Day 2 – 09.10.2026 – Antsirabe

The next day we left for Antsirabe. We went to take a rickshaw and went to a workshop to see how they make items out of the local zebu cow’s horns. I didn’t feel great about it but they had a store full of items which I refused to support although some items were really beautiful and quite impressive tbh. But I supported the lady outside who had ridiculously cool and funny wooden handmade magnets with lemurs whose faces looked like a child had drawn them, which could even be the case. They were so funny that I got a few of those for gifts. Oh and on that topic, I also bought a lot of postcards that were handmade because these ladies kept chasing me and begging me to buy, and each pack had 6 cards…

I got 3 packs of 6. Two of them are made with raffia palm leaves on a thick gorgeous paper I couldn’t resist buying and one is on regular paper but with a piece of textile and the picture painted with watercolour. Also super beautiful, the first two packs cost me 60000 ariary each which is 2 EUR per card with a set of 6, and the last one was 40000. One of the women begged me so much to buy that she reduced the price to 20000 ariary, or 4 EUR for 6 cards. The prices in Madagascar are crazy low. On that note, I had to buy clothes right, so I ended up buying 2 pairs of shorts, one pair of long pants, 1 top and swimwear for… 17 euro… for all this.

Of course I explained that the country is very poor but I still fail to process these prices. Ofc in Ariary it feels much more but also I am a walking millionaire because of this currency. Anyway, so I got a lot of cards and the best thing is I don’t feel it was a waste as I now officially have a new hobby – scrapbooking so I am collecting all sorts of things incl beer labels, chocolate packaging, tickets… I finally know what to do with all the tickets I have collected throughout the years’ travels. But back to the story – before the workshop of zebu horns we went to another one – they showed us how they make tiny bicycles out of things like an IV fluid drip tube, fishing line, wire etc.

This was pretty cool, we also went to visit an aluminum factory and saw how they heat the aluminum, liquefy it, pour it and make a pan out of it and then how they cut out the excess and how they polish it to a finished product. Lots of people in our group bought items from the stalls just outside the place, me included – I got for 3 EUR a small aluminum baobab tree.

Day 3 – 10.10.2026 – Miandrivazo

Then it was the third day (today, as I write this) and this morning I heard a bird call at 5 AM, as I always do, and these things trigger me enormously, I am no longer sleepy and just want to jump up and “follow the call”. And I was alone in a room and so I did it, normally I would be hesitant so as not to wake up the other person but not this time. The sound was just like a falcon or kestrel or so. I was sure of it but my bird apps didn’t recognize it. So eventually I went to the balcony to try and see what it was and I saw a tail on the upper floor’s windowsill, but then it flew and went on top of the building in front of me and it was a… HAMERKOP AAAAAAA-hkudhasuhdaisdhausdhashdj!!!

I was sooo excited! And not even one – there were two of them and not only were there 2 of them but I got the PERFECT pictures of them mating on the roof. JACKPOT! I then went outside to the pool area later, after breakfast, to wait and birdwatch for a bit and saw them flying and saw their nests on the nearby trees, 3 nests. Apparently, like the sociable weavers and other birds, they make a fake entrance so that a predator like the snake would be confused and not find the nest. Smart!! When we picked up our luggage I went briefly to the balcony to check and saw the hamerkop walking on the other side of the wall and managed to snap a few photos <3 sooo cool!

The rest of the day was quite nice, mostly on the road, but this start set the bar high! We then drove to a village called Miandrivazo and I just couldn’t stop taking photos – the highlands scenery was sooo gorgeous! All kinds of colours mixed together and the Malagasy people were also so beautiful and colourful. We stopped at a local market for half an hour to walk by ourselves and it’s an explosion of colours quite literally but also in terms of items they sell. We were also quite the attraction there, people watching us, staring actually, kids waving, women either smiling or just staring, younger guys watching and saluting… incl some guys who made obviously a stupid joke when they told me something in their language which was probably something cynical and the rest burst out laughing, then I had one of them touch my legs and the other laugh.

But besides that it was quite interesting to explore and see what their Saturday market is about. I have some pretty cool photos from there of the local kids. At the end we arrived at the village and had a great dinner and will be trying to survive this night at one of the warmest places so far, the AC doesn’t work but we have a ventilator and hopefully this will save the day 😀

One more funny thing is that, ofc, I travel with a Dutch group and now everyone talks to me in Dutch, half the time I understand, half not so it’s a lot of fun 😀 But I feel that with the days it is getting better, people are understanding and don’t mind when I sometimes say the words in English if I don’t know the Dutch word but it costs me so much effort and attention, but it is also good as this is exactly what my Dutch teacher said I need – to speak more and expose myself more to the language and what better exposure than being stuck 24 days with Dutch and Belgian people each with their own accents (and some accents are sooo hard for me to understand but I do feel I am beginning to get used to them and understand better). My roommate is a super sweet lady and she loves talking and that’s perfect for me 😀 So yes, it’s a lot of fun 😀

Miandrivazo was a small village in the middle of the way to the seaside. They call us “vaza” from “vazaha” or white person. Also visited a local village of the Merina people whose tribe our tour guide Fina also comes from. It was super hot so when we arrived at the hotel we jumped directly to the pool after a quick change. And I lied, the weather and hotels get increasingly hotter and hotter. I am barely able to sleep.