Madagascar

Parlez-vouz francais? If your answer to this question is no, you might want to reconsider visiting Madagascar, as there is very little English spoken there and thus very difficult.

That was the original opening line to this blog entry, and so we will try to be as objective as we can, but as most of you know, we were robbed on our 3rd day there. This obviously soured our perspective of the country and we have very little to recommend about it. Even before we were robbed, we had not really been enjoying it. It started with a rude awakening at the airport when we had to pay $85 for our visas, by far the most expensive yet. The hotels in Tana (short for Antananarivo) the capital city were pretty expensive, even though the one we stayed at was basically full of prostitutes (we didn’t realize this until we returned on our way out). From Tana, we took an uncomfortable nine-hour taxi-brousse (minivan) ride to Fianar, where we hired a driver for 5 days to take us south to Tolear, on the coast. We were both a little sketchy that the guy wouldn’t let us pay in American dollars because we were carrying much more than normal since we worried whether our ATM cards would work (especially after our experience in Jerusalem)…mistake number one That night, we got barely any sleep because the rude French tourists staying in the rooms across the hall kept us up most of the night.

After our driver arrived, we headed to Ranomafana National Park. Upon our arrival, we gasped in disgust as we had to both pay $15 to enter the park and then an additional $20 for our compulsory guide, who spoke barely any English. The only interesting part of our $50 hike was seeing some red-fronted brown lemurs and catching a glimpse of the rare golden brown lemur. As we returned to our vehicle, we met Jose, who lives in Portland after marrying a Peace Corps volunteer several years ago. Jose was excited to meet Americans because he is still learning English and he had been back in Madagascar for several months to oversee some family property. When we got to Manja hotel, we opted for the much cheaper bungalow, despite the windows having no coverings…mistake number two. After putting our stuff away, Jose showed us the dam that had been destroyed in a recent flood. We crossed the makeshift footbridge and had some tasty homemade sweets, a sweet pasty mixture of banana and coconut served in a banana leaf. He then took us to the village and we had fun entertaining the village kids by taking their pictures. That evening Jose, who also works as a guide, took us on a night walk where we saw several species of chameleons and marveled at how they changed colors right before our eyes. Jose informed us that most of the time, they change colors not to camouflage but to communicate. As Jason was returning from the toilet, he had to stumble through the dark because the outdoor light had been mysteriously turned off. As we hung out in our room, we looked through our pictures and even thought about transferring them to the laptop but alas we didn’t…mistake number three. As we prepared for bed, Priti mentioned whether we should keep the windows closed but it was very hot and humid and the room had no fan, so Jason insisted we keep the windows open…mistake number four. Our final mistake was that we left some of our stuff near the open window, including Priti’s backpack and the laptop. Around three AM we heard some men outside of our room making a ruckus, and he even got out of bed to check our stuff and then closed the window after verifying the laptop was still there.

The next morning we awoke and with horror realized that the burglars had in fact taken Priti’s backpack, which unfortunately had more valuables in it than everything else combined, including our camera and, even more importantly, our memory card with all of our pictures from Israel and Jordan. Also Priti’s money belt which contained all those dollars we had stocked up on…doh! We frantically looked around in hopes that it was some kind of bad dream but alas it was gone. Jose returned and inexplicably took some pictures of us freaking out. The thieves at least were considerate enough to dump her passport and credit card near the hotel; it would have been that much worse had we had to replace those too.

There was no police force in Ranomafana, but the incompetent Gendarme took our statements, and also one from the security guard, who actually saw the thieves getting away but didn’t think to tell anyone about it until the next morning! We stuck around town for the longest three days of our lives as we waited in vain for any leads to materialize. They had an internet place so we were able to contact our insurance company. Incredibly, the computers had been donated by USAID yet we had to pay double the rate of the locals! Then we find out on day three that our guide had been busted before for robbing tourists in the same manner as we had been! Why did it take them three days to interview him?! Then they told us they couldn’t search his house because they didn’t have a warrant. Looking back, it made sense that he was involved, as he saw us putting our valuables in Priti’s backpack during our day hike. After this we became convinced it was an inside job. One of the guys investigating was brothers with the hotel owner and seemed just a bit too happy doing his job. The hotel graciously (wink-wink) allowed us to stay there for free until things were resolved. We contemplated just staying there until our departure three weeks hence, but couldn’t stomach the place anymore. At the internet place, we decided to buy a cell phone because it was pretty cheap. We found out later that even this schmuck ripped us off as all of the introductory credits had been used up. During our ordeal, Jose was very nice and we were thankful for his support.

We decided at that point to just return to Fianar since the room was cheap and we wanted to minimize our expenditures. When we got back we returned to the place where we had booked our ‘tour.’ Thankfully we had only paid half up front but we wanted to get the rest back (minus the cost of the first day). Of course the guy had left and so we couldn’t get any of our money back, but we got them to give us a day tour. On the tour we saw some amazing scenery and went on a hike (guided of course) to see groups of ring-tailed lemurs, which were pretty entertaining. The pictures posted were actually from South Africa (ZA), so in retrospect we had absolutely no reason to even be in Madagascar, considering it was our most expensive flight and we could’ve just seen lemurs in ZA…oh well. The final part of our day trip was to a local winery and we were amazed at how awful the wine was…basically cough syrup. We stared in amazement as a group of French tourists bought several bottles, and we concluded they must have been drunk.

We spent most of the next ten days in our hotel room, leaving once a day for a meal. At one of the places, Jason got to try roasted bat, which was just ok (the wings had the consistency of seaweed). One afternoon, Jason went out and met a local guy, who again wanted to practice his English, and told Jason about some music festival that was happening that afternoon. After an hour, they stopped at a Chinese restaurant for lunch. Incredibly, this guy ordered a meal (not even a cheap one) and had no money to pay for it! Disgusted, Jason refused to pay for him and the owner took the guy’s ID card as collateral until he returned to settle his bill. And it turns out there was no concert that day, but the following week. We both returned to the Chinese restaurant a couple days later for some tasty fried noodles and zebu (beef), and recounted the experience with the owner. He informed us he had no intention of keeping the guy’s ID, but simply wanted him to own up to his mistake first. Not much else happened, although we went out to one of the local clubs and enjoyed some of the local music. The one thing the Malagasys do have is good music, and Jason even purchased a couple CDs by one of the local artists, ‘Firmin.’

Before returning to Tana, we contacted the gendarme and learned that three more robberies had occurred at the same hotel since we had left…unbelievable. By that point, we were just counting down the days and we only had three left in Tana. Before we left, we went to the lemur park, and saw nine different types of lemurs, including the beautiful sifakas and the tiny mouse lemurs, the smallest mammals in the world. At the airport, they would not accept any local currency so we got stuck some ariary/francs. Bizarrely, their currency is double-valued, meaning that each note is printed with two values on it. With the ariary worth five times as much as the franc (e.g., a 1000 ariary note also has 5000 francs printed on it), we speculated it was just another way to rip off tourists. We purchased a couple stamps and came to the realization that even the post office in Ranomafana had tried to rip us off. Save for Jose, pretty much everyone we met tried to screw us in one way or another. As Woody Allen once said, “comedy equals tragedy plus time.” But, writing about it two months after the fact, we still fail to see the humor in this particular instance. Up until the robbery, we had been pretty careful, but unfortunately one bout of carelessness is all it takes. Our guards were on high alert as our next destination was South Africa, one of the most notorious countries for tourists being victimized.

Israel and Jordan

Israel

Like Laos, neither Israel nor Jordan were on our original itinerary, but for those who don’t follow world news closely, Kenya was in political turmoil after a disputed election in the last week of 2007. Tragically, over 1,000 people were killed and hundreds of thousands were displaced. Moreover, Indian businesses and homes were specifically being targeted since the ‘winner’ of the election had close ties to the Indian community. Ironically, when we were deciding where to travel in Africa, we figured Kenya would be a pretty good choice since it had been one of the most stable countries of the last fifty years. Fortunately for Kenya, albeit too late for the far too many victims, the parties compromised and formed some sort of coalition between the two parties.

Thus, we decided to continue our explorations of the Middle East. Some readers may find our decision to visit Israel due to ‘safety concerns’ a bit odd given the millennia of political turmoil there, and we weren’t too sure ourselves but ultimately we were glad with our choice. Before departing from Egypt, we went through a somewhat laborious process to have them stamp a separate exit card so that we could avoid the Israeli stamp stigma. Continuing with the political turmoil theme, to explain, the only countries in the Middle East that recognize Israel as a country are Jordan, Egypt and Turkey. Therefore, anyone who has any evidence of having visited Israel—not just an Israeli stamp but even an exit stamp at any of the border crossings from neighboring countries—will be denied entrance into any other country in the conflicted region. Since we’d just gotten our passports before this trip, we figured we might want to visit Syria and Lebanon within the next ten years, hence the effort to avoid the stamp (again, some may wonder why bother and the recent escalation of violence in Beirut makes it increasingly unlikely we’d choose to go there within the next decade).. Sometimes border officials aren’t accommodating of such requests but the Egyptians granted our request. So far so good. Upon arriving on the Israeli side, we were ordered to empty all of our bags to have them completely searched by the Israeli immigration officials. They even dumped all of our camera batteries out, causing us much annoyance over the next several weeks as our camera kept dying due to having a mix of charged and non-charged batteries. As anyone who has been to Israel knows, this is standard operating procedure, but for us this was the first time and so quite entertaining. Jason even tried to take a picture but was denied. After determining we were not a threat, they let us through. When Jason approached the next window, he explained to the post-pubescent immigration official that he was traveling onward to Syria and then before he could react she stamped his passport…doh! When he exclaimed, “but I told you I’m going to Syria” she just shrugged and feigned an apology. Apparently, this is not uncommon as Israelis are insulted (understandably) by the policies of their neighbors so take it upon themselves (inexplicably) to keep visitors away. Had we really been going to Syria, Jason would have had to ‘lose’ his passport and acquire a new one, as other travelers we’d met had been forced to do. Priti then very explicitly stated she didn’t want her passport stamped.

After enjoying the best falafel we’ve ever tasted, we boarded a bus to Tel Aviv, after having our bags checked again before entering the bus station, a process we never quite got used to in our short time there. The buses in Israel are incredibly efficient which was a nice change of pace, but with that satisfaction came the discomfort of being surrounded by teenagers armed with automatic rifles, as all Israelis have to serve two years in their army after graduating from high school. We found many of these kids to be quite rude but quickly learned to just get out of their way. Upon arriving in Tel Aviv (on time!) we were shocked to find out that the cheapest lodging in the city was a whopping $65 per night. Having just come from Egypt (and India before that), this was unbelievably expensive. But, we accepted the inevitable and just tried to not think about how the Israel Sheckel has appreciated dramatically against the pathetic US dollar.

We both found Tel Aviv to be one of the hippest cities we’ve visited. The people are very stylishly dressed and there were plenty of good restaurants and places to get our groove on. Seeing all the hipsters so well-dressed led us to ditch some of our drab travel garb and fit into some brand new blue jeans (gasp)! It felt so good to finally re-connect our butts with some comfortable denim and look good doing it too! As has been the case pretty much everywhere, the cabbies were total scammers, and one took us in a big circle, despite having a computerized mapping device on the dashboard. But at least the place he took us too had a great DJ, playing everything from Israeli rock to American R&B.
Jason spent the following day checking out the uninspiring museum, which was basically an introduction to Jewish living, but quickly found the music library where he stocked up on names of classic Klezmer musicians. Mazel tov! Meanwhile, Priti spent the day hanging out at the Mediterranean Sea.

After a couple days, we made the quick dash to Jerusalem. The bus dropped us off right outside the Old City at the Damscus Gate. We found a place inside the Muslim Quarter and explored the narrow winding corridors that have enchanted religious adherents for millennia. Three of the largest religions in the world—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—consider this city one of the holiest in the world. In one day of walking, we saw the Western Wall, the last remaining section of the 2nd Temple that was destroyed by the Romans, and the Via Dolorosa, where Jesus carried the cross on his way to being crucified, again by those dastardly Romans. We learned on a tour that the Western Wall is so revered by Judaism not because it’s the only remaining portion of the Temple, but an underground section of the wall is the closest point Jews can get to the place where God supposedly created the world, the foundation stone or the ‘holiest of the holies’. We also tried to visit the golden Dome of the Rock, the 3rd holiest site in Islam (after Mecca and Medina), but were repeatedly denied because we weren’t Muslims and it had been absurdly closed off to the public since Ariel Sharon visited it in the early noughties. Being an atheist, Jason had mixed feelings about the over-religiosity of the city, but even for us secularists, there are few if any places in the world that have had a greater impact on the history of western civilization than Jerusalem. Each time he saw signs for Mt. Zion, he began to hum Bob Marley’s Iron, Lion, Zion or the Melodians’ Rivers of Babylon. One evening we enjoyed a Jewish folk dance show.

As we walked around one evening, we could not find an ATM machine that would accept our card, so for the first time on the trip, we used our back-up card, only to have it retained by the ATM machine! By that point, it was quite comical because we had almost no money left and suspected we had no way of getting money. But thankfully we managed to find an ATM machine that accepted our primary card, and when we contacted our bank, it turns out the card had expired…the day before we tried to use it! We arranged to have a replacement card sent to Cairo and pick it up on our way out.

After a few days of exploration we rented a car and took a day trip to Masada and the Dead Sea. Masada is an ancient fortress that is another Jewish pilgrimage site due to its historical importance. The fort sits atop a huge mountain and back in the day the only way to reach it was via a steep 3 hour hike but now they have a cable car installed that zips tourists (like us) up in a couple minutes. When Romans were about to sack the fort, the Jewish soldiers committed mass suicide rather than face enslavement by their captors. Movie? After Masada we headed to the Dead Sea, which is the lowest sea in the world and has such a high salinity that no living organisms can survive there. What’s even better is that the buoyancy of the water is so positive that it’s like having a life jacket. We got some great pictures of Jason reclining in the water but of course those were stolen along with our camera. :(

Our next stop was Tiberias, near the Golan Heights, a disputed swath of land that the Syrians claim is rightly theirs. Despite insane petrol prices of nearly $8/gallon, we again rented a car. We tried to do a day hike in one of the national parks but, much to our annoyance, were denied because apparently 1 pm was too late to begin any of their hikes. The next day we headed to Haifa and visited the immaculate Bahai gardens, which are not surprisingly one of the holiest sites of that religion. We couldn’t resist telling the volunteers about how we were featured in their national newsletter for having our wedding pictures taken in front of the Bahai temple in Wilmette, Illinois. The Bihai faith is very embracing of all religions, and adherents do not have to renounce their own faiths to become members. Although their philosophy played a small role in our choice, it was mostly its beauty and location near Lake Michigan. Back in Tiberius, we were hailed by this little old lady who didn’t speak a word of English, but somehow managed to get us to escort her to the bus station. Despite being just down the road, it took us nearly an hour to get there, and on the way she made us stop at the two-sheckel store so she could buy us gifts! Our plan was to have falafel on our final evening in Israel, but we fortuitously stopped at the ‘best shop in town’, according to the other patrons and had these delectable lamb sandwiches and of course the accompanying side salads of grilled eggplant, coleslaw, and peppers. Yum!

Jordan

After stopping for another sandwich, we hopped on a bus to the Jordanian border. The crossing was mostly forgettable except for the incredibly annoying bus driver of the bus we were mandated to take 100 meters(!) to cross the border. Since we weren’t returning, we were short on sheckels, and the guy made a huge deal about it before we gave him a dollar to shut him up. We took a taxi to Irbid, a small city in northern Jordan. We only stayed a night, but had a great chicken swarma dinner and sweets afterwards, and met some very nice locals. We saw skinned sheep heads in some of the store windows but we couldn’t muster the courage to sample this particular local cuisine. The next morning we ventured to Jerash, which is famous for spectacular Roman ruins which unfortunately aren’t very interesting to talk about sans pictures. Since we had our bags with us, we left them at a restaurant and then returned to have a fabulous buffet lunch with lots of scrumptious spreads to go with the fresh pita.

We continued south to Petra, which is one of, if not, the most amazing thing we’ve seen on this trip. It truly has to be seen to be appreciated and although it can conceivably be seen in one day, we recommend taking at least two days to explore it. It was built by an ancient civilization called the Nabataeans in the 3rd century and archeologists believe it was abandoned after a large earthquake. The town of Wadi Musa is unfortunately a tourist trap but we met a cool German named Marco with whom we spent the day exploring the ruins. We awoke early enough to avoid most of the large tour groups and so got to experience the Siq—a stunning two kilometer fissure that serves as the entrance to Petra—in relative solitude. As we came out of the Siq, we caught glimpses of the truly awesome treasury, which is a two-story building adorned with columns yet carved directly into the sandstone. During our explorations we passed dozens of temples and tombs and the rock formations appeared as if they were painted on. He also went on many cool hikes; one in particular was enjoyable, although the three of us eventually got completely off the trail and had to turn around. We met some of the locals who still live in the area and dig for artifacts like old Roman coins. Unfortunately this means that many of the tombs have become outdoor toilets. The next day we hiked all the way to the other end to see the amazing monastery, which was on par with the treasury in terms of the shear-amazement factor. And thankfully the locals left this one clean.

We spent a couple days relaxing in Aqaba, on the other side of the Red Sea. There we met a Spanish woman who had been working in Afghanistan for the past year. Although we admired her courage, we questioned how people could put themselves at such great risk, particularly after we heard how she was basically on house arrest for months months at a time when security the risks were too high. Our plans of taking a ferry back to Egypt were foiled by the weather and so another travel adventure began. In the station, we met two more Americans who were working in Palestine and we split a cab to the Israeli border. Due to their place of employment, the two women had been forced to wait hours at previous border crossings as the Israelis did background checks. Finding that silly, before we left them Jason asked one of the officials how long it would take. Although she looked none too happy with his inquiry, ten minutes later they had their passports and we were on our way. They were both very appreciative of Jason’s special powers. The cabbie of course ripped us off and we had to pay another Israeli exit fee, despite being there for less than thirty minutes.

After some intensive negotiations, we hired a minibus back to Cairo and visited our old familiar spots, including Abu Tareq for some tasty koshary and the patisserie for some delectable sweets. The next day, we went on a wild goose chase to recover Priti’s ATM card, which our bank had sent to a local bank. We also had to find medication for Jason as he had contracted some type of ringworm, most likely from walking the beaches in Goa. Although we had to check four different pharmacies, we managed to find it, and the full dosage was less than $2! Thus ended our time in the Middle East.