Madagascar - 'The Castaway Continent'
Culture shock comes quickly in Madagascar. Even as the plane banks over the red clay houses and emerald paddy fields on the outskirts of Antananarivo you scan for an image that will confirm your arrival in Africa. A dilapidated Citroen taxi shuttles you onward into the capital and, as it swerves around rickshaws and garishly painted carts drawn by hump-backed zebu cattle, you struggle against the illusion that you have landed in the Far East. Even the taxi driver’s fine-boned, café-au-lait features only help to confound your efforts to convince yourself that this is Africa.

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