Last minute shopping

Dashing to the handicraft market on the edge of town, spending my last local currency on 'les cadeaus." At 200 Ariary to the US $, things are cheap, even if the selection isn't great. Bargaining is expected, and results in 30-50% off of first price. Long line of handicraft stalls on the edge of a canal, many more local buyers than expats, which is reassuring. The only place I found plush stuffed lemurs I found for the kids was at the expensive hotel, none at the markets; bought them anyway. At least they say they're locally made.

Returning to the hotel, the internet goes up and down and back up, and is slow so it pays to manually shrink my images before uploading (instead of letting blogger.com do it). Guess I can't complain -- it's back to being free, they disabled the lame attempt at charging for it!