Tulear

I got to the airport at 5am and still nearly missed my flight. It was typical Malagasy all the way. First, the person supposed to be selling tickets didn't show up for work and so the office due to open at 6 remained closed. At 6.30 the Air Mad rep realising this decided they should do something about this so decided to start selling tickets - cash only of course! The only way really to survive is to withdraw a whole stack of cash and constantly have it hand. Given that it's about 1 zillion Malagasy franc to the pound you end up carry 2 inch thick wads of cash around with you.

I met a really nice Malagasy bloke on the plane called Richard who worked in the mining industry, we chatted for most of the trip;

I got a cab into Tulear. Again, as with Tulear it was a real spectacle, we passed markets along the way with meat carcasses pulsating in shrouds of flies, but not far from them, women sold beautiful embroidered tablecloths!

I strolled around and met a couple of Aussies, Rachel and Steven and went for a beer. They had bussed it from Tana (it had taken them a week) I was the first English person they'd met. We went our separate ways and I went to book my trip to Tulear.

The road system is so difficult. The streets resemble a maze and there's not a single street sign in the whole of Madagascar! It was getting dak by the time I found my way home - no street lights either! calamari for tea