Ethiopia. Our first taste of “the real” Africa; Africa as everyone thinks about it. Sub-Saharan Africa. Plane left Cairo at around 2am so we had another crap night of little to no sleep. Road from airport in Addis goes through a rather poor part of town; caught in morning rush hour, four of us jammed into 1 little taxi with the trunk tied closed on our bags (which we actually fought for to save cash)… dozens of people, mostly disabled wandering through traffic asking for money at each window of each car (being more persistent with us “ferenge” as we’re now affectionately referred to).
Got to the Baro Hotel but vacant rooms hadn’t yet been cleaned so had to wait for a while to at least get 1 room so the four of us could get some sleep. Manager hooked us up with Alexander (pronounced “Askinder”) who organizes/operates Land Criuser tours all over Ethiopia. Ended up hanging around with us even in Addis the whole time; like most Ethiopians he doesn’t seem to have a lot to do (except try to find work) so even if we decided to not do a tour with him in the end, it seems he would have been happy just showing us around the city for the odd beer and meal. Did a bit of looking around at the competition but nothing was cheaper and since we know we liked the company (Askinder, that is), we signed up for an 8-day tour of Southern Ethiopia (apparently it’s pretty much impossible to see the South any other way with so few buses running).
Both nights in Addis, we ended up bar hopping to 2 or 3 different places due to Addis’s fantastic night life. It was great having Aski around as he knew where to go, and he helped make us feel very comfortable in our new environment. It’s not just the music in Ethiopia that’s so fantastic, but a combination of the music and the people. In every bar, every single person you see is dancing with a certain passion that’s hard to describe. Almost every song played is Ethiopian, and it’s all GREAT music (I’m even starting to recognize a few tunes).
The prostitution in these bars is staggering. You’d be lucky to find maybe 1 in 20 women who AREN’T working. But it’s very different from what you might think – it seems to be a somewhat respected profession here as these women have actually found a way to provide for their families (Aski says probably 50% or more people his age are unemployed). On our second night one of the girls, Martha was hanging out with us for a bit which was actually quite fun.
On the second day we went to the market which is supposed to be one of the biggest markets in Africa (on the busiest day of the week). I usually keep a few of the smallest bills in my back pocket in case I get “baksheeshed” by someone and feel the need to give money. Anyway a few minutes into the market a guy came up and grabbed my arm staring at me all crazily; Jamie and I had read about this happening when people get pickpocketted so I glanced behind me and sure enough his buddy was digging in for those bills! Obviously it’s not smart putting stuff in you back pockets, but at the same time it makes for a good decoy if you can get over the feeling of being violated like that.
The market was overwhelmingly good. It started with the animal section which had the worst smell I’ve had to endure on the trip so far; on to women spinning cotton, spices, incense, clothing, baskets, metals, electronics, etc, etc. The metal and electronics stuff was my favorite – basically the world’s biggest scrap yard. Ended the market off at the top of a taller building for tea with a great view of Addis; people on the ground saw us taking pics and started yelling at us – you have to be very careful whenever taking pictures of anything in these parts.
Addis is very green and hilly; it’s the warmest we’ve felt on the trip so far, but still very comfortable as it’s quite high up. People are usually very friendly – lots of stares like back in Tunisia again though. Many people talking to us all the time; a few just wanting to chat, but most just outright wanting us to give them money (unlike before where everyone had something to sell us). Without a doubt Addis has the most poor people I’ve ever seen, but it’s certainly not to the point where it’s an unpleasant place to be.
Next morning we left for the tour; didn’t want to spend too much time in Addis right away as we knew we’d be returning at least another 2 or 3 times!
Baro hotel
Market 1
Market 2
Market 3
Market from above