NAVIGATION NERVES
We seem to have a knack of arriving in new countries or big cities after dark and usually just after dark when there are still lots of people around and traffic is busy, making it even more difficult to find our way.
Namibia, Zambia, Malawi and Tanzania were all darkest Africa by the time we had crossed the border and arrived in the nearest town. Working out how road signs work - or don't; money matters operate and finding our way to a campsite all become a little harder in the dark.
And navigating capital cities - which tend to be the only cities of any real size in most countries - is nerve wracking whether it's dark or not.
Many of them don't have street names posted up or the street maps or directions that we have are incorrect and end up leading us astray.
Asking other travellers how they handle the issue reveals that navigation seems to be the number one cause of dissension among travellers.
One couple we met have taken to flagging down a taxi on the outskirts of town, agreeing a price and having the taxi driver lead them to wherever they want to go.
Another group say they stop and ask a local who invariably offers to take them to the address.
Capital Punishment
Ever since we started planning this trip we have heard the horror stories about finding your way around Addis Ababa. Other travellers would tell us tales of how difficult it is and we were dreading arriving here. In the event, things worked out rather well, in the dark!
There are no street names anywhere in Addis Ababa and, while most of the streets and intersections (called squares even if they're round) have names on the city council's master maps - and therefore in any atlas maps you buy - they don't correspond with what's on the ground.
Stopping to show locals a street map and asking where you are on the map is virtually useless as the names they all use for the streets are completely different to the maps.
It's all very simple really: none of the locals use street maps, so they don't know the "official" names. Instead they call a road by it's practical name - Arat Kilo is the square 4 km from the city centre; arat being the Amharic word for 4 while the Bole Road goes to the Bole section of town.
That's great if you know what the local name for the area is! If not, take a hike!
There's one more complicating factor in all of this - pronunciation. Even if you find out the correct terms to use, you have to learn how to pronounce them the way residents do.
Asking for the "Bel Air Hotel" draws a complete blank - you need to stuff your mouth with virtual chewing gum, swallow your tongue and ask for "B'lair Ot-hell", at which point everyone breaks out in smiles and your are pointed in the right direction.
Oh, one other thing - the hotel we're staying in is called the Taitu Hotel at the front entrance, but the rear gate's sign bills it as the Itegue Hotel!
Try not to get lost - the confusion is too exhausting!
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PAINS IN THE NECK
Addis Ababa, 27 March 2002
Arriving in Addis Ababa was something of a letdown - we were 24 hours too late to see two groups of friends who had just left. Travelling across most of a continent and then missing friends by a single day is really frustrating!
One group had travelled north from Seffrica two months ahead of us and are now on their way south again while another friend is going in the same direction as us but decided to skip Lake Turkana and so arrived here a week ahead of us.
We were hoping to stay in Addis Ababa for a couple of days only but the process of applying for visas is tedious, to say the least.
First we had to get a letter of recommendation from the Seffrican embassy, which took 24 hours - bureaucrats only seem to work in multiples of 24 hours.
After collecting that, we found the Sudanese embassy, which has signs all round a city block but is walled off like a real fortress with nary an indication of which entrance to use.
In typical fashion, we went to every entrance before finding the last one was the gate to use. The process is tedious with the gate guard wanting to know if we had our passports, then our letter of recommendation, before admitting us and laboriously writing down all the details from our passports.
Handing the passports back, he waved vaguely in the direction of a couple of buildings which we took to mean the visa section was somewhere up there.
Time wasters
The official was of the type which believes his desk is only there to stack papers on - it's not actually for being anywhere near. When we did find him and get the forms filled in (We're allegedly staying at the Hilton in Khartoum because they had to have an address in Sudan!) we were thankful other travellers had warned us of the requirements.
Ethiopia doesn't accept a Carnet de Passage but it is still a simple process to bring your vehicle into the country: they require a photostat of an inside page of the carnet and 1 (yes, one) dollar. It's the cheapest country we've entered so far.
Sudan likewise doesn't accept the carnet and requires a copy of the carnet, along with two photographs and the letter of recommendation. It then takes two days before we find out if we're going to get the visa - other travellers have been kept waiting for three weeks before being denied a visa with no reasons given!
What we weren't asked for, despite receiving warnings and advice that this would definitely be required, were two aspirins per application! For some reason the official is known to require these along with all the other bits and papers before he will process the forms.
We had diligently ensured that we had the aspirins on hand but he never got around to asking for them!
Culture Vultures
After getting the visa on Thursday afternoon, we have to rush of to the Saudi Arabian embassy to apply for a transit visa, hoping that they aren't closed on Fridays! And if Saudi bureaucrats are like all the others, we'll have to wait until Monday or Tuesday to get the visa, although we'll push to get it sooner as our friend managed to get hers issued on the spot.
In the meantime, we need to find a new tyre, get the wheels aligned, replace the differential o-ring to stop a leak, visit the National Museum (to see Lucy, billed by some as Darwin's missing link) and sort out our money.
We've run out of cash dollars, being left only with a stack of travellers cheques, and now find out that Sudan doesn't change travellers cheques!
Scrumptious Food
We'll also continue our dietary regimen which we have been sticking to quite religiously since arriving here. We stuff our faces at both lunch and supper on the really good food available.
Food in Ethiopia is unbelievably cheap and good with most hotels serving both Western and traditional Ethiopian dishes. Lisa has stuck to what her stomach knows while I'm becoming more adventurous, ordering local dishes.
Peppers are an integral part of Ethiopian cooking and we learned the hard way that what looks like green pepper is in fact green chilli with a cumulative bite that brings the sweat out.
Most Ethiopian meals include a large amount of meat - the variety of meat and methods of preparation is large - served with virtually no vegetables but with a local pancake type stuff called Njera. It is made with fermented Tef, a local grain, and has a slightly sour taste which takes getting used to.
Manners maketh a meal
Mealtime etiquette is equally important - local dishes are eaten with the right hand (they don't even deliver cutlery) using the njera to scoop up some meat and pop it into your mouth.
The left hand - used in much of northern Africa for matters of hygiene - is kept well away from the food. It's also considered impolite to touch your lips with your fingers when putting food into your mouth or to put food back onto the plate: it's preferable to drop the bits onto the table or floor!
Ethiopia is the first we've visited this trip which has an interesting, varied indigenous culinary culture - and we're making the most of it.
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