Harar Ras Hotel

Holy Cow. Who could ever imagine such a beautiful place. I feel like we've been here a long time, due to the massive amounts of places we've gone, people we've seen and crazy things we've done. We were in Addis for 3 Days and had a great time. We saw quite a few churches and discovered street after street of friendly people. Though there is a lot of poverty the image you have as an american at home, is completly different when you are here. It is beautiful. Mountains ...

... petrol crises later. At least there I can read the destinations. The taxi driver asks if he can help. Does a bear ****? Only when he needs to, and usually in the woods, and I'm pretty close to it myself, though I've already performed my morning ablutions and quite well, thank you. Fortunately I have great faith in people's goodness, especially those of the Book. People were touched by the Book long before they ever had one thrown at them. Still ...

... had traditions like this with the hyena for 700 - 800 years. The hyena men called out over the city to the hyena by their names and one by one they came strolling in. The hyenas, there were about 6 of them, seemed very nervous and flinched at people's sudden movements. They've probably been trained by these men and who knows what kind of training this is. The men have a big basket of raw meat and place one ...

Harar was not what I expected. I thought it would be a town on top of a hill surrounded by high walls and in the evening Men feeding the hyenas. We stayed at Tana hotel for 50 birr (3 pounds). It was a 30 minute walk from the walled city and the taxi drivers often asked far too much since we are white (farangi's) and therefore we ended up getting good thigh muscles from the walk! The place had narrow streets winding up and down the hills with small houses ...

Using public transit in Africa is always an interesting and often frustrating experience. On this occasion though it was actually a little fun. The slow train travels from Djibouti to Dire Dawa in Ethiopia consists of a few passenger cars and some really old looking box cars. I decided that it might be more exciting to ride in the box car and it was. About two hours after I got on the train ...

This morning I changed hotels and my room now overlooks a main road at the corner of the market. Women selling chat, the stimulating leaf, are now gathering immediately below, several dozen so far. Watching the people flow past has the same mesmerizing effect as fire, or waves on the beach. There are also blue-and-white Lada taxis, goats, occasionally a horse-drawn cart, women carrying firewood, donkeys carrying firewood, donkeys carrying women (but no other ...

I got up at 4:30 for the 6:00 bus. Taxi was there as requested. Through tranquil streets to the frenzy of the bus station, where a bag-toter was onto us immediately. The taxi-driver examined his badge and waved him on. As he carried the bag to the bus, various bus-touts tried to grab it, not realizing that I already had a ticket. At one point he put the bag down and I panicked momentarily when I couldn't see it in the dark. We found the right bus ...

We had a short 1 hour minibus trip from Dire Dawa to Harar. We asked to be dropped at Towderos hotel recommended by the Lonely Planet - big mistake. The owner, knowing he had a good write-up, had more than doubled his prices. We of course weren't having any of that, so backpacks strapped on, we started to wander the streets of Harar. It didn't take too long for trouble, in the form of two young lads ...

Day the Thirteenth - in which we are unimpressed by tchat, impressed by the hyenas, and we get our first '**** you'. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We had arranged to meet Nebel at 8am, so we got up at 7 and sorted stuff that had been abandoned in our tiredness the previous night. Outside the hotel window, we could see the open area where the hyenas had been. In the light of day, it appeared to be a football ground cum driving test centre. Kids ...

... 30 blinking like sleepy kittens, only to find a taxi waiting outside with someone already in it. The French woman. We had asked the 'come-to-me-for-anything' man at the Baro to arrange a taxi, but he had obviously gone to his friend Antoneh. Ok, no problem - we're all going to the bus station, we may as well share, right? Except Antoneh was not there. The French woman said she had been told to meet him, but he was late. I ground my teeth. After more ...