Bahir Dar, Gojam, Ethiopia
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Zach and I left for Bahir Dar early Monday morning. We were at the bus station at 5:30. It was really nice of that Canadian Ethiopian to help us out with the bus ticket but as soon as we entered the station we realized this was not at all what we wanted. We had been told there were minibuses and a Sky bus that tourists use to get to Bahir Dar in 8 hours. We were on a huge, old bus that carried 60 people and it was full. Our assigned seats were right behind the driver. We were on a three person bench and there was an old man on our bench by the aisle who immediately started glaring at me. I had my big backpack and didn't know what to do with it. I began asking but no one seemed to speak English. I put my purse on the seat and the glaring old man yelled, "My seat!" I think it was the only English he knew. With various hand gestures I was able to get the attendants to put my bag on the roof. I squeezed inbetween Zach and the angry man and the adventure began. I slept for most of the beginning of the trip until we stopped for a bathroom and breakfast at 9:20. People are pushy here! I got pushed off the bus and an extremely old woman put her forearm on my back and pushed me all the way to the bathroom where she passed me and squatted in the latrine without a door. All the men were peeing in a big sink...gross. The glaring old man made an even older man switch seats with him. This ancient man never even looked at us. The time passed slowly and where morning began very chilly the afternoon brought unbearable heat. Our bus did not have AC, of couse, but neither did it have windows that opened. So we were in a moving oven. At least our side of the bus was. The other side was shaded and no one seemed to be sweating there. At one point we descended into a valley and the view was absolutely spectacular. There were herders on the side of the road with their skiiny bare legs and bare feet but their shoulders covered in home spun wool. A river snaked through the valley floor. Patches of brown and gold and green covered the surrounding mountains. This is the reason people go overland to Bahir Dar. Bahir Dar is 560 km from Addis. Eight hours in we had only gone 330 km!! Our bus was going an average of 41 km per hour, about 25mph. It was the slowest, dumpiest thing I'd ever been on. When I couldn't sleep any more I tried reading and then just staring at the window. At 4:30 I saw a minibus stopped in the middle of the road and a car coming in the other lane. Our bus was going it's maximum speed of maybe 45kph and we couldn't stop. Everything went into slow motion. The bus driver swerved into the grassy slope on the right side of the road and we barely miss the minibus but we're heading straight for a bunch of trees. He straightens out the wheels so we're careening down the side of the road bouncing precariously to either side and I'm sure we're going to flip; I've seen it too many times, flipped trucks and buses with broken glass and a tree through a window. The women are screaming "La, la, la, la!!" The men are yelling. Luggage is flying in all directions as passengers bounce from their seats. Why isn't he breaking? I remember thinking to myself. We hit a huge rock and I saw an old man in the front seat bounce high into the air. And then we come to a stop, upright. Everyone piled off the the bus as fast as possible. I was shaking like a leaf from the adrenaline. Women were crying all around me so I went to stand on the road. I told Zach there was no way I was getting back on that bus. I would pay a passing vehicle anything to take me to Bahir Dar. So I flagged down a passing minibus who was more than happy to take our money and give us a ride. Unfortunately when we were scrambling to get our stuff off the bus my book "The Zanzibar Chest" which I was really enjoying was forgotten. So now I have nothing to read.
Twelve and a half hours after we left Addis we made it to Bahir Dar. And the hotel, Ghorin, we wanted to stay in, yep, it was full. Our luck had finally run out. But the hotel's staff was really helpful and drove us to a hotel a block away.
Bahir Dar is famous for the churches and monasteries located on islands in Lake Tana, the largest lake in Ethiopia. So yesterday morning we went on a boat tour with New Zealand couple, a British couple a Spanish boy and a German girl. We went to three churches and saw one monastery. We payed 132 birr for the boat tour but they don't tell you that each church charges a 30 birr entrance fee as well. That's the whole point of the tour. So Zach and I decided to just go to one. It was interesting. We chose to go to the church on a tiny island that houses 20 women monks and 5 male priests. The church was a small straw roofed hut with painting inside on all the walls and the ceiling. The painting all depicted various scenes from the Bible and Coptic Christian lore. We also saw 800 year old books written on goat skin as well as a stone prison that housed inmates in the 14th century. I was surprised by the church and monastery because it's not all European which for some reason is what I was expecting. Instead it was very African, tin and straw roofs, mud walls etc.
That evening the New Zealand couple invited us to go with them to the Blue Nile Falls with their private driver. Zach and the couple, William and Jeanette, got in a boat. But since I'd paid 15 birr just to get in the park and the boat was an extra 20 birr I figured I could walk to see the falls while everyone else went closer on the boat. I was mistaken. The 15 birr was apparentely for nothing and I sat by the car for about an hour and half and didn't get to see the waterfall at all. I was very soon surrounded by skinny little herder boys trying out their English on me. I showed them pictures of their country from the guide book and batted off their requests for everything I owned and my first born. I taught the most outgoing boy how to play the slap game which I dominated and he quit because his hands started to sting. I actually had a good time talking to them and really, how many waterfalls can you really see before they all start to look the same?
Comments
I am glad you made it out ok! I don't think I would have been able to get back on that bus either, freaky driver! Love you!