Articles tagged with: Ethiopia Bike Trip
013 – Tiru Gondar And The ‘Only You’ Bathroom
After breakfast I went back to the Palm’s small office to talk to the owner about my desire to find a quieter place to stay. I knew I just wanted to simply move next door to the Tiru Gondar Hotel, a place I’d seen the previous afternoon, but I didn’t dare go over on my own. I was afraid a chance misunderstanding could lead to …
012 – Eggs and Ethiopian Coffee for Breakfast
I woke up the next morning more tired than when I went to bed, and set out to see if I could use a sit-down toilet I’d noticed the previous afternoon. I hadn’t seen any water hook-up to the toilet, but I assumed it could be flushed with a bucket of water. I hadn’t seen a bucket either, but I figured all this would become …
011 – The Tall Man and the Fat Man
When I left Alfa at the taxi stand, I started out walking back across Abiot Square towards the Palm. On the north side of the square there was a small tourism office and I stopped to see what they had in the way of maps, but it was closed. When I turned around, I found two men standing there and smiling at me. One was …
010 – Alfa
Fortified with my first Ethiopian meal I sat in the restaurant to see if Alfa was going to show up. I’d met Alfa the day before when I arrived at the Palm. He had been sitting at a nearby table with two attractive women. The three of them were dressed to kill as so many of the Palm’s customers seemed to be. I never could …
009 – Traveller as Baby Bird
My first full day in Ethiopia began with a savage hunger, and I timidly entered the roar of activity in the small room that served as the Palm’s restaurant. People poured in and out and none were strangers. They burst in with laughter and shouts, greeting everyone with a complicated series of handshakes, hugs and even kisses – three on each cheek. Shouts of “enebla!” …
008 – The Palm Hotel
The front of the Palm was in fact a lively bar. Behind it was a dingy room with wobbly tables and equally wobbly chairs. They called it a restaurant, but it had none of the trappings of even a greasy spoon. Just outside the rear door to this room was a large trough where customers washed their hands before and after meals. The saddest and …
007 – Heading Into Addis
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a city wake up so fast. One second the road was empty. The next it was chaos. The holes in my grand plan quickly became apparent.
I knew of course that I would stand out and attract attention, but I never anticipated the reaction I got. I drew crowds instantly. The shouts and yells and laughter rained down on me …
006 – Arrival – Bole International Airport – Addis Ababa
It was 1:30 in the morning. My flight was the last of the day, perhaps the only flight of the day, and with my usual affinity for the tail end of any line-up I was the last one through customs and immigration. The airport was quiet enough to be spooky. It had a deserted, underused quality, like they’d opened it up and dusted it off …