"Antsirabe stays - under construction" Antsirabe Travelogue by Norali

Antsirabe Travel Guide: 48 reviews and 134 photos

Oct. 3: Antsirabe was cool! Busy stint. Interesting & challenging business (hotel & restaurant management). Good food (the Chef whom I worked with graduated from a school in Lyon, France), laid-back & walkable city, cool beerS (Antsirabe is where the main Malagasy brewery is). Above all, nice & helpful folks (the GM, the Finance Manager, the Chef, the waiters, the cooks... all gave me tricks... all helped me learning the ropes).

Change is certainly good. Bira changed me much from rural, tranquil Malaza. Changed me much from noisy, hectic, air-polluted Tana. It's in between. Safe, clean, laid-back, youthful but lacking leisures & opportunities for the youth. Whatever, I had my fun there. The helpful, fun-loving staff I worked with made up for this lacking.

It was work and play at the same time. Up at 6am, morning walk in the Malagasy quarter to see the markets readying, the streets getting busy. Breakfast at 8am, including that fresh papaya juice. Work starts 9am till noon (2.30pm for the last 4 days). Some break for lunch. Then, some walk in the much quieter European quarter to marvel at architectural gems & to relax (because the kitchen lab ain't a place to slouch, tell ya!). 4.30pm: work again (finance-management controlling or kitchen lab) till 6.30pm (10 pm for the last 4 days in the kitchen lab). Wow!

I returned home tired, excited, enthusiastic, renewed and... feeling like a detox is needed (the food, those beers)... and craving for that "bière pression" (beer on tap), for that galette, that delicate salade, that finger-licking good entrecote slice I savoured near the grill.
Anyway, what a great way to start from the recently ended extended-sabbatical-year.

Page Updated Feb 28, 2008
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Comments (15)

Jim_Eliason Mar 30, 2010 at 2:51 AM Report Abuse

Great tips!
fabrice Oct 15, 2007 at 12:01 AM Report Abuse

0°C en hiver ? incroyable en plein océan indien...
cadzand Apr 26, 2006 at 1:21 PM Report Abuse

I love travelling through your eyes. Almost as if I were there.
luckyzen Apr 23, 2006 at 12:15 AM Report Abuse

Very interesting updates, Norali. Thank you.'njoy what is left of the weekend!:~))
gabriellefox Feb 12, 2005 at 3:11 AM Report Abuse

Excellent tips and pictures of this exotic remote location. Thank you.
pepples46 Jan 26, 2004 at 5:06 PM Report Abuse

I would not have thought bringing warm jamies to the Island......superb reading, excellent tips and great pics, from a land I don't knew much about. tanx for sharing
ATLC Dec 7, 2003 at 1:01 AM Report Abuse

Excellent inside information. Thank you.
Luchonda Oct 3, 2003 at 11:00 PM Report Abuse

Thanks for the information about this part of the world ! Rather unknown for me and other VT'rs So thx again -this tips are what VT stands for !
Norali Jun 20, 2003 at 12:31 PM Report Abuse

Yes, King... Hotel des Thermes is not the best but most expensive. My fave is Arotel, both for services and food.
Narviking Jun 20, 2003 at 12:30 PM Report Abuse

I stay at Hotel de Thermes and so it wasnt the best hotel in town after all... :(