Harar, Ethiopia - Day 141 - Boots on the Loose

Up at 4:45 in Addis, cabbed to the bus station, found a bus to Harar no problem. There we sat cramped up in a tiny seat on an old, clunky, vibrating machine. At least there were no chickens on board. You couldn’t look outside because they keep the curtains closed to keep the sun out because otherwise it’s too hot since they won’t open the windows because they don’t like the wind, and it’s around 35C in there. Sigh. The funnest thing I found to do was imagine Dave Moran tucked into the same chair 🙂

Decided on the Tana Hotel which is about 2km out of town as it was a fraction of the cost of the main hotel in town. Met a couple on the bus that we wnded up hanging with the following day; one has been travelling 4 years, the other 6… holy crap!!

Harar is different. It is an old, walled city that has the highest concentration of muslims in Ethiopia. Walking around town felt like being back in one of the medinas in N. Africa. It’s not too far from Djibouti and Somalia, and the people here tend to be some of the sketchiest we’ve seen. EVERYONE walks around with a bag of chat in their hand, and big, wide chat eyes (well, maybe not everyone… but many). So, so many people sitting around asking for money (here’s someone now).

Following morning walked into town to find a guide; went with Abdul for a 1/2 day tour which was plenty. You kind of need a guide because the roads are so twisted and unnavigable on your own. Saw a coffee roasting company, markets, inside a traditional house, viewpoint of the city, etc, etc. Second best part of the day was coming around a corner to see 10 or 15 women and children drumming/singing/dancing/praying and having them invite us over to sit and eat with them, and participate in the clapping. They seemed quite happy we were there – it was a great experience!!

Headed back to the hotel to shower, relax, and eat a 1/2 kilo of perhaps the best bbq beef I’ve ever tasted. Finally gave up trying to convince Jen and the other couple to come along, so Alissa and I went alone to meet up with Abdul. Headed back into town, then took the side gate back out of town. About 15 minutes walk through what felt like Europe during the Dark Ages (people walking around draped with blankets, fires in burning barrels all around, dried river bed for a road, etc), Abdul says, “Okay wait here for a minute… watch out for that Hyena about 10 feet in front of you…”.

Few minutes later, out comes the Hyena Man with a basket of meat. Walk around the corner and there lies a good dozen hyenas waiting to be fed! Sits down on the ground, and as they surround us he starts shouting orders for particular hyenas to come eat. I couldn’t believe how tame they were; if they got too close, he could literally push them away and they’d listen (man do they have a set of teeth though!). Alissa was the first idiot to sit beside him and feed them mouth to mouth with a stick, I was the second. The best was the second one Alissa did… I think one of his whiskers got her in the eye (she said she could smell his breath!). What a great time. After they were done eating, walked back and got slightly freaked out seeing 20 or so hyenas following us in the dark. Capped off the night with some beers with our new friend Abdul.

And on the second day didn’t do a lot except wait around for our 8pm departure on the night minibus. Forgot to mention that the chat market here does a million Birr a day (mainly exports), which is somewhere around $150,000US. Wow (that’s a lot of money in Ethiopia.

Check that; I thought we wouldn’t do a lot on the second day. We were sitting at the hotel bar at around 5pm waiting, I went upstairs for a shower, came back down around 5:30pm to find the girls surrounded by 5 drunk guys. The main dude was a chat exporter, didn’t really speak English, was completely obliterated, and throwing his money around like it was nothing. They seemed like the Ethiopian version of the mafia. Everyone he saw was coming around and kissing his hand, or something like that. He bought a flat of beer for us to drink and 2kg of bbq beef that you pretty much have to finish unless you want to dishonour the entire country (my guts still hurt). Plus a plate of raw meat which him and his friends didn’t make us eat. Definitely seemed to have good intensions thought as he kept telling us we were all brothers with different skin colour, etc. 8pm couldn’t have come soon enough!!

Night minibus was more comfortable than the day bus, except you get searched 15 – 20 times along the way, looking for contraband from Djibouti (plus a chatted out singing/throat clearing guy sitting behind you all night keeping you awake).