Adventures of NaDave: H'moon 2

We landed in Mada and it was apparent that chaos would be the theme of this part of the trip. We exited the plane onto the tarmac and officially touched our feet down in Madagascar! Our new-found writer friend once again led the way through the informal customs and check in process. For example, the customs/immigration department took our visas out of sight and stacked them with a bunch of other travelers'. It was up to each traveler to hear their name called and retrieve their visa. We also paid for our visas in US cash, which was strange! Finally we got through to Madagascar, but there were signs everywhere for the plague (AKA "la pesta")!

Our driver Joni was waiting for us with a sign with our names on it. He was very welcoming and greeted us warmly, but spoke very little English (we had to write words down on paper to communicate!). We walked out to our vehicle, but then remembered we needed to get Malagasy currency, the ariary. All travel guides indicated that the best exchange rates were at the airports, so Dave headed back inside with Joni, while Nadine stayed back to watch our bags. We found the dirty and used-looking exchange window and Dave tried to communicate to Joni what he needed, but Joni was no help. Luckily there were signs in English explaining that $20 bills were the largest bill accepted, and gave the best exchange rate (ie, a $5 bill had a worse exchange rate). There was also a limit of $100 US cash that could be exchanged, but this shouldn't be a problem as we took out $500 from the USA atm. Dave handed the bank teller 5 $20 bills, and he studied them in a way I'd never seen. He accepted only 2 bills, and handed me back 3...what?? Dave asked Joni, but no help. The bank teller then pointed to the year on the bills and shook his head. The bills were from 2009, but directly from a US bank...wtf??? I grabbed more bills out of my pocket, thus scarely revealing how much cash I was carrying, and searched for bills older than 2012. After searching through more than half my stack, I found 3 more bills. The teller shook his head and completed the exchange. HOW STRESSFUL! They wouldn't accept money straight from a bank...what else was gonna happen?!

Dave walked back to the car, feeling very vulnerable with all kinds of cash exposed, and nervous that Nadine was okay. Luckily all was ok, and we drove away towards our hotel. We immediately were immersed into a completely different world. Each of our first 3rd world experience, in fact Mada is considered one of the top 10 poorest countries. We imagined similar scenes in Haiti and the Caribbean, but nonetheless culture shock was underway. After 30 minutes we rolled up to our hotel.

We checked into our hotel, Relais Des plateaux, got onto wifi, and had a walk around. It was clear we were the only tourists out and about. In fact, we did not see a single white skinned person for the ~30 minutes we walked around. Everyone stared at us but we kept a friendly appearance and felt really safe (but scared of the plague)! The town streets were so rugged and decrepit, but the people looked fit and comfortable in their surroundings. We passed people selling raw meat and juicy fruits along the dirt streets

We headed back for a lounge at the hotel pool, then had some Madagascar beer and a fancy French dinner at our hotel. It was the biggest calamari we have ever seen! We also met with our tour liaison, Maggy, and got the scoop on the next morning schedule. She was extremely welcoming and nice gave us these fun big floppy hats for the trip - with all the sun, our sensitive little white skin would need some coverage!! We then retired to our little honeymoon suite, closed the mosquito net, and fell into a deep sleep. Tomorrow would be the real start of our adventure! We'd be leaving before 7a for the airport, and onto the Tsingy!

Walk off the plane to customs