NOSY BE, MADAGASCAR – MARCH 22nd

Madagascar is the world’s fifth largest island; at 144 million acres, it’s almost the size of Texas.  The port we visited was Nosy Be’ (pronounced “nossy bay”) which sits in the Mozambique Channel about four miles off the northwest coast of Madagascar and has a population of approximately 73,000 people.  Nosy Be’ means “big island” in the official language of Malagasy although it measures just 123 sq. miles.  According to our port guide, days are “warm and pleasant” throughout the year.  Located in the Southern Hemisphere, Nosy Be’s warm season, which lasts from October to February, averages 80 degrees F; in the cooler months, June through August, it dips below 71 degrees F.  The Malagasy Ariary (MGA) is the local currency, but U.S. dollars and Euro are also accepted.  

Madagascar is known for its lemurs and when I saw an excursion that involved visiting the Marodoka Lemurs and a Ylang-Ylang plantation and distillery, we signed up.  It offered a coach drive to the village of Marodoka, which dates back to the 7^th century and we’d see local women performing a traditional dance that incorporates Indian, Arabian and Sakalava influences.  We’d visit Lemuria Land, a private reserve that is home to ring-tailed, black, and crowned lemurs, as well as chameleons, snakes and birds.  At the nearby ylang-ylang distillery, we’d learn how the fragrant essential oil is extracted from the local flower and we’d stop at the capital Hell-Ville for souvenir shopping.  We’d leave at 10:30 and be back on the ship at 2:30.   We’d also have to tender to our shore excursion. 

The evening before, we talked with our friends Drs. Richard (a medical doctor and psychiatrist) and his wife, Donna (also a medical doctor), and found out Richard would be on this tour.  Donna never feels compelled to visit each and every port and prefers to remain onboard on her own “private yacht.”  Because of the expected extreme weather conditions – hot, more hot, humid and more humidity – Donna suggested I borrow her “frogg togg cooling chilly pad towel” to keep around my neck to stay cool throughout our tour.  We met Richard in the morning and he gave me the chilly pad after he had already soaked it in water.  I generally hate wet clothing, but, I have to say, this felt really good around my neck – and we hadn’t even left the ship yet. 

We boarded the tender for a 10-minute ride to the pier and met our guide and bus in Nosy’ Be.  Unfortunately, our guide did not speak English very well and I didn’t even write down his name.  Let me start by commenting on the two positives I found in Madagascar.  First, the internet connection was excellent and far better than we would experience on Mauritius, our upcoming port, which is a far more developed country and, second, because so few people have cellphones in Nosy Be’, you can actually see their faces and not the tops of their heads because their heads are looking at screens as we’ve seen in almost every country we’ve visited.   

Around this same time, there was a huge cyclone that hit Beria, a coastal city in Mozambique, just west of Madagascar, which displaced, according to the reports I received online, 400,000 people.  The cyclone hadn’t affected Nosy Be’ but so much of the island looked dilapidated with shacks built from plaster, concrete, bricks, wood and even bamboo.  It’s probably the most impoverished country we’d ever visited.  Donna told us that 1,000 children had died from measles in Madagascar since October 2018.  The first shot was apparently free, but the second shot cost about 15€.  If people only made 2€ a day/60€ a month, how can they afford to spend ¼ of their monthly income on a vaccination?  There didn’t seem to be infrastructure in Nosy Be’, there were some cars but many tuk tuks.  Government schools cost 40€ (a year, I believe) so only 70% of the children actually go to school; there are no roads in Madagascar and no cars to take the children to school; only 55% go to college and I believe our guide said there was only one university in the whole of Madagascar.  The roofs were either thatched or made of tin.  Of course, there wasn’t any indoor plumbing in the “houses” we saw along the roads we traveled in the bus to get to Marodoka. 

Our first stop was a little school that could only be described as pathetic.  There were wooden tables with benches for the children, maybe one or two windows, an old style blackboard with chalk and that’s about it.  I’d be very surprised if anyone owned a computer although we did see some satellite dishes in the town.  Nothing at the schools.  The children are taught in Madagasi and French.  The children seemed as curious about us as we were of them.  One of the women on our tour made the mistake of giving a coin or two to one of the children and within a few moments, she was surrounded by over a dozen children.  Our guide did not think that was a very good idea.  The guide also took us to a building on the same grounds as the school which, apparently, had been a lovely hotel at some point, but was now a mere shell of a structure.  Bananas grew nearby and Michael was able to photograph a bee on a flower but only after I shooed it away the first time it landed (how was I to know he wanted the bee in the picture?) and fungus he’d never seen before.  

Back on the bus, we headed to the cultural center where we watched a group of costumed ladies dance to local rhythms.  Again, the English spoken was hard to understand but there was a rhyme and reason to what they were doing.  Michael was able to capture a bit of the dancing on video and I’ll try and post it.  I sat under a canopied area but even with a little bit of shade the heat was horrible as was the humidity.  Only out about an hour, I was drenched to the skin from my head to my toes.  Ron, the neurologist we’d met at the Chef’s Table, was seated next to me and he was sure he was going to lose his weight in perspiration.  

We were offered a cup of tea and a piece of koba, the national snack which is a pate’ of rice, banana and peanut.  Neither Richard, Ron nor I drank the tea and only Richard took a small bite of the koba which he said didn’t taste like much.  In the meantime, Michael took a photo in the back of the building in which the ladies were dancing and saw the “dishwasher” being used to clean the plates and cups.  After seeing the photo, we were very happy not to taste the tea.  He also took a photo of the men’s toilet; I could only imagine the women’s.  We were at this location for what seemed like an eternity and were finally told to board the bus to proceed to Lemuria Land.  

We arrived at Lemuria Land where we met our guide for this area and, again, unfortunately, I did not write down her name.  We walked along a very nicely paved path and saw five different species of adult land tortoises – some very large and some very much smaller.  A male and female chameleon were also perched on a nearby tree and had no problem remaining still for the tourists to take their pictures.  Of course, the male is the brightly blue colored one.  

Out of, what seemed to be, nowhere, we were approached by lemurs.  There are 105 different species of lemurs and we encountered just a few.  They are absolutely adorable and Richard and I both remarked that “this is what we came for.”  They’re very tame and obviously very used to having people around.  They responded to the verbal commands of the guide and Michael was there to take pictures of Richard and I very happy to have these little guys nuzzle around our necks and feeding them bits of bananas.  

It was around noon by this time and the temperature and humidity seemed to rise with every step we took even with the frogg togg around my neck, which, by the way, I had watered down twice since we left the bus.  I sat for a while on a nearby bench eating a power bar and drinking some water.  Several people looked very uncomfortable and a man had already passed out somewhere along our trek.  While on our continuing walk, I was able to take a picture of a lady and her baby.  Her face was painted with elaborate designs.  Originating in the nearby Islamic Comoros islands, the practice actually protects the women’s skin from the sun and mosquitos.  

We crossed a little bridge getting closer to the ylang-ylang distillery and were escorted into a little gift shop for souvenir shopping and a glass of water or juice.  Although our itinerary included a stop at a market at the end of the tour, I’ve learned from experience never to pass up a chance to shop for souvenirs because you never know if we’ll actually be stopping again.  I found some incredibly brightly colored woven trivets, some ylang-ylang essential oil, vanilla beans and a magnet.  I was very happy with our purchases and we proceeded to the distillery, interested in knowing how flowers become essential oils.  

Unfortunately, neither I, Michael nor Richard were to discover the distilling secrets of ylang-ylang.  Immediately upon entering the distillery, I had to leave and told Michael I didn’t feel well.  Both he and Richard immediately followed me out and, finding no benches to sit on, I leaned against a low wall outside.  Richard is a wonderfully outrageous, flamboyant and joyful man, but he immediately could sense something was not right with me.  The sweat was pouring off of me and he suggested I pour some of the bottled water over my head to cool myself down.  I did what he said and I could feel the coolness on my head for a moment or so.  Michael can later explain what he saw, but the next thing I knew, I was half sitting/half lying on the ground thinking Richard was holding on to me when, in fact, it was the lady guide.  I remember saying, “Richard, Richard” and that’s about all.  I hadn’t realized that Michael was also right beside me but I was completely out of it. I had never fainted in my life and at no point did I ever think that I was going to be sick and I’m now in a Third World country that probably doesn’t have a doctor on this island.  I’m glad I didn’t think about it.  The first thing I remembered after pouring water on my head was being lifted up off the ground, and the lady guide bringing me a chair and a couple of bottles of water.  I felt much better at that point and Richard, who is the same height as I am, had me put my arm around his shoulder and he brought me back to the now air-conditioned bus and sat me in his spot to allow for more air to hit me directly from the overhead fan.  (I know the bus did not have full air conditioning earlier on our ride.) 

TRAVEL TIPS FOR THE LADIES:  Men, you can probably stop reading here because I’m sure you don’t have the same problem as we do.  If anyone thinks this is TMI, well, I’m providing valuable travel information to anyone who is planning a trip to foreign lands where we don’t enjoy the comfortable, modern, mostly clean incredible bathrooms we have back in the United States.  I have expressed my concerns to many ladies and mostly all have experienced or felt the same thing while traveling.  Although I probably lost 2 litres of water in the first two hours of our tour (based upon what I read subsequently which also meant that I should have drunk 4 bottles of water to replenish the water loss), I hadn’t drunk any because I hate having to use public toilets.  Big mistake and quite honestly very stupid of me.  Two suggestions to the ladies out there:  get yourself a “go girl” plastic appliance (bing “go girl” and you’ll see what I’m talking about) or wear Depends, which Dr. Donna told me later, “that’s what they’re made for!”  What’s incredibly stupid is I actually have a “go girl,” unpacked it, put it away, and never thought about it again.  It’s been in my purse since our return to the ship and I certainly won’t make the same mistakes again, especially when we’re going on an overnight safari in South Africa soon. 

Back on the bus with Michael and Richard, I started to cool down and my heartrate was back to normal.  We hadn’t stopped at a souvenir market (as promised) so I was very happy to have bought the souvenirs when I did.  We did pass the Hell-Ville area where we saw lots of merchants, stalls, and people selling all sorts of things, as well as people just sitting on the streets.  Like I said before, it’s a very poor country and most of the people are probably unemployed and just sit around doing absolutely nothing.  The older women are dressed in colored material wrapped around their bodies and younger men and women wear shorts.  Everyone seemed to wear flipflops.  

Richard reminded me to drink plenty of liquid and to replenish my salt levels by eating something salty.  We were lucky that the tender was there at the pier when we got off the bus, and returned to the ship very happy to be “home.”  Several men were in boats near the tender opening on the ship trying to sell their wares for the last time to the passengers.  I looked at them and noticed none of them were sweating in the sweltering heat nor did they have any body fat.  When I returned to our cabin, I immediately called room service, ordered a tuna fish sandwich and potato chips, took a shower and enjoyed the lunch and the salt which tasted very, very good (which Richard had said would happen when you’ve lost so much).  Unfortunately, I couldn’t drink water fast enough and experienced excruciating cramps in my leg muscles that I actually had to wake Michael up from his siesta to massage them because I couldn’t move. 

After dinner, Michael and I joined Richard and Donna in the Casino Lounge to listen to music and she was kind enough to check my legs for edema and prescribed more water intake “until I pee like a racehorse” and elevation of my legs.  That evening I did exactly what the doctor ordered and I was 100% better, albeit a bit of a knee sprain which apparently happened when I dropped down to the ground like a ton of bricks.  A few days have passed and my knee was not permanently injured (according to our massage therapist who worked on it on Sunday).  Like I said on Facebook, a day of firsts.  First time in Madagascar, first time feeding a lemur, first time fainting.  Been there, done it, never doing any of it again. 

But, most important, I know Michael was extremely concerned for my health although he’s always very stoic.  I thank God and will be forever grateful that Dr. Richard was with us on this tour.  His immediate transition into calm and professional doctor mode was a blessing for me, helping me during this most unfortunate incident, but also a tremendous Godsend for Michael who needed the strength to allow someone else to take over and just get through this experience. May God bless Michael and Richard.

MICHAEL’S OBSERVATIONS:   Leona has done a wonderful job describing this amazing country and its unique inhabitants, both two- and four-legged.  As in most Third World countries, the standards for cleanliness are so low that it is understandable why these people don’t live to be very old.  In our discussion with Dr. Ron, the neurologist, we talked about Alzheimer’s and dementia in these people.  He said there is very little information or studies because the people don’t live long enough.  We, in the United States, are so blessed to have high standards of sanitation and health care.  It’s a good reminder when I travel to these countries how lucky we are. 

On a different note, it is very important to keep hydrated, in other words drink lots of water, when in this kind of extreme humidity and heat.  If you’re traveling in these types of countries, by the time you realize you’re thirsty, according to Richard, it’s too late.  If you’re a person who sweats a great deal while participating in ordinary exercise, walking or running, it is even more important that you drink a LOT of water in these climates.  Besides the danger of fainting and hurting yourself, you can damage your kidneys by extreme water loss.  In fact, a person can drop between one and two liters of fluid in an hour.  While the residents of these countries are used to this type of heat, we, as travelers, need to be very aware of the danger of heat stroke.  It was amazing to watch Leona lean against this brick wall and, in an instant, her eyes fluttered, she began shaking and hyperventilating and dropped like a sack of potatoes.  Her body was so limp I couldn’t grab a hold of her as she went down.  Fortunately for us, she landed on soft dirt and a partly grassy area.  I believe she now knows, like it or not with regard to restroom facilities, she MUST drink water.