Hell
Ok so I've been to hell and it's called taxi-brousse between Majunga and Ambanja.
So they told us the ride would take 10 to 12 hours which means about 16, we leave at 5PM which means 7PM. We get to Ambanja at around noon the following day, we have to take a local taxi-B for about one hour, so two, to Ankify where we get on the ferry to Nosy Be, a paradise-like island, for about another hour so 2....therefore we should be on the island at around 4 so really 8. SUPPER!!!!
Taxi-Brousse station in Majunga at 4:30PM
Nous: Alors nous laissons nos sacs ici et on revient pour le départ vers....
Eux: Nous partons à 5hrs.
Nous: Donc vraiment 7hrs?
Eux; Non, non avec nous on part toujours à l'heure ou presque.
5:15PM
We're the only 2 people sitting the the van waiting, so we read, have a few snacks and 2 hours later we're ready to leave. At the last second they try to squeeze in another person in our row of seats. So we complained, we specifically asked when we bougth the tickets if we would be 3 or 4 in the row and they told us 3. So we bithced, no one else on the bus seemed to mind sitting on half a saet for 16 hours but we did. We've done it before and never again. So we argued and finally they told the other person they couldn't come on board but not before trying to get him to sit in the row behing us which already had 2 extra people.
Bon, so we're off, everyone on the bus is talking about us "rich" white folks who cab't seem to be able to share a seat....anyhow. As we start moving along we noticed our driver was doing about 40km/h and was really nervous, he kept looking out the window, touching his head, his mouth, we seriously thought he was going into epileptic schock.....
5hrs later and about 90kms from where we had left, the road is blocked by other trucks and busses, the section of the road is floaded we can't cross 'till daylight, 6 hours later. Ok so we sleep on the bus, and I use sleep in the lightest from because one of the passengers on the bus decided to try out all his rings tones throughout the entire night :)
Next morning:
The road is filled with water up to my neck, the van can't cross, some others were braver and pulled their van accross which nearly tipped over twice and could have killed everyone on the side of the bus (no Jean Val Jean to save the people stuck underneath). Ok we're going to take the bags off the car, cross via canoe to the other side and get on another van. Now when i say getting our "bags off" I have to mention that people travel with bed frames, fridges, motorcycles....everything goes on the taxi-B.
Alright, we're on the other side, now the drivers from 2 diff companies are having an arguement over how to spilt up the money. It took them 4 hours to come to an agreement. 4!!!!!!!!!!
Bon, now we're off, we stopped an hour later to eat and Meggi and I had guesstimated where on the map we were and to our great disapointment we were 150kms away from where we thought....and not in the right direction.
OK done eating we take off, 40 mins later, flat tire. But we have a spare on top of the car right???? Wrong, it's a spare but not for our car. So we stop a passing car and ask if they can send this tire to the nearest garage and send us another tire back. An hour and a half later we get our tire and we're off.
30 mins later, a passing car signals that something is wrong with our back tire...the axle is completely off center we have to stop. Ok we call another car to come pick us up, an hour later the other van shows up and we have to unload and load all the luggage....
It's night time by now, we're dirty beyond belief, annoyed, tired, worried that we're going to get to Ambanja in the middle of the night ans it might not be safe....
So we stop to eat!!!!!!!!!!!!ENOUGH WITH THE fé"'(-è_è-('" EATING CAN WE PLEASE JUST GET THERE!!!!!!
Again we're off and I swear we stop 30 mins later for the driver and co-driver to eat. By now I could have killed everyone running this company with my spoon and taken much pleasure in it.
We take off, it's 9, we try to sleep but for some reason the driver decides it's appropriate to blast malagasy music so he can stay awake. Then him and the co-driver who is all the way in the back decide to have a full on conversation yelling at the top of their lungs. I was 20 secs away from crying.
Finally, 32 hours after getting on the Taxi-brousse we get to Ambanja in a shitty hotel we have a banana with Nutela to heal our souls and go to sleep.
So they told us the ride would take 10 to 12 hours which means about 16, we leave at 5PM which means 7PM. We get to Ambanja at around noon the following day, we have to take a local taxi-B for about one hour, so two, to Ankify where we get on the ferry to Nosy Be, a paradise-like island, for about another hour so 2....therefore we should be on the island at around 4 so really 8. SUPPER!!!!
Taxi-Brousse station in Majunga at 4:30PM
Nous: Alors nous laissons nos sacs ici et on revient pour le départ vers....
Eux: Nous partons à 5hrs.
Nous: Donc vraiment 7hrs?
Eux; Non, non avec nous on part toujours à l'heure ou presque.
5:15PM
We're the only 2 people sitting the the van waiting, so we read, have a few snacks and 2 hours later we're ready to leave. At the last second they try to squeeze in another person in our row of seats. So we complained, we specifically asked when we bougth the tickets if we would be 3 or 4 in the row and they told us 3. So we bithced, no one else on the bus seemed to mind sitting on half a saet for 16 hours but we did. We've done it before and never again. So we argued and finally they told the other person they couldn't come on board but not before trying to get him to sit in the row behing us which already had 2 extra people.
Bon, so we're off, everyone on the bus is talking about us "rich" white folks who cab't seem to be able to share a seat....anyhow. As we start moving along we noticed our driver was doing about 40km/h and was really nervous, he kept looking out the window, touching his head, his mouth, we seriously thought he was going into epileptic schock.....
5hrs later and about 90kms from where we had left, the road is blocked by other trucks and busses, the section of the road is floaded we can't cross 'till daylight, 6 hours later. Ok so we sleep on the bus, and I use sleep in the lightest from because one of the passengers on the bus decided to try out all his rings tones throughout the entire night :)
Next morning:
The road is filled with water up to my neck, the van can't cross, some others were braver and pulled their van accross which nearly tipped over twice and could have killed everyone on the side of the bus (no Jean Val Jean to save the people stuck underneath). Ok we're going to take the bags off the car, cross via canoe to the other side and get on another van. Now when i say getting our "bags off" I have to mention that people travel with bed frames, fridges, motorcycles....everything goes on the taxi-B.
Alright, we're on the other side, now the drivers from 2 diff companies are having an arguement over how to spilt up the money. It took them 4 hours to come to an agreement. 4!!!!!!!!!!
Bon, now we're off, we stopped an hour later to eat and Meggi and I had guesstimated where on the map we were and to our great disapointment we were 150kms away from where we thought....and not in the right direction.
OK done eating we take off, 40 mins later, flat tire. But we have a spare on top of the car right???? Wrong, it's a spare but not for our car. So we stop a passing car and ask if they can send this tire to the nearest garage and send us another tire back. An hour and a half later we get our tire and we're off.
30 mins later, a passing car signals that something is wrong with our back tire...the axle is completely off center we have to stop. Ok we call another car to come pick us up, an hour later the other van shows up and we have to unload and load all the luggage....
It's night time by now, we're dirty beyond belief, annoyed, tired, worried that we're going to get to Ambanja in the middle of the night ans it might not be safe....
So we stop to eat!!!!!!!!!!!!ENOUGH WITH THE fé"'(-è_è-('" EATING CAN WE PLEASE JUST GET THERE!!!!!!
Again we're off and I swear we stop 30 mins later for the driver and co-driver to eat. By now I could have killed everyone running this company with my spoon and taken much pleasure in it.
We take off, it's 9, we try to sleep but for some reason the driver decides it's appropriate to blast malagasy music so he can stay awake. Then him and the co-driver who is all the way in the back decide to have a full on conversation yelling at the top of their lungs. I was 20 secs away from crying.
Finally, 32 hours after getting on the Taxi-brousse we get to Ambanja in a shitty hotel we have a banana with Nutela to heal our souls and go to sleep.
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