Tennis in Tana: Max's, Le Country Club and a pricey COT

Antananarivo has a fair share of Sports Clubs but it's hard to find out information about them when you first get here.  So I will put the info I find here for newcomers and latecomers. 

We ended joining Max's Sports Club--which I've written about here.  It has a really nice family atmosphere and has a quasi little playground for small children.  Some days they have a big lunch which members are welcome to sit down for.  Max is rather well known in Madagascar as an athlete and coach.  In 1991 he was honored as the best tennis coach in Africa.  He has two daughters who play(ed) on the pro tennis circuit, one named Dally who retired in 2006, climbing to #44 in the world at her peak.  That daughter now owns/runs "Le Country Club" which is mentioned below.  Lily is the main tennis pro that runs the schedule there, she doesn't really speak much English but here number is: 034 013 6515.

Le Country Club is run/owned by Dally Randraintefy (Max's daughter).  The grounds there are very nice and it has a small pool and at least six courts.  There's also some nice walking trails on the premises.  The reason we didn't end up joining it is because it's a bit of a drive from Ivandry and the road is a little rough getting there (it's by Polyclinique Ilafy).  Much like the COT you have to go through Devil's Triangle to get there which can mean an hour or more during the week.  

COT (Club Olympique de Tananarive) is the most gucci of the tennis clubs.  It has several hundred courts, a huge pool, a kid's pool, and a stable of horses.  It also is even further down the road than Le Country Club  and has a truly exorbitant initiation fee (500,000 MGA!).  I put the a copy of their fees below because they were so preposterous.

The Road from Tana to Antsirabe

Ruined rusted red sheet metal roof

of the church by the muddy opaque serpent
                                                                     win   ng
                                                                          di
                                                                        lake 

Inexplicable phantom railway tracks appear just across a muddied red asphalt strip

Rice fields glow verdant with every spectrum of green in the universe bleeding Into yellow there 

Weary black brown faces
asiatic eyes staring
                                blankly as you pass
a slightly raised eyebrow betrays only the slightest germ of curiousity 

Fresh shucked corn in boiling smoking black metal pots.
Dirtied faces
Coal black eyes
strong hands gripping shucking

Other hands hoist fresh ears for sale

An old sky blue Citroen                       stops
a young Malagasy man                      emerges
hands over a note
                                                           grinning.

The Commute: Le Penseur, les soeurs, stern drivers and floating dragons

Check out other daily commute's here.

Le Penseur

Les Soeurs

Every day I'm hustlin'

You mad bro

Derelict Teddy Bear

Moped patrol

Le Carre--the Art of the Impossible--Adventures in VAT battles--or For Your Convenience

This is not a restaurant review.  If it were I would say that Le Carre is stylish but missed the mark with fishy tuna sushi.  I would add what I call the #madacaveat: we have plenty of friends that have had great sushi at Le Carre (even salmon sashimi on occasion--although there were out of it the night we were there), indeed, great meals there but like nearly every restaurant in town--it's hit or miss.

But again, this is not a restaurant review.  This is about getting a receipt with your VAT.  Now if there's one thing that the French influence has left imprinted on the 'hospitality' industry here (aside from some truly great cuisine) it is a 'no can do' attitude:

Willing to pay extra for a plate of salmon sashimi instead of the mixed sashimi plate on the menu? Sorry sir, that is impossible.
For your convenience, we don't allow any changes to the menu

Happily--Le Carre proved an exception.  The facture that we were presented with did not break out the Value Added Tax (VAT) which, for the uninitiated, is a 20% tax that diplomats are eventually refunded by the host nation (contrary to popular belief it is NOT part of Vienna Convention but rather is an international reciprocal courtesy).   Anyway, while the server was dumbfounded when I tried to explain to him that I would like a receipt that showed the 20% VAT, he complied when I asked him to check with the manager to see what they could do.  As you can see in the second picture--they figured it out.

Bravo Le Carre--we will return!

This is what they can give at Le Carre:

Sapporo--Living on a Prayer--Karaoke in Ivandry

Sapporo gets mixed reviews from the expat community here--some people have had great meals there and others have had less than stellar meals there--but then that's the story of dining out in Madagascar.


We took Emily's Dad and stepmom there on a Friday night a few weeks ago.  We had a great meal there.

We walked up the stairs and saw a nicely decorated open-plan dining room, as well as two 4-top tables partitioned behind sliding privacy doors.  We took the private area.  I am eager to revisit Sapporo to see if they've stepped up there 'drinks game.'  They had no wine and no liquor (with the exception of a korean quasi-rum with was quasi-good) and a very limited selection of beer.  Now we visited there right after they had just opened so I will give them the benefit of the doubt.

You can see the menu below--its well-priced and has a Japanese focus.  The food all came in a timely manner and was well-prepared.  The salmon filet there was good but they said they get it from Leader Price--this is surprising because the salmon at Leader Price is frozen and the filet they served there was pretty good.  The Korean owner (he also owns the KIM STAR place on the right when you are headed to the airport) said that his end vision is to eventually serve French and Korean cuisine as well.

BUT HERE'S THE THING--the food is almost irrelevant (as long as the serve the 'beverage' problem) because Sapporo has something that no other restaurants in Ivandry have: KARAOKE!

The four of us ended up closing out Sapporo's that evening as the lovely proprietors allowed us to delve deep into their karaoke setlist.  2/3 of their book is in Korean but there's more than enough material for a good night there.  An added bonus is that completely incongruent muted Korean music videos play in the background while the subtitles flash across the screen.  The owners eventually quasi-kicked us out around midnight but were excellent hosts and a blast to hang out with.

TIP: With a group of about 20 people you could pretty much reserve the dining room and have the place to yourself for a night of soulful Beyonce and Aerosmith ballads.

Getting there:

Karaoke

Popping Tags in Tana--L'Antiquaire de Tana

Getting there:  L'Antiquaire de Tana actually shows up on google! (there's also a sister shop at the Waterfront).

The Antique shop is located in a giant mansion with a big parking lot--the proprietor is a french and has rented out the estate for a long time.  You can easily spend an hour walking through all the different rooms--pretty much anything you see is for sale.  They say the prices here are fixed but I think if you bought a couple of pieces there would be some wiggle room.  All in all the prices here are fair; there were, however, a few pieces with horribly inappropriate prices like a wooden high chair (like the ones they sell downtown for 60,000) that was priced at 200,000 Ar.

When you buy a piece you can walk out with it but for most pieces they will polish it up and make any needed repairs first (this service included in the price). They take VISA but ours wasn't working when we bought our piece.

DISCLAIMER: I didn't see the 'no taking pictures' sign until I had already taken the ones below. Anyway, I couldn't see any good reason why I shouldn't be able to take some pictures--me posting them here is free advertising for the shop.  I mean, I even googled 'why would an antique store not let me take pictures' and didn't come across a SINGLE good reason.  In fact, taking pictures also let's people take the pics home and get their feng shui on.

Below is the beautiful liquor cabinet that we purchased from there recently.

Looking out from front door

Cool Table

Need We Say More

Another pretty table

Love this pirogue book shelf

To be fair, I didn't see this until the very end--what's the point of this anyway