Actually, today was very productive - at least relatively. In the morning did the travel agent, then spent the afternoon out of the capitol. Did a day trip to Ambohimanga. The once forbidden village of Ambohimanga is the site of the countries most famous Rova (royal palace). Originally built by King Andrianampoinimerina - the head of the Imerina tribe who conquered and unified Madagascar in the eighteenth century. I took a Taxi brousse (bush taxi) from 'Tana - and actually it felt really good to be using local transport again. I've always heard how difficult transport is in Madagascar - well judging from the two taxi brousses I've taken - it's excellent. The bush taxis here are among the best in Africa. They're cramped, but not as bad as most (they don't stack), the music is loud - but not to distortion, and the seats are at least a little padded.

The Rova was interesting, but nothing to exciting. However the site is spectacular - on a hill overlooking valleys filled with rice paddies, and the distant mountains as a backdrop. The area is known for it many tombs. I realized that with some disappointment when I was in Ambohimanga - I hadn't seen any. But on the way out when I was looking... they were everywhere. Most of the hoses are this incredible brick red color - very beautiful grand colonial style building. It took me a long time to realize that despite the houses looking so huge they're actually quite small - almost built on a Disneyland like scale.

I normally leave big bills in my money belt and keep the smaller bills in my pocket. The third time I got into my money belt today I started to get worried about what I was spending - then I realized the "big" bills were only worth about $1.50 - everything is relative I guess.

The traffic coming back into 'Tana was hideous. I finally gave up and jumped out to walk. I knew there was almost no chance of me finding my way home, but I figured I'd walk until it got dark and / or the traffic lightened up and then catch a taxi. It started to get dark and then drizzle but all the taxi's were full and I only had the vaguest idea of which direction to go. Finally I found a taxi and negotiated a price - he drove around the corner and suddenly I knew where I was - bummed, but then it turned out it would have been a longer walk than I thought. Went to the internet cafe to try and send the email that I'd worked on yesterday. but it was full - so I waited. The woman standing behind one of the guys using the computer looked really familiar. I spent time trying to figure out where I could know her from - Seattle? West Africa? Europe? - I just couldn't figure it out. When they were done they looked up and said "Tony?" It was Thomas and Christine - I last hung out with them in Kampala - we met rafting the Blue Nile!

I did my fifteen minutes of Internet then met up with them for diner. We went to a very popular (expatriate-type crowd) restaurant that had been recommended to them and had a great diner (I had Zebu - the local species of cow). It was really great to hang out with good (and English speaking!) company. Since Kampala they've done a similar deal. They had headed South, then gone home for a month for a wedding, returning now to continue traveling (though it's sounding like Christine is starting to be over the whole travel thing).

Rather late I said goodbye to them at their hotel and started to walk back. On one of the dark stairway alleys I had two guys approach and ask me for money. I said no but they kept on holding their hats out and following chattering non-stop. I knew what was coming, and caught the one guy with his hand in my pocket, and the other guy opening my pack - I chased them off, and they didn't get anything. When I was nearly to my hotel (20 minutes later) I realized my money belt was open. The zipper was broken. Either one of the guys was much better than I thought and I was really lucky in my timing, or it just happened to break. Since nothing was missing and it was stuffed with lots of extras (two rolls of film, the hotel key plus a good inch of currency) I'm assuming it was just chance. Kind of a bummer way to finish off a city that I had thoroughly enjoyed.