May 10: Vampire Days

My First View of Madagascar

 Ah, jet lag.  Got to the hotel about 1 am and woke up at 4:30, ready for the world!  I think it’s gonna be a few days of being awake all night and wanting to sleep all day.

Just before dawn, I heard a sunbird outside my window – the first I’ve heard in years, but easy to recognize because of its trilling – so I opened the window to look.  It was all pretty bleary, but after I focused, I realized I was looking into the third story of a four-story fichus.   And there was a tall fan palm between it and me.  And a four-story Norfolk pine beside the two.  I already like the flora here.

I showered off my 20 hours in airplanes and was the first person in the hotel restaurant.  What a great little hotel this is.  It’s a rabbit warren of two or three houses connected by passages too small for two people to pass abreast through, and it’s all painted the terra cotta color I tried to do in my office at home.  There are displays of Malagasy antiques throughout, and the corridors’ small corners have collections of potted succulents, several of which I saw recently in the US while I was looking for things to put in outdoor pots.  It’s a wonderful little place.

I spent the rest of the day looking for a bank to change money and a grocery to pick up odds and ends.  Every book and person I talk to has cautioned me about theft and panhandlers, but compared to Lima or Cairo, Tana feels quite safe, and compared to the beggars in India, the ones here are positively polite.  You say no, and they leave you alone.  I don’t see the problem.

Central Antananarivo has an upper and lower district, the lower being the old city center.  I headed down there today since there’s a super-marche and because I wanted to see the plaza and les grands boulevards that run through it.  When I got there, it was like being in the old part of Nairobi (only safer) -- there were tall colonial buildings with shop-front galleries along the bottom floors…but everything looked tired and used.  There wasn’t a lot of commerce beyond people with wares laid out on blankets, and a lot of the stores had closed.  A few of the better hotels along the plaza are still holding on though, and I went to an ice cream place that I’d read about near them --  Blanche Neige.

OK…my first discovery gastronomique here.  Thanks to all my foodie buds, I try to pay attention to what’s around to eat; like when birdwatching, I  get more of what’s special in a place when I notice what’s special about the food.  And I decided to risk my life there at Snow White (the English translation) by having sorbet (made with water) rather than ice cream (made with homogenized milk).  I got a scoop of tamarind sorbet and a scoop of corossol.

My server put the scoops on a single dish with the two separated by a wafer because they had such different tastes.  She told me to put salt on the tamarind sorbet: it was so acide, she said, that the salt would complement it.  And it did.  I never would have thought to put salt on a sorbet.  She also couldn’t explain what corossol was except to say that it was from Madagascar.  I wish I knew the name in English, though, because it was so sweet, thick and tasty. Moving in the direction of coconut, but much more delicate.  And that was what I had for lunch.

As I left, the helpful server pointed me in the direction of the supermarket, and when I got there, I found it was pretty much like every other grocery store, except for the unreadable signs in whatever language they were in.  I could hardly push past the bakery section since there were upwards of 20 people there buying bread which had just come out of the oven (this place is SO French), and I found most of what I was looking for except sun block (how did I leave that at home?).  I did notice there were many kinds of kerosene lamps and many types of lamp fuel, which doesn’t bode well for electrical service.

I played it pretty safe at dinner, which I had here at the Hotel Sakamanga. This restaurant is supposed to be one of the better ones in Tana, and it was clearly higher end if not very local.  About my only real venture into local cuisine was having local beef, zebu, for meat, but it was a tournedos with onions tied around it and prepared with a wine reduction sauce.  And chipped potatoes.  Those who know me won’t be surprised at my dessert choice either: chocolate mousse.  It was one fine mousse, made of Madagascar 70% chocolate and only lightly sweetened so some of the bitterness of the chocolate came through.  I’m not a dessert connoisseur, but presented in a cup on a rectangular white dish with chocolate powder sprinkled around and a garnish of, perhaps, spearmint, this was a tasty way to finish a very French meal.  With the last of my Bordeaux.  Fine meal.

And I’m laying low the rest of tonight to plan my trip.  I was absolutely right not to book it all from the US as it’s far cheaper to do it here, where I can also meet the drivers and talk with them before choosing one.  And I’ve already been able to pick up a few tips on things to see and do, too.  Am gonna try to nail down the bookings tomorrow and see a sight or two.