Featured
Jun 22, 2024
Madagascar
Leave a comment

Move it

Tsaranoro Valley, Madagascar

The highlights have been high, but the travel has been long and punishing, and one week in, I’ve spent more than half my time in Madagascar sitting in transport. After an 8 hour 4×4 ride again on the world’s worst road from Tsingy de Bemaraha to Morondava (250 km), barely a night’s rest before a 12 hour ride from Morondava to Antsirabe (484 km), a one-day break there, then what was supposed to be a 7 hour taxi-brousse ride to Fianarantsoa (243 km) that turned into 10 hours where I missed my onward transfer, I admit to feeling pretty done. And while people have been unfailingly polite, real interactions have been few. For a classic backpacking destination, I was also surprised not to have encountered anyone to group up with; any other tourists I saw were heading off in different directions, mostly in private transport. (Turns out I was a few weeks early from peak season.)

After missing the transfer, I needed to re-plan, deciding to take one last southbound taxi-brousse 2 more hours to Ambalavao (55 km – yes it’s that slow even on a paved road) en route to a nearby lemur reserve. It turned out to be one of the worst rides I had: a one-hour wait for it to fill up before departure, 29 people squeezed in a Sprinter for 18, squeezed so tight I was unable to move (hey look, name of the blog), barely avoiding the beak of a live duck in a plastic bag sitting on the lap of the man beside me. It felt like the last straw — in my head, after that, no more taxis-brousses except to return to Tana. No more hikes, having had enough of that in Réunion. Sure, there’s far more points of interest further south, like Isalo to Toliara, but… when the spark’s gone, you can’t force it.

And yet, on my arrival to Ambalavao, a vaguely familiar face made me change my mind on a dime, with a different spark. Thanks to him, I chose more suffering, and got even more suffering than I braced myself for — yet I couldn’t be happier for the experience.
Continue reading →

Jul 6, 2024
Madagascar
Leave a comment

Familiar

Andasibe and Antananarivo, Madagascar

Off a flight, and right back to the taxi-brousse: something clicked in Île Sainte-Marie… or perhaps it’s the looming return home? With just a few days left in the trip, I made a beeline for one more national park visit with renewed energy. Negotiating with taxi drivers, dealing with the chaos of the gare routière, finding a balance between being firm but friendly in securing myself a good seat, dealing with more delays and traffic jams… Maybe I just finally found my rhythm in Madagascar. I left Île aux Nattes by boat to the Sainte-Marie airport at the crack of dawn at 5:30 am, exited Tana airport at 8:30 am and made it to Andasibe, 143 km away, at 2 pm. Slow travel, no sweat.

Staying at a hotel a stone’s throw from the national park entrance, I was approached by several guides, but found the quoted prices too steep unless I found people to group up with. On an afternoon walk, a local struck up a conversation asking about my plans before revealing that he was also a guide — and with not a trace of coercion, his suggestion was Parc Mitsinjo directly across the road instead, a far cheaper and less crowded option maintained by a local conservation society instead of the national park authorities.

All I wanted was to see more lemurs. It may not be the big name park, but it’s the same piece of rainforest with all the same species — and I’m so glad that option presented itself. On a very rainy morning, Panderies was an excellent guide, following the beautiful morning song of the indris to find three of them hanging out low in the trees after a heavy shower ended. Even without their vocalisations, you can’t miss them — they’re the largest of lemur species, with those ears and that pom-pom tail making it look almost like a panda with wrong proportions.

And in one of the most magical moments of my trip…one indri happily took leaves from my hand, and stared at me face to face while eating. It’d be weird if it were a human, but come onnnnn. This was adorable.
Continue reading →

Jul 1, 2024
Madagascar
Leave a comment

Temperamental

Île Sainte-Marie / Île aux Nattes, Madagascar

After getting tired of endless taxi-brousse rides, I decided to park myself on an island for at least a week. There are two major beach island destinations in Madagascar. The more famous one is Nosy Be in the north. There’s lots of great diving, there’s more resorts, and crucially, the weather’s consistently great. But then there’s also Île Sainte-Marie in the east. There’s less diving and it’s quite rainy in the winter. But hey, it’s less touristy and their humpback whale migration season starts two months earlier than in Nosy Be! Rainy island it is — how bad can it be, right?

Typically to get to Île Sainte-Marie, it’s a two-day journey from Tana: a 13-hour ride to the port city of Toamasina (still more frequently referred to by its old French name, Tamatave), then an additional 4-7 hour ride to one of several embarkation options, then finally a rough 1-3 hour boat ride depending on the previous choice. It takes eight hours alone just to get from Fianar to Tana, which adds an extra day. With my motive clear, it was a no-brainer to pay up for a flight from Tana to the island instead.

Thank goodness I did that. You know that rain I just mentioned? Well…
Continue reading →

Jun 24, 2024
Madagascar
Leave a comment

Bygone

Antsirabe to Ranomafana, Madagascar

While I never found myself an oasis of calm in Tana, Antsirabe felt like a breath of fresh air in comparison. Well, at least the few blocks around the centre did: like Tana, a wide central boulevard leads to a disused train station. Unlike the chaos there though, I arrived in Antsirabe to find simple amusement park rides in a pedestrian area. Rather than dodging traffic, I was dodging the occasional toy cars and trains full of children and their parents.

There’s a distinctly cleaner air here too: for last-mile transport, where Tana only has taxis and Morondava and other cities have tuk-tuks, Antsirabe seems to have eschewed motors and pollution entirely and gone for the classic cyclo-pousse (bike rickshaw). It’s small enough for it, much cheaper, and friendlier all during my multiple trips to and from the gare routière — a big contrast to the frustrating experience of actually taking the onward transport from there by taxi-brousse.
Continue reading →

Jun 16, 2024
Madagascar
Leave a comment

Sharp

Morondava to Tsingy de Bemaraha, Madagascar

It’s a long, arduous bus ride from Tana to Morondava on the west coast, 700 km away. My guidebook from just a few years ago says it’s 12 hours. Nowadays, even in the best of taxi-brousse (bush taxi) options (companies such as Cotisse, Soatrans, or Kompima with better-maintained vans, assigned seating, and scheduled departure times as opposed to the vast majority: duct-taped vans struggling up even the slightest incline, passenger overloading, and departures when full), it’s 16 hours on one of Madagascar’s few paved national routes, riddled with deep potholes and washouts.

Well, infrastructure has clearly gotten worse over the years. But heading west from the capital, everything in general seems a bit sparser. The towns get smaller to the point of being one-street villages with over-manned police checkpoints that seem present only for bribes (and they certainly don’t care if the vehicle’s not roadworthy), the houses become more modest until they’re just straw and mud shacks, electricity poles are replaced by portable solar panels to charge phones and flashlights, virtually no economy exists, and there’s a lot more children around working in the rice terraces or herding zebus, even on a weekday — school is too expensive for many families. There’s also a pretty despairing sight around many of the potholed sections of road, given that all vehicles must slow down for them: children and adults selling meagre items or even begging. I never once saw a successful attempt.

Morondava’s on the beach but it’s more for fishing than for swimming or relaxing. There’s one thing people come here for: the Avenue of the Baobabs just outside of town, one of Madagascar’s iconic tourist sites. It’s more surprising just how many tourists I’m seeing who’ve made it this far — especially Asian tourists as old as my parents!
Continue reading →

Jun 12, 2024
Madagascar
Leave a comment

Status quo

Antananarivo, Madagascar

From far away, Tana (as the name’s frequently shortened to) might provide an alluring impression of Madagascar: settlements spread out among the hillsides, surrounded by green rice fields.

But up close is where the true first impression is, and while not that bad, it’s not a nice one. Honestly though, I’m not sure what would be. Taking a cab an hour from the airport into town, everything hits: the traffic, the pollution, the crowds, the poverty. (Perhaps it’s the jarring change from Mauritius, since none of this usually phases me.) As darkness falls (relatively early at 5:30pm in the winter), the streets quiet down even downtown and gain an almost eerie atmosphere. It’s kind of off-putting, and it didn’t exactly inspire any desire to go out any further than the end of the block.

The next morning hits, and I’m out looking for breakfast. On the grand Avenue de l’Indépendance, I spot a boulangerie from afar, a lovely prospect and perhaps one of the few positive legacies of French colonization. Aside from the croissant, inside is another story: old European men and their very young local female consorts. As I quickly found out over the rest of the month, there’s a distressing amount of exploitation going on, and I felt no option of internally coping aside from averting my gaze.

For better and for worse… reality may not be what most visitors come for, but this is Madagascar.
Continue reading →

Jun 10, 2024
Mauritius
Leave a comment

Everybody

Mahébourg to Flic-en-Flac, Mauritius

You know how in Canada, we have bilingual packaging? For us anglophones, we call it “cereal box French” or “shampoo French” – that’s basically our only exposure to the language on a day to day basis, and probably the extent of our knowledge for those of us long gone from high school. We really could do better.

Now look at Mauritius — or in French, Maurice. The official language is English and most can get by, but far more people speak French and tend to lead interactions with it, though everyone speaks Creole amongst themselves. Signs are in one to three languages, sometimes but often not translated, even in museums. Restaurant menus are haphazardly written in a mix. Towns often have names in both English and French. People comfortably switch between languages mid-sentence with no acknowledgement. There’s no identity crisis, no linguistic politics. The national currency even has amounts written in Tamil and Hindi, neither of which have official status. Students learn English, French, Hindi, and Mandarin in school!

There are other, far more obvious reasons that people come to Mauritius. But for me, as a language enthusiast, it’s jealousy that brought me here.
Continue reading →

Jun 3, 2024
France, Réunion
Leave a comment

Oupelaye

Salazie to Cilaos, Réunion

There’s one word that initially comes to mind for all of…this: why?

Why does this place exist? Why is this actually France? Why are all the roads so twisty? Why do people live so isolated?

Also, why did I choose to rent a car and have my first drive in three years be one after a marathon overnight flight to Paris, a 9 hour airport change carrying all my things in the city centre, a second overnight flight to La Réunion, and a couple hours up an incredibly twisty and narrow mountain road all the while trying to function entirely in French? Hey, at least I’m still here to tell the tale.
Continue reading →

Aug 20, 2023
Australia
Leave a comment

Whims

 Sydney, Australia

Not five minutes into my arrival from Port Moresby back to Brisbane, I literally faceplant in exhaustion while trying to catch a train. I get up and run in, with bloodied hands and knees, and laugh it off.

Adrenaline keeps me going in a brief reunion with Vyvian. Oh, the novelty of having a lovely restaurant meal with a friend again! Of a beautiful Saturday morning market stroll! Of a haircut to finally feel fresh again! Of an afternoon enjoying the sunshine and the skyline view from South Bank!

It lasts until I drag myself to the airport, endure yet another delayed flight, then onto Sydney, where I’m unable to buy a transit card with no credit card until I plead with an attendant to use hers and I repay her in cash. It’s hard to get by in an increasingly cashless society when your stuff is stolen. I’m tired.

Sydney is one of the world’s most famous and livable cities, renowned for its beauty. You come here for the Harbour and Opera House, of course. And in this week in particular, the Women’s World Cup, with the whole country rallying for the Matildas.

Yet at this point, a week from the end, all I want is a taste of home.
Continue reading →

Aug 11, 2023
Papua New Guinea
2 Comments

Sepik River Crocodile Festival

 Ambunti, Papua New Guinea

From hundreds of kilometres away in either direction, tribes from the Lower, Middle, and Upper Sepik all converge once a year in Ambunti for the Sepik River Crocodile Festival. It’s a show where everyone brings the best of their diverse culture in singsings, art, the biggest yams, and of course, crocodiles. I’ve said my piece in the full entry — here’s the best of what I captured.

For logistics on how to visit the festival or Papua New Guinea in general, click here.
Photos and videos ahead→