Madagascar 2017: 1 - Preparations and getting there

Tuesday, October 17, 2017

We were on the north end of Madagascar in 2000 on a cruise ship, and were fascinated by the unusual flora and fauna, so this trip is designed to explore the island more thoroughly.

Anthony Asael, one of the executive members of The Best Travelled – a travel club to which I belong, lived for some time in Madagascar and currently shares his time between Brazil and Madagascar. I contacted him for a recommendation to set up a fairly extensive tour of the island, and was delighted when he said he would set up everything and then travel with us. Marilynn was pleased to find out he is a photographic expert, and does photo tours as well.

Madagascar is a huge island, second only to Greenland in size. It covers 587,041 sq km, and had a population in 2016 of 24.89 million. It is one of the world's very poor countries - one of the very few where Canada has neither an embassy nor a consul.

This morning we left Costa Rica on an Aero Mexico 737-800 for an excellent 3hr 25min flight to Mexico City. The seats were very comfortable, the service excellent and the meal good. The good came to an abrupt halt when we left the plane. Mexico no longer has transit lounges, as with the US, they require all baggage to be claimed and passed through customs, a process they said would take and hour, and even passenger like us with only carry on luggage have to clear immigration and security.

The line for immigration was huge, so I spotted an immigration office and told the fellow that standing that long in line would be very difficult for me, so he sent us down the flight crew lane where there was only three people ahead of us. The Mexicans at the airport were very friendly and helpful with directions, but security was far worse than even the US. The guy even opened, inspected and emptied every one of the many pockets in my travel vest after it had been through the scanner.

The Mexico City airport is huge, very old and shabby. We had to walk miles, then take a train and walk miles more to get to the area of our gate. Marilynn found a porter to take our bags on the last lap of the trip to the VIP lounge where we waited until a gate was assigned. I caught up on email and tried to dent their liquor stocks. The lounge service was excellent – I was even offered a free shoe shine! Full meals were available at the buffet and drinks were delivered by waiters.

We were both pretty done in from the walking, so Marilynn ordered a cart to take us from the lounge to our departure gate, as it was a very long way. This part of the airport was more modern - previously shops were hidden in little cubby holes off the passages.

One thing on my wish list was to fly in an Airbus 380, but it was a huge disappointment!! The business class seating was not a lot better than on the Boeing 737-800 in which we flew to Mexico City. The seats reclined much further, but not into a completely flat bed, and were side by side, meaning the window seat person had to climb over the aisle seat person to head for the toilet. It was a real let down- it wasn't even possible to walk around the plane, we were confined to one of many sections of 24 people each. A good idea would be to book the two center seats, as there is an aisle on each side. The meals were excellent – gourmet quality, with premium wines and liquor. The stewardesses were friendly and helpful as well.

We are booked on an Airbus 380 from LAX to Korea in February, and certainly hope they did a better job of interior design than Air France did!

Monday, October 9, 2017

Once at the CDG airport we had to walk miles, catch a train, and walk miles again. There were no carts or luggage people to help out. Immigration it was very fast, as most people were still waiting for their luggage. There was no landing form to fill out, just present the passport.

When we finally found the shuttle bus stop on the fifth floor of the train station it was a wait of about 20 minutes until the shuttle got us to the Nomad Hotel in Roissy, very near the airport. It was only noon, but we were too tired to go into Paris, where we have been many times.

The hotel has small, compact rooms, good beds, a lot of high tech including one of the best showers we have seen anywhere. Dinner at the hotel was a buffet, so we walked around the small, ancient Village of Roissy, stopping for wine at the inevitable bar near the church to chat with the Portuguese owner. Dinner was closer to the hotel where a family operated restaurant prepared delicious French delicacies accompanied by a lot of local wine. We were quite cheery when we found our way to bed!

Thursday, October 10, 2017

The hotel shuttle got us to the train station at the airport where after a fair bit of added walking we arrived at immigration and security for our departure. The immigration line was long, but moved quickly and there was a priority line for security which had no queue. After a good breakfast in the Air France lounge, where there was a large selection of wines and beer, we found our way to our departure gate.

Our ride this time was a Boeing 777-300 with a similar configuration of seats – again side by side instead of cubicles with individual exits as found on most good international carriers. The central row on this wide bodied jet had 3 attached seats, so the poor person in the middle was trapped.

The flight was almost 12 hours, but on time and very comfortable with excellent serving staff and decent meals with snacks in between. Our route took us across the Alps and down the Dalmatian Coast of Serbia, Croatia where there was no cloud, so the scenery was spectacular.

It was a good thing we were flying business, as we were among the first few people into the old, small, bare airport at Antananarivo – capital of Madagascar. No jetways here, but a kind person carried my suitcase down the long flight of stairs from the plane, Marilynn struggled through with her own, not doing her shoulder any good. Inside there was first the health check with 3 tables set up, then immigration which was slow and finally customs which was quicker. Between these check points our passports were examined by 3 other people at various doorways. Passengers with baggage would be in for a long wait, we were warned that it can take up to 3 hours for baggage and customs.

Anthony was waiting for us at the exit from officialdom. A car and driver were waiting to take us to the La Ribaudiere Restaurant Hotel. We arrive around midnight, and were shown to our room across the street from reception. Reception was down a lengthy set of stairs, then our room up many more stairs including spiral stairs as found in a castle turret – stairs are something I'm not to do due to my recent knee replacement. The room was large, sparsely furnished but not uncomfortable.