Apologies for not posting this sooner!
My first night's stay in Ethiopia was an economical choice: what I
got for the money was wonderful, but it didn't include any
high-speed/wifi internet. I did, however, get to send an important
e-mail over a dialup connection.
March 12 was originally planned as a
throwaway day. The end of March 10th and all of the 11th would
involve waiting in Dulles International for twelve hours and being in
the air for another twelve. I expected to reach my destination and
collapse from jet lag, because (as was once again the case) I'm not
good at falling asleep while inside of airplanes.
It turned out to be a robust and
eventful day instead.
I will attempt to recount what I can;
as a first-time jet-lagged arrival in a big African city, I did not
trust myself to walk around with an expensive looking camera swinging
on its strap, so this entry lacks pictures. Since I do return to
Addis Ababa on two other days (including the last of the trip) there
is a fair chance I will get snaps in the future.
Flight/Arrival in Addis Ababa
Ethiopian Air is now one of my
favourite airlines. The economy-class service was friendly and
hospitable, which becomes more important the longer you have to stay
in the sky. This twelve hour leg of the trip (Toronto to DC was the
first short part) was not the longest flight I have experienced, but
it would have felt longer if the quality was poor.
The visa process was much easier than I
expected, which suggests that they are streamlining things for
tourists from a range of different countries [link]. I arrived there
with proof of round trip airfare, a detailed itinerary, booking
receipts of every place where I will stay this trip, a Yellow Fever
vaccination certificate, all arranged in a neat folder. They looked
at my passport and at the contents of an information card handed out
by the airline, briefly asked about my purpose of travel and intended
length of stay, never asked for the folder, and quickly made me a
tourist visa for US$20.
The line was so short and I was out of
the airport so quickly that I kept wondering if I took a wrong turn,
or used an exit only intended for the crew. Nope! It was just an easy
process.
Addis Ababa is a large African city
undergoing lots of construction. Frames of new hotels are rising from
the ground in various places. The ring road from the airport is being
expanded as well.
B&B Report: Family Cozy
On Monday I was lodged at Family Cozy.
A single room is inexpensive and they accept US Dollars. The place
comes with a restaurant that has a decent Western menu; I have yet to
eat any traditional Ethiopian cuisine after one day of travel, but
it's definitely in the city if I want it.
There are many features to the place.
Their security consists of a big metal fence which can only be opened
from inside or by key, and if anybody got past that there is still a
locked metal door, all before you consider that the individual rooms
have sturdy lock-and-key doors. Hey, without being locked my door
still needed a good bodycheck to open.
They have two shared bathrooms on my
floor. The important thing here for thrifty travelers is that those
bathrooms are equipped with clean hot showers processed by a shiny
looking water tank. I still drank bottled water and used the same to
wet/clean my toothbrush, but I want to develop good habits for when I
leave the big city. That shower felt so good when the last one I had
was at 10:30 AM two days prior.
The most important service is the
advice they give. You can get maps and great safety info.
Roaming in Addis
"Scammers are artful in this
city," said the manager. "No one is likely to rob you with
a knife or a gun, but many people on the street may try to use words
and polite manners to cheat you."
Outright theft isn't something I
encountered. What you do find in Addis are cabs without a meter,
making it necessary to haggle with drivers; all of them want to
charge you a different rate than they would for residents. Since
different rates for residents and tourists happen at proper museums
and attractions, the cabbies are following the norm. Some of them
want to go farther with that than others, but you can firmly and
politely talk them down. I found that most of the drivers asked for
the same 100ETB rate and I got used to paying that, but at least I
did well for myself in the last case: I offered 100, he grumbled
about wanting 150 but accepted 100. Given the conversion rate, I
don't find that very expensive, but you may want to get the best
value out of principle.
You also find lots of boys who want to
shine your shoes, or perhaps wipe car windows. They make their way
down the sidewalk carrying buckets and rags. Each one who saw me
approached me. I turned them down with the same consistency.
On a more curious note, I'm not yet
used to sharing the sidewalk with small herds of goats and donkeys.
You don't get that everywhere in the city; I think it was more common
in the part of Addis where I stayed. Even then, it was an occasional
sight at the most.
What you do get are crosswalks without
lights: painted lines on the road telling you where to cross but not
when. It's easy for a Torontonian to take for granted something like
crosswalk lights complete with a countdown and noises.
National Museum
The first attraction I visited was the
National Museum. There was an exhibit in a side building about the
charity work of Dr. Abebech Gobena. After looking at that free of
charge and inscribing my name in the guestbook, I found the main
building. The admission, if converted to US currency, might have been
a couple of dollars or less.
I liked what I saw. There were
different exhibits on each floor, each with a different purpose.
The first level I viewed had many
artifacts from Axum, the place I knocked off my itinerary due to a
travel advisory. There were examples of pottery, currency, animal and
female figures, some of which were made in 500 BC. Two things
Ethiopia has in spades are cultures and religions, all with deep
historical roots. Unique flavours of Judaism, Orthodox Christianity,
Islam and several different tribal peoples contribute to this wealth.
The second room on the same level had
seats, portraits of and ceremonial wear from different emperors and
empresses in Ethiopian history. To finish the thought, they did
include a portrait of Mengistu, whose regime took power after
Selassie's death in 1974. The centerpiece of the room grabbed my
attention: a reconstruction of a hominid skull. That would connect
better with the last room I saw on the day than any other place in
the building.
The third level contained contemporary
art works. The fourth level held different exhibits of traditional
things: ceremonial costumes, standard hunting equipment and royal
hunting equipment.
The lowest level finished the thought
started by the hominid skull reconstruction. It held different rooms
with fossils and reconstructions with a view to how life looked in
the Rift Valley and other areas before the emergence of homo sapiens.
The most important statement to me was a room where different
reconstructions, skulls and teeth belonging to different hominids and
prehistoric great apes were lined up chronologically. The effect was
that of a family tree stretching across millions of years, showing
the transition from the earliest known upright-walking hominids
(going somewhat earlier to an evolutionary ancestor of the gorilla)
to the earliest known homo sapiens.
The National Museum showed me a history
of Ethiopia and then some, going from contemporary times all the way
back to the origins of people in general.
Addis Ababa University/Institute of Ethiopian Studies
Though tired, aching and showing some
signs of travel-related dehydration, I soldiered on to Addis Ababa
University. I knew only that it too had a museum, and it was the
second thing recommended to me by the manager of my Bed and
Breakfast.
As I left the cab and walked on campus,
I immediately noticed that the grounds looked like a botanical garden
with sidewalks and roads. Where I went for postsecondary education,
the Common was a large field of grass with a bunch of trees ruled by
Canada Geese; I immediately acknowledged that advantage to this
place, where students roamed around fascinating grounds.
After a fair deal of walking I reached
the museum, where things got clearer in a hurry. These grounds were
once palatial, a home to Emperors and Empresses. Invaders liked the
place enough to occupy it during the Second World War.
What followed was overwhelming to a
tired guy. On the same excursion, I went to a campus full of
students; I saw cultural exhibits about different ethnic groups in
Ethiopia and their different traditions and beliefs, including folk
tales; I saw a gallery of traditional instruments and religious art
work; I visited the rooms of Emperor Haile Selassie and Empress
Menen, looked at some of their clothes and ceremonial gear and other
things left over from when they lived in the building.
After that, I was ready to get back to
the B&B. Once I did, I conked out for a few hours, woke up for a
shower and dinner, and typed this article.
March 13, I fly to Gondar.
D. Madeley
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