Long distance by Taxi brousse
So far I have done Fianarantsoa. Tulear, there and back and Tamatave. Tana once and Manakara. Antsirabe.
No pain no gain! Haha, so I could do it again.
The real pain in the ass, the killer was the night travel for various reasons, especial in and out of Tana to bee avoided by all costs. Day travel, I would bee fine again for long distance too but I can not see the point in it anymore. Therefore on my next travel I would split it up to max of 4 hours drive per day in the morning.
Do the deed as authentic as possible in various unknown places.
Book one day ahead at the official shop
The day bevor departure I would again by the ticket, always at the official shop and avoid the touts. I never had any issue with the luggage. Several times I made contact to girls in the taxi Brousse. Great fun.
Now I guess, you mixe it up entirely
[QUOTE=Amadeuss;2917361]There are classes of various taxi brousse. The more quality ones like Cotisse, using a Merc Sprinter. You can book some long distance connections on a reserved seat. But then, going nowadays from Tana to Fianaroatsoa or Tana to Tamatave in about 14 hours due to the poor road conditions is even in that vehicle no fun at all.
But the majority of taxi brousse are small Mitsubishi vans from the time of the G-day landing in Okinawa. All short distance connection you must use those cattle carriers with 12 or 14 folks sitting on 9 seats -- and yes, there you find the chicken on your lap and the kids eating, drinking and whooops. Spitting over you out of the window. Great fun for a masochist. Casse toi une jambe.
Not to mention the camion brousse. A truck with a bench, no windows. Go figure. I did it Ambilobe-Vohemar years ago when the road was a mud path, booked the 2 seats in the drivers cabin for 2 days. An adventure but not doing it again.
If you want to avoid the silly prices for domestic flights, there are more and more small operators coming up, offering fixed trips form Tana to Diego, Mahjunga, Ft Dauphin. In a big SUV not carrying more then 5 pax. The fare is still cheaper then a flight but driving in a reasonable comfort at least. You can find them on Facebook.
If you give infos then please do it with correct facts. Not boasting like a Birkenstock tourist considering it fun to visit the shacks of the very poorest farm workers and then reporting how great he did.[/QUOTE]Calm down! I just reported my actual fun facts and conclusions out of some negative points. Read properly!
Rather unmixed, in my experience
Soatrans, Cotisse, Cassy car VIP etc. To me that's not Taxy Brousse, they play in a different league. First of all you pay more, but its well worth it for various reasons. Modern nice cars, buses. Best choice for in and out of Tana just because of the starting points, often separat locations. Fixed timetable, fixed choice of seat. Stopes at nice restaurants. Aircon etc. You name it. No pets. You will meet Vahazas for a nice talk but you will not hook up with girls nor will any of them massage your dick for 20 K or show you private videos on the mobile. Ok for long distance.
Note, if you book Tana. Tamatave and drop off in Moramanga you pay the hole distance. No big deal anyway.
Taxi Brousse is the public standard, starts at Taxi Brousse stations. You like it or not. You will get what you were asking for. Can bee great fun ore a pain in the ass. It is a must, once for long distance too. Best for short distance, like max 2 hours.
Taxibrouse hunting grounds. LOL
All this back and forth about taxibrousse reminded me of hunting. LOL Especially around the weekends. You'll see aloooot of nice ladies returning and just take numbers don't talk too much cause there will be plenty. Most of them students understand what's going on just don't make it obvious at first.
It's just one venue but a real golden one.
BTW, someone mentioned MANAKARA I think it's on the east coast and should have some of the prettiest girls there. Can you share your experience on MANAKARA especially the ladies? I met them in Fianarantsoa as college student and they were amazing. But not sure if I was lucky or if most MANAKARA girls are that sweet and pretty.
Some questions for my return trip
1. (Most important) I loved Nosy Be and I had a great AirBnB right on the beach about 100 yards from Tatie Chris. It was a 10 minute walk down the beach to Ambataloaka. The main issue was that the power was out 6 of the 9 nights I was there. I spent 4 of those nights in other hotels that actually had air conditioning. Is that unusual? Or should I plan to have bad power and just book the (much more expensive) hotels with solar power.
2. How bad is the rainy season in Tamatave and Nosy Be anyway? Do the girls just not go out much during rainy season? Is it absolutely a must to wait until rainy season is over if my trips are limited to 2. 5 weeks at a time?
3. What's the deal with Mahajanga? Some of the hottest girls I met in Nosy Be and Tana were from there. Some of the hottest chicks that I've friended on FB are from there. Is there much of a mongering scene or hotel infrastructure there?