Breathtaking

I’ve been on a lot of pretty spectacular bus rides the past few years, and some of them are pretty hard to compare with each other with such varying geography, but the 10 hour bus ride in Ethiopia from Addis-Ababa to Bahir Dar just might have been the most impressive of all, not only for the jaw dropping scenery almost the entire journey, but also the small towns, villages, and glimpses of rural life through which the route took.

The bus went through deep gorges along the blue Nile, valleys, massive high plateaus, rolling hills, and mountains, all which were extremely lush and green, almost jungle-like at times, with the occasional towering cliff covered in trees and shrubs. What was not covered in greens showed up as dark oranges and coppers in the bright soil. At one point in the trip we were miraculously looking at the clouds from above, then after a windy descent, looking up at them. Hundreds, even thousands of types of trees dot the landscape, some types of which I’ve certainly never encountered before. A seemingly endless of supply of rivers cutting through the land along the way plus a plethora of waterfalls, most likely all feeding the Nile. In the plateaus, with lots of farming, the irrigation channels these people have built look like they’ve been honed with expertise to efficiently catch and direct all the rain water (all of course made with simple hand tools). And the bus driver must have spent at least half of the 10 hour trip honking, as the entire journey was rural and thus filled with donkeys, ox, goats, and cows and their herders shepherding them along the road. I even saw baboons sitting on the side of the road a few times!

Blue Nile:


Women with massive woven baskets on their backs on the road or meandering amongst plants and trees in the hills, carrying things on their head, everyone with a huge walking stick, thatch buildings, this is true rural life that seems in many ways to have remained changed for hundreds of years. Some of the villages had electrical lines, but some didn’t. At one point, I saw about 15 guys putting up giant electrical pole (with no machines!). 7 or 8 of them were in a line on one side, pushing it above their heads as high as they could, then 6 or 7 on the other side with ropes tied to the end of the pole, pulling. Just like that show on the discovery channel where they are simulating erecting the blocks at Stonehenge. Plenty of men and women just standing there or sitting on a rock, with their sticks, passing the day by observing the occasional traffic and the beautiful mountain scenery. Of course, if they were wearing jeans and t-shirts, it wouldn’t be as eye-opening, but everyone wears traditional clothes. Mostly which amounts to (for men) a giant blanket wrapped over the shoulders, covering most of their arms, and coming down below their waist and a pair of shorts, often in greens and browns, with either sandals or no shoes.

Watching us:


Our two stops included first a bathroom break, in which the bus simply stopped in the middle of the road and everyone proceeded to go into the bushes to do their business. The second was in a small town for lunch. Needless to stay I stuck out like nobody's business in this town, like an alien from Mars. After lunch, I followed my bus-seat neighbor (ironically an Ethiopian who was a taxi driver in Las Vegas the last 6 years, really really nice & friendly guy), and bought a branch of a tree to clean my teeth from a little boy for a few cents.

Time for a bathroom break:


Purchasing my tooth cleaning apparatus:


In summary, outside of the capital, Ethiopia immediately becomes a stunning explosion of colors, plants, animals, people, mountains, rock formations, gushing rivers, and tranquil earthen cut streams. Incredible.


Sanit & Netsanet at lunch:

Herding the cows across the water:

Turning from mountains into an incredible plateau:


Houses:

Orthodox Churches amongst the trees:


Passing a village:


Squatting, passing the day:

Above the clouds:

Addis Ababa: Chaos

My first trip to Africa and hadn’t a clue what to expect except the hammered out visions from movies and documentaries about AIDS and poverty. Addis Ababa is definitely the most chaotic place I have been. I have seen no working stop lights or stop signs in the entire city. The few intersections that physically have stop lights, they look like they have been off for a few years. Somehow, traffic moves on in spite of this. The minibuses have guys hanging out the side window (or door open occasionally) yelling the destination to everyone walking by. Most roads don’t have lane lines on them, so just try to find an open space or gap and drive in it. That includes humans, and sometimes donkeys or goats, all mixed in the roads. Cross the street anywhere you please like everyone does, but be a little cautious. Well, some people just walk in between the vehicles. Some streets have no or broken street lamps, which at night makes a dangerous mix of too many people and cars. The taxis, minibuses (and occasional full size bus), are definitely mostly Russian Ladas from the 60s-80s, struggling to make it through each day and full of squeaks and loud noises. They pack those things in too. Usually they have a legitimate 12 seats, but you’ll mostly find 17 or 18 including the guy that stands in the doorway and yells at people. My favorite seat is on top of the wheel-well, on which is placed a piece of plywood that you squat on, which I have enjoyed several times. Better yet was a plastic gas can with a pillow on top of it in the middle of the aisle. You must be a joker if you mention the word seatbelt. On the plus side, you’ll get to cross town for around 15 to 50 cents, which might amount to 30 minutes to 1 hour of driving depending upon traffic.

My view on the 5 cent bus atop the plastic gas can seat:


Guy hanging out window yelling. Note the nice wooden bench seat mounted to the wheel well, good for at least 2-3 people:


And forget about any modern looking buildings. Everything looks worn or has age. Buildings on main streets are fine (not for those who are into upscale, posh, or new things), but step onto the side roads and you’ll find shantier looking businesses and houses with steel corrugated roofs and dirt roads. Many sidewalks might be dirt or at least have patches of dirt of broken pavement (creating a nice demand for shoe shiners!). Every once in awhile, the main roads have some construction areas and it turns into a dirt road and traffic grinds to a halt (the amount of honking and the different sounds the horns make are hilarious). It’s like a cartoon of sounds. Or, if the road has a center divider (filled with dirt) look out, because you’ll probably see people sleeping in it. Maybe washing their feet and legs or face with a water bottle. And for the most part, boil your water from the regular tap before you drink it. Restaurants have good tap water, though, it must be filtered, and I drank it plenty of times. You can see people carrying just about anything on their shoulders or heads. And guys lined up on the sidewalk with their wooden stools and water buckets ready to shine people shoes. Why wouldn’t they though, a necessary profession with all the dirt around. Also, please pee anywhere if you are a guy. In short, it feels like anything goes in this city. But I quite enjoy it.

There are at least 10 people in the back of that truck, loaded up top, and a guy standing on the roof (in Mercato):


A guy carrying something in Mercato, the biggest market in Africa:


In contrast with Sweden, where everything is easy, drivers stop 5 feet before the line when they see you, and nobody would touch you with a 10 foot pole, here, you must pay attention. If not, chances are you will bump into someone or something on the street, or get hit by a vehicle (or a donkey, or a dude carrying something really, really heavy really fast that just won’t stop because he’s got all his momentum going). As chaotic as the city is, it is the only African capital built as they say completely by the hands and with the money of only Ethiopians. And internet access isn’t the best here. Forget about wireless in a hotel unless it is the Sheraton (or possibly a hostel geared for westerners), or the majority of coffee shops. But for 5 dollars or less a night, who can expect internet. It’s mostly dial-up or broadband internet cafes. However, one day, for example, the internet was out in an entire part of the city, leaving all internet cafes without access. And for prices, you can eat a meal for three for only a few dollars! Shine your shoes for 10 cents. Pure leather hand made dress shoes for 12 dollars (minimum $100 in US). And nothing goes without negotiating! Being a foreigner, they triple or quadruple the price. So just impressively lowball their first offer by about 75% and they’ll settle for 50% the original offer.

Successful negotiation in Mercato :


With all that said, it would be wrong to say this place doesn’t have incredibly rich culture. Over 80 languages are spoken. An incredible food culture is here, partly due to Ethiopian having never been colonized. They say coffee was first made here, in the southeast, and the coffee is damn good (and normally they are roasting the beans in a pan and grinding it by hand). There is an incredible coffee ceremony always for guests and friends, consisting of a long drawn out roasting of the beans over charcoal and making the coffee and drinking three cups.The world’s oldest skeleton was found here. Still there are plenty of indigenous cultures. The clothes you see people wearing vary incredibly in colors and style and are sometimes just cultural, sometimes religious. Speaking of religion, it seems that most people are believers. 46% Christian, 35% Muslim, a Jewish population, plus local religions. Culturally, like in India, it is common for men to walk down the street holding hands or with their arms around each other. Most things are still done by hand. Farming also…. 80% is done the old school way (ox and plow and manual hand tools) and without pesticides and chemicals (which is why I believe the bananas I have had here, smaller than the ‘average’ banana, are the most incredible tasting bananas I have ever eaten. Even if it’s brown on the outside, it’s probably still perfect on the inside). Anyways, it’s an awesome place (and I can’t say I feel that unsafe even if I am stared at by everyone that I walk by like a tourist attraction for having white skin!).

Hand washing:
Netsanet tries his hand at roasting the beans (though not considered much of a man's thing here...)

Grinding the roasted beans by hand:


Coffee Ceremony:

My lovely hotel phone:


Coffeeeeeee time:

My first Ethiopian coffee:
Getting shoes cleaned:



Donkey traffic:

A toothbrush

The bus stopped in a town on the journey from Addis Ababa to Bahir Dar. I bought a toothbrush from this little boy for 5 cents, which he cut to length on the spot and carved the bark off with his knife. Many people here clean their teeth with the end of this plant.