I was excited to go to Horn of Africa, chance of seeing
active volcano, rock churches, and festival plus hiking in the mountains in
Ethiopia. With added bonus, I can visit Djibouti, my first stop and the off the
beaten track Somaliland my last stop.
My flight was with Ethiopian Airlines, which provided the
shortest and most direct of all the flights. It was not cheap, at $1,910, the
most expensive I ever paid. I still have many internal flights to purchase, but
I will do that when I get to Ethiopia as it is much cheaper to purchase the
tickets while there. The price does not change if you purchase it way ahead of
time or last minute (very convenient) and change fee is less than couple
dollars or fee. Also Ethiopian Airlines had just been delivered a brand new
Boeing 787 Dreamliner, and I was hoping to be on it on the outbound flight, but
their schedule was pushed back due to delay in delivery of the 2nd
Dreamliner. But the Boeing 777 was very nice with your personal touch screen,
so I watched few movies in between few naps. The service on the plane was
average: flight attendants have better attitude than it US counterpart, but not
that warmth of the top tier airlines. As for food, it was terrible. It reminded
me of what the airline food is like back in the 80s. I was sitting in the row
with a Zimbabwean girl from Utah who is going back for a home visit and a guy
from Montreal who is traveling with friends.
The direct flight from Washington to Addis Ababa is about
13.5 hours and arrives @ 7:45AM, and then it is about 1 hour and 15 minutes
layover for a short flight to Djibouti City, Djibouti. The time difference was plus
7 hours. We arrived a little early, and were bused over to the domestic
terminal even though Djibouti is not part of Ethiopia. I was looking around to
see if there were other tourists going my way, but other than couple American
military personnel and some businessmen, there were no backpackers.
Djibouti is a French speaking country and home to a US
military base, which is obvious as soon as you landed. The US military
aircrafts shared the same airport. Most of people of the country live in the
capital which sits on the east side of Gulf of Aden. Its economy is mostly
service based as it sits in a strategic location. Its landscape is mostly hot desert
and it was certainly hot when I arrived at 100F and hot sun. The country is
expensive even by African standard; you pay good money for average service and
accommodation.
Since Somalia to the south and Yemen across the gulf are
both close, this explains the presence of US military. When I was leaving the
country, I saw a drone landed at the airport; I was wondering if some no good
terrorists were killed by it.
At immigration and custom area, I was asked by a very rude
custom official why I am here; being a tourist apparently is not enough. In
additional to my passport he wanted my driver’s license! Passport is
international recognized official document and why in world would I bring my
driver’s license, this guy must not having a good day at home, maybe he was
yelled at by his wife or someone, now he is exercise his power. After you
passed his scrutiny, you wait in another line to get the visa, which is $60
regardless how many days, for me I will be staying only 2 days, it will be very
expensive; People in line talked how inefficient Africa is.
Once I got my visa and luggage, I went to look for exchange
bureaus onsite but they were closed. So I headed toward taxi stand and agreed
upon inflated rate in US$ and got into a terrible looking hot taxi to Africa
hotel, which I heard from someone online as being decent and relatively cheap
in this expensive country. The road to my hotel looked very dirty with dust,
and trash, and nasty looking standing water in many places. The taxi driver is
actually from Somaliland and he said he would give his family’s telephone
number, but never did instead he gave me his number when I was checking into my
hotel so I can call him if I need a taxi. I didn’t have a good feeling about
him and I think he told the hotel that he brought me here (for commission) even
though I was the one who mentioned to come here.
The receptionist was very friendly, offered to run errands,
but I declined as I am afraid he will ask for tips and I am very capable of
doing it myself. The room is big but construction quality on this relatively
new hotel was lousy, at $36/night it is considered a bargain in the city. The
in-room AC unit was adequate if you close the un-insulated bathroom. It is located African Quarter part of the
city and very close to the market. After unpacked my pack I was out to explore
the city center and look for atm and tour agencies. But as I found out,
businesses here close between 12-4PM and then open until 7PM. Unable to get
most things done, I proceeded to get money from atm, buy water and tooth brush
which I forgot to pack, and some fruits, but no food. Eventually it got too hot
and I went back to hotel hungry to cool off and have a shower. I didn’t see
restaurants with crowds, so I just had some cookies I brought from states
instead. During my walk to the European Quarter part of the city, I witnessed
even more dirty and smelly streets: the stench of urine, rotting garbage,
feces, and nasty pool of water. It can be overwhelming in the high heat. While
resting, I decided if I can’t find any tourists to share cost to visit Lake
Assal, the lowest point in Africa at 155 meters (509 feet) below sea level that
is not too far from the city, I will leave tomorrow morning, one day earlier
than I had planned.
Before I headed back out to the tour agencies, I went up to
the roof top of the hotel. It provided a good view of the surrounding area. Then
I went back out to the stinky and dirty streets, but it was lot busier, as the
sun was getting lower. I had scouted out the tour agencies in the European
Quarter earlier in the day, but now they were open for business. Both of the
agencies quoted a day tour rate of around $300 and they have no other tourists
for tomorrow. Their price for a day trip to the nearby salt lake is just crazy,
with that bad news I went to the Ethiopian Airlines office to have my ticket
changed without any fee. Without the
extra day, I decided just to walk around the city a bit now that sun was lower
and less hot. I went over to see the Gulf of Aden; the water looked dirty from
where I was at and few of the people there looked shady, so I left very quickly.
I headed back toward city central to look for a place to eat. I passed some
kids playing ping pong on the street next to a foul looking stagnant pool of
water. They asked if I want to play but I declined as I was worried about the
hygiene of the ball and paddle.
As I was walking back toward center of the city I paid close
attention to restaurants with people eating, but I didn’t see anything and the
couple restaurants listed in the Lonely Planet guide were not at where it
supposed to be; probably closed. Eventually I ended up in my hotel and hungry,
so I asked the receptionist where can I find something to eat around the hotel.
He had a guide take me to a nearby restaurant that but there was no one in it
so opted for finding another one nearby where lots people were eating but upon
close inspection, the food they were eating didn’t look yummy at all – tired
and deflated I went back to the hotel and ate my granola bars, beef jerky,
cookies, fruits while watching TV before calling it a night early.
I woke up early due to the time differences, and my mission
before my flight to Addis was to find a place to eat breakfast and take some
pictures of the city center before the sun get too high and hot. The streets
weren’t busy yet, so taking photos was easy, the hard part was to find good and
interesting subjects, not too many around. While I was doing that, I also on
the lookout for a place to eat breakfast, but the couple places I checked they
only serve drinks no and real meals. As I was about to give up and head back to
my hotel, I finally saw a restaurant where people are eating and food looked
yummy, may be it was the hunger, but I didn’t cared and I had hot breakfast
with meat and rice. Actually someone at the next table helped me with ordering,
I went with chicken and rice with sweet milk tea and a glass of fresh made
juice afterward; all for about $6. The local guy who helped me spoke very good
English and was studying to be a doctor in St Petersburg, Russia. He returned
home for a week to take care of some family business. He told me his dream is
one day to practice medicine in good old USA.
Finally with a happy tummy, I headed back to my hotel for a
shower and packing. I had the hotel call a taxi for me for 1,000 Djibouti
francs, which was half what I paid for coming in. I was happy to leave this
expensive, dirty, and hot country. Other than say I have been Djibouti, there
is nothing to say about this country unless you want to over pay for things. I
would not recommend to budget backpackers unless you are in a group of say 3-4
people so you can share the high cost.
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