Bonjour Vaza, Salamo Vaza

A week has come and gone on this “island of clouds”, as Sean calls it.

Vaza is the name Malagasy’s call us foreigners- it comes from Wasa (cracker- crispy and pale? - except they don’t have a W in the Malagasy alphabet so it’s become vasa…).

We’ve taken a knock on the side of the head. We didn’t know what to expect upon arriving in Madagascar and now that we’re leaving we still haven’t quite got to grips- is it Asian, African, French? A little of all of those..we think…

"Tana" view from our apartment window

A few impressions- 

Nothing insipid about the skies here- azure big blue with great bulbous cloudscapes.

And the highland landscape could be the rolling hills of Provence

Sounds and smell of rural morning life -crow of a cock and the smell of the burning wood fire wake me up, in an apartment in the city centre of Antananarivo, the capital.

In a small country village where farmers live without running water there is a thriving foie gras industry..?

Hotelys- small, extremely basic but homely street food restaurants- with small window boxes display their wares- fried noodles; Mofo gasy- rice cakes; little pots of yoghurt; freshly squeezed juices; bottles of THB (local beer)

THB

After a day in “Tana” as it’s called we take a 4 hour trip to Bakobako gite, in a small village about 20 km’s outside Antsiribe. We are lodging with Madame Honorine and her partner Gustave, who have been running the gite for 10 years.  They show us real country cooking- its all done on an open fire using what is harvested from the garden. Even the spicy duck we have for dinner is from their own back yard. The food is wholesome and delicious and served classic French style, in the evenings we start with an aperitif and a small snack, then onto a first, second course and a dessert. Some of the dishes are so unusual and tasty we whip them straight from the table to under the camera.

Sean shows our pics to the team

 Our guide and finder Tsito had never seen anything like it-“ treating plates as if they were top models-“ Here in Madagascar we were taught to eat, not to play with our food.”