My flight was to Dire Dawa; from there I caught a minibus to
Harar, about an hour away. As soon as I stepped out the bus, and you guessed
it, a local guy approached me and offered his service: finding a hotel, tour of
the ancient city center, and hyena show. Since I only have about half day here
at Harar, I decided why not. I had read reviews of many tourist hotels in this
city and all of them are mixed of extreme reviews. But I met someone during my
trip and he told me a good and clean place called Rewda Guesthouse to stay
inside the old city. So I asked the guide if he knows of it and he said yes and
he took me there. It is not that far from Shoa gate, on a corner of maybe 2nd
or 3rd left turn alley from the main street when you entering through Shoa
gate. Rewda is actually very nice and almost homey feel to it. I was the only
guest there so I get to pick my room, I decided go with a room with its own
restroom. The room wasn’t cheap, about $20. I was told the place was about half
of current price just couple years ago; I guess getting into Lonely Planet book
has the tendency to corrupt a place. I was also told there was no power in
Harar for few days now and they don’t know when the power will get back on.
Apparently this happens frequently in eastern part of the country. I agree to
meet my guide after lunch for a quick tour of the ancient city.
Harar is predominately a Muslim city. It has been a major
commercial center for centuries linking the Ethiopian highlands with rest of
the Horn of Africa and Arabia Peninsular. And according to Wikipedia, it is
considered the fourth holy city of Islam with 82 mosques, three of which date
from the 10th century, and 102 shrines. The region surrounding Harar is known
for its coffee as well as fresh produces and fruits. Locals from the region
came to sell their products right outside of the Shoa gate. Now a day Harar is
also known for people chewing khat. Khat is a mildly addictive stimulant; many
of the male inhabitants of this region (including Djibouti, Somalia, Yemen, and
Eritrea) chew it for at least half of a day. Once chewing started, not much
work gets done. I guess in a Muslim region where alcohol is prohibited, people
find other form of stimulants to get high.
With no electricity in the city, I wondered as to where
should I go to get lunch. My guide suggested Belayneh Hotel restaurant just
outside of Shoa gate. It sits at the roof of the hotel and offered a nice view
of the city below. Meal at the restaurant wasn’t too bad or expensive, although
the portion size was small. Also apparently they have a generator, so I ordered
a bottle of cool Sprite. I ended up eating dinner here as well since they are
the only few places in town with backup electricity. After lunch I walked
around the Shoa gate area for little bit looking for possible Internet café,
but there were none as far as I can tell; maybe closed due to lack electricity.
Although I did find a working ATM, so I made my last withdraw here.
I met my guide around 2PM and we wondered inside the old
city. He wasn’t very informative or showed me much of the old city. Some people
said they liked Harar a lot, to me it is just another interesting Muslim city
with old and historical core and it does standout in Ethiopia. Since this will
be my last full stop in Ethiopia, I decided to ask my guide to help me buy some
coffee and spice. I ended up purchased 1kg of Harar coffee and a quarter kg of
hot spice as well some tangerine and guava.
After about 2.5 hours of walking, he asked me to meet him in
front of Shoa gate at 7PM and he will then have a tuk-tuk to take us to see one
of the two Hyena Men in town, one Christian and one Muslim, my guide is going
take me to see the Muslim one even though he himself is a Christian. I went
back to my guesthouse for a little of rest before headed to Belayneh Hotel for
dinner. The guesthouse provided me with flash light in the room. I took my
personal headlamp with me to the hotel as it was getting dark. I was surprised
to see many people were out and about and vendors selling goods and food with
flash lights, commerce must go on I guess. With time on my hand I played with
long exposure from the restaurant of the nighttime street life below.
When it was time to meet my guide at Shoa gate, I wondered
that since it was very dark how my guide will find me in the darkness. After
may be 15 minutes wait, he finally showed up and off we went on the bumpy old
city road to find the Hyena man. Apparently the show already started with some
Ethiopian tourists watching and participating in the show. The show was in an
open area that was illuminated with headlights of our vehicles. When other
tourists were done, my guide urged me to participate in feeding of the hyenas.
We all read that hyenas are wild and can be vicious and with powerful bites
that can easily break bones, so it was a little scary to be feeding hyenas with
a piece of meat dangling on a stick in your mouth! But since countless tourists
had done it and no report of death thus far, I gave it try. The Hyena Man also
had the hyena climbing up my back to reach the meat he held above my head, this
was not as scary as the mouth one as I closed my eyes for that. Just as quickly
as the show started it ended. The tuk-tuk took us back to Shoa gate and I
parted with my guide and head back to my guesthouse for sleep. There were still
people in the streets selling stuff, but the crowd had definitely thinned a bit.
I will have an early start tomorrow to get to Hargeisa, Somaliland.
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