When I came to Madagascar, I was robbed by the locals on the first night, when the bayonet was on the neck, and the whole person was cold, fortunately he only wanted my things and did not take my life. Back at the hotel, the staff told me that the security here was terrible, and I must call for bodyguards. While I was worried about the bodyguard, the front desk staff told me that she had a familiar local who would say Chinese and could be my bodyguard.
In fact, if there is a local with you here, it is relatively safe during the day. The first time I came, I still had a lot of tricks, and everyone's eyes were actually involved in interests.
The front desk staff told me very clearly that the cost of a person per day is 10,000 Madagascar ariari, about 15 yuan. Although this fee is not high in my eyes, in the eyes of locals, this income is very good.
Many people can't find jobs here, and it's very good to have an income of 10 yuan a day.
Since the staff told me that I could find a bodyguard for me, I was happy, I slept soundly that night, stopped thinking about the lost phone, took out my spare machine, and started the next day's trip.
In fact, I had no goal on this day, and the bodyguard came to the front desk of the hotel early in the morning and waited for me to come down. After coming down, the staff gave me a brief introduction, but I didn't expect that the man who came would really say Chinese, which made me feel very kind.
The man's name is Sajay, a student at Antananarivo University who studied for a year at the local Confucius Institute for Chinese after completing his undergraduate studies. He currently works for a local Chinese company as a local translator and manager, receiving a Chinese salary.
I was honored that he didn't have to go to work that day, and he accompanied me around the place.
With his help, he took me out to the street for breakfast. The breakfast here is actually richer than I expected, there are many snacks here, but different from our domestic snacks, they are all some meats, such as beef, chicken, duck, and animal offal that I ate yesterday.
Here, I also ate domestic wontons, dumplings, millet porridge. I don't dare to think about it, I feel like I'm here, just like I'm in China, and many market phenomena are very similar to our domestic farmers' markets.
To eat a breakfast here, you only need to spend 5-10 yuan, you can enjoy the treatment of seafood, beef, wontons, it is considered that I eat very cheap food in African countries. The food here feels somewhat unhygienic, but at least it's much more hygienic than on the African continent.
There is no malaria, no Ebola, there will be plague, AIDS and other viruses, so the bodyguard reminded me to come here to eat, or try to go to some regular restaurants to eat, which is helpful to health.
Here we must also remind friends who travel here, the consumption here is not high, but do not enter some inexplicable stores at will to consume, otherwise it will be difficult to come out after entering, especially in remote small restaurants, the owner is hanging sheep's head to sell dog meat, often many foreign male tourists, after entering, either the money is enough to come out, or after entering basically can't come out.
This is a phenomenon I encountered in the local area, and it was also reminded to me by the bodyguard.
I feel really lucky, I didn't enter that kind of restaurant on the first day, otherwise it would not be able to solve it with a few family planning supplies, at least tens of thousands of yuan to come out.
In the local area, people who watch the people come and go are very kind and actually want to make money from you. As long as the locals think that you are a foreigner, then you are a representative of money, and they will find a way to earn your money.
To do business with people, you have to choose an open store to buy things, and in front of everyone, there are fewer people committing crimes in the broad daylight. The bodyguard told me that the locals actually welcome foreigners to their country, and those who do business can make more money, but there are always some lazy people who stir up the law and order, so that the local people's business is affected.
Often foreigners come to the local area will feel that the local price is very low, and then sell the sale, which is a large order for local business people, and you can make a lot of money at one time.
Here, domestic second-hand clothes, Putian shoes, things in Yiwu, Zhejiang can be seen everywhere, and even most of the vegetables and fruits here are from our country.
I probably learned from the bodyguards that in their country, about 10,000 Chinese do business in their country, some in the seafood business, some in the clothing and food import and export sales.
In Madagascar, although agriculture is developed, agricultural technology is backward, so the products here are not abundant, so a large amount of imports are still required. Every time I sail to this country, I either deliver flour, grain, or second-hand cars.
In the eyes of the locals, imported things are expensive, but in fact, many things are cheaper than our own country.
On the same day, the bodyguard took me to their Confucius Institute, which made me feel very proud, felt that Chinese culture spread in the country, and saw the door plaque of Jiangxi Normal University, indicating that the school had Chinese teachers sent to teach here.
It's something to be proud of, and it's something that boosts morale for Chinese abroad. Many people may not understand that in several countries with Confucius Institutes that I have visited, the locals are very friendly to Chinese, and there are many people who can speak Chinese.
On the way back from the Confucius Institute, I wanted to invite Sajay to dinner when I happened to pass by an Angelabe travel agency. I curiously went in and looked at it, there are many ways to travel to Madagascar, basically six days, seven days of play.
What I mainly care about is what the tourist attractions are here, and after looking at it carefully, it is basically the same, but the route is different. The overall price is 300 euros for a 6-day tour, I thought about it, if this travel agency is still regular, I will sign up.
I asked Sajay about the tour and he told me that many foreign tourists come here to report to this travel agency. It can be seen that this travel agency is still relatively formal, so I asked Sajay to help me ask when they have group tours.
What I didn't expect was that the travel agency said that a group would depart at four o'clock in the afternoon to camp at the attraction.
When I heard it, I was excited. In order to be able to catch up with this wave of tours, I immediately asked to join this group.
At that time, including me, the number of people in the entire regiment was six, which also happened to reach the upper limit of the number of people. When I learned that there were a number of people online, it meant that this tour group was regular. In foreign countries, there is often no upper limit to the number of people, the kind is unsafe, travel agencies just want to make more money and pull more people.
I asked Saja to help me understand the trip, and the detailed translation was given to me.
After learning the specific travel plans, I immediately returned to the hotel, and I didn't even eat lunch at noon that day. In order to express Sajay's protection for me and the pleasure of meeting him, when I left, I did not only give him 10,000 Madagascar ariari, but paid him 30,000 Madagascar ariari, about 45 yuan.
He is still very good, although in his eyes the 45 yuan is not much, but in the Malagasy country, there are very few people with such an income a day. It can only be said that he is a hard worker, entered a Chinese-funded enterprise, and received a Chinese salary, 3,500 yuan a month.
This kind of income is the income of most people a year, and even some people do not have so much income a year, it can be seen that Sajay is very satisfied with this kind of work, he told me, such treatment is only a few years, Chinese enterprises will leave after completing the project, by that time, he will be unemployed, he hopes to go to China, go to China to work, earn more wages to bring back to Madagascar to live.
After Sajay took me to the travel agency again, he left. I waited in the travel agency until four o'clock in the afternoon, and five people came one after another, four of them men and one woman.
At first came two men, both from Morocco travel enthusiasts, and then came a British girl, who was very polite when we first met me, and we got to know each other briefly.
Her name is Alisa, a native of Southampton, England, 26 years old, loves to travel, and by the time I knew her, she had travelled to 48 countries.
In my opinion, she is an amazing traveler, she is very beautiful, she has a good personality, from the point of view of appearance, she is relatively unaffinity, and she thinks she is a good girl when she interacts.
Before long, two more men came, one from Australia and one from Vietnam. It feels like the people who come here to travel are a hodgepodge.
Everyone got to know each other after coming to the scene, and I don't know what's going on, but Alisa is still very friendly to me, at first she just likes to talk to me and likes to let me help her take pictures.
At about four-thirty in the afternoon, our station wagon finally came, it was a medium-sized bus, this car has a capacity of ten people, the whole car is very shabby, when I saw the car, I felt somewhat insecure and felt irregular.
After getting on the bus, I wanted to get some sleep, because I had the habit of taking a nap, and I didn't sleep that day because I was in a hurry to come to the travel agency, but Alisa didn't seem to stop for a moment, either eating or talking.
I sat next to her, very embarrassed, if I didn't talk to her, I had to be mentally enough, otherwise I would be sleepy.
There were also a lot of exchanges with her along the way, and it also gave me a new understanding of her. She told me that some of the countries she traveled before were basically out with her father, and she said that her father was a traveler, except for the countries she could not go to, that is, countries that did not have diplomatic relations, and the Arctic and Antarctic, and the rest of the countries basically went.
For Alisa, her father was taking her to relive the joy of travel.
This time, she chose to travel alone because her father was not in good health, so she didn't want to stop the dream of traveling, so she chose to travel alone.
According to her meaning, she came to Madagascar without dependence, no wonder that after meeting me that day, she thought that I was also talkative, handsome and secure, so she greeted me.
In my opinion, girls can be so warm, friendly, and open in an unfamiliar environment, which is a very bold girl.
I am very grateful that she has been telling me her father's travel story, listening to her father's experience, I feel that my trip is a drop in the bucket, although I have been to more than 90 countries, but my trip is a small witch compared to her father, he can be regarded as an in-depth tour, I am equivalent to a horse watching flowers.
The girl was proud of her father, and even her father wrote a travel history for himself, expecting his book to be published, and I will definitely buy a copy by then.
On that day, six of us, plus four guides, presumably bodyguards, a total of ten people crossed a lot of no-man's land and entered many villages. Looking at the scene of the village and seeing the environment of the no-man's land, I felt that the countryside of Madagascar is really so simple, and the people will greet us warmly when they look at us.
In just one day, I also learned a lot of Malagasy, such as hello, the local accent is Shanrama, thank you, the local accent is Mi Shugo, etc., I think the local language is very interesting, what makes me feel more interesting is that it is Alisa sitting with me.
She was chatting with me in the second half, and suddenly fell asleep and fell on my shoulder, which made me very embarrassed, out of care for her, I did not easily wake her up, nor did I push her away, but chose to borrow my own shoulder to sleep her.
This sleep, the relationship and feelings of the two people have changed a lot.
My feeling was sore, my shoulders couldn't move, and I couldn't move at all while sitting on the stool, until she woke up and my whole body stiffened.
And when she woke up, she found that she slept on my shoulder and leaned on my body for a long time, which made her very embarrassed and kept saying thank you to me.
From that moment on, I felt that our conversation was more casual, and she seemed to be less strange to me.
The car was constantly moving forward on the road and we were told that it would be about ten pm to reach the first attraction, and when we got to the first attraction, we needed to camp directly.
The guide arranged the requirements for camping in the car, and the guide said that there were only five tents on the car, a total of ten people on board, and there must be a man and a girl living in the same tent.
The guide said with a smile at first, everyone thought that the guide was joking with us, so everyone did not respond, just laughed. But when I really arrived at the scene that night, it was particularly embarrassing.
At that time, when the car was walking on the road, it was about seven o'clock or eight o'clock, and the guide did not provide dinner, but told us that there was a shop to buy things after another hour, and everyone who needed to buy things could go down and buy them.
Alisa estimated that she was hungry, took out the food she had prepared, ate it, friendly she also had to feed me, at first I was too embarrassed, she herself bit the thing and asked me if I ate it, I felt too unhygienic, then she always did this, I did not object, she ate fried chicken legs, she took a bite of me, and also ate a banana, and she also took a bite of me. To be honest, I was hungry, and if I hadn't been hungry, I really wouldn't have thought about eating what she had eaten.
Although she is still a little girl and her single identity is not visible, I always feel that everyone does not look very good. It was only in the car, and later the guide turned off the lights in the car, that I was kind enough to let her feed.
In my opinion, when I meet such a girl, I always feel like I am traveling with my wife. In my sailing work, every time I finish running a boat and take a vacation at home, my wife will take me out on a trip, and she wants me to accompany her more during my vacation. So in the past ten years, I have also gone to most of the attractions in China.
At that moment, Alisa's appearance, similar movements, made me feel that it was my wife sitting next to me.
That night, our car stumbled and finally came to the attraction, at the attraction, the guide was quite conscientious and made us a dinner, although the dinner was simple, it was still eaten in the open air, but the experience was still very good.
After dinner, it was late, and the next day we had another day of fun and then went to the next attraction. The guide started setting up tents for us, and embarrassing things still appeared.
We thought the guide was joking with us, until after the tent was set up, a man appeared who needed to stay with Alisa. This is something that many men do not want, and men in Vietnam and Australia at the time said they wanted their compatriots to sleep.
Just as I was trying to choose a tent to sleep in, Alisa offered to live with me, which made me speechless.
I couldn't possibly give up my tent for her to sleep in, I slept alone outside the tent. The guide specifically explained that we should not go out and walk around at night, there are still snakes and chameleons outside, it will not be safe.
After listening to the guide, I had to pack my things and try to put my things in the corner to make more space for Alisa to rest, I am also a husband with a wife, I still have to keep a certain distance.
Let's score this matter clearly, otherwise the impact is not good, but fortunately, Alisa herself is not visible, a simple look, let me have more protection for her, I have repeatedly reminded her not to easily open the zipper of the tent at night, and try not to sleep against the camping tent, it will be safer.
This night was a challenge for me, I was afraid that I would not sleep well and accidentally bump into her, then the misunderstanding would be big, I tried to keep a certain distance from her and not touch her.
The night finally passed, and as the sky slowly dawned, I still secretly left the tent first and waited outside for everyone to get up.
Out of kindness, I saw the guides get up to make us breakfast, and I also took the initiative to go over and help them make breakfast together.
This experience is still ok, I feel very kind, and the guides are very friendly to me. It's just that I didn't sleep well last night, the whole person lacked some state, ate breakfast, I saw that Alisa hadn't gotten up yet, the guide asked me to wake her up, and I went back to the tent to sleep in the cage.
The environment is nice, a bit of a primeval forest feel, and I would love to park and don't know what the guide is going to take us to visit next.
Everyone was waiting for Alisa to finish breakfast, and I was woken up again for the first day of viewing. (To be continued)