platbrownguy

I look up from my glass and take a look around. Five couples sit in the Crown Room Club at Dallas-Fort Worth E10, most of whom are keeping tabs on the latest Hurricane Frances forecast. I thumb through my boarding passes and flight coupons, look around, and realize I'm finally, actually, really going... I'm going to Madagascar...

the Rationale
As a kid, most of my friends' favorite school subjects were lunch or recess-mine was geography, that hour a week when we'd learn fantastic things about faraway places nobody ever goes to... by the age of seven I'd memorized every country and it's capital, and though I didn't travel that much early on, I enjoyed every aspect of every trip I went on. There's something purely fascinating about just staring out of a window and taking it all in as you venure into a previously-unknown land, whether by car, plane, bush-taxi, whatever. Over the years, I've managed to get to a few exotic destinations, but some of the most exotic and mystical interest me most and still elude me... Easter Island, Mongolia, Zanzibar, the Himalayas... and until now, Madagascar. This is the story of my adventure, each part written as it happens, and hopefully will prove to be a story worth reading.

the Madness
"Why Madagascar?" you ask... Madagascar is rumored to be one of the world's most truly unique places - over 90% of its plants and animals are indigenous, and hundreds of species of orchids grow wild throughout the year. Lemurs and giant jumping rats roam the parks, and the Malagasy people are supposed to be genuinely honest and friendly. The island has had political turmoil in the past but has since settled, and although infrastructure is poor and the people are by no means wealthy, it is the perfect place for an adventure.

the Method
One word: SkyMiles. Air France has four flights weekly nonstop into Antananarivo ("Tananarive" is the French name, "Tana" is the popular shortform) from Paris Charles de Gaulle on an Airbus 340-300. This of course means two longhaul flights from the US, something not painlessly done in coach. With SkyTeam, however, I could use 160,000 miles for a roundtrip ticket in First. So I did. My routing would entail 22 hours of flying and 28.5 total hours of travel with Delta and Air France:

02SEP04 DL486 DFW-ATL 9:30a-12:32p 731mi
02SEP04 DL194 ATL-JFK 2:00p-4:08p 760mi
02SEP04 AF17 JFK-CDG 6:00p-7:10a 3462mi
03SEP04 AF908 CDG-TNR 10:15a-10:00p 5422mi

Normally, I travel with a briefcase and rollaboard... not this trip. Yesterday I went to REI and bought a backpack, which I would check, and I dug out a daypack for my carryon which I could strap onto the big pack once in Madagascar.

Normally, I travel knowing full well what I'm getting myself into... not this trip. For this trip, I expect the unexpected-and nothing less.


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Part 1, written 2 Sep 04, typed 4 Sep 04.

[Aside: Bear with me as this is my first trip report/journal. I'll try not to be too verbose, and I'll hold off typing the flight segments probably until tomorrow as I am not yet accustomed to the French keyboard layout and I don't want to spend anymore daylight in an Internet Cafe. I'm currently in Tana, having arrived last night. It's 71F and sunny, it's 3:45pm, and the internet cafe is 40 cents an hour.]

Any commentary is appreciated.

Darren

Dont spend all your time in the internet cafe on our account. Seriously, though, I am really looking forward to your report. Rare to get a glimpse of places like this.

carbonchaser

I too will be reading this one with GREAT interest - far off little nooks of the world are always fascinating to me

Dorlee

I would love it if you could post photos of some of the exotic orchids. Enjoy your trip!

IndyDavid

Eagerly anticipating the next installements. Thanks for sharing your trip with us!

stimpy

Yes! Leave nothing out. I may be heading there on business soon. TIA.

couscous

Pics would be appreciated !!

mad_atta

What he said!

I've always been fascinated by the idea of going to Madagascar as well...

JohnMD

What an interesting place, I look forward to your future installments. It's not very often we get to read about far-off places such as Madagascar.

Enjoy the trip!

Swanhunter

Looking forward to finding out more about both AF F service and Madagascar. But as Darren says, don't spend too much time in the internet cafe for our benefit!

platbrownguy

Sorry for the delay! Once I return I'll put up pictures of everything - there was no internet in Antsirabe, the town I spent Sunday/Monday in, but the post office here in Fianarantsoa has a cybercafe. There's not so much to do after returning from the day's exploration and it's pitch dark by 5:45 so I figure I'll use this time to type what I can and check up on things.
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Flight Segment #1 of 8
DL486 DFW-ATL
Depart 9.30a (actual 9.32a) Arrive 12:32p (actual 12:27p)
Boeing 737-800
Seat 2C, First Class
Departure Gate E15, Arrival Gate A6

I'd scheduled the SuperShuttle for 7:30... after packing all night and cramming some last minute français, I didn't get to bed until past 4, so when I woke up late at 7:12 I was frazzled but not surprised. I scrambled, ran down my checklist-passport, tickets, camera, chargers, adapter, DEET, iodine tablets, knife and compass... I took a quick shower and threw on my pack.

REI Morningstar, on sale through Labor Day, well-built internal frame pack. I bolt out the door, and to my surprise, instead of the blue van is a white sedan! Apparently there was a van shortage - not a bad way to start a trip at all.

I arrive at the ticket counter at 8:07 - plenty of time - and walk to the front of the Medallion area (no line).

"9:30 to Atlanta," I say as I hand over my ticket and passport to the agent, who I've seen many times before. He nods, taps away, and looks at me.

"TNR? Madagascar?"

"Yessir." He continues to check me in, tags the large pack (24 pounds, more than I'd have liked), checks my visa, and issues boarding passes for all four segments of the journey. At 8:15 I proceed to the empty security checkpoint, play the shoe game, and walk over to the Crown Room Club at E10/11. The Dallas Crown Room is nice, but it's better in the afternoon when the cute blonde bartenders are working... I get a gingerale, the guy to my right gets a Jack on the rocks, and I watch Fox News untl it's time to go.

I walk onto the plane around 9:02 and take my usual domestic-flight seat, 2C. I order another gingerale and stow my daypack at my feet. The cabin is in good repair, with the exception of a foot-long piece of plastic that just fell on my head at this moment . For the sake of brevity, I will limit my commentary on these domestic flights, as they are both ordinary and short, and I will save my words, ink, and hand muscles for the Air France segments, which are definitely not short and will hopefully be anything but ordinary.

After cruising at 37,000 feet for a minute of so, I pull out my aged copy of The Catcher In The Rye--great airplane reading, if you want to know the truth. But the thing is-the thing is, see, the guy across from me in 2B was reading the same book! A few minutes later, breakfast was served. If you really want to hear about it, you'll probably want to know about the linens and the dishes and all that, but I don't really feel like getting into all that. For one, that stuff bores me, and second, Delta breakfasts are never really anything special. I mean sure there was yogurt and a bagel and cornflakes and fruit and all, but what place does honeydew have with cereal and yogurt? No place. I'll tell you what I would have liked was one of those BA breakfasts... scrambled eggs and sausages and mushrooms and a hot pastry. Boy would that have been nice... BA even serves all that on a 40-minute flight - that kills me. [/Salinger]. [Okay, okay, I'll hurry up...]

The tray was removed, I put on my Bose, wrote, and slept.

I woke up to the four dings, brought my seatback up, and listened to the Red Hot Chili Peppers sing about crawling to the moon as we landed. Overall, an average flight - Flight attendants were as attentive as they needed to be and the ride was only lightly turblent at times.

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Part 2, written 2 Sep 04, typed 7 Sep 04.

[Typed in Fianarantsoa (pronounced fee-nar-ant-SOH), 410km/256mi/9.5hrs south of Tana. 75°F, partly cloudy, currently 4:19p. "Cyberpaositra" internet cafe, $0.035 per minute (350 francs). I should be able to get through the rest of the flight segments today.]

platbrownguy

Flight Segment #2 of 8
DL194 ATL-JFK
Depart 2:00p (actual 2:15p) Arrive 4:08p (actual 4:15p)
Boeing 767-300ER/BusinessElite Configuration
Seat 2C, Business Class
Departure Gate E1, Arrival Gate Terminal 2/12

Having landed in Terminal A, I decide to locate this "Centrepoint" Crown Room I've been hearing about. It's nice! Lots of seating, very sparsely populated, and a good bar with a friendly barwoman who pours me a refreshing Killian's. I'm sick of the Delta snack mix, though - some cheese and crackers like in the Admirals Clubs would be great.

I leave for the gate around 1:15, say hello and goodbye to my mom on the phone, and ride the train as far as it goes. At E1, the boarding had not started yet, so I began my usual routine of walking in circles, staring at random people with varying facial expressions, and sighing, until boarding time.

The service on this flight was very attentive - my neighbor in 2E's wine glass was never empty and neither was my gin and tonic. I believe I had five. 2E was a DL Million Miler and BA Gold, so we talked the whole way about airlines and flights and travels and such. Even though the flight is 128 minutes and actual flying time is only an hour fifty, a meal is always served on this route, on the 767 flights.

We were served the usual chef salad with breadsticks, a plastic container of dressing, and a brownie. I salted my tomatoes, peppered my egg, continued making smalltalk with 2E, and before I knew it we were descending. And I'm sorry, Dovster, there was no sundae . 2E made his way to CSA for his flight to Prague (he was continuing on to Sri Lanka with a Czech girlfriend... another place I want to get to), and I made my way to Terminal 1 for Air France. It was go time!

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Part 3, written 2 Sep 04, typed 7 Sep 04.

platbrownguy

Stimpy: Business in Madagascar, eh? What would bring an American all the way down here? The national railway, for whatever odd reason, is funded by the US, and there is some American peace corps presence here, but that's all I can think of...

Side note: I just typed ALL OF THIS and guess what happens – the POWER goes out! In the whole city! Luckily the computers are on a 1-minute backup system so I quickly copied and pasted the post into Word and saved it about 10 seconds before all the screens went dark… No one else seemed to care much – the power apparently rolls on and off all the time. Note to self, type posts in MS Word first from now on… .

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Flight Segment #3 of 8
AF17 JFK-CDG
Depart 6:00p (actual 6:21p), Arrive 7:10a (actual 6:47a)
Boeing 777-200 F-GSPI
Departure Gate: 4, Arrival Gate: Somewhere in Krakhozia
Seat 1A, First Class

There are four types of passengers in Delta's JFK terminals - the sunglasses, the yarmuhlkes, the frequent flyers, and the hoi polloi. Sure, all these folks go to and through other places too, but for some reason their groupishness and presence is far more visible to me at JFK. After wading through the hoi polloi and their mountains of luggage at baggage claim, I walked to terminal 1, went through the empty first class security line, and proceeded to the lounge, which is just past Gate 1 down the wing that has Gates 1-3.

I was welcomed warmly by the bilingual staff who took my DL-printed boarding passes, printed nice red and blue ones to replace them, and directed me up the escalator to the Espace Première section. It was around 4:30, and boarding was to begin by 5:30. Air France recommends business and first class pax to board last (though you have the option to board at your leisure) - it's kind of nice that way; you get more time in the lounge and there's less sitting upright on the plane waiting for the rest of the pax to board.

The Air France lounge is nice but by no means fabulous - the liquor selection was average at best - Johnnie Walker Black Label, not even Gold let alone Blue - and the only hot foods available were phyllo-wrapped pastries filled with cheese or vegetables. The decor was nicer than say, a CRC, but the overall quality scored about a 4 on a scale of 1 to 10, most of the points being garnered by the staff.

I mixed myself a scotch and soda and noticed I was the first person in the lounge... I took some cheesy things and walked toward the computer to check my mail and such. The FC attendant appears and says "Hello, Monsieur PlatBrownGuy, you are connecting to Tananarive?"

"Yes, I am," and he hands me a map of CDG showing my connection information and the location of the arrivals lounge.

"We will announce boarding by 5:30 and on behalf of Air France I wish you a pleasant flight."

"Merci beaucoup," and I go over to the computer... Air France always says that exact same line... and on behalf of Air France I wish you a pleasant flight - it's nice of them, but after a while it becomes obvious it's out of a script or something.

I check my mail, then check the weather - high 78, low 51, partly cloudy, and the same for the next 5 days. Beautiful. Then I check the exchange rate... not 4 months ago the franc was trading at 6000Fmg (Fmg=Malagasy Franc) to the dollar, now it's over 10000Fmg per dollar! Today it's at 10275 but it's been fluctuating by as much as 5 to 10% on a daily basis... as long as it stays where it is, the trip will be incredibly, incredibly cheap.

Boarding is called at 5:20, a couple minutes after business class was called, and I walk to the gate, hand over the boarding pass and flight coupon, and walk to my seat. 1A. Gorgeous. I settle into my seat and the friendly French FA greets me, welcomes me aboard, and hands me pyjamas and an amenity kit, which is a nice hard red case filled with toiletries, facial cleansers, goofy ear protectors for their headsets (though I prefer my Bose), and water mister. The current champagne is Lanson Noble Cuvée 1998 - crisp and lightly fruity with a wonderful smooth finish... I graciously accept a glass, and after having just one sip, knock the glass over with absolute smoothness . The FA and I just laugh though, I dry off my right leg, and I get another glass. Believe me, it would not be the first of Platbrownguy's clumsies.

I immediately change into the pyjamas as I'm getting tired and just want to eat then sleep. We pushed back around 20 minutes late, but nobody seemed too worried as the captain said a strong tail wind would reduce the flying time to a mere 6 hours and 10 minutes. I am presented with a menu shortly after leveling off:

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Dinner:

Hors d'oeuvre
Duck foie gras,
simmered dates with coriander

and

Smoked salmon, broccoli, celery
and Granny Smith apples with Szechuan pepper

Choice of main courses
Pan seared filet of beef served with a truffle jus,
braised lettuce and eggplant with vinegar

Grilled and stuffed baby vegetables
with a peanut and tomato sauce

Our special selection of cheese

Fresh bakery selection

Dessert
Petits fours frais
Berry salad

--

Breakfast:

Fresh fruit juice

Coffee, tea, hot chocolate

Fruit salad featuring melon

Yogurt


Crepe with scrambled eggs and chives,
bacon and hash-brown potatoes

or

French toast
with raisins and roasted pear

Fresh bakery selection, breakfast pastries,
butter, preserves and honey

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I won't list the description for each, but the wines available were:

-Champagne: Lanson Noble Cuvee 1998

-White Bordeaux Liqueur: Sauternes 1er Cru Classe 1999,
Chateau de Rayne Vigneau

-White Burgundy: Chablis 1er Cru "Vallions" Vielles Vignes 2000,
Domaine Laroche

-Red Rhone Valley: Chateauneuf-du-Pape "Clos de l'Oratoire" 2000,
Maison Ogier & Fils

-Red Bordeaux: Grand Cru Classe 1998, Chateau La Tour Carnet

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I choose the foie gras appetizer (had I seen the "and", I would have chosen both ) and the filet de boeuf for the plat principal.

10 of the 12 seats were occupied, but luckily 1B was one of the empties - I didn't want to be stuck next to some guy who was bent on reading through the night with his lights on and all. Takeoff is smooth, and as Holden Caulfield recovers from his run-in with the elevator man, I begin to lose track of things and slowly drift off into a light sleep. Shortly thereafter, however, the delicious smell of filet mignon au jus de truffes brings me back to consciousness. My friendly FA pulls out the large traytable, covering it with a nice linen tablecloth. Silverware is presented in a napkin with metal napkin ring - two forks, a spoon, and two real live metal knives. Huzzah!

The foie gras was smoother than butter, and I was presented with an array of breads to choose from (though the bread really should have been warm). The dinner service was quick but that was fine with me as I'd only gotten 3 hours of sleep the night before and was dead tired... not tired enough to sleep through dinner though! The beef was amazing. It was delicious - served perfectly pink and tender and wish my choice of mustards to accompany it - the mustard part was awesome. I really wish US airlines would learn to not overcook their meat all the time, it would really improve overall meal quality.

A plate of cheese was offered (not from a board) but I opted to pass and simply have the petits fours with an armagnac. I quickly ate the chocolate morsels, cleansed my palate with the rest of the armagnac, and signaled to the flight attendant.

The FA reclined my seat for me into the 180-degree fully-flat no-nonsense horizontal bed position. As I lay down, a large white pillow was handed to me, a wonderfully comfortable duvet was draped over me, and I quickly dozed off to never-never-land around 8:10 eastern time, 2:10 Paris time.

I awoke around 6:00a, looked around, realized that yes I really was on a plane, and brought the back of my seat up to a good reclined position. The FA came over, said good morning, and offered me coffee, tea, or something to eat. I'm never hungry right when I wake up so I had a cup of Darjeeling with milk and lifted out my IFE screen to see how much progress the little white plane had made in drawing its red line across the north Atlantic. We were only a half hour away!

I finished my tea (without spilling ), and changed back into my street clothes around 6:20 - everyone else already had! I luckily did so very quickly, as even the FAs had begun to take their seats and we were sharply descending. As I buckled my belt, I heard a knock on the door. Sacre bleu! I gathered my things and opened the door after hopefully less than 15 seconds, "Sorry, sorry," I said as I took my seat. I looked out the window and not five minutes later we smoothly landed at Charles de Gualle International Rattrap. It took us about 10 minutes to taxi to our stand, and as we did so we were all thanked by the onboard leader. After stopping at the stand, everyone got up and gathered their bags... I took a look around and checked out the others in the cabin for the first time (I'd been living in my own little world until then ). Most were dressed in business attire, and everyone was at least twice my age - most much older.

Oh, I forgot to tell you about that. I'm 18 (19 next month) so I'm used to a few looks when I turn left instead of right, and the other pax are for the most part always much older than me... most people say I look at least 23ish though, so I never really get flack from people or the airlines when I use a premium line or turn left.

The stairs meet the plane's forward door, and we deplane. Off to the arrivals lounge!


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Part 4, written 2-3 Sep 04, typed 7 Sep 04.

Currently ~65°F, getting cooler. 6:11p, and pitch dark out.

I'm going to stop here for now, but will finish the flight portion (lounges at CDG and CDG-TNR) later. It's dark out, I'm hungry, and I have to get up at 05.30 tomorrow to get to the train station by 06.00 for the 10-hour ride to the coast. Plus, even at 350Fmg/min, I've managed to rack up almost 5 bucks here... that's a weeks' salary for the average Malagasy .

Cholula

Excellent job so far, platbrownguy!! Keep 'em coming. ^^

Jac747

Can't wait to hear about Madagascar! Great report so far.