The Lonely Planet says Anakao is one of the best places in Madagascar so we remained faithful and left our madagascan companions for a night to take a look. It is undoubtedly beautiful but needs much more time than just one night to be fully appreciated. It's quite a chore reaching it, taking a bus then a boat and then a truck. We were automatically dropped off at 'La Reserve.' There were no bungalows left so we took the tent. I hate camping but the t...

We were very lucky to find space at our next stop over, the paper making capital of Madagascar. We definitely loved that paper, so pretty! Early the next morning our clever friends had arranged a real special treat for us. A genuine and close-up lemur encounter. We drove up to lots of rocks armed with bananas and then appeared lots of lovely cuddly, absolutely gorgeous ring-tailed lemurs. They took the bananas from our hands and jumped onto our backs, snuggling a...

This must be the ricksaw capital of the world! It's a wonderful and colourful place and the ricksaws create a fantastically relaxed and old-worldy pace of life. We had a go of course! Definitely felt rather strange and quite cruel especially as I'm three times the size of the average Madagascan passenger but sure I could get used to it! We visited the beautiful Lake Trivatia where 2 lovers whose parents forbade them to marry jumped together to their death...

The rain forest!! Wow!!! We arrived at night after a 4hr journey along probably the bumpiest road in the world! It was like a roller coaster! When I woke up in the morning I gasped on seeing the view from the door. In front of me stood huge mountains covered in lush green forest. It was magical. I just couldn't believe it! We headed off for Parc National de Ranomofana, said to be the best place to see the lemurs. Our driver knew a guide (our driver knew lots ...

Madagascar has become my most favourite place in the world (sorry China!) with my most favourite people in the world living there! It is paradise! Sweet little houses, mountains, rainforest, cuddly lemurs, palm trees, perfect weather, desert and palm trees all in one. It's a world of its own. And the Madagascans are even better than the lemurs! Lots of waves and smiles and an amazing warmth. I went there to visit a long term penpal, Domoina. It was a bit of a...