Driving

As almost every foreigner notices, Google Maps is very limited and there are no street signs in Madagascar. So if you're driving in an unfamiliar area, at some point you're probably going to come to a fork in the road and not know which way to turn. Or maybe you'll be close to your destination but not know the exact spot so you'll have to roll down your window and ask a local how to get to the town hall, a restaurant or tourist attraction. Basically prepare to get lost. Side note, when driving through the country it's best to have any white skinned people (or vasa) duck down when passing a police check station to minimize your chances of being stopped. That is, if you don't want to waste time arguing about some stupid made up rule you broke. You can also avoid the argument by giving into their "fine" but I would rather not fuel their corruption with bribery. So we told them we would pay the fine in Tana (Antananarivo, the capital) but we wouldn't give the money directly to them. Today they gave up after fifteen minutes and let us go because "Sunday is a holy day". We weren't as lucky as last week. It took us only 5 minutes for the same issue then. The police came up to us and after a checking the car's paperwork, asked for Elaine and I's passports. They tried giving us a fine for not also having a certified copy of our passport from the town hall in Tana. But what is the point of a copy if you have the real deal? Today the national police brought up the same issue but didn't even check our passports, which proves once you get pulled over once, they radio all the other police check points to look out for your car. Yay more harassment! Worse yet, in the south, which is much poorer, the police are rumored to radio to bandits down the road which cars look like good targets, particularly at night. The roads are so straight you can see a car coming from 15 km away. They have plenry of time to set up a road block to turn you into a sitting duck or make you pay a fee for their help moving the barrier. So much for the police badge saying "Division of Public Safety". Every time we managed to get past a police check point, I did a little happy dance.

While driving with friends, I've quickly learned many different driving courtesies. If you look in the dictionary for the definition of a windy road, it says: "Madagascar's central highways".We drove 11 hours today, 11 hours of constant twists and turns. When entering a turn, unless you are familiar with the road (which we were not) you have no clue whether you are entering a 30˚ 90˚ or 150˚ turn, which can result in some exhilarating G-forces. Most lanes are the size of a US one way road plus the shoulder. Because roads are super narrow you can get stuck behind a semi-truck for miles, especially when exiting small towns. To try to mitigate this, you can give a short honk when coming up on a slow car or truck to say: "Hi! I'd like to pass please!". Slow cars will either honk back in acknowledgement, turn on their left turn signal to indicate its safe to pass, or the right to indicate a car is coming. And because, we are good people, whose mothers taught us not only to say please but also thank you, we give another short honk as we pass, turn on our emergency flashers on for half a second after passing, or wave. However, the latter is not very commonly used. The same rules apply to traffic which, by the way, is horrendous. Prepare to turn off your car repeatedly. If you happen to be in a part of town with multiple lanes, and you would like to change lanes, good luck trying to do it on your own. But if you ask a driver in the lane next to you with your blinker and a short honk they usually are happy to let you in once traffic moves forward again. It also helps to have a passenger who can get out and wave at the driver. Once you've arrived at your final destination, its common for a street merchant to come help you parallel park. And again because we like to say thank you, its common to give 200-500 Ariary (6-15 cents).

The thing about Malagasy roads is sometimes they are in great condition, and sometimes its better to drive next to the road.

Here's to safe travels in my last few days and to not being stopped by police.