The worst thing when you first arrive in a country is that you have no idea how the local prices work, how far is it from a place to another. That weakness is a big fat piece of meat that every local scoundrels want to feed on: taxi drivers, merchants, random rogues you meet on the street, etc. I’m not saying that all Ethiopians are bad, on the contrary, I have met some wonderful people like Mika, my host; Berry and the tailor. But I have to admit that that my first experience in Ethiopia wasn’t very pleasant. Nonetheless, I managed to achieve some feast: I figured out how the local minibuses work, paid at the same price as the locals, and got a free SIM card on my first day in Ethiopia. I’m sooo proud of myself 
Before I came, I had contacted AIESEC Ethiopia, and Elena, its president, told me that she would pick me up from the airport. But she didn’t show up. Mika on CouchSurfing had also agreed to host me. However, he never sent me his address. Confused, my natural orientation was to go to the city center.
A bunch of taxi drivers approached me and offered me skyrocket high prices.
- Do you know where the city center is? It’s very very far from here. – warned they.
“No, I don’t know where it is. But I talked to people when I was waiting to claim my baggage. They told me it shouldn’t cost more than 150 bir ($1 ~ 17 bir)”
Annoyed, I decided to just walked to the city, found a SIM card to call Mika and Elena. At the gate, a bunch of white and blue vans passed by. I hopped on.
- How much?
- 25 bir.
I had no idea if it was a fair price or not. But just to pretend that I do, I asked them again:
- How MUCH?
- 20 bir.
Then I saw a local who paid 2 bir.
- 2 bir.
- No, it depends on how far you go.
I turned around to ask other people on the bus. They all looked at the bus conductor slyly and repeated the same answer he gave. Damn, I had no ally on this bus. I didn’t know what number should I bargain for. You don’t want to be an idiot to pay more than locals. But you don’t want to be an asshole to bargain much below the normal price.
- I’m NOT gonna pay more than locals.
- OK, 5 bir.
It sounded alright to me. I gave him 100 Bir and he gave me back 85 bir.
- Excuse me, it’s only 85.
- Oh, not enough, here is 1 more bir.
- 10 more bir.
- Oh, 1 more bir.
WTF? I’m a foreigner doesn’t mean I’m an idiot. I know a lot of people would succumb to that b/c they think it’s not worth it to fight for like 50 cent. The amount of money is nothing, but the feeling of being cheated pissed me off.
- GIVE ME BACK MY 10 BIR. – shouted I.
- Wow wow, here is your 10 bir.
Later I learned the prices for buses from people I met on the street: 1.25 bir for short distance, 2 for medium and 3.60 for far. I never pay more than that. I took another 2 buses and I realized one thing about buses in Ethiopia: even if you agree on the prices, they never pay you the correct change and just ignore the coins. They do pay locals back the coins. It drove me mad.
I stopped at Abyssinia, or the city center as they told me. I was looking for Baro Hotel which, according to all guide books is “the ultimate meeting point, anyone who travels to Addis will sooner or later show up here.” Two guys offered to walk me there. They even offered to find me a job.They spoke good English and looked like Bob Marley, so suddenly I had good feeling about them. There was nothing interesting at the hotel. I needed to buy a SIM card.
- How much is a SIM card here cost?
- The Addis one is 300 bir, the all – Ethiopia one is 400 bir.
At first, I thought that they might not know the prices, so I told them to take me to a shop and checked the prices. They asked the shop owner the price in Amheric and of course, the shop owner replied them in Amheric. They confirmed with me the same prices they told me early.
- It can’t be right. It’s like $18 – $24, even more expensive than Israel.
I walked away.
- You don’t have money? OK, I have 2 SIM cards, you can have one of mine for 250 bir. I can buy another one later.
- Still too much.
- OK, 200 bir.
Suddenly I realized that they are scoundrels. Nobody is nice enough to offer his OWN SIM card so that he can buy a NEW SIM card later on with a much higher price. I trusted them! Damn it. Feeling like an idiot, I stormed away. An old man walked up and touched me with a creepy smile. I pushed him away. Dozens of men, women, kids ran after me: “monee monee monee, give me moneee”. “Why the fuck should I give you money? Do I look like a walking money bag to you?” I just arrived after an overnight flight, was carrying 15kg on my back and every single person I met here wanted to cheat me, how could I not be mad?
Suddenly a tailor waved at me.
- Come, sit down.
He had a good natured face. By that time, I completely lost hope in people, but I was tired like hell. His shop was like a 1 x 0.5 m2 store house. He pointed me to shop nearby to get a SIM card. It turned out a SIM card only costs 60 Bir, but I couldn’t get it b/c I’m not Ethiopian.
The tailor lent me his phone to call Mika, then he talked to Mika himself to get the address. According to him, I’ll meet Mika at 9pm.
- What time is it?
- 5pm.
- It can’t be. I just arrived here at 8am. Have I passed out somewhere and time flew?
- No, it’s 5pm. You’ll meet your friends in 4 hours.
I ran out to ask people on the street. Some of them said 5pm, some of them said 11am. What universe am I in now?
A girl walked in.
- She’s a prostitute. – The tailor whispered.
I knew that I was in the bad side of town.
Another girl walked in with heavy makeup and body-tight clothes. My natural assumption was that she did the same job. She spoke really good English.
- What are you gonna do for 4 hours?
- Dunno.
- Why don’t you come to my place?
I was convinced that she’s a prostitute. But I couldn’t care less. I walked with her into a slum that smelled awful. And in the middle of the slum raised a beautiful house. It was her place.
A tall, buff middle aged man opened the door. He looked exactly like a mafia boss you usually see in Hollywood movies. The house was full of smoke. My first guest was that it must be a brothel and he must be the boss.
- It’s Kidu, my uncle.
Hahaha, I do have a wild imagination. The girl turned out to be a medical student.
- What do you want to eat for lunch?
- Ethiopian food.
So they brought me injera – the sour spongy bread that Ethiopians eat every day. It was too sour for me to eat. They laughed: “Wait, you have to eat it with wat.”
Wat is the word for sauce. They only had lentil wat b/c it was the fasting day. Later of the day, Mika took me out for dinner and we ordered a dish called (I forgot)– injera with all kinds of wat: cheese, potato, gomen (spinach), meat, egg, fish, etc.
I had a really nice talk with them. They explained to me that in Ethiopia, the day starts when the sun rises. When it’s 6am European time (aka the time that we use), it’s 12pm Ethiopian time. It’s summer in Ethiopia. But unlike what you think, summer is actually the time when it’s cold and winter is the time when it’s hot. I then left to meet Mika.
- Call me if you need any help. And if you don’t feel comfortable at your place, you are always welcome here. – The girl said.
- Thanks. I will.
- By the way, I’m Sawrawit, but you can call me Berry.
OMG, I’ve been enjoying her hospitality without even asking for her name.
I met Mika, and I knew that from now on, I’m safe. He lives in the posh side of town where all the embassies are. He gave me a SIM card he no longer used. My journey in Ethiopia has just started.
—
Lessons to learn:
1. Always research in advance how far the airport is from the city, how much it costs by taxi/bus (recommended: http://wikitravel.org), else talk to people on the flight who have been to this city before.
2. If the prices are not listed, pay last after observing all other people on the bus.
3. Always count the change.
4. There are always good and bad people. You just need to find and stick to the good ones.
Tags: Addis Ababa, Africa, Airport, Chip, Cold, Couchsurfing, Ethiopia, Friends, Rain, Scoundrel, travel, Travel and Write, Travel Diary
