Woke up early and had breakfast outside at the hotel. Then got a lift to the airport and discovered that we were the only ones getting on the flight at Gondor! (The flight had originated in Axum, so there were a few people on the plane already, 10 to be precise). After being personally fetched from the cafe where we were enjoying a pre flight coke, the security man was astonished when he asked us if we were on our way to Addis and we said no, he then said he was very grateful as all the other tourists had left. I think parts or Ethiopia will really struggle financially, which seems doubly harsh, as they barely have any (recorded) cases of coronavirus, and they have a lot fewer safety nets than people in the UK. They are also experiencing some unrest in the south due to the election in August, and are battling the biggest plague of locusts in 25 years.
After a short and very spacious flight we arrived in Lalibella for some more temperature taking. After passing, and the staff again failing to copy down my name and telephone number down correctly, we got into the car park and got picked up. Due to the small number of people on the flight, the plane left early which meant that we got through the airport only 5 minutes after our plane was supposed to land!
Arrived at the hotel (Merkeza guest house) after a bumpy journey down some extremely unpaved roads and got shown our room. It was massive but simple, with a fantastic view. We were warned to keep the balcony doors closed when we were out so as to ‘not let the monkeys in’. We were the only people in our hotel, so the very sweet manager said we could check out and have breakfast whenever we wanted.
Had a little nap as we were both shattered and then went out for lunch followed by a visit to Lalibella’s famous dug out churches.
We went to an Ethiopian place (Kana restaurant) with an ambitiously huge coffee ceremony (probably 30 cups ready and waiting) but sadly only one other person in the restaurant. I chose an injera and Jay had a pizza. We have both had ‘tummy troubles’ so what we fancy varies enormously from day to day! However we did a bit of food swapping and Jay enjoyed some of my injera, and his pizza was delicious! We both got a mango juice, but it hadn’t been sieved so we had an episode of Anna the Vampire, part 2. And I still didn’t have dental floss in my handbag!
Pottered along to Lalibella’s churches which were carved out of the rocks in kind of pits in the 13th century. Whilst they weren’t the cathedral like structures I had naively expected them to be, they were very impressive in their own right and had a very gentle ambience about them. Their floors were covered in rugs and and lots of paintings were hung against the walls in the typical Ethiopian style – very colourful with all parties sporting enormous eyes.
The churches were very strict about accessories. We were not allowed to wear shoes, I had to cover my head with a scarf but Jay was absolutely not allowed to wear his cap. Though lots of male Ethiopians were wearing scarves or religious hats!
We also passed a few groups of males wearing white robes/scarves who were presumably praying. There was a lot of singing/chanting – it was rather nice. Some of the church goers were very keen to point out the crosses carved into the roof. They seemed very proud of them! They were nice, but no more impressive than all the windows and cornices that had been carved!
After finishing an afternoon of church visiting we headed off for a fruit juice. We were clearly one of a very small number of tourists and it was apparent that the locals were really struggling. Thus we were asked to buy pretty much everything in sight. We lost count of how many people were pretending to ‘want a chat’ but were really touting their guiding skills. One guy even pretended to be a priest and offered us ‘guiding for free’ as the ‘church looked after him’. Cheeky!
We also had a lot of people yell ‘coronavirus!’ at us. It is strongly associated with foreigners, and it’s probably not helped that people still think that I am Chinese. I tried to educate a small girl who shouted ‘coronavirus!’ at us, then immediately asked us for money after basically insulting us, then shouted ‘China!’ at me. I explained to her I was not Chinese and do not look it – Chinese people typically have black hair and dark eyes (I have blue eyes, fair hair and freckles) She then had a look of comprehension pass across her face while yelling, ‘oh yeh, with eyes like this!’ and pulled her eyes to the side… Oh dear…
We had a juice in a juice bar that appeared to have run out of most of its ingredients, and also with our presence seemed to half clear the place.
We then received a phone call from a doctor in Ethiopia reassuring us about our flights and advising us on a good restaurant to go to for dinner. With our spirits uplifted, we got a rickshaw to dinner, which was a spaceship shaped restaurant (Ben Abeba) with a tremendous view across the Lalibella countryside. Unfortunately it was also completely empty, until we were joined by a party of three. We had a lovely sunset to watch but they didn’t really have any ingredients to make cocktails, which was a bit of a shame as that was largely what we had come for. Jay had a dodgy tummy so didn’t eat, I had a massive fish cake and plate of vegetables which was very nice. The owner very sweetly gave us blankets as it had got a bit cold.
After a slightly disappointing evening we headed back to the hotel. We arrived to news that the British government had asked all brits to come home ‘asap’. Very helpful! How and when?! And are you going to pay for us to get on an earlier flight?! As they have increased 5-10 fold…
Had a chat with my sister (travel agent who booked my flights) discussing options and then with other family and friends. The mood in the UK seems to be very panicky. We decided to look at flights the next day at the airline office in lalibella and travel back to Addis rather than going to the Danakil depression in case our flight got cancelled and moved earlier. We were also slightly concerned about the reaction to us as foreigners in the Afar region. We have found that the more rural and further away from Addis the more prejudiced the reactions.
After a very unsettled sleep we woke up the next day, had a lovely breakfast of omelette and pancakes in a little tukul (traditional hut) with seats lined with animal hide, and headed off to the airline office. We explained our predicament to the hotel manager, who very sweetly said if he were in our shoes he would go back to the UK as people in Ethiopia had become prejudiced against foreigners. We thought this was extremely selfless of him as once we left the hotel he would have no customers. We headed off to the airline office and on the way Jay made friends with a very persistent, chatty school boy cum part time shoeshine boy. He had excellent English and explained that schools had closed, he had no income except shoe shining and no money for transport back to his village.
We got into the airline office to find no staff and no electricity, just one old man sat waiting. A few minutes later a member of staff appeared and listened to our request. He had a look, all flights were full but suggested looking at the airport. He explained that the routes that had been cancelled had been cancelled due to lack of passengers, but the London route was full so it was going to continue to run. This was heartening!
We moved onto the churches and saw the southeastern cluster (we had seen the northwest cluster plus St. George’s yesterday). They were also very nice, with a super cool tunnel (Jay was very excited claiming it was the best thing about the churches) that linked two of them together. It alarmingly got smaller and smaller, but at the point of feeling you might have to turn back, opened up and led us to some very steep steps with some very surprised holy men sat at the top of them. Felt like I was in Harry Potter… Fended off a few more guides, and then headed back to the hotel, bumping into the shoe shine boy again, who had his kit with him should our shoes need a clean. Jay took pity on him and had an intentionally overpriced shoe clean. We both rather felt for the poor boy, who may or may not have been telling the truth, but probably needed the money regardless.
Got a rickshaw to the airport, where we discovered that security and the boarding lounge were practically the same thing. It was full of tourists, all presumably going to Addis to fly home. Interestingly considering last night’s announcement, I think we were the only brits. There was also a very confused holy man who appeared to have never flown on a plane before. He was rather puzzled when he beeped going through security and it transpired he was wearing a gigantic silver chain round his neck. He also seemed very reluctant to put his religious beads through the scanner.
Anna’s adventures 