Metame to Gonder, Ethiopia
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
With the sky still pitch black and the stars clearly visible, I headed towards the bus "station" in Metame to catch my 5.30am bus to Gonder, but not without first having to find someone to unlock the hotels front gate. Turns out the night shift watchman was just sleeping on a bed in the courtyard with a girl by his side. No idea what their relationship was, but it was kind of funny to be shining a flashlight on them at 5am in the morning trying to explain that I needed the gate unlocked so that I could get out. After a bit encouragement on my part, they guy finally rolled out of bed and walked across the courtyard to unlock the gate. He wasn't too happy, and I don't blame him, but come'on, I've got a bus to catch in 30 minutes so open up!
While Metame itself was dead at that hour, the bus station was a hub of activity as everyone was loading the lone bus out of town. I should have realized that it would be a bit of zoo, but I didn't so I quickly found myself trying to get my bag tossed up on the roof of the bus and then to find a seat inside. Assigned seating is still a foreign concept here in Ethiopia so you just grab whatever seat is available.
I've said this before, but I'll say it again. How people taller then me (6 feet) travel is beyond me because I honestly could not fit into the first few seats I tried. They aren't really seats mind you, instead they are benches. The bench on the left is wide enough for 2 people and seats 3, the bench on the right is wide enough for 1.5 people and seats 2. The aisle is for pots, chairs, food, bags and standing room.
The only place I found that I could actually fit my legs was the bench that went across the back row, since I could sit in the middle of it and stretch my legs into the aisle. I was weary of sitting in the last row after my Sudanese experience, but I didn't really have much of a choice. As the bus filled up, I figured that at worse there would be six people in that bench since it stretched across the entire width of the bus. Realistically there was room for five, six was a tight fit. However, I've long since stopped being surprised about things like this so when the rear bus attendant motioned that the back bench was for seven people, I barely flinched. Instead, I just made myself as big as I could and forced the people to my left to really crowd in to the back seat. It was crazy, I think they were sitting on top of each other, but there was no way I was moving and losing my precious leg room in the process. Sorry, sometimes I have to turn off the "nice guy" act and fend for myself and this was one of those times.
With the bus overflowing with people, we finally pulled out of Metame around 6am. It's still dark, but there's of course loud Amharic (Ethiopian) music blasting through the speakers. How people deal with this is beyond me because even with my ear plugs in, the music was deafening. It doesn't help that the speakers are shot and the music itself has lots of high pitched instruments in it. But the icing on the cake was that every time we went out of radio coverage, a loud "eeeeeee" would just play over the speakers until the signal returned. The kind of "eeee" that immediately results in a sane person quickly turning the volume off and apologizing to everyone within hearing distance. But on the bus, the "eeee"ing just keeps going and going. Crazy.
The bus ride is long and slow, very slow at times. I had no idea that Northern Ethiopia was so mountainous and most of the time is spent either in 1st gear crawling up a switchback road, or in 1st gear going down a switchback road. The only advantage to being in 1st gear all the time is that the bumps aren't as bad as they would be in 2nd or 3rd gear. We'd stop along the way at villages to let people on and off. Sometimes my leg room would disappear as the back of the bus filled up with passengers standing, other times I'd be able to stretch out. This far from Addis Ababa, just about everyone is a farmer and in Ethiopia, ever farmer carries a stick or cane with them. This never leaves their side, so as the bus fills up, sticks and canes just add to the mess. And of course, no overcrowded, 6am bus ride would be complete without a few tempers flaring and this bus ride was no exception. I have no idea what the arguments were over, so instead I just tried making up conversations in my head as I watched them unfold right in front of me. There's not much else to do at that hour when you've got ear plugs in to protect you from music and you can't move because of the cramped space. Surprisingly, the tight backseat proved to be a bit of a blessing in disguise because I was able to sort of sleep without getting thrown around because I was should to should with fellow passengers. I guess sometimes it's good to be crammed into an area.
We stopped for lunch and as everyone piled out, I just followed the largest group of people into some local road side restaurant. Obviously I looked out of place in the restaurant and after a minute or so someone just offered me a seat beside them and I joined them for lunch. At this stage, I didn't really ask any questions about what we were eating since I was starving having not had any breakfast. A quick look around the room showed that everyone was eating the same thing, so I guessed that was the order of the day. The only funny thing was that when lunch was over, I went up to the counter to pay for my drink and presumably help pay for lunch itself. For some reason, the guy who offered to share with me didn't come to the counter and just watched from a distance. I ended up paying for the entire meal, which is fine since tons of stuff has been purchased for me along the way, but in hindsight I probably would have eaten a bit more of the meal instead of just taking a little bit out of generosity. Oh well, I still got enough and since the meal cost less then 1$US, I wasn't about to complain.
Around 6 hours or so after leaving Metame, we rolled into the town of Gonder and it was time to get yet another hotel room...
Kenny
With the sky still pitch black and the stars clearly visible, I headed towards the bus "station" in Metame to catch my 5.30am bus to Gonder, but not without first having to find someone to unlock the hotels front gate. Turns out the night shift watchman was just sleeping on a bed in the courtyard with a girl by his side. No idea what their relationship was, but it was kind of funny to be shining a flashlight on them at 5am in the morning trying to explain that I needed the gate unlocked so that I could get out. After a bit encouragement on my part, they guy finally rolled out of bed and walked across the courtyard to unlock the gate. He wasn't too happy, and I don't blame him, but come'on, I've got a bus to catch in 30 minutes so open up!
While Metame itself was dead at that hour, the bus station was a hub of activity as everyone was loading the lone bus out of town. I should have realized that it would be a bit of zoo, but I didn't so I quickly found myself trying to get my bag tossed up on the roof of the bus and then to find a seat inside. Assigned seating is still a foreign concept here in Ethiopia so you just grab whatever seat is available.
I've said this before, but I'll say it again. How people taller then me (6 feet) travel is beyond me because I honestly could not fit into the first few seats I tried. They aren't really seats mind you, instead they are benches. The bench on the left is wide enough for 2 people and seats 3, the bench on the right is wide enough for 1.5 people and seats 2. The aisle is for pots, chairs, food, bags and standing room.
The only place I found that I could actually fit my legs was the bench that went across the back row, since I could sit in the middle of it and stretch my legs into the aisle. I was weary of sitting in the last row after my Sudanese experience, but I didn't really have much of a choice. As the bus filled up, I figured that at worse there would be six people in that bench since it stretched across the entire width of the bus. Realistically there was room for five, six was a tight fit. However, I've long since stopped being surprised about things like this so when the rear bus attendant motioned that the back bench was for seven people, I barely flinched. Instead, I just made myself as big as I could and forced the people to my left to really crowd in to the back seat. It was crazy, I think they were sitting on top of each other, but there was no way I was moving and losing my precious leg room in the process. Sorry, sometimes I have to turn off the "nice guy" act and fend for myself and this was one of those times.
With the bus overflowing with people, we finally pulled out of Metame around 6am. It's still dark, but there's of course loud Amharic (Ethiopian) music blasting through the speakers. How people deal with this is beyond me because even with my ear plugs in, the music was deafening. It doesn't help that the speakers are shot and the music itself has lots of high pitched instruments in it. But the icing on the cake was that every time we went out of radio coverage, a loud "eeeeeee" would just play over the speakers until the signal returned. The kind of "eeee" that immediately results in a sane person quickly turning the volume off and apologizing to everyone within hearing distance. But on the bus, the "eeee"ing just keeps going and going. Crazy.
The bus ride is long and slow, very slow at times. I had no idea that Northern Ethiopia was so mountainous and most of the time is spent either in 1st gear crawling up a switchback road, or in 1st gear going down a switchback road. The only advantage to being in 1st gear all the time is that the bumps aren't as bad as they would be in 2nd or 3rd gear. We'd stop along the way at villages to let people on and off. Sometimes my leg room would disappear as the back of the bus filled up with passengers standing, other times I'd be able to stretch out. This far from Addis Ababa, just about everyone is a farmer and in Ethiopia, ever farmer carries a stick or cane with them. This never leaves their side, so as the bus fills up, sticks and canes just add to the mess. And of course, no overcrowded, 6am bus ride would be complete without a few tempers flaring and this bus ride was no exception. I have no idea what the arguments were over, so instead I just tried making up conversations in my head as I watched them unfold right in front of me. There's not much else to do at that hour when you've got ear plugs in to protect you from music and you can't move because of the cramped space. Surprisingly, the tight backseat proved to be a bit of a blessing in disguise because I was able to sort of sleep without getting thrown around because I was should to should with fellow passengers. I guess sometimes it's good to be crammed into an area.
We stopped for lunch and as everyone piled out, I just followed the largest group of people into some local road side restaurant. Obviously I looked out of place in the restaurant and after a minute or so someone just offered me a seat beside them and I joined them for lunch. At this stage, I didn't really ask any questions about what we were eating since I was starving having not had any breakfast. A quick look around the room showed that everyone was eating the same thing, so I guessed that was the order of the day. The only funny thing was that when lunch was over, I went up to the counter to pay for my drink and presumably help pay for lunch itself. For some reason, the guy who offered to share with me didn't come to the counter and just watched from a distance. I ended up paying for the entire meal, which is fine since tons of stuff has been purchased for me along the way, but in hindsight I probably would have eaten a bit more of the meal instead of just taking a little bit out of generosity. Oh well, I still got enough and since the meal cost less then 1$US, I wasn't about to complain.
Around 6 hours or so after leaving Metame, we rolled into the town of Gonder and it was time to get yet another hotel room...
Kenny
posted by Kenny Carruthers at 2/14/2006 03:53:00 AM
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