Arrived in Bahir Dar to a temperature fun and hot temperatures (the weather, not us). They reckoned my temperature was 34.6 (unlikely, I did not feel I was on my way to hypothermia) and after a long wait in front of a man with a form and an inability to copy names from a passport, we were let free. By this time the entire airport was deserted! Arrived at the sparkly clean hotel (Winn hotel) enjoyed a wonderful shower and headed out for a walk by the lake.
Bahir Dar felt a lot more tropical and very hustley. Due to coronavirus lots of tourists had cancelled so we were much targeted for sales of any type. The lake was absolutely beautiful, misty in the heat and surrounded by trees and flowers with people washing in it. I had a huge urge to join them but a) they were all men, and b) I didn’t have my swim suit with me.
We wandered along, thinking how much nicer it was to be here than in coronavirus filled England! Found a restaurant (Desset lodge) on the lake side and got some food (slowly, the service wasn’t great). After we had had our fill of sun and lake, we went to find the bus station to book our bus tickets to Gondar the next day. We got totally scammed – we were told it was $30 dollars for us both as it was a minibus not a big bus, and it would be filled with tourists. We stupidly went with it, largely because we couldn’t see any other way out. The bus was a ‘Dubai company’ which was why we had to pay in dollars (and foolishly gave half up front), on the understanding we would be picked up directly from our hotel the following day. I now realise it was so that the bus mafia lord, Ibrahim, with his alarmingly cold, damp, limp handshake could sell them on the black market. The foreign currency market thrives as Ethiopians are only allowed to take $200 or so out the country when they travel abroad.
Dinner was at a nice waterfront restaurant (Kurifti spa and lodge) that was almost totally empty. We didn’t actually sit on the waterfront as it meant being dive bombed by bugs and it was so dark we couldn’t see the lake anyway. But the service, food and cocktails were great and the roof was huge and made from bamboo.
The following day we went on a boat ride to Zege Peninsula, an hour’s boat ride from our lakeside. We were the only ones on the boat! We saw a lot of birds and a few men in traditional rafia canoes, which can apparently take enormous loads and never sink. We arrived at the peninsula, where there is a monastery and decided we couldn’t face having a guide. We wandered around the incredible nature – trees, flowers, lake and all very tropical and sunny! On the way we had a hard sell from almost every stall that conveniently lined the path. We then got to the monastery, took our shoes off and had a wander in. It was beautiful- far nicer than St. George’s church in Addis. It had colourful pictures of he bible painted all over its mud walls, and roof was made of bamboo. Lots of colourful mats lined the floors and some holy men were wandering around head to toe in white, with a white sort of turban. We then briefly popped into the museum, which was ok and weirdly full of bees! (Not part of the exhibit).
Popped into the coffee ceremony stall on the way back and had possibly the best coffee we had had since arriving, whilst breathing in incense and admiring the lake.
Had another short walk in the opposite direction before getting back into the boat. By this point the heat mist had cleared and we could see better. We had a highly entertaining time with a deaf man in a canoe who throws fish to the pelicans on the lake. He had them totally in his power, a their heads following his fish! He asked for a little money due to the photos we were able to take, which we thought seemed fair.
We then stopped off for lunch in a nice cafe (Ours Cafe) and watched the world go by – we were sat on the first floor balcony. There are tons of tuktuks in Bahir Dar, many times more proportionally than in Addis. They are terrifying as they come up behind you and nearly knock you over!
Had another short walk by the lake before going back to the hotel so Ibrahim could pick us up.
Ibrahim arrived, after spotting us walking down the road (creeepy!) and ‘took us to the bus station’ by foot. Not my idea of being picked up at our hotel!
The tourists we were supposed to be travelling with had allegedly cancelled (if they even existed) due to being hungover…
we were put in a normal minibus, which made me realise the reason given about having to pay with dollars was a total lie. Our bags were put up on the top but not tied on. We then got in, paid the other half of the fee (🤦🏼♀️) and sat in the bus. Then Ibrahim came along and told us it was $5 each for our bags to be on the top. I said he should have told us this yesterday and this was not on. I was getting pretty cross. He said he wasn’t expecting us to have such big bags. I explained this was clearly rubbish, how many foreigners travel with a handbag across ethiopia! Jay, being a kinder soul than I agreed to pay $5 between the two of us provided there were no other charges and they took us to our hotel door. There were some mutterings about a 2-3 minute walk to the hotel, but he agreed. 30 seconds later he asked us for money to give to the bus warden, who had phoned him for us to book the bus in the first place! We literally could not believe it! I said you can pay him, he got you a job. Jay was very cross too. We did win that argument though (the only one we did win!)
The bus set off half an hour late with other people’s luggage (bags of sticks etc) that I’m sure they had not paid extra for. Admittedly travelling through rural Ethiopia for the first time was quite interesting. Lots of little mud walled dwellings and people stood around having a chat, or watching the world go by. A lot of horses and donkeys too! After about 3.5 hours we arrived in the middle of Gondor (not our hotel) and had our bags chucked into the road with the driver saying (with back up from a random man in the back of the bus who I now have a vendetta against!) he was not going to take us to the hotel as that would cost extra! How mean spirited! I was prepared to remain in the front seat and say I was not moving until he took us to the hotel, but Jay did not seem to agree! The driver hailed a tuktuk for us and attempted to charge us 100 birr for a maybe 4 minute journey. I refused – you can travel 15 minutes in a clean private taxi in Addis for that. We ended up angrily waking to the hotel in the dark (it was about 9pm) getting lost down dark streets, which was rather disconcerting! We furiously told all the people that tried to sell us trips on the way that we were really not in the mood for sales!
Arrived safely at the Inn of the four sisters hotel where a delightful man gave us a cup of tea, a clean room and bottles of water. Peace! The hotel was lovely, lots of balconies, flowers, gentle staff and a fantastic warm shower. Felt slightly less angry after that, and went to bed after a snack bar (all restaurants had closed as it was late) ready for the trek the next day.
Anna’s adventures 