Things You Should Know About Madagascar

As I'm visiting so many different and diverse countries in this little corner of the world I figured I'd try and compile a sort of What You Need To Know list for each place, full of the random, the curious and the down right weird.

So lets begin with Things You Should Know About Madagascar.

1. Rice is all they eat. Rice. 3 meals a day. Of rice.
2. The Malagasy wear all of our old clothes. Go to a frip store and you can pick up Gail's shirt from Grandma Judy's Casino Night.
3. Your destination might not be far but with the state of the roads triple the eta. And make sure you're travelling in a 4x4. And that the clutch works...
4. If it has rained recently be prepared to walk/drive through rivers or wait 14 hours for the water level to drop. If it hasn't rained recently, still be prepared to travel through rivers.
5. If you're out of town don't expect a cold beer. There's no fridges. If you're in town and want a cold beer you'd better hope that the town has power.
6. Like the idea of paddling a dug out canoe along a river? Get used to bailing out water.
7. Don't be kind to a dog. Ever. It's very bad fumba. 
8. Don't point at anything. That's a fady.
9. If you commit a fady you have to buy and slaughter a zebu (cow) and feed the whole village in recompense. 
10. THB here doesn't mean Thai Baht but Three Horse Beer.
11. Malagasy people have an old deep seated belief that the AyeAye has it's long skinny middle finger so that it can curse them.

Check back soon for more Things You Should Know.