Jimmy arrived as we were finishing breakfast. We’d told him we’d call him before lunch so it was a little freaky that he just turned up like an over-enthusiastic boyfriend. Said he had an appointment at 11:30am so had come into Tana early. Decided to not over-commit (I’ve made that mistake before and regretted it) and so just booked the southern tour.
He escorted us off to the bank. The delight in his demeanour was palpable and also slightly unnerving.
It was pay day. The bank was heaving. Eventually we got served and as we counted out the money and gave it to Jimmy, it occurred to me that we were handing over more money than most people in that bank might ever see. To them it was at least six months’ wages.
There were no safety screens in front of the cashiers. And there I was worried about security – it’s probably safer here than in London.
With business done, we turned to leisure.
First stop was the Presidential Palace… where we had to take photos to find out that we couldn’t take photos:
Lunch was notable because of three things:
- The meat was mostly bone, grizzle and fat
- It was ridiculously cheap – just £2.50 for steak and chips (which made point 1 kinda mute)
- The homemade yoghurt was amazing:
Walking towards the lake, we stumbled across an outdoor gaming area. People were huddled around playing boards where locals were engaged in a local game that resembled a rectangular solitaire board. The aim is to capture the other player’s pieces by “taking” them using paths set into the board. Judging by the discussion and thought being given to each move, it was quite a strategic game. As with China, it was a group effort, and spectators were actively involved.
The lake stank. Actually, that’s not quite true – the drains and path around the lake stank. Homeless people with makeshift shelters to protect them from the sun clustered in one corner. Jacaranda trees lined one side of the lake, their purple flowers looking beautiful against the blue sky:
A memorial to Malagsy soliders who died in WW1 is in the centre of the lake, accessed by a narrow walkway…
But it was closed for renovation… unless you bribe the security guard, which clearly all these people had:
Philippe was our guide for the Queen’s Palace:
The entrance gate is styled like the Arc de Triomphe with the “imperial eagle” on top:
It was another reminder of Madagascar’s recent past: the island was colonised by the French in 1897, not gaining independence again until 1960.
We learnt that the population of Madagascar is 25m of whom 3.5m live in Tana (although according to Wikipedia, the population was 1.3m in 2013, so that’s quite some procreation going on there):
On 6 November 1995, the palace suffered an arson attack by a “political criminal” which killed 5 people and gutted the interior of the building. It still looks impressive and a restoration project is underway.
The associated chapel – which was also gutted in the fire and the wooden parquet floor has been replaced with marble – is now a museum and only used once a year on festival day. It begs the question whether it’s still a chapel. I’m similarly undecided about musical instruments that are never played – their identity is defined by their use; when that use ceases, does it change their identity?
Behind the palace was the “King’s House”, a simple inverted boat structure made of palisander wood with a raised bed and a cooking area.
During the time of the king and queen, Madagascar was a matriarchy. To reinforce the dominance of the queen, the door of the kings’ house was adorned with breasts:
Tombs of the queen (on the left) and three kings (right) were in the palace grounds. Bodies are buried 7m underground and once the funeral ceremony is complete it is forbidden to ever enter the tombs again:
On the other side of the palace (which is technically the front), we watched the small community below go about their daily business, including a man screeding the side of a house (very competently). The people were clearly poor with most living in earthen shacks topped with corrugated iron held down by large stones. But they wore good-quality clothes.
As we stepped out of the palace grounds, a local bus arrived. It was headed for Tana centre, so we enquired as to the price – 2,000 Ar per person. Inside, the price was clearly displayed as 500 Ar or 400 Ar. The conductor tried to convince us that the lower price was for children. We asked the locals and the conductor gave up his scam, charging us 400 Ar (about 10p) each. The taxi to the palace had cost 13,000 Ar (about £3).
Walking back up the steps to the Parc d’Independence, a young girl took a liking to us and proceed to accompany us all the way up, adopting the very sweet, but entirely unnecessary, role of guide. Francoise was quite a character – very confident with some knowledge of a number of languages.
Sitting on the bank’s steps, Rudy took some photos. She clearly enjoyed seeing herself on the camera screen and proceeded to request more photos for which she positioned herself in various poses, ensuring the end of her short plait was visible in all of them:
Arriving at our hotel, we rang the bell and the doorman came to let us in. Francoise was first in the queue and we had to be a little assertive in making it clear she couldn’t come in. We left her on the street where, I have no doubt, she was absolutely fine.
Catherine and her partner had just returned from their two-week tour of southern and western Madagascar (booked in advance). She was enthuiaistic about the wildlife, but less so about the duration and difficulty of the trekking, sometimes in the intense heat of the day. Made me glad we’d decided to focus on the animals. She was clearly glad it was over!
She’d studied animal conservation at university and, whilst she’d enjoyed seeing the wild animals, expressed some concern at the tendency of the locals in their desire to impress and satisfy the tourists to encourage interaction with the lemurs, which were also sometimes caged, with different species forced together.
It was useful knowledge to prepare me for situations I might encounter. But I knew that I was not going to do anything to endanger these incredible creatures – let’s keep wild animals wild.