Mad about Madagascar

Lily

B.R
Staff member
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Who says science isn’t fun? The great Madagascar experiment began some 165 million years ago when it was ripped from Africa and sent floating off into the newly formed Indian Ocean. Isolated, the island’s plants and animals evolved, creating thousands of dumbfounding species that Madagascar could call its very own. The remaining forests still teem with this outlandish life, and encounters with it can’t help but make you giggle with delight. The Malagasy, who are relatively recent arrivals, are equally captivating. Although fiercely patriotic, they believe family is central to life, and their startling exhumation ceremonies prove the dead are just as important to them as the living. Pure fantasy? No. Unforgettable? Yes.

Your pocket guide

Quick facts

Capital Antananarivo
Population 20,653,556
Area 587,041 sq km
Official languages Malagasy, French and English
Best time to visit April to October (the dry season)
In a word Manao ahoana ianao (How do you do?)
Trademarks Lemurs; tsingy; Avenue du Baobab;
zebu-drawn carts
Where to stay There are plenty of hotels and hostels to suit your budget.
How to go Air Mauritius (flight operated by Emirates Airlines) operates flights from Dubai to Madagascar.

Top things to do

  • Try not to get caught up in it all while walking through
  • the remarkable ‘spiny forest’ in Parc National d’Andohahela
  • Trek deep into the lush cloud forests of Parc National
  • de Ranomafana to swap looks with lemurs
  • Step into an envy-evoking postcard at Andilana’s beach
  • on Nosy Be
  • Experience the geological, biological and spiritual wonders
  • of Parc National de l’Isalo
  • Find your own personal treasure when diving the reef
  • off Nosy Ve, a former haunt of Malagasy pirates
Top things to see

  • Tsingy, surreal limestone pinnacles that would make
  • Antoni Gaudí proud
  • Remote Madagascar from a pirogue floating down
  • the Tsiribihina River
  • Avenue du Baobab, a road lined by giants
  • Famadihana, or ‘turning of the bones’, a sacred ceremony
  • of exhumation
  • Malagasy life in fast forward, the colourful streets
  • of Antananarivo are full of it
Getting under your skin

  • Read A History of Madagascar by Mervyn Brown, an eminently readable, authoritative
  • description of the island’s history
  • Listen to hira gasy, live storytelling spectacles in Madagascar’s central highlands
  • Watch Raymond Rajaonarivelo’s Quand les Étoiles Rencontrent la Mer (When the
  • Stars Meet the Sea), the story of a boy born during a solar eclipse; Rajaonarivelo’s
  • Tabataba, a fi lm about the bloody rebellion against the French in 1947
  • Eat vary hen’omby (rice served with stewed or boiled zebu)
  • Drink rano vola (rice water), a brown, smoky-tasting concoction – it’s an acquired taste!

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