Monday, November 30th - Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

This morning was a lovely relaxing morning at the Bow.  I knew Randy didn't get in until late and wouldn't be up early so I took the time to rearrange my suitcase and get clothes sorted for washing.  Randy appeared eventually.  He had had a good flight but arrived late and didn't get to the hotel until about 3 a.m.   He missed Raz at the airport so arrived at the hotel by taxi.  That was my mistake as I did not forward the e-mail to him about who would be meeting him and what to look for.  He knew he was being met but didn't see anyone waiting for him so he took a taxi.  I thought Raz had Randy's e-mail address and would do that directly but in fact I had never given it to Raz.  Bad me!

We had a late but delicious breakfast and then spent some time getting caught up on each other's travels for the last several months.  We then set our mind to some serious travel booking because we had nothing booked for the next two weeks and a lot of flights to confirm.  Trying to get what we wanted on the Ethiopian Airlines website was impossible so we decided to walk to their office on Churchill Street.

The walk was nice through many back streets before hitting slightly more popular streets.  We probably only walked for about 30 minutes but it seemed like longer because it was hotter than I had expected.  When we left the Bow the power was out but we never figured how that would translate at Ethiopian Airlines.  Luckily, once we found the place, the power was on.  However, their system was still down so they couldn't do any bookings for us and told us we'd have to go to the Hilton. That involved another 20-30 minute walk but I made it.  Once inside it was obvious that everyone had been told the same thing and this was the only ticket office that was working.  There was quite a line up and we really thought it would take hours.  Luckily they didn't close until 7 p.m.  However, the lines eventually started moving faster, perhaps as people got tired of working or perhaps they found out that they other offices were now open.  

We finally had our number come up and the young guy who was looking after us was fantastic.  We told him what we wanted and he just set about doing it.  I gave him my passport and he called up my ticket from Malawi to Ethiopia on Ethiopian airlines and gave me a great discount.  Four flights around Ethiopia, not continuous because we were doing part of the journey by land, and it only cost $228 US.  The same in Canada would have cost over $1,000.  And Ethiopian airlines knows how to serve drinks and even food, for free, on short flights.  They are amazing.  But back to my ticketing story. Randy did not fly in on Ethiopian so the guy told him to go to the business centre and book his flight to Zanzibar and then come back and he would give him the discount on his flights.  So very quickly I had my tickets for northern Ethiopia, Randy had his and my ticket to Zanzibar and then he got his tickets for northern Ethiopia.  It was fast and easy and inexpensive so what more could you want?  

As it was late by the time we were leaving the Hilton we decided to take a taxi back.  We should have gone out to the street and taken a regular taxi but no, we took one from teh Hilton and ended up paying way too much for the trip.  Oh well, live and learn.

We had dinner, did some more planning for the trip north and then it was time for bed. It definitely wasn't a touring day but it was a good day as we got a lot accomplished and now know where we are going and when, how we are getting there and where we're staying.  Not bat at all.