I want to thank all of you who voted to send me to Martinique in February. Although the results have been delayed for some reason, I am fairly certain that I did not win. I had a solid, steady pace throughout the month only to be suddenly surpassed in the last two days by a few bloggers who suddenly amassed as much as 1,000 votes overnight. We did our best!
To thank all of my regular readers I’ve put together a seventeen song mix of music that I bought during my two RTW trips. A new mp3 will be available for download every few days. If you download leave a note in the comments and tell me what you think.
Me-go Mix: Track 1
“I Gasikara” — Lola
To download using Windows “right click” and save to disk. Mac users, you know what to do.
Madagascar’s music scene is full of local talent. Walking around town, the songs seeping out of storefronts and blaring from boom boxes are more likely to be in Malagasy than English or French. On the African mainland I heard Shakira or Diddy more often than anything sung in Swahili. Most Malagasy music is either upbeat like this track from Lola or a ballad. I decided to go for the fun stuff. I’ve been told that Lola is one of the most popular artists in Madagascar. When I asked for a translation of the title I was told “I Gasikara” means “Madagascar” and that the song was about his love for the country. It’s certainly catchy—you might just find yourself singing along even though you don’t know the words.
I also stumbled upon the video for “I Gasikara.” It’s a great overview of Madagascar, excluding the National Parks and the hard to reach South. Lola starts out in the Northwest tip of Madagascar on an Island called Nosy Be. Most people who go on “holiday” to Madagascar stop in a National Park to see a lemur and then head up to Nosy Be. Even I wouldn’t take the bus (more of a truck, really) up there because of the awful roads. There’s now direct flights from France to Nosy Be, bypassing the capital entirely.
Next Lola pops up in Antananarivo, the capital, to dance down the main street in town in front of the train station. I bought my first copy of Lola’s music just to his left in front of the Air Mad office. This is not an area to be wandering alone at night.
He then continues down the Route National 7 South, stopping in many of the same towns I visited on my trip. He makes his way by road all the way to Tulear in the Southwest and then heads North to the beach town of Ifaty. From Tulear I headed South instead, to Anakao because it was supposed to be more deserted. The roads you see him walking down are the same I drove in for six hours at a time in a packed minibus.
4 responses to “Me-go Mix: Track 1”
Very upbeat indeed – I found myself bopping a bit as I listened to it, thanks!
Lola’s great, I put 3 of his songs on the mix so you better like them!
Great mix! Getting exicited for my trip…currently reading up on all things related travel. I’ve held off on the ticket, because I’m still debating on the exact dates.
I’m glad you like it, Sandy. Maybe some of these songs will influence you to try out some places you hadn’t considered visiting.