After a brief hiatus (ie. going home to Australia for Christmas and New Years), I'm finally back and ready to update my blog with whatever travel adventures I get myself into (because to be honest if I wrote stuff about my time at home it would mainly consist of pictures of my dogs (in santa costumes) and all the food I ate - which really you can just see on my snapchat anyways). It was good to be home for a few weeks, to see my family, catch up with friends and spend my days doing absolutely nothing.
(pics of my dogs anyways)
After a (non-teary) goodbye at Melbourne Tullamarine, I got on a 14.5 hour flight to Abu Dhabi followed by a 7.5 hour flight to O. R Tambo airport, Johannesburg. After so much flying in the past few months I really feel as though I know airports and plane travel quite well. The process of checking in, checking my luggage in, going through customs & immigration before finding my boarding gate has become a bit monotonous and not the nerve-wracking process it was 6 months ago.
The flights were long, but bearable, and I managed to sleep the for about 10 of the 14.5 hours from Melbourne to Abu Dhabi, which made it okay. I also had one of the best meals I've had with Eithad on this flight - the vegan meal actually had a dessert that wasn't fruit salad!! (And they also gave me soy milk!)
I got to Joburg at around 5pm and had organised to stay at Shoestrings Airport Lounge which provides free transport to and from the airport. I wanted to stay close by as I had another flight the next day, this time to Antananarivo, Madagascar! My 21st birthday is coming up, and my dad bought me plane tickets to spend it in Madagascar!!! I have always wanted to go to the island, but the price of plane tickets had been a bit off putting so it wasn't really on my itinerary during my stay in South Africa - but how can you say no to free plane tickets?? Shoestrings Airport Lounge was decent and cheap for the night, and they also provided free luggage storage, which was handy because I brought a second bag full of clothes from Australia.
My flight left Johannesburg at 10am this morning and arrived at Antananarivo three hours later. The plane was less than half full, and I was able to get a whole row of seat to myself (and so did everyone else who was travelling alone). This made it a very pleasant trip and I was able to watch South Africa, Mozambique and the Mozambique Channel go by.
The Antananarivo airport was very small and it very easy to get through. The customs search was simply just a question if you had anything to declare (no scanning machine) and just a lot of people asking to look at your passport. The visa to Madagascar cost $30USD for 30 days and I was collected by a driver from my accomodation. After getting a few guys to push his car when it wouldn't start, we were off to Madagascar Underground where I booked to stay the night. He was very helpful in answering my questions about what I should do whilst in Madagascar and I have a vague plan of how I will spend the next two weeks. The 40 minute airport transfer only cost 50,000 Ariary/$20aud.
After settling into my accomodation I set about searching for food. The streets of Antananarivo are chaotic and busy. They also drive on the right hand side of the road, and added to my disposition to of getting lost very easily in new cities (as seen in Windhoek and Dubai), I only managed to get a little bit lost on my search for a restaurant (which is kind of due to me trying to cross the road at one point, but not having the nerve as there were so many cars going by so quickly, so I kept walking to find another place to turn, which resulted in me getting very disorientated).
At one point while walking around everyone started packing up the goods that they were selling on the side of the street and running off. I was a bit curious and a little bit concerned about why, it didn't look like it was going to rain or anything, but it made sense when I turned a corner and there was a van of full of police officers. I walked past making no eye contact because I wasn't carrying my passport on me and apparently the fine is 10,000 Ariary (or $25aud. Really though I think I would rather pay the fine rather than lose my passport so I think I'll keep risking it). They didn't pay much attention to me except some guy who rudely called out "ni hao" which made me quite annoyed.
I found a place that sold pizza and got a vegetarian one with no cheese. The menu was entirely in French, as were the magazines they had sitting on a bench and the news channel on the TV. The pizza was only 8000 Ariary though, or about $3.30aud - so cheap! It was pretty decent, even though I could hear the lady who served me mocking me a bit for not wanting any meat or cheese.
It's 8:15pm in Tana at the moment and I'm exhausted. Not entirely sure what I'm doing tomorrow, either staying another day in Tana or getting a bus either West or North if I can. To be honest I'm ready to leave the capital city already after only an afternoon here.
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