Addis Ababa

Well, where do I start for this town? Should I start on the fact that three of us had attempts at pickpocketing in the market? One of which was successful - poor gunter lost his camera. Or should I start on our hotel, a dubious but fun experience?

Let's talk about the hotel. Pickpocketing is part and parcel of travelling and I could tell you many scam and robbery stories which, although fun to hear, always deters people from travelling to cool places such as Ethiopia. So, our fun hotel it is.

This hotel was known as the "Bel Air Hotel". A good name which would normally be followed up by palm trees and jacuzzis, but in this case was followed up by the proprietor's sideline businesses.

Business number 1: At night all of the taxi drivers parked their cars and vans in the enclosed car park for security. This sounds a pretty good thing, well, at least until you realise just who are quite the main customers for business number 2.

Business number 2: We slept in rooms without locks on the door. Oh wait, I should say that some of us upgraded from tents to rooms without locks on the door so that we could have a (cold) shower. Upon entering the rooms I couldn't understand why the mirror was so low. So low in fact that it was level with the bed. Gavin and I came a little closer to the bed so we could toss a coin for who gets the bed and who gets the floor (still an upgrade, trust me).

I won the toss, went to the bedside and realized the staff had left me a nice present of some sweets. I opened them up and decided that I wasn't going to eat the condoms that were inside. Ah ha, the mirror was because it was an ex-whore house. Er, no actually, as we learnt later in the evening, it is a whore-house.

Woman and men came and went all night, so to speak. They didn't have much room since we were there so they only had room two to perform their carnal acrobatics. Every half hour, a new whore, a new john. It was very funny. The financial transaction completed, they would leave the room and head back to the car. They always looked very embarassed as we sat in the courtyard drinking beer and going "yay!" every time they left.

Addis Ababa: A good laugh. Go there.