We were up very early, 3am, and left the camp by 4am, in order to get to the airport by 7:35. Of course it was dark when we left, but it was surprising how many people were out. There were a lot of people on the road, maybe going to the sisal plantation or to market. The sisal plantation is so big that we drove through it for the first hour. As we were driving we passed through from the spiny forest, through a transitional forest and into the edge of the rain forest. Madagascar has a mountain ridge down the middle that helps define these areas. The rain clouds come in from the east coast and get stuck on the mountains, making the east coast very wet and the west coast very dry. Now that we know what to look for it was easier to the see the transition.
It was a relatively fast trip and only took 3 hours to get to the airport. We were actually too early to check in, so we need to wait for awhile before we could receive our boarding passes and proceed through security. The flight was uneventful except that we were in business class which meant that we had a curtain between us and everyone else, otherwise it was the same. I think we ended up in business class because they booked the ticket late. I hope they didn’t pay too much for it.
In Tana we were picked up by our guide, Nicolas, and driver, Alexander. They drove us to our hotel. The streets of Tana feel less overwhelming, maybe I’m just getting use to Madagascar. We had lunch by the pool in our hotel and then we headed out to the palace. It was about a 45 minute drive mostly on a VERY narrow road, elevated above the rice paddies and then up one of the 12 hills of Tana. The palace is a UNESCO world heritage site.
The palace was first built by King Andrianampoinimerina who unified the country and ruled from 1787 to 1810. It is a fortified and orginially surrounded by a moat. His palace was a one room house with a kitchen and a bed. We had to enter with our right foot first and exit backwards, facing in towards the house, with our left foot first. Also on the complex is the summer palace of Queen Ranavalona who I think was the great daughter-in-law of King Andrianampoinimerina. Queen Ranavalona ruled for 15 years until her son was old enough to assume the throne. The queen’s palace was a little bigger consisting of a salon, dining room, and a bedroom.
Interestingly, Madagascar never has a concurrent king and queen. They had either a king or a queen, but their spouses never assumed a royal title.
Several kings and queens are buried at the palace, so people still come to pray for their help and and sacrifes animals in their honor.
After the palace we could have gone somewhere that had good views of Tana, however it was starting to rain, there was a lot of pollution from fires as people were getting ready for planting season and we were really tired from getting up so early. We deecided to go back to the hotel and call it a day. After a nap we had dinner. I realized I couldn’t find my phone and worried that I had lost it. I didn’t get a very good nights sleep.