Archived Blog
Christmas Vacations
So I’ll try to summarise my last week, what we got up to.
We left on Monday Morning to catch an early flight to a town called Dira Dawa. One of the things I love most about Ethiopian vacations is that doing little or no planning is not a problem. This time around, Brian and I had booked our flights, and nothing else.
We caught a taxi into town and dandered about for an hour or two, trying to find things to see, or places to stay; unfortunately Brian had forgotten his Ethiopia Guide book. Dira Dawa, the so called the Queen City of the Desert, is a town about an hour flight from Addis. Unfortunately, it isn’t the most touristy place in the world. We were advised by a hotel receptionist to go and visit the caves, so we went, and tried in vain to quietly explore them ourselves. After acquiring about 20 or so eager guides, we set off down what looked essentially like a hole in the ground. Our guides took us deeper and deeper, eventually having us follow them as they crawled up through a tiny crevice barely big enough to fit through. The cave opened up again, and we went on deeper and deeper, getting dirtier and dirtier. We eventually decided to turn back, against our guides’ advice, and crawled back out of the cave.
After deciding on a hotel to stay at, we spent the rest of the day trying to find other things to see; but finding precious little. In the morning, we caught a taxi to Harar, about an hour away. We found a hotel and set about trying to find out about things to do in Harar, not really sure what to expect especially with no guide book. After about 10 minutes walking through the town, a young boy came up to us and began to talk to us. At first I ignored him; it’s not a rare occurrence for people to try to talk to the only 2 white people walking through a town. However, after a minute, it became apparent that the boy’s English speaking ability was extremely good. He explained that he was a guide and that he would take us around the old city of Harar, taking us to see various things. Brian had heard that a trip around the old city was a good visit so we agreed. He proceeded to take us around the sights for about 4 hours. After we had dinner, we had him take us out to the Hyena man that we’d heard so much about. Every evening, a guy calls the wild hyenas to come and you can feed them camel meat from a small stick which you hold between your teeth. Quite an experience!
In the morning we went back to Nazaret to join Aaron, our roommate, a couple of his friends from work and Brian’s girlfriend Laura and her sister. Nazaret is about 2 hours drive from Addis and contains a very nice resort called Safari Lodge. It was a 9 and a half hour bus ride from Harar, though, starting at 6am. Not so nice. Our two days at Safari lodge were very relaxed; we had a very traditional Christmas day, lounging by the pool in the sun.
This strange building at the lodge is actually the luxury room, complete with wide screen TV, private bar and lookout tower. All yours for 800 birr a night (roughly £40.)
In exciting news, I’ve managed to get my bike fixed and now have a working bike to join Brian and his father on their trip down to Langano Lake. I’m not sure when we’ll be leaving; Brian’s father has a nightmare of a trip over here. As his ticket was bought with air miles, they gave him a horrendous route; with 6 stops before he gets to Addis. He left on Friday (West Coast US Time) and arrives tonight at 2am. We are hoping and praying that he arrives safely and with all his luggage.
Hope you all had a very Happy Christmas! Wishing you a Happy New Year from Addis,
Niall
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