Khartoum Bus Station

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

 

So when I last left you, it was Saturday morning (January 28th) and I was getting ready to head over to the bus station to grab a bus from Khartoum to Gedaref. It took a bit of time to leave the internet cafe that I was at because the owner just poured on the hospitality once I started talking to him. He's probably in his early 30's and wasn't shy about telling me about his schooling in India and the UK. Seemed like a decent guy, even if he chewed up almost 2 hours of my time trying to be helpful. Everything from where to stay in Gedaref, Gallabat and Ethiopia, to trying to arrange bus tickets for me from "his friend". It's hard to cut someone off when they are making a bunch of phone calls on your behalf and trying to help you, but sometimes it can be a bit much and I didn't leave for the bus station until lunch time.

 

The Khartoum bus station is a bit of a hike from the center of town, but with the help of a few locals I was able to get on the ride minibus that takes you straight there. The center of Khartoum is a huge area known as Souq al-Arabi and every street corner is either a minibus station or a juice stand. There are literally hundreds of minibuses just parked all over filling up with passengers. It's sort of mad, but I guess if you speak Arabic you can figure it out pretty quickly. If you don't speak Arabic, then you just have to find someone who speaks English and have them take you to the appropriate bus.

 

The bus terminal itself is a strange compound the comprises four buildings. From what I could tell, building 1 is for all the luxury (read: air conditioned) bus companies. Their buses all leave early in the morning, so I was out of luck on catching on of those.

 

My friend over at the internet cafe had given me a name of a person over in building 4 who could get me to Gedaref, so off I went. By now, it was around 3pm and the only buses going south to Gedaref are buses that leave when they are full. They are essentially full size buses, just without air conditioning and in slightly worse condition then a luxury bus. So I got a ticket, loaded the bus and started waiting. It was around 1/3 full and of course no one could predict when it would leave. "Inshallah" or "When Allah wills it.".

 

After waiting just over an hour I decided to give up. It was around 4.15pm and even if the bus left in the next half hour, it wouldn't arrive in Gedaref until around midnight, possibly later. The thought of arriving in Gedaref around midnight didn't sound all that great so I went back inside and miraculously was able to get a complete refund for my ticket without even really asking for it. Back to the bus I went to collect my bag only to find that at least one of the passengers was rather upset with me. I couldn't really understand what he was saying, but it was clear that he didn't want me to leave because that just went the bus was one more seat further away from leaving. He sort of pleaded with me that the bus would leave by 5pm, but no one else seemed to want to back up that idea. Much to his disappointed, I collected my bags and headed over to building 1 to purchase a luxury bus ticket for the following morning. (For what it's worth, the luxury bus ticket is around 40% more expensive then the wait-till-we-fill-up bus ticket. But for that extra 40% you get an actual departure time, a guaranteed seat that reclines, beverage service and, of course, air conditioning. Seemed like a good deal to me.)

 

So I got a minibus back to downtown Khartoum and checked back into my hotel. Remember, this isn't really a hotel as much as it is a shared room living environment. Earlier in the week when I had checked in, I had asked to just have an open air bed on the roof, only to be told that there weren't only, so I was given a bed in a four bed room, which was rather hot and stuffy with only a ceiling fan to cool the hot evening air. This time around, all the rooms were full and only a bed on the roof was available. Go figure, but it was exactly what I wanted.

 

The past few months of traveling through the Middle East has taught me that this part of the world is a land of surprises and contradictions. That night, at the El Waleed Hotel (where I was staying) was no different. In previous nights, the evening entertainment on the satellite TV was football, which is to be expected since it's the most popular sport everywhere in the world except in North America. But on Saturday night, with no football matches to show, the backup entertainment was a Michael Douglas movie named "Don't Say a Word". The movie was in English with Arabic subtitles. It was rather strange to be sitting on a rooftop in Khartoum, Sudan watching a Michael Douglas movie in English with a bunch of local Sudanese. (There were no other travelers at this super-cheap establishment.) But the strangest part about the evening was that the locals never failed to laugh at the KitKat commercial that showed every time the movie went to commercial break. It was the same KitKat commercial each time and each time they laughed at it. I'm not even sure you can get KitKat in Sudan. For those just dying to know, the commercial was some parody of the old "Scream" movie in which an actor is on stage trying to, uh, Scream. As the camera pans from her to the backstage, there's someone in that "Scream" mask looking at a KitKat. Maybe the Arabic voice over was funny or something, but all I know is that KitKat has at least a dozen customers in Khartoum, Sudan...

 

Kenny