Oh man, I love Oman!

March 24, 2010

Oman has turned out to be a wonderful surprise! This country has an amazing feel to it. I don’t exactly know what it is, but I like it.

I arrived yesterday in Muscat and took a taxi to the Mutrah district (Muscat is basically three cities that all grew together). The people were incredibly friendly from the first encounter. They all pointed me in the direction of the Mutrah Souq (bazaar/market) and the waterfront. I killed a few hours shopping around and taking pictures, before grabbing one of the best meals of my life. I ordered a seafood plate (as it was pretty much the only thing that I could eat at this restaurant. What came was a pile of food. I’ll get the pictures uploaded as soon as I can, but let me tell you: Omanis love calories. I don’t know what the country ranks on the body mass rankings, but they aren’t small people.

This morning I went to visit the big mosque here in Muscat. I was told that it is the biggest mosque outside of Saudi Arabia. I’m not sure about that claim but it was incredibly impressive. There are two mosques actually. The first mosque was nice, but not over the top (this was for the women). The second, however, was amazing. It was big. The ornate decorations inside and outside were very detailed. Non-Muslims are typically not able to enter moques (especially special mosques such as this one), so I was very excited to hear that they allow foreigners inside. They lay a carpet down on top of the floor so foreigners don’t actually walk on the floor, thus making it okay. Again, I’ll try to get the picture up as soon as I can.

Tomorrow I head back to Dubai, this time to actually see Dubai! I am excited to see all the things there are to see in the UAE. I did (when trying to find the bus pickup site for Oman) catch a glimpse, through the haze, of the Burj Khalifa (the tallest building in the world). It is giant and looming. I’m excited…

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Dubai to Muscat

March 22, 2010

I made it back to Dubai and I am taking a day to relax before hopping the bus tomorrow at 7:00am to Oman. The idea was that today was going to be a relaxing day.
It took me about an hour to find a bus company, another 2 hours to walk there/find the place (it wasn’t as obviously marked as it should have been), and another 3 minutes to complete the purchase and receive my ticket. I’m going back to the hotel to go to bed early before my 6 hour bus ride…

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Goodbye Africa

March 20, 2010

Tonight I am heading back to the Middle East for 9 days before returning to San Francisco. Erik left the night before last, and I feel like I have seen the sights of Addis. I’ll fly back to Dubai tonight and arrive around 1:00am, then tomorrow I’ll take a bus to Muscat, Oman. The drive should be 4 hours with no sights except sand to see. Oman is at the south-eastern most part of the Arabian Peninsula and borders Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and the UAE. I’m excited about getting to see more of the Middle East than just Dubai. It’s kind of like the equivalent of going to Las Vegas and believing you’ve seen the US.

Yesterday I went to find some liquor. I love bringing home local libations. Whenever you want to travel the world, you can hop a flight to your liquor cabinet. The idea was to score some Tej (next time you want a laugh, ask me to try to pronounce it!). After some rangling with the taxi drivers, they took me to what looked like an Ethiopian speakeasy. They asked me if I brought a water bottle (in hindsight this is telling). I had to pay extra for a bottle, which they filled with the sauce. Tej is a wine brewed out of water and honey. Think back to your english literature classes from high school (it was called Mead). Apparently there are no national brands, or even properly bottled brands. You simply show up to the place they brew it, and they fill up your bottle. Beacuse the bottle they gave me is leaking and doesn’t hold liquid, I have no idea how I’m going to get this stuff back on the plane. The last thing I want is to land in San Francisco and discover a backback full of clothes covered in honey.

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Posted in Ethiopia, Oman, U.A.E. | 1 Comment »

Donkeycide

March 18, 2010

We made the journey back from Arba Minch to Addis Ababa. I have never been so happy to be in a hotel in my life. This trip was scary. Flat out scary.

We left the lodge this morning at about 9:00am and headed to the Dorze tribal community. We looked around at their market and snapped some photos and were on our way by 11:45 to Addis. The trip to Addis usually takes about 6-7 hours. All was going well and we stopped and ate lunch, and we were making great time. There were showers here and there and the sky was getting really dark. Our driver was dodging the usual people in the road, and animals running around (keep in mind that we are only going 35-45 MPH). We saw two donkeys ahead in the road, ahem, “socializing.” One donkey was simply not having any part of this “socialization.” The donkey abruptly broke loose from it’s previous position and ran in front of our path.

Our land cruiser killed the donkey.

Not just killed the donkey. Destroyed the donkey. We didn’t hit the donkey straight on, the front left quarter of the car hit the donkey straight in the head. The car squeeled to a stop and it was quiet for a second.

Our driver then did the predictable move of slamming on the gas and flying through the village to make our escape.

At first we thought he was trying to avoid paying for the donkey he killed, but no, things were a bit sketchier than that apparently. As we peeled out through this town, every person in the town came out of nowhere and pelted the car with stones. Not little stones, huge stones. Volleyball sized chunks of concrete were hitting the car. We were driving the gauntlet. The driver had a terrified look on his face and was driving about 65 MPH. He explained that they would be calling ahead to the other towns up the road to set up road blocks and they would crush our skulls with rocks like he did to the donkey.

Our skulls?!?

I was still trying to figure out why all of us had to die for his shitty driving, but I eventually just went with it and focused on the situation at hand. He had to beat the roadblocks and get out of there really quick-like. So, speeding down the road dodging people and animals while being pelted with rocks can be pretty stressful. Our driver doesn’t even break before hitting two small goats crossing the road dead on.

The total is now 3 in case you are keeping track.

We’ve now pissed off an entirely new group of people (luckily they weren’t as organized when it came to rock throwing). It is also completely dark now, pouring rain, and there is now crazy lightning all around. It’s like a Scooby Doo episode.

The next three hours were spent in silence. Eyeing the road for people. We were all just watching in front (and behind) of us. Every car that passed, could have been the people catching up to us. Every town we drove through, we were waiting for a roadblock. Tense situation.

When we finally made it to Addis, our driver was beating on the dashboard and screaming “not killed, not today, not killed.” This was about the point when we realized that he was quite serious.

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Nechsar Park

March 17, 2010

Today we took a tour of Nechsar Park located in Arba Minch, southern Ethiopia.  This included six hours of chaotic driving at 10 KM per hour through some terrible terrain.  But the payoff was huge.

We were able to see kudus, zebras, gazelles, and some strange birds.  Zebras were definitely the highlight. They are a lot larger than I had pictured.  They seemed like gigantic, horse sized donkeys.

We were escorted through the park by a guard and were told that every butterfly we killed (accidentally or otherwise) would cost us a dollar.  The sandflies however were free to kill, and we took them up on this offer.  They were the meanest incects I have ever seen.  One bit me, through my sock, and drew blood.  Evil, terrible bugs. We ended up driving through a good section of the park with the windows rolled up, during the hottest part of the day (there is video of this experience).

So, I am going to attach some pictures and let the photos tell the story:

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Somaliland Denied (Round 2)

March 16, 2010

We had our driver hired, bags packed, schedule set, and the Ethiopia visa office gave us the big “no.”  They refused to give us a visa while our current visas were valid.  We would have to apply for a multiple entry visa and wait overnight, thus throwing a wrench into our tight schedule.  So, we headed south toward the South Omo Valley. 

The first day we drove from Addis (after our awesome visa experience) to Awassa.  I really love the rural 3rd world.  One of my favorite experiences that everyone should have at least once is arriving in a city or town that has absolutely no power.  Because the entire city is dark, everyone is walking around the town, eating by candle light, and enjoying the chaos.  Surprisingly this brings out the best in everyone’s moods.  Smiles are everywhere and life is great. 

Day  two we headed from Awassa to Arba Minch.  There is an incredible national park located here and we dropped our things off and went straight to a boat to go see crocodiles and hippos.  This was one of the coolest things I have ever done.  Being 10 feet away from a 15 foot crocodile is amazing.  The hippos freaked me out a bit, but some great pictures are now mine. 

Tomorrow we will go spend the day in the national park to check out the zebras, kudus, and baboons.  We are staying at a great lodge on a hillside overlooking Lake Chamo.  I’ll upload pictures tomorrow hopefully…

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Somaliland bound

March 14, 2010

With all of our free time due to Yemen falling through, we are able to go overland to Hargeisa, Somaliland. This trip by car will take four days round trip, with an overnight in Hargeisa. Last night we secured a vehicle and driver to take us to the border town of Jijiga, where we will cross the border and take a 4 hour bus ride. This is all contingent on us being able to get a visa for reentry from the Ethiopian government before we leave. I have a feeling that money will be exchanged today. I don’t know what the internet capabilities of Somaliland are, so this blog may be dark for the next 4 days or so. How bad can a 30 hour car ride one way be?

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In Africa/Middle East things change quickly…

March 14, 2010

Yemen is out. Apparently there have been convoys from the airport bombed recently (including a South Korean man on his way to his hotel). 3 Germans are confirmed dead and a number of English, French and German hostages being held now. This opens up the possibility of Somaliland again with the extra time we now have. I am not at all concerned about going to Hargeisa. It’s just a really long car ride. We’re trying to work out the rental car situation now to see what the possibilities are. We might look at some other African countries while we’re here.  Unfortunately Yemen will go back on the shelf.  My desire not to be kidnapped and murdered (while just a remote possibility) trumps my desire to see Sana’a.

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Plans for Ethiopia

March 13, 2010

We did the math on Somaliland overland from Addis, and we are exactly 1 day short of having the time required to make it work (without jeopardizing Yemen). Instead, we plan to rent a car and drive ourselves to the south of Ethiopia, near the border with Kenya, to see some hippos and zebras. We are going to work out the car logistics and get a map and go today. More updates will follow from the road.

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Somaliland Denied Entry…

March 13, 2010

We showed up at the airport this morning only to find our Jubba Airways flight rerouted to Mogadishu.  Neither of us had any plans to go to the south of Somalia, so we went back to the center of the city to find a taxi.  The idea was that we can rent a cab to the border town of Loya’ada, have lunch, then drive back to Djibouti.  We arrived at the border, and the border control were not happy at all to see us.  They basically gave us an ultimatum that we could continue 20 hours to the capital of Somaliland and be denied return entry to Djibouti(we obviously did not have the supplies for this, and it risked us being stranded in Somaliland), or we could turn around and go back to Djibouti City.  The choice was not really a choice.  We will arrive in Addis again tonight and make our contingency plans (whether to rent trucks to Somaliland from Addis, or renting a car and doing a DIY tour of southern Ethiopia).  We did see some great sights on the way to the border.  We obviously had to take the random picture with the camel.  The road was really awful.  I ended up taking about 20 minutes of video of the drive just because nobody would believe the terrain this little Russian Lada car was going over.  It is definitely high on the list of most terrible roads I have ever been on.  I guess we have to pack our things and get to the airport to head back to the thin, oxygenless air of Ethiopia.  I’ll update the blog after we figure out where we are planning on going.

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