Ethiopia - worth the wait

Recently, I managed to visit a country I have long had a fascination for: Ethiopia. For various reasons (as I was living in East Asia) it didn't happen earlier. But it was well worth the wait! An intoxicating mix of history, culture, religion, good food, great drinks, beauty (both in people and places), it's the most interesting African country I have been to. It's somewhere I would actually like to live in future. It had a totally unexpected African-Asian vibe too (Hindi film songs, Bajaj tuk-tuks and some children who looked like they could be in a Bangladeshi village). Why did I wait so long?!

It ended up being a full-on trip of 6 places in 2 weeks. This seems quite over-the-top and reminiscent of Japanese package tourists who whizz round Europe in a week, but somehow it didn't feel rushed and the movement from A to B was very much part of the fun. Coming from Kabul, where there is no movement except to the office/supermarket/restaurant, constantly moving on is much appreciated on holiday. In such a large country as Ethiopia, the only real option for a short break was to get lots of domestic flights with Ethiopian Airlines. These were cheap (about $50 each) and always punctual, clean and efficient. The in-flight ham sandwiches were legendary. The only problem was they often left at an unearthly hour of the morning.
 

Market near Dire Dawa

Addis Ababa ('Addis') was the start, middle and end point (you mostly have to come back to Addis to get a flight to anywhere else). It was a great place to walk around and felt pretty safe; on the first day we walked from the south, near the airport, all the way to St George's Cathedral in the Piazza in the north of the city - looking at the map later, this was a mammoth walk across about 2/3 the length of the city! The architecture or street scenes were not particularly astounding, and I would not say Addis is an incredible city (there was not the intensity of colour/sounds you might get in West Africa), but pretty much all street life was interesting in one way or another. We were immediately struck by how glamorous many Ethiopians were; this made us feel really quite scruffy in comparison. The women often had big corkscrew curl hair-dos (wigs?), abundant jewellry and bright, trendy clothes. A coffee in Le Parisien cafe on Bole Road felt like a coffee shop anywhere in the west. The highlight 'sight' in Addis was without doubt the Ethnological Museum, housed within Addis Ababa University. This was superbly curated, with fantastic background music too, and a treasure of information on the diverse cultures, ethnic groups and lifestyles in the country. And the wooden furniture! There was not one chair or table that we did not want to immediately ship back home. Unfortunately the Merkato - meant to be the largest market in Africa (and also a prime pickpocket spot) - was closed, so that will have to wait until next time. Particularly memorable, also, was Club Alize, where an excellent live band played covers in an uber-cool basement club full of Addis' trendy young party-goers.
 

Main market inside the walled jugol of Harar

Harar was the best part of the trip. It's an old walled city in the muslim East, which is an important commercial and cultural centre. The lack of renovation of the jugol (the walled enclosure), despite being a UNESCO world heritage site, made life within it seem very real, with people going about their business in the winding streets that often had rubbish strewn at the side of them. Thanks to the young guide, whose father was from Jamaica and resides in Shashemene (where the rastafarian community in Ethiopia lives), we visited a Harari coffee factory (the smell was divine), old majestic wooden houses, mosques, tombs, a bakery selling piping hot rolls and various markets selling flatbreads and vegetables that were concentrated at each gate of the walled city. Harar is also known for its hyenas and, more specifically, the long-running relationship between some local old men who feed and talk to the wild hyenas. I think the hyenas have some sort of spiritual protector role of the town. It was pretty odd being so close up to animals that, as a child in Kenya, we would only see from the safety of a car. In Harar, mangoes and Qat (a green plant chewed as a stimulant in much of the Horn of Africa and Middle East) are major products. Apparently qat from this area is flown to the government of Djibouti daily, such is its quality and abundance. The entire place was littered with chewed mango skins and discarded stems from which juicy qat leaves had been torn off. Chewing qat for hours seemed to be a major pastime, which might explain the large number of haggard, wasted-looking men hanging around aimlessly at the side of the street for hours on end. I tried it; it perked me up, like a strong coffee would, for about 30 minutes, but the bitter taste of grass was not really worth it. After a dinner at a local beer bar (the locally brewed Harar beer and Hakim stout were truly excellent), where we ate copious tibs (fried, salty beef chunks and onions), we went to the National; a cavernous and quite seedy hotel/nightclub (prostitutes openly prowling across the dancefloor) to listen to live music. The dancing of the local clientele was very amusing to watch.

Dire Dawa, the gateway to Harar, is an extremely flat, hot and green city, very spaced out and organised. A water problem at the first hotel of choice (in that there was not a drop - hot or cold) prompted a swift escape to the large Ras Hotel, an ageing government-run place with tropical gardens. The receptionist seemed bemused, if not slightly offended, when immediately asked if his hotel had any water or not. This place was like stepping back in time into the 1960s; the decor was fabulously retro, and the chairs and tables would make good collectors' items in the West, I'm sure. The view from the balcony was of trees teeming with vultures staring back at you - like something out of a Hitchcock film. And there was cold water, allowing perhaps the most appreciated scrub/wash of recent times. Future visits to Ethiopia will certainly feature stays at the Ras chain of hotels. Dire Dawa was the only place where we tried Ethiopian wine - Goudar Red (at Paradiso Restaurant). Thankfully, this came in small half-bottles, which was about the maximum one would want to consume anyway - it was not a winner. The colourful Kefira market on the outskirts was an excellent ending to the East, and a mango stock-up point, before catching the flight.

Grains and coffee pots - Kefira market, Dire Dawa

Lalibela is the most famed of tourist sites in Ethiopia - the star attraction in the northern 'Historical Circuit'. This is due solely to its numerous rock-hewn churches. They are pretty incredible, mostly because they were not built but carved from the red-brown rock common in that region. What's more, it's not only the outer structure of the church that was carved but also inside, there are rooms, altars and carved windows, These beggar belief, when you wonder how they were created in an age without electricity or heavy machinery. Most churches are in the centre of town, and can be seen in a day or two, but we also visited a couple on a day trip outside in the surrounding countryside. 

Bet Georgis - the most impressive church

A pilgrim praying

Unfortunately Lalibela was thriving on the insect front - with copious flies and fleas. Walking around the churches - indeed anywhere outside - was a constant exercise in swatting flies away from your face/head. The filthy rugs inside the churches were probably the source of the aggressive fleas that took a liking to me, which resulted in about 50 bites over my stomach and lots of scratching for the rest of the holiday.  
Being such a touristy place, Lalibela also has its fair share of human hangers-on, too, and it’s pretty difficult to walk anywhere without being accosted by new ‘friends’,
including school children who trail you for hours and want you to buy them books - which they then want to exchange for money. Lalibela was a good place for little eateries/local pubs, where we drank St George beer or tej (fermented honey wine), listened to excellent local songs and danced with vigorous up-and-down shoulder movements (the most prominent feature of dancing in Ethiopia, it seems).

Centre of Gondar - with tuk tuks!

One of the castles in the Royal Enclosure

Gondar, another city on the historical circuit, is known for its castles and historical buildings, as well as being the gateway to the Simien Mountains. Arriving in a downpour, the first few hours were spent sheltering in the hotel, only to be soaked again when we finally thought it OK to leave. Sheltering in the Skyline Cafe, however, proved a blessing, for we discovered ful - a bean dish topped with avocado, chilli and eggs, and also fetira - a pancake with honey and egg inside. The wet, cloudy and grey weather actually provided a suitable setting for the sights, for wandering around the castles in the Royal Enclosure felt like being in Wales, rather than the Horn of Africa. The mere idea of castles just seemed incongruous here, but with the drizzle, long green grass and multiple layers of clothing, it was utterly bizarre! The smells inside the castle ramparts reminded me of the dust and bat urine (?) smell you get inside forts in India - hardly pleasant but nostalgic, nonetheless! Other sights included King Fasilidas’ bath (a huge enclosure that they fill with water once a year at festival time) and Debre Zeit church, the ceiling of which was adorned with religious paintings of hundreds of angels and saints. The centre of town had old cafes (Ethiopia Cafe) and buildings, making it pleasant to walk around. My abiding memory of this area is finding a tiny (4 cm) lizard inside my rucksack (from where, I don't know) and trying to remove it in the middle of the busiest intersection in Gondar. After finally succeeding, it plopped out onto the pavement and tried to scurry off. We were desperate for it to make it to safety and were practically obstructing passers-by from advancing, but then one man came along and deliberately stepped on the poor thing, grinning broadly. Tragedy! 
 

Lake Tana

A priest at a male-only monaster

A bus trip to Bahir Dar was the only long bus ride in the holiday. This was the last stop before returning to Addis, and it was hot and tropical. The whole of the trip had been dominated by mangoes all the way, but Bahir Dar was particularly rewarding in this regard; there was even some kind of mango market right outside the hotel. Ethiopia apparently has mangoes year-round; this is reason enough to live there. The hotel – the Ghion – was a curious contrast of being completely wonderful outside, with paradise-like lush gardens teeming with huge flowers overlooking the lake, to being completely awful inside the rooms. The mosquitoes were so numerous that showering was out of the question and going to the toilet required vigorous waving of arms around one’s body to prevent any of them from biting during those few stationary minutes. Bahir Dar sits on the shores of Lake Tana; Ethiopia’s largest (I think) and the source of the Blue Nile. The lake is the top attraction, and, more specifically, the several islands in the lake, which have monasteries on them. Hiring a boat we visited several of them, seeing hippos on the way. The monasteries were round wooden structures, often in the middle of forests, and were adorned with a riot of colourful religious paintings. Seeing Christian depictions of Jesus and Mary etc. as Africans was interesting, but I do wonder how much more a religious person would get more out of the experience of visiting Ethiopia's religious sites.   

Food and drink in Ethiopia deserves special mention. We went to a couple of 'cultural restaurants', which are places to enjoy local food together with music and dancing, albeit in a slightly tacky atmosphere which clearly has been jazzed up for foreigners (and rich Ethiopians showing their foreign friends their culture). Some of the dancing was highly unusual - especially the one where men and women rubbed chins together. Habesha restaurant was the place to first try injera, the ubiquitous pancake made from fermented tef (a grain) flour, and heaped with various curried stews, meats and - if you are lucky - some vegetables. My first injera incited the reaction of "am I going to have to eat this for the next 2 weeks?" but by the end of the holiday, I was willingly ordering injera, together with shiro wat (a spicy chickpea puree that was such a favourite to the extent I bought 2 shiro wat pots to take home). Injera heavily featured meat stews but they also had what was called 'fasting food', which was a purely vegetarian array of dishes. This was much better than the buttery meat stews, but was sadly not as common. 

The cakes in Ethiopia were good, most varieties being big and spongy and  - as we found out at the bottom of our bags several times – easily disintegrating in texture. Apart from this, though, Ethiopia was not a place for a sweet-tooth; people do not eat desserts. Perhaps the excellent mangoes - stringier than the South Asian varieties - and the amount of sugar they put in their macchiatos fully satisfies any sugar craving.

Sprice - a multilayered fruit juice - was a feature of the entire holiday. Before going to Ethiopia others had raved about the juices there, which was slightly confusing; how could a juice warrant so much attention? The answer became clear upon the taste and sight of one's first sprice... Normally composed of 4 or 5 layers of juice (mango, avocado, guava, papaya and a squeeze of lime on top), these multicoloured delights are half eaten with a long spoon and half drunk through a straw. A couple of them could double as a meal. Words cannot describe how good they are - without a doubt the best juices I have had. I am at a loss as to how other countries have not invented them, too.

I had no idea Ethiopia has such good beer, too. The local Harar brews, mentioned above, were the best, but the more commonly found St George and Dashen were also delicious. Draft beer drunk in gigantic pitchers was found too in the beer gardens of Bahir Dar.

Last but not least, I couldn't go without mentioning the coffee, for which Ethiopia is rightly famous. Drunk mostly as a espresso or macchiato in small glasses (occasionally as a larger latte, too), it had an intense strength and earthy flavour guaranteed to perk you up in the morning. They even have a coffee-tea combination, which was oddly nice. The cafe culture was everywhere and cafes were excellent place to sit outside and people-watch some of the most memorable characters in the trip. All the coffee was excellent but the best was probably found in Addis, especially in Tomoca, a retro coffee shop in the Piazza that had giant silver coffee machines and was full of dozens of locals guzzling down macchiatos.   

Tomoca coffee shop in the Piazza