Meskel Festival

After the noise night from the bars/clubs area, I woke up early to get a head start on exploring the Arat Kilo and Siddist Kilo area where National Museum is located and which I saw some nice churches around there on my taxi ride yesterday.

It didn’t look too far from my hotel and since it was little brisk on a bright sunny morning, I decided to walk there, and it was a nice walk and without too many hassles from the locals. I was looking for some old Armenian styled houses mentioned in the Brandt’s guide, but I didn’t have much luck, maybe I saw one that I think might be Armenian. I gave up and went on to check out Kiddist Maryam Church. It was nice church and I wasn’t sure if I can take photos since I read in the book, one should ask for permission, but for people only? Anyway I asked, the person at the gate said yes.

As I went around the church, I tall sleek young lad, called Fred approached and asked me if he can of any help and am I interested in a guide for the churches and the Meskel (finding the true cross) festival this evening at the Meskel Square with VIP pass. That got my attention, as I already planned to go see the Meskel festival and didn’t know about the VIP pass. So knowing this is not a free service, I told Fred right up front about what I expected from a guide – honesty. So we agree on a price for a set of services he promised. Fred will show me three churches as well get me the VIP pass at the resident of Patriarch of Ethiopian Church for 500birr including the 200 birr ($21) for the pass (Fred said tour agency is charging $40 for the pass).

After waiting for a little bit for the Patriarch’s office to be opened, we went upstairs to the office where they were supposed to give out passes to the Meskel festival. There were other people waiting there already, and the office was still closed. Finally the person in charge arrived and everyone swarmed in, but he went into a room and closed the door. The guy looked unhappy, and after a short while he came out of the office and brush off anyone who approached him and was gone. Fred tried to get him to stop and talk to him, but he would have none of it. Fred told me, this guy had gave out all the passes yesterday, even though some of the tour agencies filed for the passes, they weren’t able to get it either. And Fred also said this guy do this every year, sounded like someone on a power trip. All the other pass seekers left after the unsuccessful encounter. But Fred with his persistent got a tip from a priest who worked there to wait for the acting Patriarch Abune Nathaniel of Ethiopian Church and petition to him directly for a pass. So when acting Patriarch arrived, we greeted him and followed to his office. He first has prayer with his staff members as we bow our heads. Then finally he was ready to hear our plea, and Fred made his case, and we were handed the precious passes. I thanked the acting Patriarch profusely.

With passes in hand, we head to our first stop – Wutma hotel restaurant for breakfast. His friend drove us there. Fred offered to buy everyone breakfast, I guess the big fee he will earn today is making him generous. While they ordered traditional Ethiopian food, I opted for rice/eggs since my stomach was still troubling me. Fred then starts to tell me about he wants some wildlife video tapes from say National Geographic to show tourists as part of his business plan. He said he would send me the money once he receives it. I played along and said just give the address. He also said I could goto his parents place this evening after the Meskel Festival and continues the celebration with his family and friends and may even stay there overnight. I said I might be interested but not the overnight part as I already paid for my overnight accommodation and arranged taxi pickup at Baro. When I mentioned I am interested in buying some Ethiopian coffee later in my trip, he said I should call him up when I get back to Addis, and he can find me good and cheap coffee. Of course one can’t believe a smooth talking sleek guy like Fred too much. I saw few of his kind in my travels (Manolo in Tacuba, El Salvador, come to my mind). And they usually come with a story of foreign girlfriend(s), Fred is no exception, he said a married woman in France is keeping on calling him.

Anyway, our first church is Kidus Gyorgis Church, founded by Menelik in 1896, where subsequent emperors of Ethiopia were crowned here. We then head to Kidist Selassie church where Emperor Selassie and his wife are buried. Other famous Ethiopians are also buried here, including late president Meles and patriarch Abune Paulos. At this point Fred suggest we take a break for lunch, and that I pay him some of the fee now, so we stopped in a café to make the handover, he ordered us sodas. He said we will meet up in Wutma hotel around 2PM before heading to the other church and Meskel festival.

So I went back to my hotel and then got some small coins for my collection from a nearby bank, and finally got some pastry for tomorrow morning’s early flight (5:30AM pick by Taxi). At this point my stomach was definitely not happy. At around 2, I went over to Wutma, and Fred was having a shave at the barber shop next door. He said we still have time until the festival start (no mention of the 3^rd church, but I didn’t want to mention it either as I am ok with not visiting it), so he said I can get a haircut and wash there for about $4, so I said ok since my hair is getting long and going be in the hot desert for the next 4 days. The haircut turned out to be nice, much better than the one I got in Honduras. After the haircut, my stomach just completely gave out, and I worried for the Meskel festival as we will be out for a long while. Something with Ethiopian food or water, I could not get used to it. After this I stick mostly rice and spaghetti .

When I finally ready to goto Meskel festival, Fred has found another tourist (British I think, who just arrived) and his guide. Fred was trying to sell his pass to this tourist! He asked me not to tell how much I paid for the pass or how we got it, too sleek for me. So all 4 of us started our walk toward Meskel Square, along the way we saw various neighborhoods with the smaller version of Meskel bonfire that they will set off tonight. There were other locals walking to the square as well. Just as we arrived at the checkpoint for the VIP pass holder, my stomach decided to act up again, so we headed straight to the hotel just inside the checkpoint, and the first toilet I went in was nasty, so I went for another one. Thankfully that was my last one, and I was ok throughout the festival. At this point the other tourist decided he does not want to goto the VIP section, so only Fred and I went in.

The festival was already started, and all the VIPs were sitting in the grandstand area, but I told Fred if I can get close to the dancers/singers and bonfire tree, so he asked the soldiers, and convinced them to let me be right next to action along with some of photographers/videographers. I ended up staying there the whole time.

Overall the ceremony was nice, but a bit long on the procession part as each group performed their song and dance in front of the VIP sections. I got bored like many other people, so we just walked around the ground and take photos of the priests and pilgrims in their nice dresses and costumes. There were TV crews around, and we even got interviewed. I had to say a little white lie as how friendly the Ethiopian people are, which technically are true, but many of the “friendly” gestures are not genuine as they expected/demanded ridiculous amount of money in return after the fact. But being a good visitor, I spoke no evil of the country to the TV crew, besides I was enjoying the festival.

The event climaxed in the end with setting of the bonfire by the priests. After that mass crowd headed for home and we walked for a while, then decided to take a taxi back. There was no mention of visiting Fred’s parents’ house for after party, I gave Fred the remaining amount of the fee I owed him and 50 bir ($3) of tips as he did fight hard to get thing done despite his “lazy” style.

Back at the hotel, I went back to Taitu hotel for dinner, and I saw the South African there, he said he didn’t have much luck in securing his visas, only one, as most of the places were closed early today. After dinner it was time for me to goto bed to the loud club music as I needed to get up early tomorrow morning for my flight to Mekele for the start of Danakil tour.

Where is Lucy? And does she like to party in Piazza?

My goal for second day in Addis is to secure a visa for Somaliland from their liaison office here. I had some time before its office opens, so I went for little walk around the hotel and took some photos while the morning light is good and the hasslers and pickpockets are still asleep.

The breakfast is free at Ras hotel, so after the breakfast I checked out of the hotel and left my luggage there. I read that local shared mini-bus is really cheap, less than a dollar, so I tried to find one that will take me close to the Somaliland office. But I walked around for a while, and can’t find one that will take me to Bole Rd. And no one around speak much English of any help. After while I gave up and decided to just get a taxi, since I am nearer to the Bole Rd, the taxi price wasn’t too bad but only after negotiation. I specifically said I wanted to goto Somaliland embassy, but as sort of expected when he drove around Bole road, he wasn’t take me to the right embassy, it turned out he took me to the Somalia embassy. The guard told the driver where the Somaliland is located, so we now need to get on the Bole Rd, which is choked with traffic due to construction and closure at many points. I sort of know where the embassy is located, studied before I left US. But the turn off for it from Bole Rd was blocked so were nearby turns, so I just asked for the driver to let me off and I can walk to it.

The embassy has moved to what I thought it should be located, it is located right off the turn off from the Bole rd on the corner of the first right turn once you start walking away from Bole Rd. There is a big sign with flag of the country, so you can’t miss it. There were couple people there applying already. The old lady at the desk spoke good English, and process was straight forward of filling out some forms, pay the $40, and she then went inside the resident and got my guess the ambassador to sign it. It took about 40 minutes total to get my visa. They issued it for 30 days, but starting the day you apply for it! Luckily I will be in and out the Somaliland within the 30-day time frame. This happened to another person I know as well.

With all logistically stuff done, I am ready for more sightseeing, first stop, walking distance from the Somaliland embassy, the Medhane Alem Churh, the second largest orthodox church in Africa I believe. It was about mid-day and lots clouds, so it wasn’t the best time for exterior photos. I then walked next to the church and started taking photo of some mosaic on a part of the church wall, then all the sudden a guy came and said I need permission to take even the outside photos, strangely other people were taking photos that a little more distanced from the church, and no problem there. I chalk it up to another Ethiopian eagerness to milk foreigners for their money. I can understand that indoor photos/visits I might have to pay, but outside, way over the top for greed, they join the ranks of Vietnamese (in Vietnam) and Wall Street bankers as world can do without type of people.  Of course I don’t mean every one in the group, but just they have higher percentage of excess greed than general population. Anyway I followed the guy to an office, and pay the due and he called ahead to get a guide for me to visit inside – may as well since I already paid.

The church itself is fairly new, so nothing special about it, but still nice to walk around. Near the end the young guide started his sad story, I didn’t I would get hassled by an “official” guide. He said he is a marathon running, which we all know Ethiopian is renowned for. He said that some western person bought him a very expensive running pair of running shoes that he cherishes and only uses it for official competition. He needs a sponsor to buy him a normal pair of running shoes so he can train properly every day. I am not sure where did he get this idea from, but I did wear my Park half marathon shirt. Regardless if he is pulling my legs or telling the truth, I am not about to sponsor someone I barely know and let alone that he is an Ethiopian in Addis, which at that moment I didn’t have very positive regard for. I just basically ignore his story and just praise that he is so dedicated and may be one day I will see him on TV for the Olympic and wish him the best.

After the church I hailed a taxi to get to National Museum to see the famous replica bones of Lucy. Of course the taxi got stuck in traffic, so the beggars aimed for the taxi with tourists, and of any fancy cars. I found that the best way to ignore them (and hasslers) is to ignore them totally, no eye contacts and look in other direction.

The basement of the museum has a nice exhibit that is dedicated to human evolution history and that is where Lucy’s old bones is located, first level is dedicated to Ethiopian history, which is bit old as there is not much lighting. The 2^nd and 3^rd floors get progressively worst, not worth the time.

With museum visit done, I hailed another tax to go get me back to the Ras hotel so I can pick up my backpack and move to Baro hotel in Piazza. The room at Baro hotel was ready when I got there. I just went around the area and look for some pastry for snack in the morning. The night before in Wutma restaurant I talked to a Canadian guy who suggests that I visit the Taitu hotel nearby to ask the tour company there if they have good deal for Simien Mountain, but unfortunately no one was there. But Taitu looked nice and seems to be the happening place to be for backpackers. I decided to have dinner here as the price wasn’t too bad and didn’t want to waste time looking for a place to eat. After dinner I went to Internet and met couple long time travelers, one is from South African with dual citizenship with Canada, and he is heading to Canada, sold everything in South Africa and travel. The other is a mainland Chinese backpacker, never met one before. Sounded like he has been to many countries already and was complaining how hard it is for a Chinese citizen to get visas for many countries. They were planning on how to get their next sets of visas. We had a drink back in Taitu and swapped some travel tales. It was good to talk to other travelers.

As I was heading back to Baro, I passed many night clubs with loud music, and told myself this might be a problem as Baro is just located behind some of the night clubs. And my worst fear was realized when I got to Baro, boom-boom-boom, no going to be able to get a good night sleep for who knows how many hours and I have 2 nights here! I believe the music stop around 1AM or so

From Addis with Love - not really!

I woke up early this morning to walk around Djibouti city for one last time and to take some photos before the day get really hot.  My flight is @ 11AM, so I have some time.  I went up to the roof of the hotel and snap some aerial views of the city and then I went back to the European quarter, and looked for a breakfast place, eager to get some real food, but there were only café places.  By 8AM it is already pretty hot, as I was heading back toward the market area, I finally saw someone eating and glad to hop in to check out what people are eating.  It looked editable so I sat down and luckily a guy sitting in the next table spoke good English and he helped me order a chicken dish with milk tea, yes they eat hot meat dishes for breakfast (liver was also on the menu).  I finished off with freshly make juice.  It was good to have a full meal.  The guy who helped me is actually studying medicine in St. Petersburg, Russia and hope one day to work in the US.  He was back to take care some business for a week, before going back to Russia.  With a happy tummy, I headed back to my hotel and get ready to goto the airport.  This time I asked the hotel to get me a taxi, and asked for the local rate, so I was not overcharged this time.

The flight from Djibouti to Addis wasn’t too eventful other than that I saw a military UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) landed at Djibouti airport while waiting for my flight.  US has a military base here and Yemen and Somalia are both close to here, so it is only logical to have a strike force here to kill some terrorists.

It was pouring rain when the plane landed, so much for end of rainy season. The airport bus at Addis airport took us to the domestic terminal, and apparent everyone either is local or had visa already, so I was told I need to be bused to the international terminal to get my visa on arrival.  The person promised that my luggage will get to the international terminal when after I get my visa, and it did (took a little while).  With my visa ($20) and luggage I left to look for ATM in the terminal to get some Ethiopian birrs.  But all the machines were out the service and foreign exchange desk was closed.  This is only around 1PM!  Finally I asked the information desk and they told me that there is an ATM/bank in domestic terminal.  The atm/bank turned out to be outside of the domestic terminal.  Once I got some local money, I headed to the dreaded taxi stand, another round of negotiating to finally get to a reasonable price.  On the way to my hotel I was surprised to be told that the major road into downtown, Bole Rd, has been closed for construction for at least 6 months now (to be closed for 2 years may be), nowhere in my research did I read this.  So as you probably guessed the traffic was terrible.

I picked Ras Hotel downtown, as it was thirty something a night and supposed to be a decent hotel.  For some reason I thought it was only $10 a night which taxi driver thinks I am crazy.  They gave me a double room and the room seemed a bit worn and damp, tv didn’t work, shower drain didn’t drain; I tried to wash my dirty shoes after walking on nasty streets in Djibouti.  I mentioned this to the front desk, and they said they will have someone look at it, but no one ever came. In other accommodations that I was to stay in my trip, this is a common theme, grimy room with broken fixture and toilet, drain, pool of water due to un-level ground, bed bugs, fleas, mosquitoes, unwashed linen, smelly room, no shower curtain, lack hot shower or inoperable shower head water flow  etc. And you get this for the privilege of paying the inflated foreign price and it does matter if you are paying $10 a night or $30-$40 a night, all the same.  It just seen that the construction quality here is extremely poor, may be they learned from the Chinese whom are helping building their roads but also from lack common sense (water flow from higher ground to lower ground).

After I settled in and grabbed something to eat the hotel restaurant, I was ready to walk around town and get a sim card for my phone so my wife can call me or I can call her.  Not soon after I stepped out the hotel I was latched on by a local lad who I thought was friendly enough to get his help to get my sim card and air ticket to Mekele.  I had read before that there are many hasslers in Addis that will tell all kind of sad stories to get money from you or any help they offered is not genuine but for a fee they will inflate. Anyway he took around to get my sim card (cost only $2.5), got my air ticket, and made an internet call home, so I decided to pay me $1 for his service, but his face turned and demanded $5.5 for his service.  I scolded him that it was nice of him that he helped me, but now he ruined the friendly gesture by demanding hefty fee. I just gave him $1 and said if he does like it, I will gladly take it back – he took the money and left. Funny thing is that the next day, he saw me again and said hi and smiling, so $1 is probably good day for him, but with the sour ending the previous day, I would have nothing to do with him and I just keep on walking. Quick note about calls in Ethiopia, calling locally is recently cheap, about 5c per minute and only the caller pays like most of the countries I visited. But call to US cost $1.2 per minute! Government control the only telecom in the country, so lack any competition and money probably goes to fat cats in the government.

After taking cared of the most immediate business, I headed up the Church Ave to the Piazza area to checkout some of the cheap hotels there; I planned to move to this area after one night at the Ras, too expensive for crappy room, so why not pay much cheaper price for a little crappier room :)

On the way to the Piazza area, a kid started to follow me, I knew he is up to no good as many pickpocket kids in the area, so I tried to run up hill, but was out the breath very quickly, almost 8000 feet in elevation make me weaker than a little kid. Soon a rain shower came through and I took shelter in a souvenir shop. The kid also waiting outside for me and he was joined by many more older and menacing homeless kids, the store owner try to get them to leave the front of the store, but they refused.

I felt since I used the store as a shelter I should at least buy something, so I purchased a small copper toned bracelet (the only souvenir I purchased for the whole trip) and when the rain stopped I continued my walk uphill to the Piazza and the pesky little kid followed. In a short while, he finally made his move, with one hand stretched out toward me to ask for money, the other hand hidden under a cloth below the other hand, he aimed for my pocket. So I used my guide book and smack his hand hard and stared angry at him. With his cover blown he stopped following me. A local guy looks on in disgust as well.

This was last of bad incidents on the first day in Addis. Other than the constant hassles and been overcharge by the locals, everything else was not too bad – after the first day.

Arriving in Piazza area, I went to check out the two cheap hotels: Wutma and Baro – right across the street from each other. Both are crappy but Baro didn’t have the toilet smell, so I reserved a room for tomorrow night and for 2 nights. I thought it was going be good, but I was wrong – see later post. Wutma does have a good looking restaurant and I ate the local dish with extremely chewy lamb, it took a long time for me to finish the dish. Later my tummy started to not feel too great.

My walk back to my hotel in the dark wasn’t bad at all, it was still not too late, so people were around and it was too dark for local people to tell that I am a foreigner. I went to an internet café inside the hotel and then call it a night.