing the bus

anything. In addition to the usual junk souvenirs, likely made in China or elsewhere, there was ‘local’ ylang-ylang and vanilla – who knows if it was local, but it’s definitely produced here.

At the pier as we waited for our tender, we were treated to another cultural dance.

more tuk-tuks

Depending on which source you look at, Madagascar is the 6^th poorest country in the world or maybe the 9^th – doesn’t really matter. There was poverty all around us today, it was obvious, but people didn’t look desperate, I suppose they are of course, but not in the way we have been conditioned to expect. I’m not sure how to describe it. My way of living life isn’t necessarily the best way, I know that, but I’m pretty

market

sure that not going to school and having 10 babies is going to improve the lives of a country’s people.  Jocelyn didn’t get into any of that, I wish he did, but I understand why he didn’t. It was a very thought-provoking day.

I didn’t ever at any point today feel unsafe. We were very, VERY obviously tourists – Nosy Be gets around 25 cruise ships each year from Nov-May. We are the last until November. Jocelyn guides land tour also, so isn’t totally out of work. He speaks 6 languages including Japanese and Chinese. I asked him how he learned all the languages, he said in school, and he TAUGHT HIMSELF CHINESE! WHAAAAAT!?! That is one of the most impressive things I’ve ever heard!

As Chris put it, it is for days like these that we travel, to see how the world lives, to see how other people do things, to soak in the variety of humanity, to

street life

appreciate what we have. The ship is nice, but we appreciate it so much more after being on shore.

the town's name is Hellville

Plus, we don’t have to fly halfway around the world to sit on a boat.

The stars were out tonight! I almost tried to convince Chris to forego dinner out and stay on the balcony.

WOW, that was a post! I'm out of breath. If you're still with me you've got stamina!!

Lori – 88 IS amazing - how about 91? We rechecked our count and today was country 91. The tortoises were extremely cool. We saw more today, some baby and some giant!

Dear anonymous – My favourite country of course would be Canada, but for

farewell performance

travel…extremely hard question, but Turkey would be very high on the list as would Japan!

Mahe, pro…maw-hey; Seychelles, pro…say-shell (no plural and no ‘The’, just Seychelles)