Bahar Dar, August 1st

Hello,
I figured that having been here for a week some kind of blog was in order although the internet here is dodgy as hell!
I arrived in Addis Ababa feeling very refreshed following my, now standard, business class upgrade courtesy of Emirates. It was lovely. The capital of Ethiopia is not. My first impression was of a busy, polluted and muddy sprawl of a city high up in the mountains. A disgracefully expensive taxi journey later and I was dropped at Hotel Baro, which I had chosen purely on the basis of it being the top choice in the Lonely Planet. The hotel was actually pretty nice for $8 dollars a night, even if it is situated in one of the worst areas of the city with street children begging at every turn. I spent the first night chilling on the balcony drinking tea and chatting with some Germans who where halfway on a trip driving from Munich to Cape town, nutters!
The next day I took a stroll around Addis to get some money from the 5 star Shearaton Hotel, probably shouldn't have walked as a) it was miles away and the altitude was brutal and b) for some reason they stuck a 5 star hotel in the middle of a slum. The walk did give me a chance to check out the people of Ethiopia and whilst they are generally friendly, it does get frustrating that everyone wants something from you and there seems to be little drive to find a job. Still with money in my pockets I headed to the Merkato one of the continents biggest markets looking for a watch. As I entered the Merkato the call to prayer was echoing from the large mosque next to the entrance and it was a strange experience walking down the street with everyone facing towards me using grain bags as makeshift prayer mats. The market itself was huge and confusing little structure seemed to exist and I found myself lost on more then one occasion in amongst a maze of stalls selling everything from spices to replica football shirts. Eventually I found a cheap watch and some other touristy crap that is simply going to clog my bags over the course of the next three months.
Returning to the hotel in a huge thunderstorm, I sorted my bus ticket for the next day and then crashed out knackered from walking for most of the day. This was not before a quick un-pack and re-pack, which uncovered some disturbing truths about my priorities when packing with a hangover. 5 pairs of shorts probably will come in useful over the trip however I think that 4 T-shirts may have been an oversight on my part.
4.45am is not my idea of an appropriate time to wake up, but with every bus leaving the Merkato bus station at 6 I had little choice. Incindentally all leaving at the same time is ridiculous as it just causes a massive jam, but who am I to criticise. I made the bus on time and settled into my seat ready for a two day epic journey to the rock churches of Lalibella in the North of Ethiopia. The first day was hell, Ethiopian roads generally consist of clay with rocks on top, not small stones but big rocks that cause the bus to launch around every five seconds and the child in front to throw up, but no you can't open the window because evil spirits may come in. This said the scenery was spectacular as we rolled up and down mountains above the clouds and then down into the rift valley, passing through villages featuring mud or straw huts. There where also a lot of goats. I know this because the somewhat over-stimulated man next to me took it as a personal crusade to point every single one out to me!
He spoke a little English and when we stopped after 6 hours for a lunch break took me for my first taste of Ethiopian food. The main meal people seem to eat here is a huge flat yeasty pancake with goat stew and vegetables all eaten by hand. It was really tasty and extremely social as in general 3 or 4 people will share one pancake. Back on the bus the road just seemed to get worse, sleep became an impossible mission and worst of all my ipod ran out of battery. Eventually we arrived in the town of Dessie our stopover point for the night and my new companion found us a $2 hotel. At 5.30 the next day and I was back on the bus still in pain from the day before but hopeful that we might make the city by nightfall. Eventually we did but not before I had experienced the African view of personal space, apparently it is acceptable for the guy next to you to put both arms around your one free arm and use it as a pillow.
Lalibella was beautiful, perched on the mountainside and totally rural, hence the shocking state of the roads. I rapidly picked up a following of English speaking teenagers who offered to find me a hotel. Accepting the offer because I was tired and had no interest hiking around a mountain looking for a bed I found an average hotel and one of the boys, Abi, took me to a tej bet for some honey wine that Lalibellans produce, it was delicious. The next morning he banged on my door at 5.30 and we hit the 11 rock churches that Lalibella is famous for in time to see mass. The churches were really amazing having been carved out of the bedrock itself and since it had finally stopped raining the view over the mountains was awesome. The box ticking exercise complete, I went to a cafe with the boys and taught them how to play Pro Evo for a couple of hours. They have a lot to learn, but are very enthusiastic and I am certain learnt a lot from me. I probably would have been happy staying and messing around the mountains for a while but with Cape Town looming large I decided to move on and the boys found a truck that would take me to Gashena, a town two hours away on the road to Bahar Dar, Ethiopia's second city. There was nothing there! Roughly 20 houses either side of the road and that was it. The hotel was only $2 so I was happy enough to stay and read on the veranda as yet another thunderstorm launched around me. A group of locals came up and invited me to join them for food and qat a mildly narcotic leaf that if you can get over how stupid you feel eating a bush does seem to make you more focused and everything a little more intense. The evening was enjoyable with beer, pancakes and qat flying around and a useful opportunity for me to work on my Ahmaric vocabulary which now consists of about 20 words or phrases.
The next day meant more buses and when we eventually crawled into Bahar Dar after nightfall, 14 hours after leaving Gashena, I felt tired, bruised and smelly, having not had a shower since Addis. A hotel was found for me and I crashed out. So far Bahar Dar has been a success as all I have done is go to the lake and sit around eating, reading or watching the Pelicans. The sun is at last shining for about the first time since I have entered Ethiopia and the journey to Addis Ababa tommorrow should only take about 7 hours and will be in a 4 wheel drive not a bus! However my half day in Addis is tempered by the knowledge that from there it is a 3 day odyssey to Nairobi, Kenya.

LOL

James