[hemanth.anand]

Just wonderful Debarshim.
It felt as though the characters in the Madagascar animation movie series came alive. That leaf-tailed Gecko and the smallest chameleon were wonderful captures from all the Lemurs and other birds. Thanks for sharing, Thanks for taking us to Madagascar and back.
One question - are there any vaccination requirements to enter this country or these forests?

[debarshim]

Originally Posted by hemanth.anand

Just wonderful Debarshim.
One question - are there any vaccination requirements to enter this country or these forests?

Thanks for the compliments and going through this rather long travelogue.

1. There is no specific vaccination need from Govt. of India if you go to Madagascar only. Visa is on arrival for Indians.
2. Govt. of Madagascar requires Yellow Fever vaccination certificate for people arriving from country with risk of yellow fever. So for traveling from India there is no need for any vaccination.

Both of us have Yellow Fever vaccinations. We took that in 2010 when we first started visiting the African continent. It is good to have Hepatitis vaccinations which is true for most of the places that we visit (even in India).

[soonya]

Crisp writing not coming in the way of enjoying the photolog, not missing out important details! Wow! Hat's off to both of you adventurous team! Thanks for sharing!!

[alphadog]

Thank you Debarshim for this fantastic photo-heavy travelogue.
Madagascar is a place which is not in the usual tourist radar for us Indians and your post was a nice introduction to the place.
You certainly have an eye and talent for wild-life photography, some of the photographs are truly amazing.
Did you do all the planning and arrangements yourself or did you have a great travel agent who did all the work?. Any issues with safety in Madagascar?.
Thanks once again for sharing.

Cheerio!

[t18]

What a coincidence. I read your complete travelogue yesterday. Then at 9 in the night there was a show on Madagascar on Animal Planet. Same places were being featured as in your travelogue. Tsingy, Bat cave etc. etc. wonderful. Thanks for this amazing travelogue.

[debarshim]

Originally Posted by alphadog

Thank you Debarshim for this fantastic photo-heavy travelogue.
Madagascar is a place which is not in the usual tourist radar for us Indians and your post was a nice introduction to the place.
You certainly have an eye and talent for wild-life photography, some of the photographs are truly amazing.

Thanks for reading through and the compliments. We like bird photography and it was incredibly difficult when we first started. Slowly I learnt the tricks of the trade from multiple field trips in Indian parks & forests known for birds (Rann of Kutch, Narara, Eagle Nest, MP forests, Assam forests, Sikkim, Bhutan etc...). But equipment is expensive, trips can often take you to difficult places with only camping facilities and of course interest in the subject and patience is a must

Originally Posted by alphadog

Did you do all the planning and arrangements yourself or did you have a great travel agent who did all the work?. Any issues with safety in Madagascar?.
Thanks once again for sharing.

Cheerio!

Regarding planning - we follow the following steps:
- Choose from the bucket list of places that we have (e.g. Zanskar, Borneo, Mishmi Hills, Cambodia, Kenya, NZ, Jordan, Turkey, Syria, Botswana, Namibia, Greece, Machupichu, Iceland, Israel, Gapapagos etc...)
- Buy the latest edition of lonely planet guide book / bradt guide book (for places chosen outside India). Read blogs, travelogues and reviews. Watch the BBC Earth, NatGeo, Discovery programs from youtube.
- From the detailed study, select the places where we want to go based on our choice. Usually we select places with less tourist and more wilderness and wildlife.
- For places that we can book online we do. For places that we cannot or with less information - we connect with a local individual business owner in that place (not large travel agency). We get the info & authenticity about this person from lonely planet books usually. Buy our own flight tickets, do our own visa, travel insurance - off you go. No travel agents involved.

We did not face any safety issue in Madagascar. As mentioned earlier, it is not advisable to roam around in Tana (capital city) on your own because of mugging issues. Rest of the places, parks and forests are very safe. Madagascar does not have any large predators that can harm humans - so you are safe. All snakes in Madagascar are without poison, so again no issues over there. Overall people with some common sense should be fine and survive

Madagascar is a difficult place to move around in terms of infrastructure. So in 15 days we could cover only what we could. We plan to go back once again for the Southern and Western part - to visit Ranomafana, Berenty, Tsiribihina river, Morondava-Kirindy, Tsingy Bemaraha. We are not beach buff of diving kind of people - for people who like that, Nosy Be (island in the north-west) & Ile Saint Marie are paradise and diving at the great reef at the south-west of the country should be absolute bliss !

Originally Posted by t18

What a coincidence. I read your complete travelogue yesterday. Then at 9 in the night there was a show on Madagascar on Animal Planet. Same places were being featured as in your travelogue. Tsingy, Bat cave etc. etc. wonderful. Thanks for this amazing travelogue.

Thanks for reading. The Ankarana national park area is not fully explored yet. The Tsingy area is mostly inaccessible (you can understand from the video that I posted). There are hundreds of caves and underground rivers - I believe that most of them remain unexplored till date. Ankarana is a dry place also known for its scorpions... so exploring the caves and bat colonies are a risky choice as well. We had hired a good guide who checked the path for scorpions before us. Yes, it is a place worthy for the Nat Geo, Discovery & AP channels to explore.

[gadadhar]

WOW. Not sure whether I enjoyed your photos or the narration more. Every detail is been well recorded. Being a foodie, would love to see some food snaps including the giant crabs and seafood.

[Teesta]

You are an inspiration to many travelers out there! Have always admired your choice of places to visit and the hotels you book. The photos are brilliant and lovable. Wildlife photography is surely your forte. I should be getting some credit for this TL as I was the one who forced you and CN to write this :-) I am also waiting for the other TLs that you are yet to write. But till that time Bon Voyage and create lovely memories in Namibia.
PS: The Vanilla Pods must have smelt divine!

[debarshim]

Originally Posted by gadadhar

WOW. Not sure whether I enjoyed your photos or the narration more. Every detail is been well recorded. Being a foodie, would love to see some food snaps including the giant crabs and seafood.

Thanks for reading and my apologies for the late response. Unfortunately I am not a food Connoisseur at all... In fact I don't eat much and sometimes just feel it to be a physical necessity that takes up a lot of time to prepare, cook and then eat . Again my apologies as I do not have a single snap of food in my repository. But yes, I do remember that the seafood dishes were too big for me to finish... The Ankarana lodge had served me a seafood platter that had more than 20 jumbo prawns and devilled crabs in the dish. But I was the wrong person - you would have enjoyed the same.

Originally Posted by Teesta

You are an inspiration to many travelers out there! Have always admired your choice of places to visit and the hotels you book. The photos are brilliant and lovable. Wildlife photography is surely your forte. I should be getting some credit for this TL as I was the one who forced you and CN to write this :-) I am also waiting for the other TLs that you are yet to write. But till that time Bon Voyage and create lovely memories in Namibia.
PS: The Vanilla Pods must have smelt divine!

Thanks !!! Well we did have a lot of playful tiffs while learning the nuances of photography at Charkhol. Thanks for the wishes... This time we plan to write the Namibia self drive travelogue together with the trip so that we can finish that on time.
Yes - the whole place was smelling of Vanilla.

[SajiNSalin]

Debarshim, your travelogue has inspired I and my wife to book tickets to Madagascar. We will be flying to Mauritius and spending a week there before moving on to Tana. We will be flying Air Mauritius. We will be arriving in Tana on June 23 and departing on July 26, giving us 32 days to explore Madagascar.

I will need help from you in contacting the local travel representatives to arrange the travel. We plan to visit Ranomafana NP, Parc National de l'Isalo, Avenue of Baobabs, boating down the Manambolo river, Parc National des Tsingy de bemaraha and Nosy be, Ile St marie, 4WD drive on the RN5, and a few more.

Please let me know the travel companies you contacted and your experiences with them. Please pm me with the information. I will be requiring more help from you in the coming days.

Thanks for a lovely travelogue and so much detailed information.

[SJM1214]

Wow.
This write up reminded me Madagascar movie. The photographs are amazing and the details mentioned in the report are very useful. Thanks, debarshim. For this detailed travelogue with amazing photographs.

[guyfawkes]

Thanks debarshim for the great travelogue on one of the rarest wilderness on earth. I was planning a Madagascar trip last year. However, my friend in Cape Town directed my attention towards the plague mired country which had an impact on tourism and its economy in 2018.

https://www.express.co.uk/news/world...ascar-outbreak

Owing to which I planned an alternate vacation to EU. Did you find any correlation with this recent event in Madagascar? Also, would you be able to share your itinerary and duration in case I missed it?

[aah78]

I don't think I've ever been intrigued about Madagascar before this thread. Any reference to Madagascar is usually just related to the animated movies.

Thoroughly enjoyed reading the Travelogue!
Lovely pictures, as well.

[debarshim]

Originally Posted by guyfawkes

Thanks debarshim for the great travelogue on one of the rarest wilderness on earth. I was planning a Madagascar trip last year. However, my friend in Cape Town directed my attention towards the plague mired country which had an impact on tourism and its economy in 2018.

https://www.express.co.uk/news/world...ascar-outbreak

Owing to which I planned an alternate vacation to EU. Did you find any correlation with this recent event in Madagascar? Also, would you be able to share your itinerary and duration in case I missed it?

Thanks. Well our Madagascar travel was long before that. We have visited a number of countries which generally people are afraid to travel - but believe me if you are careful enough and plan well, nothing happens. For our itinerary please go to the beginning of this travelogue.