A quick visit to Madagascar

I am in Antananarivo, Madagascar for 2 nights on business. It was arranged very suddenly. Last week my family and I were on holiday in Hibberdene, South Africa, the South Coast of Kwazulu-Natal. Even though it is winter in South Africa, the weather was good enough to swim.

Well, back to Madagascar! I arrived here last night (5 July) at about 22:00. The weird thing was that on the flight to Antananarivo, we first had to stop in Port Dauphine, where we all had to disembark (sounds like something you do to a dog that barks too much!). Here we had to collect our baggage, go through customs (who checked every single bag) and finally check back onto the exact plane that we came on.

I flew on Air Madagascar, because every other flight to Madagascar from South Africa was fully booked. The service on the plane was very good. The stewardesses were always smiling and were very helpful.

It is such a pity that I arrived last night and must be back on the plane home tomorrow already. There were a host of tourists on the plane and it seemed that they were going to have a good time here.

It looks very much like Africa here, except for a few lasting European touches.

I have done a lot of travelling in the last year and a bit, and the more I travel, the more I dislike it. In the beginning I thought that the travelling part of my job was going to be interesting. Well, it still is interesting, but with all the travelling, the shine has gone! I'd much rather be home with my family.

It is with my family that I derive a lot of joy in life. There is nothing better than getting home from a trip such as this, just to have my twelve year old daughter and my ten year old son literally come bounding into my arms. Everytime I think that "now I'm going to fall!" What with my travelling bags and two kids that are running at me like hungry lions.

That just makes me want to go home even more!

It is the basic building block of society that still remains the best!

UPDATE: 7 July 2007
I am sitting at the airport waiting to board the plane back to South Africa. The plane has been delayed, and instead of having left at 15:00, we are still stuck at the airport. Today I took a strole through Antananarivo, and I found it very interesting. There are little kids from as young as 3 and 4 begging for money on the streets. A simple "no" is not good enough to shake them off. These kids are very persistent. Last night, after I returned from the office at about 20:30, I decided to take a walk to find a restaurant away from the hotel. There were two women with babies on their backs begging for money. The faster I tried to walk, the faster they walked. At one point they were almost jogging after me. Poverty seems to be a big problem here too as in Most of Africa.