After Lalibela, I braved the shocking (but soon to be improved) road south to Addis Abeba. The 'New Flower', as Addis Abeba would be called in English, is certainly no rose. That said, it is quite a nice city by African standards: very safe, a pleasant climate and reasonably clean. With a population of about 3 million, it's a comfortable size as well.
One noticeable feature of Addis is the thorough mixing of rich and poor. There do not appear to be rich suburbs and poor suburbs - everything's jumbled up together. This makes for some interesting juxtapositions - the Hilton is surrounded on 3 sides by a slum, for example.
I had a parallel experience to this when I got hungry one evening and popped into an Italian restaurant for dinner. I was unshaven and dressed in some pretty rough threads. I could tell the reception was reluctant to let me in, but eventually I was given a little table to myself in between two banquet tables. On one banquet table was a large group of Europeans; on the other table a large group of very well-to-do Ethiopians. While I waited for my spaghetti with truffel sauce and a glass of red wine to arrive, I listened in to the conversations around me and realised I was in the esteemed company of the US Ambassador to Ethiopia and his entourage! So there I was, a slum surrounded on 3 sides by Addis Abeba's elite.
As a tourist, you are exposed to Ethiopia's poverty on a daily basis. Perhaps only India is on a par with Ethiopia in this regard. It is very 'in your face': nobody hesitates if they want money from you - they just come up to you and demand it. Not only children but also unemployed or even employed adults. I think even the toughest of travellers eventually get a bit worn down from being constantly treated as a walking bank. Partly because of this, I decided to move on from Addis and head south to Kenya. Looking back, I really enjoyed Ethiopia, but at the time, three weeks were enough.
One noticeable feature of Addis is the thorough mixing of rich and poor. There do not appear to be rich suburbs and poor suburbs - everything's jumbled up together. This makes for some interesting juxtapositions - the Hilton is surrounded on 3 sides by a slum, for example.
I had a parallel experience to this when I got hungry one evening and popped into an Italian restaurant for dinner. I was unshaven and dressed in some pretty rough threads. I could tell the reception was reluctant to let me in, but eventually I was given a little table to myself in between two banquet tables. On one banquet table was a large group of Europeans; on the other table a large group of very well-to-do Ethiopians. While I waited for my spaghetti with truffel sauce and a glass of red wine to arrive, I listened in to the conversations around me and realised I was in the esteemed company of the US Ambassador to Ethiopia and his entourage! So there I was, a slum surrounded on 3 sides by Addis Abeba's elite.
As a tourist, you are exposed to Ethiopia's poverty on a daily basis. Perhaps only India is on a par with Ethiopia in this regard. It is very 'in your face': nobody hesitates if they want money from you - they just come up to you and demand it. Not only children but also unemployed or even employed adults. I think even the toughest of travellers eventually get a bit worn down from being constantly treated as a walking bank. Partly because of this, I decided to move on from Addis and head south to Kenya. Looking back, I really enjoyed Ethiopia, but at the time, three weeks were enough.
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