Hello everybody!
It's been a while, again :) But there have been some reasons for staying silent - first of all, we were visiting Isalo national park, exploring quite undeveloped areas and spent much time on a lakana (local canoe boat) - went down the Mangoky river and went up to Morondava sailing. My computer charger burned after it got some moist so no writing (I have some handwriting notes but have no time to rewrite everything here) and no picture editing. Well, I'm ok with that, good to have some rest :). I will try to write separate posts about the trip, because it was very beautiful, but for now I want to share our experience dealing with assholes in the Fianarantsoa taxi-brousse (t-b) station.
After we left our bicycles in Fianarantsoa (cheap and nice chinese hotel Mini-Croq, stored our stuff for free), we headed towards Isalo national park near Ranohira. We were a bit lazy checking out so reached the t-b station in the afternoon, where we were caught by annoying "organisers", who try to grab you and bring to the company that they are working for. Usually it doesn't happen, but somehow we came one after another and sarted looking for each other in the messy station, so we ended up near one of the companies, who somehow convinced us that there are no more t-b to Ranohira today and pointed to the car going today, "after an hour" - they said. Well, I usually don't trust much but this time I thought that maybe I should trust people more :)), so we stayed with that company, payed for the tickets (they always want to get money at the first moment) and waited in the bar until the t-b would be about to leave. The tickets were not very cheap - 25.000Ar, but I don't know why were so lazy to check the other places, again, probably just wanted to trust them. Also they said, that there are cheaper options (not today), but we would sit like sardines in a can.
I saw the t-b leaving, but the guys said it went to the gasoline station (it doesn't happen! they always do it when the t-b is full!:)). After waiting for 3 hours, we were walked to the other side of the station - the price in that company was double cheaper (but everybody said it was the old price painted on the wall). When we sat on our chairs, we were told that we should squeeze for one more person to sit (5 instead of 4, behind they were sitting 6 instead of 4), but we rejected doing that and said that they could return our money and go without us then, so we got our own seats even though they said - it is not 4 seats, it is 5! :))
When we came to Ranohira, of course we found out that the taxi-brousse should cost around 13.000-15.000Ar, and it made us mad. We were still mad when we returned to Fianarantsoa after a month, so we went to the same company for a talk. The responsible guy started shaking after we demanded to see the guys who sold tickets to us. One came drunk and even got mad so we brought the policemen from the street to help solve this problem. He was really strict, teaching those locals about diplomacy and good relations woth tourists. First there were no responsible, but when a policeman came, we were offered a journey to Antananarivo for free, including our bicycles. The responsible became not responsible again after the policeman left, though, so we had to find him again. We rejected the free trip as we didn't want to sit in an uncomfortable Honda for the hole night, plus - we didn't want to deal with this company anymore, so we just demanded to get back the overpaid money (11.000Ar each).
I didn't believe much that we would get these money back, It was more a matter of principle - they had to get a lesson, because probably we were not the first ones. A fight for justice. But we got the money back after meeting the responsible one in the police station (actually I was feeling really sorry for him, but..) - he came completely drunk, though the "good-bye" was with a smile, from both sides.
Later we found out that there have been quite a few problems with the same company, but not every tourist wants to fight and get those emotions. The most common problem is that some ticket sellers say the price in Francs (1000Fr is 200Ar) without mentioning whether it is Francs or Ariary, and some people pay 5 times more. In some areas it is more popular to count in francs and it might be confusing.
And the most annoying taxi-brousse stations on our trip were: Fianarantsoa, Toliar, Antananarivo. So, be prepared for some pushing and grabbing :)
It's been a while, again :) But there have been some reasons for staying silent - first of all, we were visiting Isalo national park, exploring quite undeveloped areas and spent much time on a lakana (local canoe boat) - went down the Mangoky river and went up to Morondava sailing. My computer charger burned after it got some moist so no writing (I have some handwriting notes but have no time to rewrite everything here) and no picture editing. Well, I'm ok with that, good to have some rest :). I will try to write separate posts about the trip, because it was very beautiful, but for now I want to share our experience dealing with assholes in the Fianarantsoa taxi-brousse (t-b) station.
After we left our bicycles in Fianarantsoa (cheap and nice chinese hotel Mini-Croq, stored our stuff for free), we headed towards Isalo national park near Ranohira. We were a bit lazy checking out so reached the t-b station in the afternoon, where we were caught by annoying "organisers", who try to grab you and bring to the company that they are working for. Usually it doesn't happen, but somehow we came one after another and sarted looking for each other in the messy station, so we ended up near one of the companies, who somehow convinced us that there are no more t-b to Ranohira today and pointed to the car going today, "after an hour" - they said. Well, I usually don't trust much but this time I thought that maybe I should trust people more :)), so we stayed with that company, payed for the tickets (they always want to get money at the first moment) and waited in the bar until the t-b would be about to leave. The tickets were not very cheap - 25.000Ar, but I don't know why were so lazy to check the other places, again, probably just wanted to trust them. Also they said, that there are cheaper options (not today), but we would sit like sardines in a can.
I saw the t-b leaving, but the guys said it went to the gasoline station (it doesn't happen! they always do it when the t-b is full!:)). After waiting for 3 hours, we were walked to the other side of the station - the price in that company was double cheaper (but everybody said it was the old price painted on the wall). When we sat on our chairs, we were told that we should squeeze for one more person to sit (5 instead of 4, behind they were sitting 6 instead of 4), but we rejected doing that and said that they could return our money and go without us then, so we got our own seats even though they said - it is not 4 seats, it is 5! :))
When we came to Ranohira, of course we found out that the taxi-brousse should cost around 13.000-15.000Ar, and it made us mad. We were still mad when we returned to Fianarantsoa after a month, so we went to the same company for a talk. The responsible guy started shaking after we demanded to see the guys who sold tickets to us. One came drunk and even got mad so we brought the policemen from the street to help solve this problem. He was really strict, teaching those locals about diplomacy and good relations woth tourists. First there were no responsible, but when a policeman came, we were offered a journey to Antananarivo for free, including our bicycles. The responsible became not responsible again after the policeman left, though, so we had to find him again. We rejected the free trip as we didn't want to sit in an uncomfortable Honda for the hole night, plus - we didn't want to deal with this company anymore, so we just demanded to get back the overpaid money (11.000Ar each).
I didn't believe much that we would get these money back, It was more a matter of principle - they had to get a lesson, because probably we were not the first ones. A fight for justice. But we got the money back after meeting the responsible one in the police station (actually I was feeling really sorry for him, but..) - he came completely drunk, though the "good-bye" was with a smile, from both sides.
Later we found out that there have been quite a few problems with the same company, but not every tourist wants to fight and get those emotions. The most common problem is that some ticket sellers say the price in Francs (1000Fr is 200Ar) without mentioning whether it is Francs or Ariary, and some people pay 5 times more. In some areas it is more popular to count in francs and it might be confusing.
And the most annoying taxi-brousse stations on our trip were: Fianarantsoa, Toliar, Antananarivo. So, be prepared for some pushing and grabbing :)
This is how locals transport bicycles - those probably for sale
