Days 51 and 52 false start in Madagascar

Early at 6:00, our flight from Windhoek to Antananarivo with a layover in Johannesburg started. We knew that the transfer time of 1:30 hours could be tight.

When our plane then started with a delay of 30 minutes, the whole story became exciting. We landed in Johannesburg as the boarding for our connecting flight began. It seemed that no one in our plane cared, so we were driven to the terminal with all the other guests by bus. There, we went through passport control and later through personal control.

We reached the gate when the 'final call' was announced. We made the flight, which couldn't be said for our luggage, as it turned out later. But let's start from the beginning.

When we landed in Antananarivo (Tana), we had to take care of a visa first. So we stood in line at the back. A security guard came to me and wanted to see my passport. After he checked the passport, he waved me to follow him. He went around the line and stood in front of the counter and handed over our passports. We received our visa without any further information about place of residence and length of stay. When we gave him 6 dollars for this favor, everyone was satisfied.

The time saved because we didn't have to wait for the visa didn't help us. As we found out, our luggage had not made it to Madagascar. We filed a missing report and left the airport without our luggage.

That's where we reached our linguistic limits. I've been able to get by with English everywhere in Africa so far. But here they speak French and very little English...

First of all, we had to exchange money. In Madagascar, they have Ariary. 1 euro is equivalent to about 3000 Ariary. So we got bundles of money.

Our taxi driver, who took us to the hotel, was also a tour guide in Madagascar and wanted to recruit us to take a tour with him. On the way to the city, we got a first impression of the country. It's completely different from the rest of Africa that I've seen so far. There are extremely many people and everything is very lively. We quickly realized why you can't rent a car here as a tourist. As a foreigner, you can't and don't want to drive here, it's impossible.

When checking into the hotel, we extended our stay by one night. We could forget about the plan to shower and change into fresh clothes after the flight, so we went to a bar with our taxi driver. There, he made us a tour proposal. It sounded very appealing and had everything we wanted to see.

After a small dinner and a welcome beer, we retreated to our room.

The next morning, we had to wait for our luggage. So we decided to visit the nearby market street. The market street was full of people and we were the only tourists. We stood out as white as a colorful dog. There was a lively hustle and bustle here too. There was simply everything at the market. From clothing to food, writing and sewing machines, jewelry to household items. And starting tomorrow, maybe even my smartphone. It was stolen from my bag. 'Shit happens'.

At the market, I bought some thread and a needle. So I can finally sew the button that fell off my pants back on. Then I even have 2 pairs of shorts again.

The saleswoman exchanged my somewhat large note (2000 Ariary for 500 Ariary) with the beggar woman next to her stand. So she could generate smaller notes and give me the change back. Somehow it's still special.

In the afternoon, our luggage had also found its way to Madagascar. We were informed that our backpacks were at the airport. A transfer from the hotel to the airport was arranged for us. We were supposed to be picked up at 20 past 5. Punctually at 10 to 7, he was finally there. Madagascan punctuality. The journey to the airport was a wild roller coaster ride. But we arrived safely at our destination.

But there, the next surprise awaited us. The airport had already closed and there was no one left who could bring us our luggage. So we had to go back to the hotel. Still without luggage. We'll try again tomorrow =) Mora mora