The Saka Manga Hotel

We spent the first evening in Tana at the Saka Manga hotel. Saka Manga means blue cat in Malagasy (The country's official language). Malagasy is derived from French, so we learned the few words we needed to get around. Anyway... The hotel was very quirky, for lack of a better word. It was chopped up and connected different buildings. I felt like being in an old Humphrey Bogart movie.

Our first meal was at the hotel and was absolutely wonderful. I had Duck Coq a Vin and a greek salad. The total bill for the four of us was about $40 US.

The first night's sleep was not so great though. It was cool outside so we left the window open (see the photo below). Since we were over the kitchen we had nice, but heavy odors during the early evening. As the night progressed the local night club got under way. The music was loud and constant. Fortunately, I have professional shooters ear plugs which worked well. Doug and I got a real kick when the band started playing YMCA. It's hilarious listening to the locals singing along Y M C A when they don't know a word of English.

The evening really got rough when the mosquitos started in on me. As I wandered off to sleep I envisioned each one carrying malaria. I finally closed the window and pulled the sheet over my head. I actually covered up every part of my body, but my mouth. It worked so I got a couple hours sleep. This was only a couple hours of sleep after being up for 25 hours traveling. In hindsight, this was the only bad night of sleep the whole trip.

Take a look at a short iphone video of walking from the lobby to breakfast in the Saka Manga.

SELECT to take an adventure walk in the Saka Manga Hotel

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