goodbye city of jacaranda

madagascar travelogue : final part

after days of wild life, nature and village life, we dedicated the last day to explore the city side of madagascar.

well there's no better place for that than the capital antananarivo.

to tell the truth, i didn't expect the city to be so dense, crowded and at some part, modern. i guess my conception of africa was based on the movie 'god must be crazy'.

to add to the difference, instead of vast plane land, antananarivo sits on high plate (average 1425m above see levels) so the landscape was rather uneven with high grounds here and there which made the city unique.

photo on the left was taken from the queen's palace which was mostly burnt down in the last decade. i glimpsed at that like 2 seconds before shifting my view downwards where i could see the entire city center of antananarivo, which should be more interesting than some damaged building. the center lake surrounded by purple jacaranda trees was such a pleasant sight from up here.

photo on the right was from ambohimanga, translated as blue hill where the old kingdom palace situated. this place was near the suburb, so the view from here was mostly vast land with scattered houses, not as dense as the city center. there i'm covering half of the photo, i just couldn't help it hehe...



on the left is a close up view of the dense housing area. out of those, there were no two houses that were of the same shape. i like this photo, everytime i stare at it, i'd find another detail.

my another 'national geographic moment' photo in the center, centered by a local girl who was doing another girl's hair. maybe they were sisters, or friends. whatever it is, they were so engrossed to notice my camera.

on the right, a mother was carrying her children on the back towards a buzzling riverside crowd in the middle of the day's business. caught this from inside our vehicle.



i was fortunate to get the hotel room on the highest floor with a city view. above is night shot from my hotel window.



in between old fashioned buildings, we could spot some modern attractive one like in the photo on the right. we could actually see the clouds reflection from the glass panels. simple yet elegant and yes, this is in madagascar.



what are cities without its hardworking citizens.

time goes by and before we knew it, it was time to return to reality. we took the air madagascar flight from antananarivo to bangkok before heading back to singapore.

but not before we were given the final taste of local culture.

after i passed through the passport control booth at ivato airport, i was asked by this security officer to a curtained small chamber, kind of like a fitting room, where he body-checked me briefly, then asked for money.

he asked for money!

in between heavy heartbeats, i insisted that i have none so he asked me to show him my wallet. thank god all my leftover ariaries were all in my jacket's pocket. after seeing only singapore notes inside my wallet, he let me go.

well that experience completed all the things i've seen and went through in madagascar, didn't it? now this trip feels like a good movie but with a bad ending.

but to be fair, this was nowhere near my worst experience being interrogated at portland airport. at least this incident in ivato lasted less than 5 minutes and i'd never felt like i was in real trouble.

after one last look at blooming jacarandas in the airport compound, we bid madagascar farewell.

...ed

under the african spell

madagascar travelogue : part 2

when we got the recommendation to go to Ampefy, we were not sure about it. mainly because i couldn't find this place among the must-visit places, or in fact, in any of the madagascar related websites.

i was glad we agreed.

the drive to ampefy took about 4 hours towards the west of antananarivo. it was a clear sunny day compared to a gloomy and cloudy day yesterday. the roadside view was simply breathtaking.

i've been to a vast land before in western USA but never have i been to one with so many activities by the roadside.


madagascar ppl use zebu (a cow spesies but with lump on its back) a lot to assist them in the fields. in between fields, ppl travel by feet to get to their destination, lots of times bare-footed.

that was me with our 4x4. there were few vehicles on the road, we met like 3 cars in 100km.

that lady in bottom right pictures were carrying a pail of water on her head. a pail of water! now if that's not some kind of a superwoman, i don't know what is.


other locals caught in their everyday lives
we visited one of the local village on our way to chute de lilie, a famous local waterfalls. frankly, i was not too excited about the falls because hey, we have lots of them back home (in malaysia) but seeing the locals run their everyday live was simply not to be missed.

local houses were made from bricks and clay. just a simple rectangularish build with a door and few holes made as windows. the floors were the ground itself. we had to keep our eyes on the ground too to avoid zebu dungs. one of the local kids stepped on one, so i guess as much as we were amused by the local sights, they were amused by us tourists even more....

i managed to take this photo of a mother cutting her son's hair in front of their house. i'm proud of this photo, i called it 'a national geographic moments'.

on the left were local kids photo taken from inside our 4-wheel drive just before we left. i was not sure what they were waiting for, did they expect us to give them something? i wished i had some sweets or something to offer them.

chute de lilie or lilia falls at the heart of the village. the locals used the water force to generate electricity for the village.

in a whole, what a memorable day. plus, had i mentioned about our lunch? we had it at a restaurant by the lake. no other tourists around so we had the place all to ourselves. we dug in while enjoying the view and lullabied by sound of nature.

especially at this time, working life at home seemed like land far far away.


..ed

to the land of indri-indri

madagascar travelogue : part 1

ok i made it safely back from my trip. obviously.

it's a relief really. for a start, our carry-on luggage did make it through the check-ins. air asia didn't even measure it! so much for me trying hard to keep the 7kg limit. what a wasted effort.

then, when the bangkok-antananarivo air madagascar stewardess tried to close the cabin luggage flipper before take-off, the small plastic cover fell off.

it fell off!!

and nearly hit me too. can you believe that? apparently that piece of plastic interior was sticked to the plane luggage compartment body with only cellophane tapes. now see that and try to comment on the airplane safety.

well as i was very well bucked up waiting for take-off, there was nothing i could do, could i? whether it was a miracle, or those in charge of interior weren't the one managing the wings or engines (which i'm so grateful for), we managed to arrive antananarivo safely anyway.

there was i in a land where nobody knows about. nobody i know anyway. madagascar (or at least antananarivo) is everything but hot, sunny and full of safaris with running zebras and lions.

frankly, i didn't expect the city to be so pleasant as if i just touched down in zurich. weather wise i mean. the wind was a bit chilling and i knew right away my sunblock was just a waste of luggage space. what a nice spring morning.

there were still lots of poor ppl all over the city but where hadn't? almost the entire city were in some way or another, involved in sale and trading business.


scene like this was no stranger along the narrow city roads, although we never had a chance to actually stop and well, shop around. to tell the truth, i was more comfortable being inside the car then being outside alone, stared by all those locals. plus, i didn't think we'd managed to communicate anyway.

even on the road, was buzzling with activities. do this in singapore and you'd be run over.


we took a trip to andasibe with our 4-wheel drive, which is 140km away on the east. our target? to see indri-indri.

indri-indri is the largest spesies of lemur, and yes, i'm still speaking 100% english. i too didn't even know this animal exists prior to checking all madagascar facts before this trip. all i know, that it's a must-see.

i don't even know how to describe it properly, koala is the closest animal i can think of to relate, but with long legs and black/white colours, and a whole lot more active, and loud too.



mind you we had to bare leeches inside our shoes and pants just to have above sight.

this was not the only one. there were lots of different lemurs around too. the rest, were smaller, tamer and most importantly, easier to spot without the need to wade through the rain forest. thank god.

my favourite is the left one. it has a fluffy clean black and white fur, long tail and a face like a wolf. it climbed the handrail all the way purposely to get near us. very cute i almost wanted to smuggle one back as pet. the middle one, called the sifaka was colder and distant in contrast. plus, it has this old look on it. we had to take a brief sampan ride to get to the ring-tailed lemur on far right. they came towards us and played around nearby our sampan. what a good bunch of performers.

other animals were less overwhelming. only scary.

we made a trip to see rare chameleons in mandrake on the way to andasibe. you see, i hate lizards. apparently madagascar got like billions of them and they were all enourmous. the guide made a stunt by putting one of the chameleon on my back while i was busy taking photos and despite what others said, i DID NOT scream.



at night, we trailed the dark road path with torchlights to spot nocturnal animals, lead by the guides of course. at this time, we were already tired from venturing the whole day since we got down the plane. we couldn't see anything so i just wished we could just give up. it started to rain when we finally reached our vehicle. interesting experience nevertheless.

day 2 in next post!


...ed

i dream of tana

it's ironic when something you've been waiting for finally comes, you wish that it have not.

i've been counting down for this madagascar trip. but since last friday, time seems to speed up and before i knew it, the flight will finally be tomorrow.

unlike previous trips, this trip is pretty challenging.

first, we'll have only about 3 hours after arriving bangkok for the next flight to antananarivo takes off. that is, without any delay of course.

which means we better not have check-in luggage. which also means, we have to pack less than 7 kilos. 7 kilos for a week! it gets tricky to fit in the luggage bangkok party clothes among those meant for jungle trekking in africa. you know i cannot swap them with each other.

then, all this uncertainty in the foreign land there but i'll worry about that once we arrive. i just have to crack my brain now to make sure i don't miss any important things to bring.

sun block. check. diarrhea pills. check. US dollar. not check. i have to change some at the airport tomorrow. should be a 5 minutes event. no worry. ok my powershot G7. check. battery charger. shit, i should have bought that plug adaptor at challenger yesterday. oh well, guess i can stop by on my way home tomorrow.

i'll be on half day work tomorrow so that i'll have enough time to get to changi by 6pm. i'd take a whole day off if not because my boss showed such a shocked and unbelievable face when i mentioned i want to take days off, you know, on top of a week long festive breaks i took two weeks ago.

i don't know what the fuss is all about. not that apple will miss shipments of flash memories for their ipods if i take another week off. i believe i got all things already covered. plus, what's the purpose of this engineer assistant whom they put reporting to me? exactly.

anyway it's good too that i'm still going to work tomorrow morning. i could print at work all those online travel tips and read it on the plane. they have whole bunch of infos at virtualtourist.com, which i'm all grateful for, considering borders singapore doesn't even carry any madagascar travel books.

now that i think about it, i'm getting a bit excited. i'll be in another continent in 48 hrs time! tuesday to friday is to venture madagascar wild life as well as the capital antananarivo city. then, a flight back to bangkok and enjoy the city life there till sunday before coming back to singapore.

and that, right now, is something that i'm definitely not looking forward to.



...ed

saturday night heartfever

another wedding.

i swear one of these days ppl wld have to celebrate my happiness too. it's only fair. i'm almost done cheering for others.

i hate that tingle in my heart everytime seeing that 'our story' montage on screen. enough that i have to bare with all the bragging about their oh-so-perfect love, i have to pay 80 dollars for it?

but again, since when life is fair?

i'm not against wedding dinner you know. the whole occasion could be quite fun if you minus off the wedding stuff. you get to dress up, wear your best clothes and table hopping for the rest of the evening.

kinda like attending the grammy. grammy that you'll never win and zero chance to get on stage that is.

it's just that it's a pity we have to have a reason to have that.

like a wedding.

urghh... am i actually jealous??





anyway, after that heart torture (to be fair, i felt the torture like 2 minutes but actually kinda enjoyed the rest of the night) i felt like i owe myself a treat.

so today on sunday morning i accepted a friend's invitation for a free yoga session in bugis village, you know, to relax my soul.

and hopefully to rid of any evil in my heart too. if possible.

i've never met anyone who's so enthusiastic over yoga before. apparently this friend started doing yoga a year ago, and then started teaching few months back. the important thing is, he did seem nice.

i did enjoy the class. at least it made me want to start doing yoga again. i must find that yoga mat i bought last time. i forgot how relaxing yoga is to the mind.

only that my body is a little sore. unlike last night at wedding dinner when my body got all pampered with all the food but my heart ached.

life is indeed fair after all.



...ed

ring the alarm

i woke up early this morning to attend the weekly 7am phone conference with US site. it was a normal crisp thursday morning.

only to find an empty meeting room. apparently due to daylight saving in US, the meeting time has shifted to 8am here in s'pore. urghh!

my precious morning sleeptime affectively went down the drain for nothing. wait, i couldn't even claim the taxi fare i took to work. oh man...

confirmed. i'm such a total blur.

well served me right. off all the US vs iran, mahathir's spat with abdullah, madonna vs malawi human right groups confrontations i read, i never came across this. this is one news they should print on frontpage in large block letters, right? i mean, who'd care about that syrian plot to topple lebanon's government in singapore's everyday life exactly?

after work we had the final round of badminton match. we lost 1-3. i heard 2 of our opponent's team members were from malaysian state players. duh.. what could we do then?

our big boss played the double that snatched the only point. you'd think the big boss as someone out-of-office good-for-nothing but no, he's the top bowling player in our department, and one of the best badminton player too.

some ppl just seem to have everything, don't they? life is so unfair.

i've still not signed up for the basic theory test yet. i need to take this test to start application converting my malaysian driving licence to singapore licence, but as much as i'm eager to buy a car, i'm a bit thrown off by the fact that i have to sit for a test.

so instead, i found myself installing subaru imprezza sceen saver on my office pc, hehe...



on my way back from work yesterday, i saw 2 taxis collided at the cross junction near kallang mrt station. the impact wasn't that strong but the cars were dented like crazy. nobody was hurt but man, i wouldn't want to be one of those guys. imagine your dream car damaged in a blink on an eye. i must be extra careful on the road.

but now, i just need to be careful of the world time...



...ed