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The Best People

November 14th, 2007

The best part of the Madagascar trip was meeting Pierre and Sandra who were our guides and owners of Masoala Forest Lodge and Kayak Masoala. Sandra is Swiss and Pierre is South African (English descent). Together with their Malagasy partner, Felix, they bought a beautiful piece of property on the Masoala Peninsula’s western seashore (bayside) and have built up a fantastic facility including luxury tents, open air dining and sitting area, their own home and facilities for food preparation, employee housing, etc. I met Sandra in Madagascar’s capital, Tana. aong with other members of our kayak trip and immediately was impressed with her. She is just one of those people that most of us immediately take a liking to because of her big smile, her jovial mood and her sureness in what she is doing. A few days later we finally met Pierre in Maronsetra (beginning of the peninsula) where we started our kayaking. He is a very friendly person as well although he is more direct than Sandra and someone you immediately respect as someone that is going to guide you safely on open water. His confidence is very contagious and I felt fortunate to paddle with Pierre for most of the days of the trip on one of the double kayaks. He kept me laughing with his great stories from South Africa, Malawi (his original business was kayaking on Lake Malawi – still one of my big to-dos for Africa – as Kayak Africa) and United States where he worked in Arkansas for a period building Walmarts. Both Pierre and Sandra made me feel great for the whole time I was in Madagascar.

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The Good People

October 29th, 2007

I was pretty concerned about myself when I left Egypt because I had such a low opinion of the Egyptian people and society. It is very difficult for me to find fault with a whole group of people, but I have to admit that it becomes easier the more peoples I meet. (easier not in that I am finding a lot of messed up cultures, but rather easier to call the bad ones out due to plenty of counter examples.) Our cultures around the world vary significantly and of course I can only view a culture through my eyes and mind which I readily agree may be myopic and ill-adjusted. But I also know that I want to share my opinions and experiences and show who I am even if you may see my faults. Actually, I really do this blog for no one other than myself so in some amount I really do not give a damn what you think 🙂 Something like “take a walk in my shoes…”.  I try to be honest to myself and I guess to any reader and that is the only promise I make. I can tell you that the more cultures I experience, the more I dislike about my own – that being the lucky elite of this planet. And yes, I do believe that 99.9% of people who would ever have access to this blog fall into that category. Please don’t compare yourself to Donald Trump when determining if you are one of the world’s elite. It would be much more appropriate to compare yourself to the people on subsistance farms with no shoes on their feet (probably by choice I would argue – might it not be OK to be able to walk in the mud with hardened soles rather than have a hundred pairs of designer shoes for every purpose to protect our pampered little toes???). I love (not) the increasingly more ridiculous little battles being waged in the upper crust of the world about who the really bad guys are – Americans and Israelis, of course! There are obviously too many bored people with too much TV time focused on blame and doing very little to actually address the real issues such as loving your family and treating your neighbors with respect. And this brings me to Madagascar and the Malagasy people.

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Madagascar Photos

October 13th, 2007

Here’s some early photos from Madagascar – ostrich, hammerkop, tortoise, lemurs, oxen.  A bit disappointed with the dancing lemur photos – wish the exposure had been at a higher speed, but the memory is quite clear…

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7411983@N06/sets/72157602397651597/

 

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The Lexus and the Lack of Tree

October 12th, 2007

Yesterday was spent comatose in Tana.  This could be the most boring sub-Sahara Africa city.  Nothing bad, just a bit of a snoozer.  I suppose anywhere is a bit slow compared to Egypt.  I did solve a mystery about why I thought this city looks like somewhere in Maine.  Most of the rooftops are peaked, steeply peaked.  I found some German immigrant burial plots from the 1880s at one of the fifty local churches so I guess that is where the steep roofs came from.  But there is no snow here so why go steep.  Today I paid a taxi driver to take me to Lemur Park and Rova, the 1800s royal palace.  Both are about 20-30 kilometers from the city in different directions.  I was a bit hesitant about Lemur Park thinking it could be quite zoo-ish, but my choices for nearby entertainment are few. Plus, I already went to the local zoo yesterday (there for the botanical garden, but I had to peak at the poor animals in small cages) so a park can’t be worse.

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Fatty Duck

October 12th, 2007

Foie Gras – I love it.  I avoid it because it is not good for one’s health, but I also rarely see it beyond the door of Mirepoix.  Government regulations inspired by PETA and other food police will soon make it impossible to find in the US.  My research in the past discovered that it was first enjoyed in Egypt where the geese fattened their livers on their own in preparation for migration.  They gorged themselves.  The Egyptians copied the natural process by force-feeding the birds – basically the same technique employed today and the one that has gotten the industry into trouble in the food righteous countries.  Egypt and Madagascar has presented two different foie gras experiences of late.

First, at Saqqara, Egypt in one of the temples, I found reliefs depicting the force-feeding of geese. A series of reliefs depicted all kinds of bounties being presented as offerings to the gods.  Apparently foie gras was recognized as a food worthy of the gods more than 3000 years ago and was part of those offerings.

Second, Madagascar has been influenced greatly by the French.  Last night the menu had a foie gras salad consisting of foie gras, duck confit and country pate on a bed of greens.  Fabulous!  Cheers to the Egyptians, French and Malagasies!  And especially to the ducks!

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Where’s That Confounded Pyramid?

October 10th, 2007

Most air polluted cities in the world according to World Bank (2007):

  • Cairo, Egypt: 11.1 million
  • Delhi, India: 15 million
  • Kolkata, India: 14.3 million
  • Tianjin, China: 7 million
  • Chongqing, China: 6.4 million
  • Kanpur, India: 3 million
  • Lucknow, India: 2.6 million
  • Jakarta, Indonesia: 13.2 million
  • Shenyang, China: 4.7 million
  • Zhengzhou, China: 2.6 million

    • I knew Cairo was the most disgusting place on the planet!!!!!  It’s all better air from here on out.  I will struggle with India and China cities.  So, imagine these cities are way worse than anything you have ever seen in your local trouble spot like LA, Houston, NYC, Mexico City, Sao Paulo, Vienna, London.  Way worse! 

    “Excuse me.  Oh will you excuse me.  I’m just trying to find the Pyramid… Has anybody seen the Pyramid?  Have you seen the Pyramid?  I ain’t seen the Pyramid!  Where’s that confounded Pyramid?”

    Posted in Africa, egypt, Travel | 1 Comment »

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    A Different World

    October 10th, 2007

    Well I basically just went from Middle East to East Africa to somewhere closer to Far East in a day!  What a blur.  Absolutely loved being in East Africa even if it was just the airport.  I loved seeing the women in the Outragerously bright and colorful dresses and I was just a bit overwhelmed with being back to the place I love so much.  The second best part of the day was just getting out of Cairo.  I can breathe again!  The best part of the day is being in Madagascar.  Yep, the people here look Southeast Asian-ish with darker skin.  Actually, that is a generalization because there are people that are not dark and there are people that really do look African.  I guess that is what we always get when we mix it up a bit.  Almost everyone is shorter than I am and you know I really like that.  Odd since there are so many tall people in East Africa. 

    When I look out the window from my room I see a hill with a couple of churches (no minarets!!!) and older homes that reminds me exactly like an older town in Maine.  Weird!  Of course, look down at the park below and I see jacaranda trees in full purple blooms and people who don’t look like they live in Maine 🙂  More begging children than I care to see in the market area, but most of the people are quite gracious, friendly and decent.  French is the barrier again, but I have also run into a few people with great English who of course claim their English is poor.  Better than my French, I tell them and I get the same reaction that I always get – a big beaming smile.  The city (Antananivaro) is a real mix with obviously wealthy (government) and VERY poor (living in shacks clumped together).  The city is very clean and pretty well ordered.  The air is clean!!!  There is going to be some culture shock, but it should be good…

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    Home Again

    October 10th, 2007

    I’m at the Nairobi airport waiting for the connection to Madagascar. I am once again home in East Africa and it feels great. Beautiful people with big smiles, British accents and truly welcoming. Egypt is peeling away quickly. No more burqas. No more onslaughts from dishonest people. Things are looking up. I am really excited to meet the Malagasy people of Madagascar – a unique blend of Indonesian, African and other peoples. They are suppose to be very friendly. Even better will be my return to Kenya in three weeks. The laughter here is quite refreshing. Life is good in East Africa and people demonstrate it even at the airport! So nice…

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    Well, One More From Egypt

    October 9th, 2007

    I spent the last two days holed up in a nice hotel overlooking the pyramids. I had planned to visit them again, but the air pollution was the worst I have ever seen anywhere both days and I really did not want to go out in it. At one point I could not even see the pyramids! I did read the local English paper two days in a row and I discovered that main topics and editorials often cover the very topics which I find to be so horrible about Egypt. At least they are honest and discussing their little problems including fundamentalism, pollution, corruption, over-population and bad driving. The corruption apparently includes their system of almsgiving where all employed Egyptians donate a portion of their salaries for charities through their mosque. It is voluntary yet it really is not since your local mosque is keeping track. The article was about how corrupt is the system with little accountability. No kidding!

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    Asia!!!

    October 9th, 2007

    Well, I have technically been to a new continent without leaving Egypt.  After looking at the guides I use for such mundane geography topics, I officially entered Asia for the first time while visiting Sinai.  Peggy and I started to discuss this possibility a few days ago guessing that the Red Sea might be used for geography purposes to separate Africa from Asia.  This has been confirmed to be correct.  Since I am struggling a lot to get to Asia, I guess this is a good first step although it is hardly what one considers as Asia!  My struggle with getting out of the America/Africa circle will be continued into 2008 even though I had just committed to being in Asia for most of 2008 starting in January.  My plans to Central Africa Republic in January to run around with the pygmies in the deep forest for a couple of weeks seemed to be dead due to schedule and visa issues, but this changed recently and I am back with that plan.  After more time in Africa (West Africa this time), I may do the Caribbean which will further mess up the plans or I may head straight to India.  Something I have to think about soon, but for now I would like to keep my head in Africa or at least the fourth largest island in the world which is possibly more Asian than African yet is part of the Africa continent.

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