Was a bit sad to leave our beautiful camp this morning - was such a stunning place. Anyway left at 9 AM and Heather and Dan bought 20 packets of biscuits from the restaurant in case we were going to meet the poor kids again, who was asking for pens and sweets last time. Passed through a few villages before we came to the exit of the area and whereas most of the kids are lovely and just waving and smiling when we were passing in the car - then one kid decided to throw some fruit after the car when we passed by. Our driver stopped and went outside to talk to the kid - but of course the kid quickly ran away obviously getting a bit scared. At the exit a huge amount of kids once more came running down to the car - so Heather and Dan gave the bag of biscuits to the driver for him to try and distribute between them. Despite basically emptying the restaurant for all their biscuits - it still didn't seem to be enough - since suddenly there seemed to be 50 kids instead of 20. If they have bought 50 packets of biscuits - I bet there would have been 100 kids - but a least the biscuits were a really nice touch and some kids got happy. Forgot to mention that my main contribution out here has been my clothes. I mainly came away with clothes I didn't want to bring back with me - so for the last week I have started leaving stuff behind. Basically every morning that also means that someone from the cleaning staff comes running after me with my clothes in their hands thinking that I forgot it - where I am then just telling them that they can keep it. I might not value this clothes anymore - but out here I am sure that the clothes would be really valuable to a lot of people - so just hope it gets some new owners that find it useful and then I have kind of left a trademark of my travel as well.

Otherwise we were back tracking a bit today back to the town Ambalavao, which we passed a couple of days ago. Our hotel 'La Varangue du Betsileo' was 8 KM south of town - so dropped our luggage there first before going into Ambalavao to first of all see the Zebu Market. The Zebu Market in Ambalavao is only happening on Wednesdays and is the largest Zebu market in the country and people walk from as far as Tuleár to sell their cattle, which is more than 400 KMs away. Was literally a field full of men and their zebus and you had to really watch where you were walking so you weren't suddenly getting 2 zebu horns up in your arse - because some of them looked like they were trying to escape from their owners and just ran in between the people. There were also a lot of zebu s*** everywhere and while trying to move away from some of the running zebus I managed to just step into some of the s*** - so had to go a clean my shoe in the grass - since not a nice smell was following me around. Watched the zebus for a while but didn't see a lot of trading going on - so decided at some point that we had enough pictures of zebus now. Afterwards we continued in through town to go to the 'Antaimoro Paper Factory' but got stopped half way through since there was a big demonstration going on. Our driver managed to explain to us that it was the teachers who were demonstrating because they get paid really badly and that they literally have been on strike now for 5 weeks so all the public schools have been closed in that period. Really bad for the children but cannot blame the teachers that they are trying to get paid better. Couldn't get through the demonstration so had to reverse and find another way to the Paper Factory. At the Paper Factory we got demonstrated how they make this unique kind of paper made from a bark of a local bush, with real flowers pressed into it. Was nice - but none of us bought anything.

Got back to our hotel in time for lunch and for the first time in Madagascar we got a hamburger with fries, which all 3 of us just fancied. Was really nice but the burger was served without a bun, which I didn't mind to be honest. Could also check into our rooms now and once more we got 2 separate rooms - so for the 6th night in a row I was on my own. The place had a nice pool but unfortunately it was a bit cold and also very windy today so wasn't really tempted. Otherwise we were a bit isolated out here in the middle of nowhere but noticed a nearby village when we came back from Ambavalao and decided to take a walk down there in the afternoon. Got lots of attention from the locals who I am sure wouldn't normally see any tourists and especially the kids thought we looked funny since they laughed a lot. Found a very local bar and decided to sit down for a drink. First we couldn't see anyone serving in the bar but then a young girl came running from across the street very excited to get some foreign guests. Communication was a bit difficult but didn't look like she had any cold beers so decided to just share a big one since we wanted to support her now. She also washed 3 glasses for us but while she ran out in town to try and get change for me - I wiped them over with some Kleenex as well. Didn't want her to see that - but was conscious that we have all had stomach issues out here so just tried to be a bit careful. She came back with some change for me and I was happy with what I got - but don't think it was quite enough since she tried to convince us to have another beer as well, which we agreed to then. This time we got a Gold Tequila Beer - which was OK but a bit sweet. Heather paid her the same amount for that beer that I paid for the first one after I got the change - but this time she gave us some additional change back. However we asked her to keep it - since was so cheap for us anyway and she was also carrying around a young baby - so told her that the extra money was for the baby.

Had a pre-dinner drink at our hotel and for the first time we came across some IPA beers so Dan and I had to try these even if they were more expensive. However my second beer tasted really wrong and when our driver smelt it/tasted it - he immediately said 'not good' and asked the waiter to change it. However found out that behind the label of the IPA beer there was a Heineken bottle - so maybe Heineken is the brewery behind these beers. For dinner I ordered banana soup for starter, which was just the most delicious soup I have tasted out here. Kind of a banana/coconut taste - but so nice and Heather really regretting not ordering that as well when she tasted it. The main course was also nice but didn't beat the starter. Ordered an extra bottle of wine to take back to Heather and Dan's room, where I also brought my little iPod so we had a bit of music tonight.