Ethiopia

 by Red

44 – Market Day & More Rock Hewn Churches

Sat 9th Jan, Alef Paradise Hotel, Lalibela
Started off the day by checking out the rest of the churches. The most impressive has to be St George’s, standing away from the other clusters and built into the rock in the shape of a giant cross.
On the way to the grounds, noticed there was a Sat morning 5km Lalibela run sponsored by World Vision and UNICEF. Everyone was in a red or green t-shirt. I would have joined the run if I had known about it yesterday. I think my fitness level is very low, evident from all the huffing and puffing while trekking up the mountains. I wonder what route they take, since the town is built on the slopes, an uphill 5km would be vastly different from a downhill 5km run.
I spent all day walking around the town, from the hotel across town to the bus station, to higher ground where the churches are, to the saturday market. Yet i am unable to fathom the layout of the town. I pride myself on being able to orientate with the help of a map, which in this case is the LP printout. But this town has me stumped. Don’t get me wrong, i am able to go from point A to point B easily.. But I have no idea how I get there. The reason is there are multiple parallel roads built along the contours of the mountains. And they criss cross each other. There are also two sets, on either side of the ridgeline where the churches are. All too confusing.
The other interesting thing to mention was market day. Everyone was at the market. I had a field day taking photos of the sellers and their wares. There was honey for tej, a honey wine, salt, coffee, beans, barley, tef the grain for injeera, onions, spices, dried chilli, sorghum. For livestock they were trading goats, donkeys, chicken. Clothes, gabis, daily necessities and the like. It was a small market, yet everything is compacted in that area.
Tomorrow morning I’ll be up at 4am to go to the bus station. I haven’t decided whether to go to Bahir Dar or Addis (130birr, two days overnighting at Dessie). There is no direct bus to Bahir Dar, so i will have to take a bus down to Gashena (30 birr) if i want to go that way. Then join the Woldia-Bahir Dar bus, Dessie-Bahir Dar bus or another one of those.

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 by Red

43 – Lalibela’s treasures

Fri 8th Jan, Alef Paradise Hotel, Lalibela
At 5am in the morning, we made our way to the bus station. The bus didn’t set off till about 7 though (60 birr, 6 hours). It was good road east till Gashema where we stopped for lunch. Then it was a further 2 hours or so northwards on OK road. The trip itself was not too exciting: Spectacular mountainside scenery, bus packed to double its capacity, we picking up a driver with broken ribs from a minivan that had just flipped over, and locals who’s features were decidedly different from up north.
We reached Lalibela around 1.30pm. It is a small town at 2600m set on the countours of a mountain. As such, getting from the bus station to the hotel on the other side of town involved an uphill climb. But we stayed at the Alef Paradise, which so far has to be the nicest place I’ve stayed in so far (singles 120, twins 170 birr). Since it was post holiday and everyone had left, we brought the price down to 150 birr. We asked, yesterday the price was 600 birr and room reservations were done up to 3 months in advance. Now this was a hotel! With hot water, a bathtub even and a patio to sun dry my clothes.
Went out to explore the famed churches. The ticket office was hard to find if you did not follow the main road in. Tickets were a hefty 300 birr, and good for 4 days. Access to the museum would be a further 50 birr, and an official guide quoted me 25 USD and an unofficial one quoted 10 USD! I decided to cover myself the two groups of churches. Today I would do the southeastern cluster (4 churches). Tomorrow i have a full day to do the northwestern cluster (6 churches) and the single standalone Church of St George.
The churches are a real architectural marvel to look at. Remnants of the old Zagwe kingdom, they are cut straight out of the rock. They are standalone too, which makes its special and different from Jordan’s Petra, who’s structures are carved into the rock, as everyone tells me. Each one is remarkably well preserved and located just metres away from each other. Getting from one church to another by myself is quite an adventure, as it involved going through caves opening, tunnels and climbing over rocks. From Bet Gabrile-Rufel to Bet Emmanuel, there was a narrow tunnel that was maybe 30 to 50 metres long in pitch darkness that led to under the church. You opened a trapdoor and voila, you appear on the grounds of the second church.
Tomorrow I will do the other cluster. Kang in the meantime decides to leave tonight for Addis, a two day journey.. For me, i will leave the day after, but headed towards Bahir Dar, further west. Since Kang had arrived earlier, he had a week’s headstart to cover Bahir Dar and the other destinations i will do for the next few days. We will probably cross paths again, possibly in Addis.

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 by Red

42 – Town Hopping During Christmas 2002

Thu 7th Jan, “Hotel”, Woldia
At the time of writing, I am in the small town of Woldia, along the Mekele-Addis Road, at the junction towards Lalibela. The room is 20 birr, cheapest i’ve seen so far.
Today is Christmas 2002, or Leddet in Ethiopia, based on their calendar. The plan was to travel from Mekele to Woldia. However, the said public holiday made things difficult. First, let me explain the way the public transport system works. Buses leave before dawn, often when the bus station opens at 5 or 5.30am. There is normally only 1 maybe 2 buses daily to one destination. Then you have the minivans, which are more comfortable than the buses. These cost slightly more, depending on whether you rent the entire minivan (contract minivans) or get a seat in a van bound for your destination (shared minivans). The latter is much cheaper and will leave only when full.
So as the tale begins on this particular public holiday, you have two tourists waking up late, making their way to the bus station at 10am, only to realise that there are no minibuses to Woldia. This was mainly due to lack of demand, since the minivans wait till they are full, yet no one travels on a public holiday. In the end, the two tourists met an Australian volunteer worker who was going halfway down to Maychew (pronounced Mai-Cho). This was a good option (35 birr) though we got charged 40 birr. The van charged a variable rate and since “it was a public holiday” plus there is demand (6 faranjis in the bus in total), all the passengers were charged 40 birr. Those who were unwilling to fork out the extra 5 birr simply got off, like one local who had waited for an hour for the van to fill.
It was a scenic paved road through the mountains this time, and the journey took 2.5 hours. Reached Maychew and stopped for cheap lunch (13 birr) at a local hotel. Again there were no more buses anywhere, so it seemed that the two stranded tourists would have to spend a night in Maychew. But after some persistent hanging around at the bus station (“yeah maybe there will be a bus, or maybe there won’t”), the two stranded tourists picked up a minivan bound for Alamata, another small town south of Maychew (16 birr, 1+ hr). This journey wound up and down over a couple of mountains before reaching Alamata.
From Alamata, it happened that at the moment of entering the bus station, there was a minivan leaving to Woldia (20 birr, 1.5 hr). This ride was interesting since it was on flat ground, along which there were numerous villages. The passenger turnover was very high, and not much consideration was given to maximum capacities of minivans. Luckily the two tourists sat up front with the driver, so they had a comfortable journey throughout.
So there the tale ends. There they were, despite there being no buses, on a public holiday, at their intended destination. Morale of the story. Wake up earlier at 4am so that you can catch the bus!

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 by Red

41 – Grocery shopping in Mekele

Wed 6th Jan, Dallas Hotel, Mekele
Yes, that’s the most interesting thing that happened today. Grocery shopping. Walking around the Mekele streets, and soaking in the relaxed atmostphere was a real treat. Walked around the market (check out the pic of the salt bars from the nearby Danakil Depression, an inhospitable area up to 120m below sea level and averaging 50 degrees celsius!) and found a small supermarket selling cheap stuff. Stocked up on 5 packs of instant noodles, eggs, 3 packs of biscuits, orange flavoured bread, sugar mini doughnuts, dental floss, peanuts. All for less than SGD10.. That’s how cheap things are over here.
Also tried in vain to look for an electric kettle (these are SO useful) and an FM receiver (yesterday’s bus driver tuned to Ethiopian radio channel for a brief moment and it played English music (Boyz II Men) which made me realise how much i missed the radio).
Tomorrow it’s back to bus rides to small towns again. We head to Woldia, which lies south of Mekele and leads to the final destination, Lalibela’s rock churches.
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 by Red

40 – From Aksum to Mekele, Crushed Underneath My Backpack

Tue 5th Jan, Dallas Hotel, Mekele
Traveling by bus can be tiring. Traveling by bus from one 2100m town to another 2100m high town over 6 hours with your 60 litre Osprey luggage on your lap restricting your movement can be very tiring. Thank goodness the road was paved.
Reached Mekele at 12pm (why oh why do Ethiopian long distance buses set off at 6am and earlier?) and found a hotel near the bus station. Mekele is a larger town in the northeastern Tigray region (the girls here are prettier!) with nothing much to see, but it is a pleasant place to wander about. Slower pace for me than Gonder’s castles, the Simien Mountains’ baboons and Aksum’s tombs and stelae. I can finally relax and type decent entries here too. The last few days deserved much lengthier accounts and i feel guilty about slipshod work. So attached below will be backdated photos from Kassala back in Sudan (day 33), and Aksum (day 39).
We could leave the day after to Lalibela and still catch Leddet festival on the 6th and 7th but after some thought decided against it. The Norwegian girl we met in Aksum is flying to Lalibela and needed to reserve hotel rooms at 3 times the normal price. We need 2 more days by bus and will arrive at the tail end of the festival, with possibly no vacancies or exorbitant prices. Hence the decision was to stay two nights in Mekele and chill. I think we must be the only tourists in Ethiopia trying to avoid the festival on the 6th in Lalibela.
The Dallas Hotel was near the bus station. Rooms with shared bathrooms are 30 birr but there’s no running water (no i don’t get it either) or power sockets. I stayed in a room with bathroom (60 birr) that comes with a power outlet. Dinner was tibs, strips of meat with berbere sauce together with what tastes like wasabe. It was pretty good, especially since i got bread instead of injeera. But i really miss Sudanese food. And chicken rice. =/
Ok. The following pics are of me back in Day 33 scampering atop Toteel Mountain, and hanging out with the Kassala street vendor. Oh and the barber that shaved it all off…
The next set are yesterday’s photos Day 39 with shots of Aksumite ruins, stelae and my bread/tomato/yoghurt/egg dish.
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 by Red

39 – Stelae is a new word in my dictionary

Mon 4th Jan, Africa Hotel, Aksum
Started out the day late. We may pass on the festival days in Lalibella on the 6th and 7th, since the crowd there would mean advance booking and private transport. Going by public transport, it takes maybe 3 days, with stops in Mekele and Woldia. Not worth the trouble in my opinion.
Had brunch in one of the cafe/restaurants. In my quest to find local food that suites my palate that is not injeera, i have come across special fir fir (at least that’s what i think it is called). It is a dish of pieces of torn bread drowned in some sort of bolognaise sauce, topped with sour yoghurt and scrambled egg. It actually tastes better than it sounds.
Next I visited the sites Aksum is famous for. The remnants of the Aksum dynasty litter the now small town of Aksum. The ticket (50 birr / half price students) covers all the sites around Aksum except the Mary Zion church (100 birr). First was the Northern Stelae Park. A stelae is a tall pylon or obelisk or plinth erected upwards that extolls the might of the Aksumite rulers. And the park had the biggest ones. The highest (around 30m) has toppled. Around the ruins are tombs as well. Took walks to the Tombs of King Caleb and the Queen of Sheba’s palace in the other direction.
(Have not uploaded the photos for this entry yet. And frankly i have no idea how to edit my post later it since i am posting as emails for now. This will be how it’s done till i get out to the next country. Plan is to hit Djibouti and Somaliland wherehopefully I can access my OWN blog!)

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 by Red

38 – On the winding road to Aksum

Sun 3rd Jan, Africa Hotel, Aksum
Not too much to be said of the day. It was a full day of travel. Beginning at the lodge, we headed down at 7+ am. The terrain was truly spectacular, winding through the mountains, into the valleys and back up into the mountains. To Aksum, it was a full 12 hour journey, with a lunch stop at Adi Arkay. The road was gravel and sand. Everyone was breathing dust, and i could imagine how much more uncomfortable it would have been had we taken a public bus instead of the minivan.
On reaching Aksum, we boarded at Africa Hotel (90 birr, double bed), before going out for dinner. Tomorrow’s plan would be to explore the town and its surrounds.

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 by Red

37 – Trekking the Simien Mountains (Day 2)

Sat 2nd Jan, Sankaber Lodge, Simien Mountains National Park
Today we made our way to the next lodge, a 3 – 4 hour trek. This time, we caught sight of an entire community of baboons, thanks to our scout Bokat. At points, I was less than 3m away from them. They were scratching themselves, foraging for food, completely oblivious to the humans around them.
Reached the next lodge (40 birr) and dumped our bags there. It was my bag, for without it, i had no problem keeping up with the much fitter duo in front of me. We saw deers, more gelada baboons, ravens and some breathtaking views below. After that was done, we headed back to camp.
Of course, there was much more to see if we were to trek beyond Sankaber, but that would be a lot more costly. Instead we slept at the lodge. The family manning the place were a lot friendlier than the previous night’s and we really enjoyed the stay. We (no, kang) had injeera (20 birr each, overpriced but hey, we’re at 3000+ m). Plus there was a room heater, i’m not sure what you call them.. We bought a stack of wood (15 birr) and chucked them to burn inside the stove heater thingy. The whole room was lovely and warm. I really hated the cold. For someone who comes from a country where the average temp is 30 degrees, 0 degrees at night is unbearable. Also, with the metal tray used for the injeera, we cooked our instant noodles by placing the tray with water on top of the stove thingy.
All in all, it was a great evening by the fire inside the dorm. And we meet a couple of drivers who stayed in the dorm lodge with us. They would be picking up some campers and bringing them down to Debark, before departing to Aksum. This is great, we agreed on a price (300 birr each, steep). We’ll hitch a ride with them tomorrow and make the long journey to Aksum in a day.

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 by Red

36 – Trekking the Simien Mountains

Fri 1st Jan, “Lodge”, Simien Mountains National Park
Took the 8am local bus out from Gonder to Debark (4hrs, 30 birr). The bus ride included a couple of scares where the bus stalled and needed fixing. On reaching Debark, we waited outside the tourist information centre / park headquarters till they re-opened at 1.30pm. Initially the HQ people said that it was not possible to leave at that time, since it is too late to arrange all the logistics. Fees were 90 birr per day per person, 40 birr for the mandatory Scout. Besides that, a Guide costs 120 birr and a Cook would cost 75 birr. Further costs would include mules, their handlers, cooking material, tents, and maybe some arrangement for 4WD hire. After consideration, we decided to go ahead for 3D2N, with one Scout. We will not camp, instead will pay 40 birr per night at two lodges along the way. Our target would be Sankaber, over the 2 days. Any further up will require camping since there would be no other lodges.
The terrain was spectacular, covering hills and valleys, bypassing villages. The first day didn’t see us spotting any interesting. Though i was completely exhausted by the time we reached the lodge, no thanks to me carrying extra unneeded weight. Reached the lodge just after dark, it was effing cold, my nose was running and we had no gear. All we had amongst the two of us were 20 hard boiled eggs, some biscuits, and 10 packs of instant noodles (with no cooking material). We had leftover injeera from this afternoon’s breakfast, but i passed on it. And so, after 4 hard boiled eggs, i went to sleep at 8am, effing cold. Altitude: around 3260m.

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 by Red

35 – Oh Injeera, Why Art Thou So Sour?

Thu 31st Dec, Queen Tayum Hotel, Gondar
(ok. this is a test post. apparently Blogger.com is filtered here. so i can’t access anything. Trying to post from email now).
Early 6am, went to the bus station, taking the minibus from Shihedi to Gondar (50 birr). The terrain starts to elevate from here. The road, contracted to the Chinese, are on the way to becoming fully paved and should be all done within a year. Travel should be much easier then. Reached around 10 am, and did the usual routine of looking for a place to stay. Gondar is cool compared to the last 2 weeks in Sudan. Immediately the walled royal compounds loom into view and I can see why they call this town Africa’s Camelot.
I have no money on me, since all I did was convert around 25 SDP to birr (about 12.50 SGD) and had already spent all of that on last night’s lodging and today’s bus ride. So i went to the tourist information building, where the helpful guy helped changed by USD to birr and showed me a hotel. The Queen Tayum Pension (80 birr) was a nice place with hot water, a welcomed change. Next was to find some food and some Internet time. Internet was expensive, and painfully slow. To make it worse, i left my flash drive at the shop…=( Managed to upload the last few entries; there will be no pic uploads till I get to Addis probably.
Ethiopian dining at this point is a bit of an enigma. Unlike Egypt or Sudan, where you have food around every corner, plus bright signs or the displays where you can just point at what you want, in Ethiopia, food is not shown up front. Maybe the signboards are in Amharic, so i can’t read them. But then, even those typed out in English are all “bar and restaurant”s. When i enter, it’s all bars, with local drinking and no one eating. Finally settled on one and ordered my first plate of the much maligned injeera, the Ethiopian flat bread made out of some sort of sour dough. And boy is it sour…each mouthful is a chore. Where normally i would eat injeera with meat, now it is me eating meat with injeera. It is not that bad actually, especially when you mask the sour taste by dunking it in the various types of sauces/curries. Over the next few days though, my liking for the bread grew less and less. Maybe over time i would grow to like it, but for now i will
avoid eating it unless there is no choice.
Next i went for a stroll to the top of the hill to see the Debre Berhan Selassie Church, with it’s colourful cherubs smiling from the ceiling. Nothing really spectacular, but as i was intending to take it slow, I planned to see the inside of the Royal Enclosure tomorrow. However, as i was walking along the main piazza area, guess who walked past. Kang from back in Sudan! He flew into Ethiopia and had spent a week here before reaching Gondar. We caught up on stuff over dinner and i found out he made plans to trek the Simien Mountains. Of course it was a brilliant opportunity to travel together again, as well as cut the cost of hiring guides, scouts etc in the park. Doing it alone would be too costly, plus Kang’s take no prisoners approach of getting the cheapest deal around would certainly help a budget traveler like me.
So it is set, tomorrow we will take a bus from Gondar to Debark, the set-off point to the Simien Mountains. Instead of going through a company to plan out the itinerary, we intend to go direct to the park office in Debark and pay for trekking fees etc there.

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