Our Last Day in Madagascar
Tana Traffic
Mr Harry, today’s guide, picks us up from our hotel at 11:00am. We planned a later pick up in order to pack and organize ourselves for tonight’s flight.
As I walk down the hotel staircase, the Malagasy phrase “mora mora’ comes to mind. These are words we heard often on this trip whether walking down stairs, crossing cobblestones or climbing in the 
rain forest. It means “slowly, slowly”.
Traffic in Antananarivo is crazy. Glad I’m not driving. We pass all kinds of shops and people selling knock off goods on the street. The area is packed. People are getting ready for Christmas.
Lunch at Cafe du Gare
Mr Harry drops us off at Antananarivo’s beautiful French colonial railroad station. It is no longer in use and has been turned into one of Antananarivo’s best restaurants.
The train station was built in 1913. Outside is a collection of antique cars.
The restaurant is lovely inside and John and I have an enjoyable meal.
The Queen’s Palace
Next Mr Harry takes us back into the crazy traffic which thins out as we drive up Antananarivo’s highest hill.
We arrive at the Queen’s Palace where Mr Harry leaves us in the capable hands of our palace guide, Fali. Fali really knows his history.
Antananarivo was founded around 1610-25. The city name means “The City of a Thousand” because the first king stationed 1,000 soldiers to protect the new fortress built on a strategic hilltop.
Starting at the palace gate, Fali explains that the gold eagle on the gate is made of copper and was a gift from Napoleon. The phallic looking sculpture beside the eagle is in fact a phallic symbol.
In Madagascar some of the ethnic clans practice a tradition where boys between 2-5 years old (yikes) are circumcised. In the ceremony, the boy’s grandfather places the severed foreskin on the tip of a peeled banana and eats it. For obvious reasons the banana is also a fertility symbol. I thought our guide might be telling a whopper but I looked it up and everything he told us was correct.
We are entertained with other stories of the first queen who had many lovers and had those who displeased her thrown off a cliff near the palace.
The prime minister was married to three of the queen’s…not at the same time but one after the other. The last queen outlived him. She was sent into exile when the French captured the city in 1895.
Madagascar regained independence from France in 1960.
The Queen’s Palace houses a museum with articles from the monarchy.
Next to the palace are the tombs of four queens and three kings. It is considered taboo to point your finger at the tombs. Your finger needs to be bent to show only a knuckle or it is deemed disrespectful.
The views of the city from the palace are wonderful. Click here for a short video.
Next to the palace is a protestant church that the third queen built.
Nearby there is a baroque palace that used to be the Prime Minister’s residence…the guy who married three of the queen’s.
Goodbye Madagascar
Too soon it is time for us to head to the airport. We had a wonderful time in Madagascar.
We are flying Emirates again. At check in, they return John’s e-reader that he forgot on the plane on October 14 when we arrived.
Another guy checking in is wearing a shirt with a big marijuana leaf emblazoned across the front. John and I move quickly through security. I notice the guy is being questioned. I see him later at the gate.
Emirates has free WIFI on the flight. In half an hour we will be landing in the Seychelles…for us this will be country #99.
