Up to the North!

We applied for the Visas on Monday – which was surprisingly easy after all the negative feedback we had gotten (We cancelled the tourist application, as that is a nightmare – go for the transit visa if you ever have the need). It only took a few smiles, some photo copies $61 and 3 hours of our time. A semi pleasant experience, considering we picked a day when there were about 400 locals applying for work permits.

But that all worked out, as Jared mentioned we got them Visas! They look amazing, they have a hologram and everything, definitely added some street cred to our passports!

Getting them meant we could leave the bad odour city known as Addis, and head for the greater Northern part of the country. (Just to clarify, I strangely did enjoy our time in Addis, it’s a really cool place, it really is. The place has everything you would expect in a big city, and since everything is so cheap, we took full advantage, and made the most of it. Coffee is generally R1,50 and it’s really good, a meal that an average man will struggle to finish is around R10, and most importantly a draft is R2,00! On top of that we had an insanely cool hotel room, and due to all the embassy visits, got to see most of Addis! There are just some things there that are different to what were used to, like the distinct and constant faeces odour – Let me quote Mattie here “The proportion of my day that I spend smelling pooh is ridiculous” and the city has a disturbingly large amount of poverty, with no evident, or remotely logical structure at all – Jared quote here – “It seems like the city is designed by a beginner playing Sim City 2000”.

So let me fill you in on all the gaps, the reason for the slack updates is that the Internet is a bit of a scarce resource up in the North, but now that I found a decent place and need to download all the pics from lalibela, I thought I would take the honour of the general update!

Back in Addis we met a really cool Dutch chick, Esther, at our hotel, who is doing volunteer work in a school in Debra Zeit which is just South of Addis. After our visa application on Monday we decided to go visit the place down South to get out of the city for a while , and see the impressive lakes! It was only an hour on the bus, and once there we took a horse drawn cart to the Crater Lake, where we were planning to camp. We all packed lightly, as it was only to be a one day event. This meant that Jared and Mattie decided against bringing a sleeping bag or any other such luxuries hehe, The lake was amazing, I have photos, but internet is slow, so they will come some time later – same goes for the rest of the story too, I’m really sorry… The sun set, and the temperature started to drop a little, so we started to search the bags, and found all the essentials! We had an ipod, little speakers, a torches, tabard, a lighter, and… well we didn’t need anything as you can see the three of us are starting to make a good team! Real hardy travellers! Anyway, apparently… They don’t like farangies (How locals refer to us white folk) to just randomly camp on the side of the lake, so for the rest of the night we had an angry guard telling us to leave in Amharic, and numerous random guys, who did speak English translating and trying to get money out of us. To make a long story short, we had a great time, but due to lack of warmth, rock hard pebbled stoned floor, constant dog barking, and never ending groans of discomfort none of us really slept, at all. Except for Esther, who proved to us she can sleep anywhere any time, under any conditions. The next day was a bit tiresome, but ended really well, when we were given our Visas! We drew money, booked bus tickets and went home to sleep.

Up at 4, to catch the bus we had been dreading for days. Reason being, the trip to lalibela is a 23 hour bus trip, on a bus very similar to a golden Arrow bus as you get in cape Town. Another thing that makes bus travel in Ethiopia uncomfortable is that people are very superstitious and don’t believe in opening windows as it lets in disease and bad luck. So we really weren’t that keen.

But once we got on we were ushered into the “VIP” section in the front of the bus and spent the next to days in our own little “section” with the bus driver and the conductor! It was glorious, it was nothing like our prior horror story of the Moyale-Addis trip. This one was pure luxury! So we got to lalibela well rested, and set up our camp at the Lal hotel. We convinced Esther, who has been in Ethiopia for 3 months already but never ventured North, to join us. Even though she got screwed around a bit by the highly effective Ethiopian airline systems, and is really scared of flighing, she made it to lalibela only 6 hours later than expected. It was awesome to have some more company and to finally find someone, who actually followed up their word on meeting us somewhere! Thanks Esther! You’re awesome! hehe,

While we waited for her, we got ourselves a guide and went to see the Northern and Eastern monasteries of Lalibela. They are amazing! It is insanely difficult to comprehend what they really are. Let me give you a very brief history lesson… When King Lalibella’s was in power, which was at around 1260, the man had the great idea to create churches. But instead of building them, he summoned 40 000 men, and got them to carve 11 immense churches out of the mountains! By hand! It took 23 years to complete, and they are astounding! All chipped away out of the mountains, all 11 stand there in all their glory. The guide was great, and as you can imagine, I went wild with the photos. The first church we arrived at in the morning, had a full service going on, and the stairway to heaven was lit up in all its glory! The three of us also visited the room in one of the churches dedicated to King lalibela, which guarantees us a place in heaven, so we’re set for life!

All the churches are still in full use, and each one has its own priest who looks after everything. We had never seen so many different crosses before, as each church has a different variation of a cross, and we were shown each one. The best part was that each priest puts on a pair of shades before you can take their picture, to protect their eyes form the flash –classic!

At 4, Esther finally arrived, and made it just in time to see the most famous church of all, St George cathedral. This is the church that is carved in the shape of a cross, and is built with no supporting pillars inside. To sum in all up, it was an excellent day, and we all feel holy!

We spent the night trying out the local beverage, Ethiopian Ouzo, which led to a very eventful night. Which may have ended the life of a pool table, and a slight disturbance of peace in the very tranquil Lal hotel resort. But in the morning, no-one seemed to have minded, so no harm done. Only an immense hangover with Jared, Mattie and Esther. I for some reason was wide awake at 6, and went for a walk, only to stumble onto a Mass service at the St Mary’s Cathedral. I watched this for the full procession, and found the 3 of them slowly coming to life when I got back to the tent. As you can imagine, the rest of the day was a bit slow, but we did give Esther the full tour of all the churches again, as she missed those, and had a day at the market. We almost bought ourselves a donkey, as they go for only Birr400, but when we considered the extra travelling costs we would have to endure with busses etc we decided against it!

This morning, we got up at 3, and made the trek up to the bus station at the top of the 3km high mountain of Lalibela. It only took us 30 minutes, which was really impressive! I thought. However, when we got there we were informed that there were no busses to bar Har Dar, and we should just get a bus in that general direction. So we did. It was classic!! Mattie and I sat on one side and Jared and Esther on the other. As you may have heard, the farming population of Ethiopia is not big on motion by motorised vehicles. So there we were at 4 in the morning, on a bumpy dirt road in some very uncomfortable seats, when the people both in front and behind Jared and Esther started getting a little nautious and throwing up… All the time!! It was hilarious, they both put their feet up, as the gunk was slowly moving around! Mattie and I were in hysterics! We had to turn up the volume on the ipods to block out the horrific sounds! It was so so good, really made our day – well Mattie and Mine at least! Then when we got to the end point we found a Land Cruiser bakkie, who agreed to drive us to Bah har dar! Much to the dismay of the bus driver also waiting for clients, who accused the guy of stealing his customers! It didn’t end there thought, the agro bus driver ended up blocking the whole road with his bus and demanded we came with him! It was quite a scene, it attracted the attention of everyone in the town, who formed a mob around us. People seem to have a lot of free time around here hehe. There is always time to watch some farangies. So after some negotiating, we travelled in style in the back of the cab, lounging out on our bags in the sun! The locals found it hilarious to see 4 farangies sitting in the back of a bakkie driven by 3 locals – awesome!

We made good time, and are now in Ba har dar. If everything goes according to plan we should be in Karthoum on Friday and catching the train to Egypt in the weekend! You’ll hear from us soon.