Visiting Ethiopia

@H

happy to talk to ya re mapping out route and best travel options drop me a line or we can do it here

Well, it's two months till we travel, and I've got a couple of questions.

Firstly, if we want to go to Harar and start our anti-clockwise loop from there, would we have to go by plane from Addis? What about from Harar to Lalibela? I'd be grateful if you could help us with this sort of issue - i.e. whether it pays to take internal flights, in terms of time and cost.

Secondly, what about accommodation in Addis? We'd quite like to leave as much flexibility as possible, but having a place booked for at least our first night could be good.

Thirdly, we're going to be in Ethiopia for Christmas and New Year. Is it difficult to find places to stay around that time? Is there anywhere we should particularly avoid or head for?

I am 95%+ doing this in March/April next year.

Daniel

Harar - flight takes about an hour or os, not sure what the price is now, will check and let you know
bus is a full day, driving abt 8-10 hours

To go to Lalibela you'd have to come back to Addis
going overland is day and a hlf to two days trip so if you can would recommend flying one way and going overland the other as the landscape is stunning, again will check rates, exactly when is this as not sure if there will be a peak season or not

Do get influx of tourists and ethiopian diaspora at that time so rates tend to go up and hotels can fill up, the earlier you know dates and specif places can have my travel agent check on flights and hotels for you

range of places in addis depending on yer budget and what sort of place you prefer so let me know there as well and i'll check on plane rates for you in the meantime

Any help would be gratefully appreciated, H. You're very kind.

Sorry, just to be clear about this bit: going overland is day and a hlf to two days trip so if you can would recommend flying one way and going overland the other as the landscape is stunning... do you mean flying to Harar then continuing on to Lalibela overland?

H, should we do this via email or facebook or something?

Sorry if the post was not clear

to fly to Lalibela, you have to do it from Addis. What i was suggesting if time and finances permit was to fly to Lalibela and drive back or vice versa

otherwise you spend 2 days on some rough roads going and coming, worth doing it at least once for the scenery but preferable to not repeat it, hope that is clearer

I am 95%+ doing this in March/April next year.

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― It would have been better with burger sauce (aldo), Tuesday, 12 October 2010 06:41 (3 months ago) Bookmark

so are you going, aldo?

It's taken me a month to get around to this, but being at home with a bout of flu gives me a bit of time.

Firstly, we did the northern historical circuit, and 5 days in the Simien Mountains. The highlight of the trip was undoubtedly Lalibela, which I found intoxicating and crazy. If you want to read more about that particular form of craziness, Philip Marsden's Chains of Heaven sheds some considerable light on the mystery of the churches and on the isolation of the monasteries further north.

Apart from the north we also spent some time in Addis, of course. Assuming you fly in, you have to pass through the capital at the start and the end, anyway, but it's well worth a visit. I read somewhere that, unlike certain other capitals in Africa which have tried to show off as a gleaming modern city often in contrast with the rest of the country, Addis is strongly characteristically Ethiopian, with its charms and imperfections.

The other noteworthy aspect of Addis is that the splendid H in Addis lives there. He was a genial host with amazing stories and sensible advice. Thanks H. It was through H that we got to scrape the surface of what seems to be a thriving art scene in the capital, catching, for example, the tail end of the Addis Foto Fest. We also got to know some nice people, including a Norwegian Ethio-phile called Kidus (his Amharic name), who owns his own record/tape shop, a charming little place called Mitmitta.

Apart from Addis and the north, we went out east to Harar, which was geographically illogical, but well worth it. The city had an intensity I'd only previously experienced in Salvador da Bahia. Essential.

On the way back we stopped in Awash National Park, which was beautiful despite the fact that, in H's words "we've killed all our animals". No shortage of baboons, warthogs and astonishing birdlife, though. And the stunning Filwoha Springs detox experience.

My blog is in the process of being updated. I'll post again with the link. If there's any interest, I'll post the link to my flickr site, where I've uploaded 300-odd photos.

Yes, please do.

OK, my Ethiopia photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/danielgiraffe/collections/72157625897531044/

Thanks, will look at this tonight.

So thx Daniel for the kind words
amused by descriptio as genial

and if anyone happens to be around in the next month or so, posting the Ex's annual Ethiop tour sched with Getachew Mekuria,Mats Gustafsson, Paal Nilssen-Love and others

Monday 21 February + Getatchew Mekuria
6.30 pm Addis Abeba University - Siddist Kilo
Main Campus by the Fountain (‘’Kissing Pool”)

Tuesday 22 February + various guests
5 pm Yared Music School - Siddist Kilo

Wednesday 23 February + Fendika Band
3 pm Kokobe Tsiba School - Kebena

Thursday 24 February + Circus Debre Berhan
5 pm Cinema Hall in Debre Berhan

Friday 25 February
6 pm African Jazz School - Bole (Somali)
10 pm Fendika - Kazanchis + various guests

Saturday 26 February + various guests
4 pm Netsa Art Village - near the french embassy

Great photos Daniel. Ethiopia is so much more photogenic outside the rainy season. And if you have a nice camera and are good at taking photos.

That Ex in Ethiopia tour soudns like great fun. Is there also some big music festival in Addis Ababa as well, possibly run by the people who put out the Ethiopiques records?

Yes, I am leaving in something like 4 weeks (land morning of 4th March). A week round the Northern circuit then a week in the Rift Valley.

Gutted to be missing The Ex now I know about it. H, will see which nights we are in Addis and post here.

Lovely photos, Daniel. Really looking forward to my trip now.

Thanks for the kind words, people.

I think the bottom line is that Ethiopia really is a photogenic place.

Very glad we went in December/January. There's no way we could've done half of what we did in the rainy season.

Aldo, if you have any questions about practicalities or whatever feel free to post on here or email me.

Vicar, you mentioned azmari beats in your blog. I must've gone to the same place as you in Bahir Dar. So much fun. Really bawdy and rude (so we were told) but never uncomfortable or nasty.

argh, keep losing my post so again

aldo, yes drop me a line and let me know your dates in addis

vicar - belive that is my festival you are referring to, founded it with francis falceto, the editor of ethiopiques. we're coming up on our 10th edition and will keep folx posted so can get some visits for it mebbe

nice. What time of year roughly is it on? I probably will not make it this year but would be tempted to synchronise a return to your country with it.

Sorry H, circumstances conspired and we ended up with no time in AA to do anything. Only just back and will post more at length later (plus a Flickr link once I have weeded out 1200+ photos) but an awesome, incredible place and I will definitely be back - looking at Danakil in the 'cold' season next year maybe, with stop-offs in AA, Mekele, Harar, Tigray and maybe Simien mountains.

Did the Northern history route - AA, Bahir Dar, Gonder, Lalibela, Axum - then a couple of days in the rift valley and a week in South Omo. Although I can sympathise with the zoo comments above, I didn't find that to be my experience at all - the tribespeople were actually far less money-focused than in the North and once beyond Arber Minch there was very little of the hands flat out asking for Birr you got elsewhere at the side of the road, and if anything we were as much of an ethnographic experience for them as vice versa - you couldn't walk anywhere without small children taking your hand and walking with you, or school children trying out their English.

Anyway, as I said, more detail later and apologies again to H.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/alan_stephen/collections/72157626328664632/

Yes, there are lots.

I think Axum was my favourite place in the North, which I loved. It's held on to a concept that it's still a capital of sorts, and treats itself accordingly, which means you get back street bars and dancing halls inlcuding the one we were in (that, fantastically, was named after Mother Theresa and was done out in her order's colours). Other Northern highlights included sitting in a tej house full of priests in Lalibela, which only played liturgical music (mainly on the begena); the exposure to donkeys covered in Eucalyptus in Addis which, at a distance, looked like some weird new species; DERG tanks turning up wrecked in random places like the middle of a market; and teenagers taking cameraphone pictures of us in the piazza of Gonder.

The South was complex, bewildering and astonishing. I was completely unprepared for how devastating the landscape was going to be, to be honest. I was also unprepared for eating the Dorze bread made from ensett that's been buried in the ground for a month with hot sauce that might as well have been napalm, for drinking araaki still warm from the still with the A'ari, for random men coming up to me in markets and suddenly being my best mate ever (which may be because they had been drinking bootleg beer), for kids playing at grinding sorghum flour with stones and dust, for a reaxed attitude to electricity which saw water tank isolators actually being inside the shower area, for carrying a paid mercenary in the car near the Ugandan border who seemed keen to start a gunfight over 2 Birr.

I am definitely going back, I just need to work out when. Maybe the most bewitching and delightful place I've ever been.

I'm enjoying your photos. The ones of the South are interesting to me, as I never made it down there. It looks a lot more, eh, African.

Also, I can see what H. was getting at upthread about the southern people seeming a bit like exhibits.

That's maybe a function of the way they behaved more than anything else - when they got a sniff of a camera they went into bizarre fixed poses, it was very difficult to take a picture that looked natural even if they'd been laughing and joking with you a minute before. As I said before, we were as much (if not more) an exhibit as they were. If they'd had cameras, they would have been taking photos.

FWIW, I'm finding this thread totally inspiring, even though I know I will likely never get to Ethiopia.

hey aldo, would have been nice to meet but of course no need to apologise, glad your trip went well tho

will check out your pics and also post thoughts re the south stuff

and ha, have so many pics from years ago when used to do lots more driving around the country and we'd come across burnt out tanks in random spots and go climbing over them - tho think many have been cleared away now

quick question tho, what did you mean abt the landscape being devastating?

Devastasting in that I found it absolutely incredible, that it devastated my opinions and my mind as I looked at it. I come from Scotland, which many people people would consider one fo the most beautiful countries geologically in Europe, but it pales into insignificanc in comparison to the outstanding landscape in yr country.

I will we be back and we will meet then, I have no doubt.

got it, and yeah, we do have amazing landscapes here

on another note, was at a dinner last night and started talking to this guy who recently moved back here, ask him what he does and he is exporting camel meat so as i said abt killing all our animals - not satisfied with killing our hippos for shields, lions for decorative headwear, elephants as sign of manhood we are now exporting camel meat, just fab

this thread is a gold mine. booked a trip at the end of september/beginning of october with gf & friend, probably doing a northern route. would be really keen to hear as much music as possible, anyone have any particular recommendations for festivals, clubs/nightlife, things to watch out for, record shops &c., or any good primers/ways to give myself an overview? also wondering if anyone has any advice for picking up a bit of amharic?

http://builtforslow.com/blog

Never heard of this one-man-band rock guy who is traveling in Ethiopia

hey ogmor, just came to the thread to find a quote from someone and saw your post that you are coming, drop me a line when yer coming

re built for slow, went to the blog, not heard of anything in addis he's done, not even sure who here (including expats) would be into that or where he is playing/would play, will keep eye out

H, that would be excellent. we'll be coming down at the end of september, I will ilx-mail you if that works?

I've been neglecting my duty in updating the thread, but i had a superb time in ethiopia. we went at the end of the rainy season for just over two weeks, seemingly just before tourists arrive in earnest. everything was lush and beautiful. we did a fairly standard northern-circuit, everywhere we went was fantastic & the more we saw of the country the more obvious it became that we could spend much longer there.
i have to give huge props to h for giving us an amazing introduction to the country and for being very generous with his prodigious expertise&knowledge. i wasn't really sure what to expect, but h seems to be pretty much the best connected man in addis, clued us into all sorts of things we'd never have found out about otherwise, and on our first night invited us along to have cocktails with a group of his friends - including ethiopiques founder francis falceto (!) - and took us to a wonderful azmari bet (minstrel house), in which we joined maybe forty or so patrons sat around the edge while a rotating cast of traditional singers&dancers took the floor, singing wax & gold, improvising about patrons - h kindly translating as they ripped on me for having shoes that were too hot, wanting to take the singer outside to have my way with her (because i was white), and eating dogs (because i was chinese?). we went to other azmari bets later but that first place was special, w/ a fantastic singer, an incredible traditional dance turned michael jackson pastiche & a good crowd. we stayed late drinking the dangerously cheap beer & periodically being pulled up to dance, and then jumped in the back of a pick up truck at about 4am to head back. obviously it blew us all away & props to h for showing us an unforgettable time on our first night.
addis was very hectic, half the city seemingly under construction in traditional wooden scaffolding. serendipitous chats led to being let into the church where menelik is buried then having them roll up the carpet and take us down to the tomb. taking a moment to hang out in haile selassie's bathroom in the old imperial palace. going to see samuel yirga playing with his band, during which special guest mahmood ahmed turned up to sing and everyone went crazy (we were clueless as to who it was until afterwards when the aforementioned francis coyly admitted he'd persuaded him to come down), then there's a powercut and everyone, used to this, keeps playing by candlelight.
we made most of the journeys by air because ethiopian airlines are excellent, efficient, easy and cheap. in bahir dar we were right on lake tana which was beautiful, meskel flowers in bloom, lots of young couples going for walks, sitting out at night watching lightning light up the sky kilometers away across the lake, taking a boat trip to harass pelicans and hippos at the start of the nile & visiting the gorgeous, surprisingly inviting ~700 year old island monasteries.
everywhere we went in ethiopia, however remote, a guide or taxi driver would soon bemoan david moyes' new tenureship as manager of manchester united. this was also one of the things that was sung about on the first night when the azmari singers were having fun with us. the premier league is omnipresent, lots of arsenal & man utd fans, and i had a couple of good experiences watching games in enormous makeshift cinemas, sometimes showing two games side by side, drinking beer as everyone poured scorn on nicklas bendtner. there was huge anticipation in the run up to the world cup qualifier against nigeria, genuinely infectious enthusiasm, even the day before the match people were wearing make-up.
gondar was cooler, the old mountain capital, lots of vultures circling overhead, roving packs of dogs that would wake us up in the middle of the night making an incredible racket, great views of the surrounding lands, & the castles/palace grounds were one of my favourite things we saw. axum was hot, dusty, full of huge green fields of t'ef and rolling hills. it's fairly small but full of archaeological sites; the famous stelae/obelisks, unearthed palaces, networks of subterranean tunnels, tombs, tablets documenting the achievements of axumite kings in ge'ez, sabean and greek, as well as all the churches & associated paraphernalia, even haile selassie's much maligned aya sofya-aping church looked beautiful with all the light flooding in through stained glass windows. everyone played it down but standing in front of the chapel of the ark of the covenant was exciting, trying to glimpse the lone guardian allowed inside. apparently there have been two westerners who claimed to have been shown the contents of the ark, and from their accounts it's clear they've been shown different things, which is well-played by the monks.
lalibela is just as amazing as everyone says. it's really two separate complexes, plus the famous church of st george, and i didn't realize how huge it was. it took us hours to go round, walking through the winding passageways carved deep into the rock, suddenly appearing out of a large rock face, sometimes following a tunnel through the pitch black for minutes at a time. i went back early in the morning, which i would recommend, when it was quieter, and beautiful. i'm sure the monks are used to it, but it could be a bit invasive, especially when it's not so busy, but just hanging back outside listening to early morning prayers being chanted is a pretty wonderful experience. we nearly got locked overnight in a subterranean tunnel but it was fine.
most of the music we heard was ethiopian, in the clubs there was also west african music, dancehall, dub & southern rap. i had no idea how big reggae&dub were in ethiopia, but i got pretty fond of a few ethiopian tracks. i heard dbanj being played a few times, an amharic freestyle over in da club, and quite a bit of older ethiopian music. i picked up a few things over there, some pop cds and some older cassettes, and playing them back now i just wish i'd bought more.
it feels ridiculous to try to summarise the experience, and we got through more than i can do justice to here. maybe we were lucky, but we didn't really have much in the way of negative experiences while we were out there; i was sort of expecting for us to get sick/pickpocketed/stranded at some point but things were consistently excellent the whole time. i'm recommending it to everyone who asks, & if you get the chance you should absolutely go.

ugh, apologies for the formatting