Day 12 - Tana

Nicola spent the morning trying to book a flight from Tamave back to Tana to catch our Air France flight back to Paris and then Amsterdam. The Internet in the hotel was patchy and Nicola got really cranky but then it worked and she was better.

We had quite an extensive conversation with Miguel (or whatever his name was) on the drive to our Colbert Hotel. Traffic was extremely heavy so we had lots of time. He told us that Madagascar's best year for tourism was in 2008 when they had 300,000 but after the coup that number dropped off. No wonder we'd seen hardly any foreigners or English speakers. He told us corruption was a real problem which I guess it is in almost all African countries.

Our hotel room was nice but also a bit run down. The television was ancient and the furniture was a bit scuffed up. The bathroom was located right next to the door and the sinks (yes there were two) and bathtub were on the opposite side of the room. I say all this because this is supposed to be the best hotel in the city.

We ventured out onto the streets after dropping off our luggage in search of L'Art Gallery. A problem arose when I couldn't find the address on Google maps. So we wandered the old neighbourhood we'd explore when we first arrived. I noticed in the window that we'd walked by many times before that they sold wood carvings. Hart had mentioned that if we were to bring anything back for him, he would like a wood carving. They had lots which was good. They also had lots of books, al looking very much like the books we'd seen in books shelves back I need the 1980s in communist China. Few had pictures on the covers and many were about topics that may be educational but not so entertaining. One book I picked up was about George Mendel.

We met K at about 6:30 in the Hotel Colbert and proceeded from there to the Sakamunga Restaurant. When we entered, there was only one other customer in the place, a French dude in his early 20s who proceeded to order a three course meal and a bottle of wine. The expectation at Malagasy restaurants at lunch and supper is that they will sell you an entre, a plat (main course) and a dessert plus drinks. So that's what we did. We each had a three course meal which for me included fois gras which I happily discovered was too rich for my taste. (I feared the goose whose liver he'd given to me was dealt with cruelly prior to his death.). The lapin or rabbit was very good as was the dessert of crème brule which Nicola and I both enjoyed.

K and Nicola were very happy to see one another. They caught up on what they'd been doing through the intervening years as well as their children and husbands.