Madafan | Authentic Madagascar Tours: voyage, travel, reise

What would you ask madagascar tourism BMO?

Mi, 05/05/2010 - 19:15

During the last few months, I was thinking of taking madafan to a new level. Throughout the experience, and given the diversity of things to cover, it has become clear that Madafan has to foster strong partnerships and provide more in-depth advices/tips for its readers. Today, while sipping a baobab natural juice at one Antananarivo restaurant (more on this later in this post), I tried to identify key elements to include into partnerships Madafan would setup with key tourism business associations. Came to my mind was the following list:
- work with them to leverage on their member’s expertise on a region/activity. The idea is to have a win-win situation where they will provide insightful information on a topic to Madafan readers thereby establishing themselves as an authority on the matter,
- accompany the business association with their efforts on online promotion: this may include availing online electronic version of their promotional materials while balancing it with actual client’s feed-back/review…
- Madafan to start selling/distributing on its website electronic versions of tourism directories, CD and DVDs, map,…

Those are only basic ideas. What would you want to get from those professional tourism players that aren’t yet available (or hard to find?). Feel free to share it on the comment section, or contact me directly?

P.S: on the baobab natural juice, I know it’s no more exceptional to mention extraordinary things you can do in Madagascar, but hey, this God-blessed island has got 7 endemic species of baobab while you can only find one specimen outside of Madagascar… So having the chance to sip a baobab natural juice is something special IMHO… And it’s so delicious

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Local tourism in Madagascar: continued

Do, 04/29/2010 - 18:10

Earlier, I wrote that we want to showcase on Madafan the challenges for local tourism, from a local standpoint. To make things closer to how a tourist would approach his preparation for a trip to Madagascar, let’s see what are the ressources that I have available (as a reminder, we want to spend the holidays at the beach, in a place where we can cook…).

So, here is my list of ressources:

- on the internet:

* you’ve seen me writing on my blog (www.madafan.com) about our goals. I know my blog ain’t read by lot of madagascar-tourism players, but it is redistributed to different places…

* on twitter (by the time I wrote this article, I have around 700 twitter followers who know I’m mostly tweeting about madagascar)- so I made my request for help on preparing this holiday with a link to my blog’s entry…I’ve got a follow-up with AssistenTravel who is still working on preparing an offer,

* on facebook (where I have around 400 friends): except for some status updates, I sent some private messages to some friends I know who have been to the places I want to go to…

* direct e-mail contact:I e-mailed some regional tourism office. It has delivered mitigated results, some players respond in less than 48 hours, but I’ve got lot of “mail delivery return” as the e-mail address I received are not working anymore. I can’t believe such basic mistakes still happen, guys, it only costs you less than 10usd/year to have a google-apps-powered (gmail-like) e-mail address that you can keep almost forever even though you’re changing your internet service provider… Less than 10USD/YEAR… Come on guys, you can do it, it’s half of a taxi-ride from Nosy Be’s airport to downtown…

* internet research: I was trying to browse the internet so as to check which place has nice reviews- but since most reviews are made by international tourists, most of them refer to places that do not necessarily fit my needs (and constraints)

- offline:

To give a bit of background, I was considering nosy-be,sainte marie, diégo or taolagnaro.

* Annuaire du tourisme 2008: ok, that book is full of contacts, but as I am a “bit” internet-oriented, I skipped all contacts who have no e-mail or web-address, or whose e-mail addresses are hosted on obsolete domain names. The list of potential candidates shrunk a lot. You know, it’s good to have a sense of how “serious” a provider can potentially be by having online contacts … And moreover, I’m not into phoning (sorry for those who expect a call)… And the same issue on e-mail address not working came by too frequently (it even happened with Taolagnaro’s regional tourism office…Guys, don’t assign your personal e-mail to official contact because you’re only holding a tourism office position temporarily… Diego Suarez regional tourism office almost got it setup the right way- although there’s a typo on the e-mail address)

* then I have one Nosy-Be booklet edited by Carambole which clearly shows the different activities that can be done in the different islands of Nosy-Be…

* Madagascar Guide officiel (or something like this, I’m a bit lazy finding out the right title)- edited by the national tourism board: well it actually is meant for international tourists…

- info-tourisme magazine: it’s still a “topic-oriented” set of articles that don’t really help on deciding where to stay- although it gives info on the new hotels or improvements made on different places/hotels/restaurants

Finally, I’ve read and compiled a lot of books/brochures/website and also contacted some people, but at the end of the day I couldn’t yet find out my best fit. Those who took the time to answer me sent some canned responses on activities that can be done, then end up asking me “how much is your budget?” when it comes to renting bungalows…Man, I
have no clue what’s the price I can set, though I’m asking you what’s available so as for me to decide on which items I can “work on” to have it reach an acceptable budget.
Moreover, I’ve been gently reminded that august/september is in the middle of the peak season, though prices are higher, and that tourism pros prefer being paid in Euros than in Ariary… Well, thanks for being frank, at least I’ve been warned…however, from being enthusiastic, I now am a bit disappointed (though the tone in this article that is closer to what I used to writing on http://saveoursmile.wordpress.com) and I am now considering:
- either contacting local guides to plan those holidays for us,
- or moving to a different season since I feel like I’m not really welcome in my own country when it’s the peak tourism season
- or insisting on having some pro tour operators plan the holidays for us…
Anyway, the story goes on…it’s not over yet

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Don’t know what to do for Earth Day? Vote for Vakan’Ala

Do, 04/22/2010 - 20:08

EarthDay turns 40 today, April 22nd 2010, that’s older than me but this year is the first time I really took the time to consider this day as a special one – there’s no shame admitting it …

And if you are one of those people who want to do something special this day but either think we don’t have the time (you know, we all get busy doing things we/or others consider as important),or don’t know exactly what to do (hey, we can’t all be experts on conservation matters…) then, at least one thing’s for sure, you have time to click (otherwise you won’t be reading this post, huh?)… You probably have a facebook or a twitter account ….Which means you’re good to go for what I’m going to ask you to do now.

So here is a tip for you:from today up to June 22th 2010 , you can contribute to making the Vakanala project a winner of this ebay-sponsored tournament called … humanitycalls. Here is the description:

“Welcome to the eBay Fundraising Tournament For The Environment

The tournament cash pool has been seeded with $50,000 from eBay in support of environmental issues, such as climate change, conservation, renewable energy and pollution.

The top 30 nonprofits, as voted by YOU, will share in the tournament’s final cash pool – which will grow thanks to YOUR outreach efforts and donations!

”

You can support Vakanala NGO:

- either by voting

- or spreading the word about them running for this tournament

- or by donating (there’s a link for donating somewhere but I’ll only put one link in this post so that you have no choice but click this only link

Vakanala’s motto is “we’re planting trees for you”… Wanna make this earth day special? help this Malagasy NGO and vote for them so that they can have a slice of the $5000USD pie for planting trees in Madagascar … Here is the link for voting

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Local tourism- malagasy discovering Madagascar: how achievable is it?

Di, 04/13/2010 - 04:10

(cc) OneGreatClick on Flickr

This year, I move toward a radical change in my professional career after June 2010, moreover I am celebrating 10 years of dating my wife (oh gosh, that’s been a long and lovely ride) we’ve decided to spend our vacation in Madagascar (as if we could afford spending a holiday outside of Madagascar , in a place where we’ve never been together.

This will surely be an interesting experience as:
- this will be a clear milestone, a kind of “let’s turn the page”. Turn the page as I’ll begin my journey as a online entrepreneur- at some point of time, you just don’t find a fit being an employee. So I like considering it as having a fresh air before boarding onto this
different experience - but for madafan, I also want to associate this experience to a case study for Madagascar tourism. In fact, since the 2009 crisis, professional tourism stakeholders in Madagascar has decided to finally promote local tourism as a way to sustain this industry. I personally think that so far it’s just a “filan-tsy mahita” (a “forced alternative” while waiting for a better one) since tourists have almost canceled all their booking last year… Now that a lot of international promotion has been done by participating to a lot of well-known tourism trade fair (“Le monde à Paris, ITB Berlin”,…), it seems that feed-back are positive on tourists willing to go back to Madagascar again- which actually means that this “local tourism” thing will probably soon become a piece of history that no one cares about… I may be wrong but let’s wait and see…

So let’s put a bit of background so that Madafan readers can have a clearer idea on what’s going on (and may be some Madagascar tourism pro can tailor an offer for us Hey, I’ll be writing about this experience since inception to the “coming back home”- which can be a good (or bad) thing for both of us
The plan is to take a vacation with my lovely wife and two small kids (3 and 4 y.o) on august 2010. My daughter doesn’t support car-rides, nonetheless we want to go to different places than the usual local-vacation-destination in the east-coast (Foulpointe, Mahambo, Toamasina, Manambato, ambila-lemaintso), or in the north-west coast (Mahajanga)- though we are willing to consider going by flight (oh gosh, that’s already a big expense in our budget even though Air Madagascar has tha avana family pack with 50% rebate on local flight) but dammit, my family deserves it, and I want to spend a good time with them before getting back to being a workaholic
Will we make it? Wait and see- I’ll try to report here the challenges (and the nice findings) that we face along the way as we move forward preparing this vacation (and hey, if you have any suggestion I’m more than willing to consider it- and eventually report it on Madafan)

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Photo: Lemur species rediscovered after 100 years

Fr, 04/09/2010 - 06:20

A species of lemur has been rediscovered more than a century after it was last spotted, report researchers from McGill University, the German Primate Centre in Göttingen Germany, the University of Antananarivo in Madagascar, and the University of Massachusetts.

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David Grier: Why a crazy man’s effort matters?

Mi, 03/03/2010 - 10:49

David Grier

Frankly speaking, the first time I heard about the name of “David Grier”, it was a facebook (shame?) friend of mine who told me to become one of his fans, or friend him …. can’t even remember … I skipped the invite (so do I with all those funny- and not so funny- facebook invites that wants you to accept some blurry-not-even-understandable-by-the-developers-privacy-issues facebook application)… but anyway, this post is not about facebook privacy issues ….

Then I went on another online presence I have which is twitter and there comes up again this name from another online friend. I do admit I was not scrutinizing twitter streams as I did before so, yes, I almost missed this one – the good thing is- you have other people looking out for you, then you only have to do some more research and then write a blog post … ain’t blog nice? lol)

So who is David Grier: he’s another South-african crazy man who have decided to do a challenge in Madagascar. Remember the story of Rian Manser who did a “around madagascar on kayak“? Well, maybe David Grier got inspired, since- instead of flying to Mada then kayaking, he decided to paddle from South Africa, then have adventures inside Madagascar and…paddle back to South africa… the adventure is still going on and you can follow him on twitter

Talking about twitter, his twitter bio says he’s a chef … Is he doing this challenge in a quest for that rare spice that will add that “secret ingredient” to his recipe? I doubt it, but if he does that, then I won’t even ask for the bill if I were the one to eat at his table … It must be way beyond what I can afford …
So what the hell is he trying to achieve? Let me not try to interpret it as I may just screw his message. (that’s also a nice trick for not having to summarize what’s written on all of his multiple online presence)
On his facebook profile, his bio says:

Follow David’s progress on his latest Miles for Smiles initiative – a 5 month paddle, run and kite surf adventure to, across and back from Madagascar.

I already reported on what’s on his twitter bio, but you should definitely follow him on twitter as he regularly updates it (despite the challenging telecommunications issues that he surely faces, but hey- that’s proof that you still have connection even if you’re in the jungle in Madagascar …. well, at least in some parts of Madagascar)…It looks he’s uploading from his nokia phone- which is even better- no need to look for cybercafé and other internet spots…

Still on this telecommunication issue, my hats-off to David Grier as he can even upload some vids on his youtube channel ….Awesome (and a lot of patience too)… Well, in fact, it’s a channel to his “Madagascar challenge 2010″ AKA “Miles for smiles”

Guys, one post won’t cover it all, and despite my provoking title, I say it again: hats-off to David Grier for this phenomenal challenge…

So Madagascar-tourism-players, what about making Madagascar a destination for extreme-sports practitioners? Remember, we had our national Zoto who run across the country, now we have south africans challenging themselves;back to the eighties, we had the Camel Trophy 4×4 raid … there probably are other challenges that has already been done … Feel free to share them in the comments (or follow David Grier’s adventure)

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Taolagnaro to welcome 900 cruisers on march 2010

Do, 02/25/2010 - 10:18

photo credit: joiseyshowaa

So a cruise will land in Taolagnaro on march 28th 2010, bringing 900 english-speaking tourists to this wonderful city of Madagascar for 9 hours. The tourism ministry even held a special session to “motivate” tourism actors in this city so as to shine and give the best of them during this 9 hour stop… I can’t help but wonder: isn’t it what those actors are already supposed to do for any lambda tourist (whether their number is 900 or 1)?
Then english speakers and english teachers are encouraged to actively participate into this “event”. This is awkward. I frankly don’t know if I should be happy that people recognize the importance of speaking english, or if I should be concerned because those tourists and the local counterpart would have to communicate by way of writing on a piece of paper the price while bargaining (I had this kind of experience being on the tourist side while buying something in Hanoï few years ago, and while it was memorable in some way, it didn’t help much – even though the vendor kept on smiling). Nonetheless, the experience can be interesting for both sides

Despite all those sarcastic comments I have, I fully concur with the idea that each opportunity to shine should be seized given that tourism has suffered a lot this last year. By the way, I am wondering how does Friendly Planet go with their scheduled 2010 cruise to Madagascar that they asked for.

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7 facts you need to know about taxi rides in Madagascar

Mi, 02/10/2010 - 17:14

Taxi aligned on the independence avenue- Antananarivo

Once you’re tired of walking around a city, as a tourist, you may be tempted to have a taxi-ride… So let’s try to give you some tips in order to make it a memorable and funny ride

The following isn’t about the”agreed” taxis parking outside big hotels and at the airport , we’re talking here about the usual ones that you can hire just by putting your thumbs up.

Fact One: we don’t have mercedes taxi cabs …

Used to ride the well-maintained 5 years-old-max air-conditioned cab? Well, be prepared to a drastic change over here The old-plain 1970’s 2CV or 4L will try to get you to the destination If not, you will generally find other 20 year old-vehicle where a screwdriver can be used as a mean to block the mirror from falling. If you are lucky, the cab may have some kind of radio hardly trying to air some malagasy music. For those who have no clue what a 2CV is, look at this thumbnail image on the left, it’s the first vehicle…Frankly speaking, 2CVs are not for those who want some kind of comfort during the ride, especially if you are tall. But it’s definitely worth a ride if you want to have a different sensation during your ride: plain-simple vehicle that hardly can climb Antananarivo’s hills and that is noisy when it comes to driving through some stone-paved roads (so do other taxi models too however …) It’s really hard hearing your ear-plugged mp3 player when driving through those stone-paved roads with most of the taxis by the way.

Fact two: they might not know exactly where you want to go

As surprising as it may be, I’ve found many taxi-drivers who don’t actually know where you’re asking them to drive you , and frankly speaking, unless you’ve written the name of the place you want to go to, your accent trying to correctly spell the name won’t help

If you’re in Antananarivo, although streets have names, don’t even try to refer to the place you want to go by the street names – very few taxi-drivers care about them (and citizens usually don’t too). They usually refer to a symbolic place- so you’re better off saying something like “next to ” than “rue Rapatsalahy Paul”…Moreover, the name of the street becomes a torture to pronounce when they are assigned a malagasy name Referring to street names in cities like Antsiranana may work though.

Fact three: On change and paying

In most cities, you won’t be charged on a per-mile basis. Unless you are in cities like Mahajanga or Antsirabe where taxi-fares are structured on a zone-basis (so you don’t bargain anymore), taxi-drivers establish their prices assuming different criteria (traffic-jam potential, fuel price, the place you want to go to or its surroundings and your “profile”). In cities like Antananarivo, they usually don’t go lower than 20% higher than the price of 1 litre of fuel per short ride. But given the fact that you are a tourist, you can expect that the price that they will announce will be at least twice the regular price. One rule-of-thumb: you’ve got to bargain (unless in cities where fee-structure are already defined as mentioned earlier)

Now that you’ve agreed on the price, not only will most of the taxi-drivers stop-by a gas-station during your ride, but they will ask you to pay for the fuel-refill I just remember a foreign friend who had his eyes rolling out of his glasses when he found out that I gave the money to pay the fuel-refill. The fact is that the majority of taxi-drivers only has the minimum fuel in their tank to get them to the next gas-station.

Fact four: Comfort and security is not the priority

We’ve already talked about the special use of the screwdriver, but as a general assumption, most taxi you’ll ride will not give you the best comfort you’re used to when riding a car (remember, those are usually 20 years old cars). This is where the fun comes as you can find a taxidriver who pretend to have his seat-belt on his chest while it is not tightened to anything below (he just want to fool the policeman as safety belt is mandatory for any car driver in antananarivo), you can also get into some taxi that has holes on their floor so that you can see the road scrolling between your legs, … and the list goes on …

As a rule of thumb, don’t you even lean on any taxi door during the ride.

Fact five: Communicating with the taxi-driver

Often times, your taxi-driver will be able to have small discussions with you, provided that you speak … french or in Malagasy

Fact six: We don’t have a Taxi-company

None of the taxi running in town are affiliated to a company, or an association. Most of them are owned or rented by their driver- they only have to possess a taxi-license given by the authorities. So concepts like “phone a taxi” usually don’t exist here (unless you personally have been given a taxidriver’s mobile phone number to call). Big hotels may have some “accredited” taxis that usually work with them, however, don’t expect to settle taxi fares to your hotel room.

Fact seven: being on a taxi sometimes doesn’t mean you’ll be the only one inside

In cities like antsiranana (AKA Diego Suarez), it’s common to see a taxi full of people. When you were used to ride a taxi alone (or two persons at max) in the backseat, in this city, you can find a 4L with 8 or more people inside … Guess how this all fit together

Sounds scary? It’s not. I’m just trying to unstick you from your usual habits of hiring a cab attitudes you’ve acquired while you were in your hometown. The best way to handle this is to ask someone from your hotel to hire the cab for you, and if you are on your way back to your hotel, most taximen know where all the hotels are. Don’t worry, we don’t have highways in Madagascar, and most taxi drive below 40km/h (carefully chose however your taxi that will drive you to the airport as they may go over this 40km/h)

Other people will probably add to this list of 7 facts… Jump to the comment section and add yours.

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How to end Madagascar’s logging crisis

Mi, 02/10/2010 - 05:04

In the aftermath of a military coup last March, Madagascar’s rainforests have been pillaged for precious hardwoods, including rosewood and ebonies. Tens of thousands of hectares have been affected, including some of the island’s most biologically-diverse national parks: Marojejy, Masoala, and Makira. Illegal logging has also spurred the rise of a commercial bushmeat trade. Hunters are now slaughtering rare and gentle lemurs for restaurants.

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Promoting a travel destination through a blog

Mi, 02/03/2010 - 04:04

(cc) Marco Belucci on Flickr.com

Be warned, this post is not about Madagascar, it’s a self-inspection of madafan…
As this new year has started (well, we’re already on february), I just took some time to look back at what I want Madafan to become and where does it stand now.
The goal is clear: I want madafan to become the reference for all travellers when they plan to come to Madagascar, or when they want to share their experience about their trip to Madagascar.
Easier said than done, I’m not even talking about the fact that I’m trying to promote a country that still undergoes a political turmoil
Back to the title of this post: when I read back the articles posted on Madafan so far, I just realized that I’m writing like a marketer, not like a blogger, you know the kind of “look, have you seen this awesome place”… a “brochure-like” kind of writing that tourism board are doing. Let’s make it clear:Madafan is not a tourism board agency… Showing the cool places from the “bright-side” perspective is a tourism board job – not madafan’s job (although Madafan can also do it) – BTW, thanks Sara LeHouillier for reminding me that I always look at the bright side – it’s a good thing, but not always helping when you’re a travel-blogger, and you try to earn travellers’ trust, that you’re not trying to polish things before showing them off to tourists.
So what’s all this rant all about?
First, while continuing to showcase must-see places, Madafan will try to focus more on the “things tourists do not expect to experience” while coming to Madagascar- actual facts, must-foresee things…you know, the kind of things not always written in guide-books that will prevent tourists from saying “I should have known” Second: while on the guide book topic, this year, Madafan will explore some “call to action” from its readers… It won’t always be “subscribe to my RSS feed” or “become a fan”… The fact is, Madafan has always avoided providing the usual facts about Madagascar you find in guidebooks- the main reason is simple: you can find it anywhere on the internet and we don’t want to be a “me-too” …however, we will begin diatributing/selling madagascar or madafan-related materials soon…There probably won’t be lot of customers but there’s a beginning for everything… BTW, if you’re good at designing madagascar-related artworks, we’ve gotta chat
That’s all for this 7AM rant, now let’s go back to implementing all of this

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Satellites being used to track illegal logging, rosewood trafficking in Madagascar

Do, 01/28/2010 - 20:22

Analysts in Europe and the United States are using high resolution satellite imagery to identify and track shipments of timber illegally logged from rainforest parks in Madagascar. The images could be used to help prosecute traders involved in trafficking and put pressure on companies using rosewood from Madagascar.

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