Small wonder of simplicity
Carved by legend, shaped by culture and nurtured by nature, Ethiopia is a stunner
As I write this, I stare out at lush mountains, where quaint villages nestle in the shade of trees and wisps of smoke curl towards the setting Sun. This is Ethiopia.
Ethiopia, at first glance, seems nothing like the pictures of drought and starvation shown on TV. The countryside went from sparse scrubland to undulating hills and patchwork farms. In short, it was stunning.
Our first port of call on the way to Addis Ababa was the second-largest city Dire Dawa. It's a quaint, well-organised town, with bustling markets (where we almost got pickpocketed twice), the occasional church or castle and Ethiopian transportation — donkey wagons and the African version of a tuk tuk.
Martin and I hopped into one of the latter and headed into town armed with our cameras.
Wall of protection
After securing the usual tourist memorabilia, we trundled back to the Xterra and headed up to the ancient walled city of Harar, more than 1,000 years old. The city, our guide Wilson told us, was built to protect the ladies while the men were away fighting religious battles in the 16th century.
Inside the small, walled city, you can see the traditional way of life — the sewing and tailoring Muslim market and the food-selling Christian market. Ethiopia is mainly Orthodox Christian, with more than 30,000 churches. But the mosques are equally stunning.
One of Harar's annoying factors are the children, who follow sightseers around in hordes, asking for money. Sadly, though some are in genuine need of money, parents of well-fed children too send them out on the streets to beg. So it's best not to give them money but, instead, distribute food coupons that can be bought from organisations around Ethiopia — a far better way to help them.
That evening we waited outside the eastern wall of Harar for the famous hyena men. For more than 300 years, a select few have kept alive the tradition of feeding hyenas by hand — and by mouth.
Man and beast
The men know every animal by name and the animals wait patiently for the men to either string a piece of raw meat to a stick and hold it out to them or place such a stick into their mouths for them to eat. For a small fee, tourists can also feed them. We did. I was too scared to feed them by mouth, so I chose the other option. Martin, however, was braver.
Feeling elated, we headed towards Addis Ababa to explore the capital city of Ethiopia.
Addis Ababa, which means "new flower", turned out to be a busy metropolis with markets where you can find everything from guns to camels! We stopped at the National Museum to see the remains of Lucy — one of our first ancestors found in the Rift Valley of Ethiopia in 1974. She is 3.2 million years old and a mere 3-footer.
After a night's rest at the Sheraton Hotel, we headed up north, past Lake Tana, to see "Africa's Camelot" Gonder — a series of castles built by the kings of Ethiopia over a period of 300 years. Surprisingly, the castles looked strikingly similar to those in Europe!
Divine intervention
We then moved on to the churches of Lalibella. Legend has it that these, carved from rock, were built by King Lalibella, who, assisted by angels, completed building these 11 churches in 23 years.
The only unpleasant experience we had in Ethiopia was when a small boy threw a stone at our car and shattered the rear windshield. So we had to go back to Addis Ababa to get it repaired before we could head south to Kenya. TIA — This Is Africa.
