SoPauliland

So let's start with the facts: Technically Somaliland is still a part of Somalia, but it declared independence after the civil war back in 1991, has it's own government, constituion and currency, however it has not yet been recognised as an indepent state by any other country or organisation so until then will have to make do being grouped in with Puntland and Somalia as one official country. Out of these three autonomous regions though Somaliland is by far the safest and most stable at the moment.
After getting settled down in Hargeisa, we walked around the busy streets lined with stalls either selling bushes of the mild drug khat or fat wads of the local currency Shilling. After exchanging about a kilos worth of banknotes, our next mission was to aquire all the necessary permits, personell and papers needed to be able to move around the country. First we visited the Tourist Ministry where we after alot of haggeling managed to get access to the sight of Laas Geel, that was followed by a visit to the Police HQ where we were granted permission to travel freely between the capital and certain destinations without armed guards, our last task was to find a driver and a car who could fit five tourists and an armed guard. We managed to get everything sorted without too much hassle, and after two days in the capital we could move on north. Our first stop was Laas Geel, a desert landscape with a number of caves containing some very well preserved cave paintings from an unknown era depicting different animals (mostly cows) and humans, and suprisingly the colours are still very vivid. After this our driver drove us to the coastal town of Berbera, where we could also dismiss our private bodyguard. Berbera was a busy fishing harbour once upon a time, but today it's a dormant porttown with a small market and a few shipwrecks in the dock. A short walk from town there is a pristine sandbeach which stretches for miles and there isn't another person as far as even binoculars could see. We stayed in Berbera for three days soaking up the sun (perhaps a bit too much) tasty fish, tea and juices then got a taxi back to the capital. Here we got stuck into more of the paperwork, first getting permission to leave the country and then getting a new visa for Ethiopia, this also worked out after a bit of struggle and with any luck we should be arriving back in Harar, Ethiopia before sundown tomorrow. Somaliland turned out to be a very pleasant surprise, and to be honest up until about a week ago it wasn't really on my radar for this trip. We got the odd stone thrown at us, some insults hurled our way and the occasional deaththreat slipped under our door, but in general all people we encountered were friendly, genuinly happy to see tourists in their country and interested in where we came from. I never felt unsafe during my time here, and you know you're in a fairly safe place when people pile up huge stacks of money on the side of the street without any fear of being robbed. But now the time has come to leave this "country" in order to do so successfully though I need to catch 40 winks.

Spontaneous Travels

Bahir Dar was a nice enough, quiet, lakeside town where we relaxed for two days. It is also located close to the source of The Blue Nile, so one day we went to see The Blue Nile Falls. They were pretty albeit not as powerful as they once were, our impression was slightly hampered due to it being dry-season but also because a hydro-electric has been built nearby, minimising the flow of water. After our time here, we took a very delayed bustrip back to the world's third highest located capital where we reaquainted with our brothers and other travellers we've met in the country, and just kicked back for a few days. Back in Addis I was also reminded how small the world is, when I bumped into Theo, a friend I know from Stockholm. Unfortunatly our travel iteneraries were opposite and he was making his way back north  to Europe as we were moving south. Or at least our original plan was to move south, but then one morning we woke up and decided to go east instead with a group of people heading for Somaliland. The gang consisted of two Australians: Oliver and Mitchell, Austrian: Danyal, Singaporean: Paul and us two Swedes. After reaching Harar, Mitchell decided to slow down for a while, while the remaining five of us caught a few different cramped vehicles before finally crossing the Somaliland border and reaching it's capital Hargeisa.

Are You Gonder Come My Way?

Aksum was once where Queen Sheba had her throne but today it is only a small, dusty town with a few reminders of it's former greatness. There is a large number of stelae (stone pillars, similar to Egyptian obelisks) ranging from 1m to 33m in height and tombs marking the graves of Kings and Queens of the past but more significantly it is where the Ark of the Covenant rests. I say this as if it were fact but nobody is allowed to see the famous stone tablets which Moses brought down from Mount Sinai, and us foreigners, or "Farangis," aren't even allowed to come near the chapel where they are allegedly held. Aksum also marked the spot of my first illness for the trip. I have somehow managed to stear clear of any disease for over 3 months, but I picked up some form of food poisoning with the only real suspect being a chocolate donut I had splurged out on. After recovering from the short bug we got on a very bumpy, sweaty, dusty and long busride to the town of Gonder. Gonder is often dubbed as the Camelot of Africa, and with it's history and medieval-looking stone castles set within a walled enclosure it's not hard to see why. We strolled around the 17th century compound (hopefully marking the last of our "historic building and sights-tour" for a while) and also managed to squeeze in a short trek of the Simien Mountains to do some monkey-spotting including the endemic Gelada Baboon. After 3 days we moved on south to Lake Tana and the small town of Bahir Dar.

Injery Christmas

Our second attempt at catching the early morning bus north was more successful and after 18 hours, 1 bus, 2 overpacked minibuses and 1 flat tire we reached Lalibela just before midnight. Lalibela or Roha as it was originally called was founded in the 12th century by King Lalibela, as too many of his pilgrims were being killed whilst trying to reach Jerusalem he decided to make an own Holy-land within his country’s limits. In 23 years he somehow managed to carve 11 churches out of the rockface, but while the monuments of for example Petra are carved into the mountain most of the churches in Lalibela are freestanding having been completely cut loose from the surrounding stone. Today Lalibela is home to 15,000 people but during Ethiopian Christmas, which by chance happened to occur during our stay, hundreds of thousands of pilgrims flock to the holy sight. We made the same rookie mistake that Joseph and Mary once made not having reservations for Christmas and there was no room in any of the inns, but as fortune would have it our brother T.I. is from the village and he arranged for us to stay in his family’s house. So for the next four nights we made a room in a two-story mudhut our home and were spoiled rotten by our temporary mother who filled us with injera, coffee and tella (a homemade beer-like drink which tasted all right even if you had to siv it through your teet to catch all the twigs and residue.) When our faces weren’t being stuffed we spent our days with our brother’s brothers which technically should be our brothers… exploring the mystical rock-hewn churches, hiking in the high mountains and I managed to be crowned table-tennis king of the village. On Christmas Day we went to the market and bought a new goat, I then went for a walk and came home to a sumptuous stew, the goat must have escaped though because I never saw him again. The night was topped off with the yearly spectacular tradition of a 16 hour (and I though Donald Duck in Sweden or The Queen’s speech in England were long) live show outside one of the churches where our brother sat from the break of dawn holding the best seats in the house. The spectacle was unlike anything I’d ever seen, with drumming and dancing priests performing before me as I sat crowded on narrow wall in a snakepit of white-draped pilgrims. The show itself could have been about 15 hours shorter but the experience as a whole was entertaining to say the least. After Christmas we said farewell to our generous family who asked for nothing in return for their hospitality, and took a two day trip further north pit-stopping in Mekele before finally getting to Aksum.

Another Day In ParAddis

Even if the flight was a disappointment, it feels good to finally have reached "The Real Africa" as Egypt felt more like an extension of the Middle East. Having said that though Ethiopia is unique in every way and quite separate from the rest of
the continent. Together with Liberia the only countries in Africa never to be colonised (Mussolini's fascist Italy occupied it for a few years but never
managed to conquer) the population here is quite rightly a very proud one. The time and calendar here takes some getting used to, to say the least. We are
currently in December in the year 2004, and although we are 3 hours
ahead of G.M.T. the local watches will be 9 hours ahead seeing as the
day starts at 12:00 when the sun rises, at least that's how I think it
works.
After finding a room in Ethiopia's first hotel "Itegue Taitu" I
wandered the streets of Addis Ababa and before I knew it I had a new
brother, this soon turned into more but the 3 we have spent most time
with are: Amberber, Yonas and T.I. Our newfound brothers showed us the
ropes of the capital taking us to museums (one of which usually houses
our 3.4 million years or so old great great grandmother Lucy, however plastic replica-bones lie here now as she is touring the United States), the chaotic
hustle and bustle of Africa's biggest market "Merkato," and teaching
us the art of eating the local food injera which is a delicious,
spongy, rag-like pancake which accompanies every meal and replaces
cutlery. At night they taught us the art of drinking beer and tej
(wine made from honey) and how to dance using only your shoulders. One
of these nights may have been slightly overdone as it resulted in us
missing our early bus north, but hopefully we manage to catch the one
which leaves tomorrow morning...

In Camera Related News: I can confirm rumours that my camera is now fixed. I found a man in a tin-shack who said he'd look at it and after not finding him for a few a days, he finally showed up. And with great success he had managed to fix a camera which according to all Egyptians I asked was way beyond repair. However don't get your hopes up about pictures on here too soon as internet connections aren't exactly the most reliable around here.