Peaceful Lake Tana and the Islands

Lake Tana itself is peaceful and beautiful and just what we needed.  The three of us sat quietly on the boat simply soaking up the atmosphere and the quiet.  It was wonderful.

Sun on the lake

Lone fisherman

Martin and Jen

Martin and Gillian

There are several islands in the lake with 9^th century churches and we stopped at two.  Tourist associations have been set up all over Ethiopia so that local people actually make money through tourism rather than a rich outsider.  What this means is that only registered guides are allowed to operate and these are people from that village who have studied tourism and any entrance fees and tips go into the pot for the benefit for all the village.  I am not sure how this actually works as it seems to be different in each place we visited but you get the general idea. 

When we arrived at the first island, we got off the boat and we were met by the official guide who charged us 90 ETB for his services.  The guide was very humble and ingratiating and he was flanked by a line of hopeful young boys.  It was an uphill muddyish walk to the church and naturally a young boy leapt to the rescue to hold our hand and support us on the slippery uphill slope.  We passed by a number of stalls laden with jewelry, baskets and icon.  “Later!” we called and with a sinking feeling we knew we were going to have to pass through this gauntlet on the way down.

The church was absolutely amazing and nothing like I had seen before.  It was a traditional round building with a two concentric design.  The outer ring is for chanting, the inner circle is for people to pray and three entrances (one for the priest, one for men and one for women).  This inner space has a dividing wall which is called the “Holy of Holies” where only priests are allowed.  The roof is made of grass and the outside wall is made of bamboo.

Church and Martin putting his shoes back on

Inside looking out from the chanting area

From the back

The bell – seems to be a hollow piece of stone

The outside walls are beautifully painted with vivid reds, yellows, blues and greens.  I say the walls are painted but the paintings are made on cotton fabric which is then stuck on the mud walls.

The story of the cannibal

Drums for Chanting

Everything about the design of the church and the artifacts are symbolic of some aspect of either the Old or New Testament.  The three doors represent the trinity; father, son and Holy Spirit.  The drums used for chanting is also full of symbolism representing the tomb where Jesus was buried (it is hollow with a stone inside) and the binding represents the cords that were used to whip Christ.  The guide was very good, explaining all the bible stories that were depicted on the walls, and his face lit up when he talked about God and the church.

Crowns, robes and books (9^th century)

Religious book written on goat skin (9^th century)

We were charged 100 ETB each for entrance to the church.

On the way back, as expected we were met with a barrage of demands to look at their stalls and buy their wares.  The guide “negotiated!” on our behalf confirming that the prices they were demanded were reasonable. We were suckered all round.  My sister (“Soft-touch” is her new nickname) bought a nickel and plastic necklace for 350ETB and I bought a small cross for 150ETB and an icon for 250ETB.  It was like taking candy from a baby! Goo Goo!

We made it back onto the boat with our purses lighter and our hearts heavier with that sinking feeling that we had been ripped off and set off for our second mauling of the day to island number two.  We were ready for this one and we were met with the same routine, but the prices were cheaper.  This guide charged 75ETB and the churches also included a visit to the “museum” where priceless 9^th century bibles and prayer books are exposed to the sun and flash cameras.

We had no more money with us and so we appeared to be playing it cool when we refused to buy the goods on sale.  In the end they were offering us better jewelry at less than half the price of what we had paid on the other island.  Goo Goo!

We had a lovely boat ride back to the hotel, a nice lunch and then got ready for our trip to the Blue Niles falls.  The guy on reception had organized this for us and we had arranged for the driver to stop at the bank for us and then at the Ethiopian Airline office so that we could book the next leg of our journey.  We came out of the office and looked for our driver but her was nowhere to be seen!  We waited – had he had to make a call, drive round the block? WE waited but he didn’t show.  In the end we went to the Papyrus Hotel and arranged it from there.  It was getting late and I really, really didn’t want to miss this visit and this was our only chance to get to see it as we were catching a DAY BUS (!) the next day to Gondar.  There was a bit of a wait but the new driver turned up in a minivan and we began our road trip to the Blue Nile Falls.

Kidnapped by a Tuk-tuk driver in beautiful Bahir Dar

On our first afternoon we caught a tuktuk into the town centre to see if we could organize our travel to Gondar; having learned from experience that sooner than later is the best policy in Ethiopia.  He was a friendly chappie, our tuk-tuk driver, chatting away unintelligibly, but we were cool about it as it added to the atmosphere of being squashed into the back of his little vehicle.

“Just here please!” we said when we arrived into what we recognized as the kind of town centre.  Jabber-Jabber ignored us and carried on jabbering.  On we went, up this road and down this road, being thrown around all over the place as he took his corners tight.  At one point another tuk-tuk or van (we never found out which) hit us up the arse as we didn’t accelerate as expectedly.  It was like we were being kidnapped! We were taken on a tour of the town without checking with us first and then ignored all requests to stop in the town.  

By this time (after 20 minutes) it was pelting down and we had seen enough roads built by the Chinese for a lifetime.  Finally he stopped and then wanted 50Birr.  I gave him 10 and he argued like billyo.  This is all so exhausting, arguing over money at every point we look.   We walked around and found Hotel Papyrus. We had steak and chips with a dollop of no-harassment and it was great.

Inside view of the outside view from a Tuk-Tuk - stationery

Inside view of the outside view from a Tuk-Tuk – moving

Pimp my Tuk-Tuk

Inside view of the inside view of a Tuk-Tuk

There were signs up everywhere in town “Congratulations!” It was University graduation weekend and there were lots of people walking around in full graduation gowns or suits, carrying bunches of flowers.  Many people and their families had come for the weekend and it there was a very festive atmosphere.

Went back to hotel and told the reception guy about the trips we wanted to do and also asked how we could get to Gondar.  He sorted it.  For a mere 1500ETB we could all go to on boat trip across Lake Tana and visit the island monasteries and then in the afternoon go to the Blue Nile falls.  The next day we could get a minibus to Gondar – he would phone and they would come and pick us up at the hotel.  Sorted and happy we went to bed looking forward to our trips the next day.

A memorable bus journey

We may have been loaded onto the bus but it was another hour and a half before we actually moved out onto the road to Bahir Dar.  We stopped to pick up several more passengers and the bus became more and more crowded.  There were a lot of phone calls by the driver presumably to pick up new passengers and the “Bus Conductor” liked having the roll of notes in his hand and counting them continually.  He could hang on to the bus as it moved away and at the last moment slide in and slide the door closed at the last minute.  It was a big show of look at me “Who’s the Daddy?”

After an hour and a half we actually set off to our destination and bumped along the road squashed up for the anticipated 4 hour journey, expecting to arrive at around 3.30 in the morning.  We tried to sleep so that we would be as fresh as possible when we arrived.  After about 20 minutes we were stopped by armed police / army who checked everyone’s passport; fortunately to his satisfaction and he slammed the door shut without asking us for identification.  Evidently not looking for foreigners. The door opened again and another army bloke just casually looked at us three sitting there and then shut the door again.   We could hear laughter from the others side of door and can only assume that we were the source of some amusement for them.  Maybe it was our tense little faces squashed together in the dark that gave them such a buzz!

I think our driver was living on the coke side of life

We slept most of the time and then we were suddenly woken with a jolt and a loud bang.  The mini-bus stopped and we were all a bit confused, having been asleep and being suddenly woken.  Everyone got out and we realized that the wing mirror on the driver’s side had been taken off by another vehicle.  It didn’t surprise me as we had had a few near misses earlier in the journey.  Of course the drivers are nothing like the crazies in Georgia, they just ride a bit close to the wind.

On closer inspection the driver’s side of the door as bashed in as well and Martin pointed out the skid marks on the road.  Evidently he had been driving on the wrong side of the road and then made a very quick turn to avoid an oncoming vehicle and it had clipped the minibus then went on without stopping.  However, some activity a couple of hundred feet behind us showed us that a lorry was upturned and in the ditch.  The collision had caused the lorry to swerve and drive into the ditch.  No-one was hurt miraculously but when you think about it - and we don’t like to of course, we could have been killed.

We all climbed back in the van and the driver sat in the back – he had been replaced by another driver ad went on our way.  We stopped for about half an hour at 4 in the morning at a bar / hotel and this provided a convenient loo stop and time to eat.  Then we were on our way again.  It was still dark and it was obvious that the 4 hour estimated travel time was not gonna happen.  At around 5 am there appeared on the side of the road ghostly apparitions.  This turned out to be women clothed in white with white blankets / shawls over their heads and they were emerging from an opening at the side and spilling out onto the road.  As we drove on, more and more appeared.  They didn’t look like they were going to market so I wondered if it was a religious thing.   I checked later and there is a religious week where women go to mass and process through the streets.  Don’t know quite what it is about but will find out more.

There were no more exciting events except that we were unceremoniously dumped at the bus station (not a bus station as we know it more like a seedy backstreet at the back of some houses)  despite the diver being told to take us to the hotel.   Our ‘friend’ at the hotel had sad that The Extreme hotel was to be recommended but we decided to take our power back and told the tuktuk driver to take us to the Lake Tana Hotel.  How we squeezed into this moped come tricycle with a hood, with all our luggage is yet to be discovered but we were duly taken to our destination and dropped off for the princely price of 15 birr.  I had tried haggling to 10 much to the disgust of Martin who simply is incapable of haggling (he has to go for a walk and smoke a cigarette) but he was having none of it and I was too knackered after what turned out to be 11 hours crushed into a minibus.

Lake Tana hotel is a 70s built concrete hotel in the style of a safari lodge if you can imagine.  We dumped our bags in our very nice rooms and had breakfast overlooking the lake.