Day 21 – 28.10.2026 – Antananarivo
This was officially our final trip. The next day we left back to Tana and it was the 28th of October so we arrived in the evening and then we gathered all of us because this was when we would part ways with our bus driver and porter Dama and Tiki, and we wanted to give them the tips we had collected from everyone and then later in the evening during dinner we finally had dinner with Fina, and we gave him also his tip. I also had an extra backpack with all the stuff that I bought when I had no luggage right so I wanted to give him that backpack and also my black backpack which I use for birdwatching and also every day in the Netherlands.
It had started to fall apart. It was still in one piece and working fine, but some of the layering on top started to peel off a little bit so I had already purchased a new one back home online so I didn’t need this one so I figured I would just wash it well and give it to Fina. He could either give it to someone in his community or keep it for himself or whatever he decides to do with it and also I did the same with the red backpack some of my cosmetics some of my clothes that I bought there and also some of my T-shirts that I had already for like home T-shirts and I also gave him a full bottle of DEET, so he can protect himself from the mosquitoes and I think a bag of cashew nuts and things like that basically anything I didn’t need I put in the backpack and I also had written a postcard with a message to him and his family from one of the cards I bought there.
It was pretty cool to write on one of these typical Madagascar paper postcards and inside that I placed 500,000 Ariary, which is about a hundred euro for a tip for him on top of what I already put in the bag with all the other tips from everyone which was I think another 165,000 ariary. He was so thankful when he saw the card and also when he went back home to his family and opened the backpack, he texted me and he was super super happy and also sent me pictures because his daughter had graduated just a few days before so he sent me photos of her graduation with the family there around her and his son and wife and the girlfriend of his son and the aunt.
It was just really cool to see them so happy and a bit sad for him because he missed the day since he was still with us on tour but at least he earned pretty good money at the end I think around €600 from all of us and then another hundred from me separately and overall I’m happy that we helped him. I think basically tourism in that country is probably the area that could feed you the best right now given that many people live with some with less than a euro a day others with two to 3 euro a day, which is nothing. Giving him €700 for 24 days is pretty much. He’s like a millionaire there so it’s good that he can take care of his family.
I wish I could help more people, but that’s not really something I can do. I guess maybe one day I can go back and open a dog and cat shelter at least then I can feed them as much as I want without feeling bad for people around. I’d just collect them and keep them in a good place. Feed them. Take care of them. That would be cool and I can do also some proper conservation work on the side and I can hire people to help me clean the cages or more like the center where the dogs would be and then have people help me with setting up a proper place like the zoo we saw but better which would really return animals back to their habitat and maybe not let that many people at once disturb the animals but I also understand that somehow you need to make earnings for that center so that you can take care of all these animals and this is by letting people see the animals, but then there needs to be some sort of way that you don’t disturb the animals, but let people still see them.
Anyway…
Day 22-23 – 29-30.10.2026 – Analavory Geysers and the journey home
So officially the tour was over, but our flight was on 30 October in the afternoon at 4 o’clock so my roommate Toos and I had asked Fina to book for us an extra trip to some geysers and a volcano crater three hours away from the capital and so we set off in the morning at 5:30. However, what happened is that morning We received an email that our flight was delayed and instead of 4 o’clock, it would leave around 8 o’clock and that meant that our connecting flight to London was at 23:59 but our flight would arrive at 23:55 which meant it was impossible to catch our connection and this would be valid for all 12 people that we had to fly on the day so the company had to figure something out and by company I mean the tour agency we all booked through.
I also had asked Fina to book me a driver to bring me to the bird park that I went to on the first day so my plan was to go from 5:30 until like eight or nine and then pass through a flower market where I could look for Pachypodium seeds and then just go back and pack my luggage and leave but now with that flight change my roommate and I went on with our trip for the day but on the way there I emailed the tour agency to look into this problem as soon as possible. And then we went on with the tour, looked around the geysers. It was pretty cool, very vivid colours, water erupting, and there was a place you can swim, but of course we didn’t swim because we didn’t have time for that and then we went to see a waterfall which was actually two waterfalls with half an hour walk between them and it was pretty cool to see them, but on the way back from the waterfall, it started raining very heavily so we skipped the crater and just started driving back after lunch.
On the way back, I received a message from Fina that they booked the flight with Air France, which would fly off at 1 o’clock in the morning basically the same day sort of officially the next day of course but that meant we had to return, pack our luggage and leave the hotel right away. That of course meant that I will not be able to go birdwatching again, which was very sad but also I am glad I did it the first day cause otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to see any of the birds I saw there which was amazing to see because there were some rare birds there so we went back and packed our luggage and we went to the airport and then we had a long flight to Paris and then back to Amsterdam around 2 o’clock in the afternoon on the 30th.
That gave me an extra day, which was amazing. But because I am starting a new job I thought I would be back on Sunday because of the old flight mess so I had asked already to take my last three holiday days right after I come back from holiday so I can relax and acclimate. So I am starting my new job on Thursday, but actually it’s still with the consultancy company because they reached an agreement that I will still be with the consultancy in November and officially start in December with the client which will now be my direct employer so that means I am still staying in my old team and old company in November and then I will start with the new team as an internal employee from December.
That’s basically it for that trip. It was really unforgettable both the ups and downs of it all the beautiful and ugly things pretty much everything was a mix of contrasts. And along the way Fina had told us about the political situation in Madagascar and how they had three major strikes in the country because people are not happy with the president and the president has full power, but they don’t know how to change anything because the problem is, they need to change the political system in my opinion, but they don’t know how to do that so instead they change one president with another and then it’s more of the same, and people are very corrupt there, and by people, I mean the police and gendarmerie and this is a big problem for regular people because they ask for money and they ask for 1000 per person which for them is a lot every time they are in a public transport bus going in and out of the city and there are multiple stops like that and people really don’t like that but these people from the police who ask for this money they serve the political system, of course which means they are loyal to where the money comes from because nobody bothers them when they ask for money, so of course they would protect those people at any cost because that means money for them and in general..
In 2002 there was a Malagasy political crisis that erupted when both the candidate for new president Marc Ravalomanana and the current president Didier Ratsiraka claimed victory in a disputed election, splitting the country between two rival governments. Angry that the voters didn’t choose him and refusing to step down, Ratsiraka ordered his supporters to blow up major bridges and block roads, cutting off Antananarivo for six months. This blockade left the capital starving for fuel and food, creating a massive problem for the people living there and pushing the nation to the brink of civil war. Madagascar’s gov is deeply corrupted, the old president Ratsiraka went into “exile” in France, which is more like escaping to a better life than a real punishment.. But that’s what it is.
And so while there are so many problems in the country, it only makes sense that people try to survive the way they can, which means just take over any land and try to produce whatever you can so you can sell and survive or consume yourself and this is really striking and sad for me. Because they are so rich in resources they are so rich in wildlife and that’s wildlife. You can see nowhere else on earth literally but they will destroy it, I’m afraid. Sooner or later.. And these are good people they deserve so much more. It’s so much pissing me off that the Westerners and especially their colonists, the French, only took the resources out without helping them become a little bit richer by keeping some of their resources for themselves and giving them a fair price for it.
It’s the next level of the abuse of the Westerners over African countries. For me this is insanely sad.