DJIBOUTI
Trip Start
Jul 14, 2007
1
5
12
Trip End
Ongoing
Djibouti,
Djibouti
Friday, August 17, 2007
Upon arrival,I refused to leave the airport until a taxi driver would halve his price and take me to a hotel with single rooms cheaper than any in the guide book.After a half hour standoff,they(not I) wilted in the heat and relented.
For my sins,I was duly delivered to a small back street hotel with no air conditioning and cold showers in the shared bathroom.Perhaps one made up for the other,and I had saved at least $10 per night.
When I went out to explore,it didn't take long to pick up faux guides.They couldn't be shaken loose for a good half an hour,but I left them as destitute as I found them.They should know that I come from a hard nosed country!
The best money changer was an old woman in a market street near the hotel,although I also changed some at the bank.
The town in general was quite squalid,with most people living in sprawling shanty style suburbs,around a market place and mosque.Their only recreation gave me my first experience of the Qat.This is where every man in town spends every afternoon "grazing" on green leaves which have some mild mind altering properties.Whether or not because of this influence,many of them not only laze away on their backside with their mouth stuffed full of leaves,and a green tongue,for half the day,but they also automatically stick their hand out on sight of any white man and expect the hard working tourist,lugging cameras around at high temperatures,to pay for it for them.Sticking your hand out back and asking them to contribute to your expensive trip appears to be the best way to deal with them.
The main commerce in the centre of town,aside from this,were a handful of westernised pubs or restaurants,ostensibly here to provide for passing sailors,and the French Foreign Legionnaires,who have a desert base and training camp in Djibouti(I was to pass it 11/2 hours on the road to Ethiopia,in a small village,a few days later).There were also 2 or 3 quite good internet cafes.
Otherwise dozens of hopeless looking men queued for work outside the sprawling,but antiquated dockyard,while one or two fished with nets in the bay,right in front of the Presidential Palace.
For all this,the overriding memory was the coastal humidity,and a certain regret that I hadn't forked out for the aircon at a better hotel after all.
There was a final sting in the tail the day I left.It was a short distance to the main bus station,where supposedly I could pick up transport to connect to the stop for Dire Dawa in Ethiopia.However it seemed upon arrival that there was none.A man offered to show me the place,but ended up walking me the whole way to the Ethiopia bus company office,and then expecting me to pay him what I could have taken a taxi for,even though I had just had to carry my bags all this way.Eventually I gave him a small amount,with which he was not happy,but I mounted my Ethiopia bound bus and ignored his further attempts at extortion.
A slightly annoying finish to a reasonable stop off.At least when you are travelling,you have the pleasure of putting distance between you and people who you don't like.
Roll on Ethiopia.Surely it will be less aggravating than this.Won't it?
