Ethiopia (final)

I keep forgetting to post the rest of these, so here they all are at once. Sorry for the long read. Enjoy!

 

-Gonder
Our third and final stop was in Gonder. Gonder has been called the Camelot of Africa because of its castles. The castles look very similar to European castles. Why castles here? Because it too was once the seat of the monarchy. All three cities on our tour were once seats of power in Ethiopia. A special church in Gonder was constructed to house the Ark of the Covenant, but at some point in time it was decided not to move it after all.

It was here that we ran into a problem with the locals. On several occasions we hired small, three-wheeled "golf carts" called tuk-tuks to go from one place in the city to another. The locals seem to think that if a foreigner is paying for the tuk-tuk then they can get a free lifti. We soon caught on to their scheme and started paying less when this happened or demanded immediately that they foot some of the bill. In most cases the free-rider quickly got off. Also in Gonder was the first bank that accepted my Visa card - at last I could pay off my debt to J and S!

 

-Addis Ababa
Back in Addis Ababa we grabbed some delicious coffee. Oh, did I mention that Ethiopia has a wonderful coffee ceremony? Yes, an entire ceremony just for drinking coffee! The place we got the coffee was called Kaldi's Coffee. The word on the street is that this woman Kaldi tried to purchase a Starbuck's franchise. It was only fitting since Starbucks is a major customer of Ethiopian coffee. They refused her. So she stole logo, branded it with her name, increased the offerings on the menu to include delicious french fries (no sorry soggy chipsi here!), ice cream, and other tasty treats. She is doing a BOOMING business.

On an escapade to the market, billed as the largest open air market in sub-Saharan Africa but really it isn't, three times I was the subject of an attempted pickpocketing. Smarter than the average pickpocketer though, I put all of the few things I had into a zippered pocket and left the backpack at home. FOILED!!! They were pretty dumb pickpocketers though and not very adept. It was more annoying than anything. The funny thing was that J and S were behind me a few steps in each case, they had more valuables than I did, and no one tried to pickpocket them!

I saw J and S off at the airport and then met up with a friend from my former job in the States. She is working in Addis as a support person to the staff at SIL (SIL does translation and linguistic work). She took me to a wonderful restaurant where they feature traditional dancing and skits from all over Ethiopia. Oh, and the food was magnificent as well. I love Ethiopian food. And Ethiopia was very cheap; in a week of traveling through the country I didn't spend more than 300 dollars! (minus the internal air ticket)

-Dubai
Since Dubai is the talk of the town these with their crazy development projects (Burj Al-Arab, The World Islands, Palm Jumeirah, Palm Deira, Tallest building in the world, indoor ski slope) I thought I might as well see it for myself. So my itinerary took me from Addis Ababa to Nairobi (saving 200 bucks to go south before going north!) then to Dubai. I cannot recommend Kenya airlines; the service was good but hardware less then great. Dubai was a mind trip after living in a developing country and then traveling through a developing country. Dubai is like San Diego - except richer, cleaner, better customer service, and people are nicer. The great American chains are all there too - Cinnabon, Krispy Kreme, Starbucks, McDonald's, Speedy's (Carl's Jr), Burger King, and more.

It isn't great for pedestrians though. There is a major highway transecting the city parallel to the beach. The Mall of the Emirates is on the side further from the beach, but to get there you must be in a car - there are no pedestrian walkways to cross it. Not wanting to spend 10 bucks just to cross the dang thing in a taxi, I finally found a bus to take me there for just 75 cents. It took longer, but I didn't have anything else to do. Yes, I saw the indoor ski area. No, I did not go inside because they charge for that pleasure. I did, however, have Haagen-Daas and watch a movie. (I saw Twilight. No one warned me it was a teenage vampire love story.)

When I first was exploring the city, I got on a bus and just stayed on it until I reached the end of the route. I was walking around a shopping complex still partially under construction and ran into a security guard who though I was lost. After telling her I was just exploring (I was attracted to the second story view of the beach and the Palm Jumeirah), we had a short conversation in swahili because she was from Kenya. She was very pleasantly surprised that I knew it, but since she was from Kenya she didn't seem very keen on continuing in Swahili. Looking out at the Palm Jumeirah from the shore, you get a better idea of just how huge a construction project it is. It is awe inspiring to see the huge luxury resorts out at the end and you know that they are two miles away. All of that rock and sand had to be placed there. And they are building an even larger one called the Palm Deira! Find it on Google Maps.

 

-Doha
After spending 2 days in Dubai I finally caught my flight home with a small layover in Doha, Qatar. In the airport at Doha I had my first root beer in more than two years - there was an A&W franchise in the airport! Qatar airlines has great, amazing service. On my non-stop flight between Doha and Washington DC I had two full meals, complete with a small bottle of wine. Plus there were sandwiches and drinks between meals. The entertainment screens were loaded with plenty of movies, tv shows, games, and music - a good thing since the flight was thirteen hours! The route took us over Iraq, Turkey, Russia, Scandinavia, Iceland, Greenland, and Canada. Because of the extreme northern route, we hovered in sunset twilight for about five hours of the flight.

 

-Portland Rentry
My luck with travel stopped at DC however. After arriving I discovered that Southwest (for my next flight) doesn't "do" transfers with other airlines. And because my flight wasn't for twelve hours I couldn't check my luggage (stupid TSA. I hope Obama does away with them). So if you are traveling internationally, do not connect with Southwest. Fortunately (or unfortunately for both of us) there was another traveler in a similar predicament with United. So we grabbed a light meal (and I had my first non-lager since I left) and sat up through the night looking at each other's pictures and comparing experiences. She had come from Nepal where she works with an NGO trying to find markets for handicrafts. I was also getting antsy about the weather. As it turned out, I was safe by about 36 hours. In seven flights (Dar es Salaam--> Addis Ababa--> Nairobi--> Dubai--> Doha--> DC--> Chicago--> Portland) on four carriers (Ethiopia, Kenya, Qatar, Southwest) through six countries (Tanzania, Ethiopia, Kenya, UAE, Qatar, US), it was Southwest who lost one of my bags. I blame TSA though; at Dulles airport in DC, you, the passenger, are the one who must carry your bags from check-in to TSA. I had put my large backpack on the ground amidst all the other luggage, but I put my smaller duffel on a chair sitting next to all the luggage. I got it back the next day though. In Portland I was greeted by a wonderful site: SNOW!!! and ice. Lot's of ice. Even though I didn't have the proper cold weather clothes, I happily suffered through it.