Trekking Through Simien Mountain Range, Ethiopia

We have arranged a highly recommended guide to take us trekking through the Simien (means "Northern" in Amheric) Mountain National Park for 3 days. This mountain range peaks at over 4500 meters above sea level. A sea level dweller, I was really glad I remembered last minute to get some altitude medication. The height also caused the temperature at night to drop down into the single digits. In fact, it even hailed during one of the nights. I had to pack my winter jacket for this June trek!

We got picked up from Gondar in the morning to start a very bumpy 2 hour drive north to the park entrance. We had to stop in the town of Debark first to meet up with our guide, cook, armed guard and pick up food supplies. Yes, we were required by the park to hire an armed guard who were all local villagers. It wasn't because the park was particularly dangerous. This provided them with a job and a chance to be involved in the protection and preservation of their land.

By early afternoon, we started our very short trek of the day. It was the rainy season in Ethiopia. We had to make it to our camp ground before the rain hit which happened everyday around 3PM. Dealing with the high elevation was much harder than I imagined. I was huffing and puffing at the slightest incline. Good thing we stopped frequently to watch the Simien baboons, primates that can only be found here. Their very human like ways were fascinating to watch. I thought they were even communicating in a form of human-like language with various tones and pitches.

The next day we had a full day of trekking. The guide told us, the rainy season was actually a great time to be here since all the greens are luscious and not too hot. We trekked by a beautiful waterfall, crossed a river in our bare feet, visited a traditional village hut and even came across a baby goat born minutes ago. It was a tiring day, but it was topped off by a very special dinner. We decided to purchase a fat sheep from a local farmer to slaughter for dinner. The cook used wild thyme found throughout the mountains as his main spice. "Benjamin" the sheep was very cute, but he was also very delicious and completely free range.

We saved the best for our last day. Imet Gogo is the promontory that peaked at 3926 meters above sea level. Although it was not the highest point, Imet Gogo offered the most spectacular and dramatic views. It actually reminded me of the flowing mountains in the movie Avatar. The cloud and fog added mystery to this less traveled part of the world.

I must say various different parts of Simien Mountain looked like it could be Yellow Mountain in China or Benbulben Mountain in Ireland or even rock formations in my current hometown, British Columbia. Over the 3 days, we covered approximately over 60 km. It was a very difficult trek, but it was extremely rewarding.

Camlot of Africa - Gondar, Ethiopia

We had booked a 2.5 hour mini bus ride through our hotel to take us north to Gondar from Bahir Dar in the morning. Gondar earns the title of Africa's Camlot for its series of centuries old stone castles. As we drove into the city and saw the castle walls, I couldn't wait to see what laid behind these walls. But first we stopped for some lunch at the Quara Hotel terrace restaurant. It offered a great view of the city (right) and their pizzas were not bad too. All went really well with a cold Fanta.

After lunch, we headed over to the castles and to walk off the pizza we just ate. When we entered the grounds, I felt like I had left Africa and woke up somewhere in southern Europe. The 350 year old main castle and most well preserved was built by Emperor Fasilides who was one of the most famous rulers in ancient Ethiopia. The royal grounds also included elaborate banquet hall complete with impressive stables, steam bath house with wooden wall cloth hooks still intact, lion's den, distillery and library built by Fasilides' successors.

Separate from the castle grounds, we took a short tuk tuk ride to Emperor Fasilides' Bath. This large rectangular shaped pool with a bath house in the centre was still used today during religious holidays. The most interesting thing about this place was the walls that surrounded the pool. They were crawled with tree roots (left) very much like Angkor Thom in Cambodia. Once our way out, we were stopped to take a survey on our tour experience. I requested toilet facilities.

The last leg of the tour was the Debre Birhan Selassie Church. After Bahir Dar, I was indifferent about seeing another church until I stepped inside of this one. The ceiling were covered with angels watching over and protecting the church. Local legend said all other Churches were burnt down by invaders in late 1800, expect for this one.

(photo by Franck Zecchin)

Seeing Gondar was a bit of a surreal experience for me. I thought it was what intrigued me about Ethiopia in the first place. It was hard to believe Gondar was part of Africa.

Bahir Dar, Ethiopia

After only spending one night in Addis, we caught an early flight to Bahir Dar, a city by the third largest lake in Africa, Lake Tana. The lake was also dotted with several islands, homes to centuries old monasteries. We arranged a boat as soon as we reached the hotel. The boat was not speedy by any stretch of the imagination. But it was nice to lounge out and enjoy the beautiful African sun on the breezy lake Tana. The lake water was muddy due to winter erosion.

These island Ethiopian Orthodox monasteries were quite plain looking from the outside. However, the inside of these holy places was decorated with colourful paintings of bible icons and stories (right). Each monastery had their own little museum where they kept their old goat skin bibles, silver crosses, praying sticks, priest robes and other religious items.

After a few hours of cruising around the lake and hoping to spot a hippo (but didn't), we went around town in search of some good layered juice (left). This delicious and beautiful creation was layered with thick pineapple, guava, avocado and passion fruit juice. It was very filling like a meal. I made the mistake of stirring the juice when I was half way through. It ended up tasting like avocado juice and looked like something my ferret would throw up. Bad idea!

Our jet lag was getting much better. We were in bed by 9 and up around 4 or 5. Sun rosed around 630AM the next day, I decided to stroll around the hotel garden and capture the morning dew with my camera. The air was fresh mixed with aroma of the after rain soil. A couple of black with a dash of red birds flew overhead and landed on the giant fig tree next to the garden cafe. What a perfect African morning!

We hired a car to see Blue Nile Falls located 40 minutes south of Bahir Dar. The drive gave us a first glimpse of Ethiopian rural life. People seemed to be untouched by the world outside. They probably lived very much the same for the past 100 year. Donkeys carried heavy farm cargo, small mud huts were built long the unpaved road and farmland ploughed by mules.

Shortly after we entered the Blue Nile Falls grounds, we came across the first bridge built in Ethiopia. Eggs were involved in the making of this bridge. I wonder how many eggs it took. We were then joined by a dozen children who insisted on showing us around. They were all local village kids with surprisingly good English. The falls were pretty amazing sight to see, especially when they were brown like chocolate milk. During the summer, the falls would be clear. We were able to trek quite close. The mist from the falls was nature's air conditioner that cooled us on a hote sunny day like this one. But we had to move quickly as we were also getting a shad darker from mud mist.

After coming back from the falls, we decided to treat ourselves to a Swedish massage at a luscious spa next our hotel. It was also to get ourselves ready for the 3 day trek through Simien Mountains in a few days.

Yummm... I heart Ethiopian Food

After checking into our hotel, we napped for nearly 5 hours and got up in time to eat dinner. I am a big time food lover and Ethiopian food is renowed for its rich and intense flavour. We grabbed a taxi and went straight to Habesha restaurant that also offered nightly folk dancing with your dinner.

Kat had been to Ethiopia in business trip before and knew the traditional food scene quite well. We relied in her to order us a mixed plate of goodies that including raw meat. Ethiopian food is eaten with hands. Soap and water was brought to us at the table. Shortly, a large plate with a sheet of injera which was a very thin, spongy pancake-like flat bread. Then the food was piled on top. First up was the Gored Gored, the raw meat dish mixed with spices. Second dish was called Tibs a mutton dish with thinly diced green peppers. Third dish was piled in the middle called Doro wat minced chicken curry that even came with a whole egg. Finally we topped off the plate with Shiro a vegetarian fasting food (wed & fri) chick pea dish. We were each given a roll of extra Injera, To be honest, in the very darkly lit restaurant it looked like a roll of toilet paper. We tore off a small piece of injera to use to grab a bit size of the dishes. Everything was an explosion of flavour in your month. Made out of tef, injera is very light and very sour at first bit. However, mixed with shiro and other dishes, the sour taste became not so noticeable.

Getting to Ethiopia

Ethiopia was a country we are planning almost half our time visiting. Needless to say I am more than excited to check out its much talked about unique historical sites and meet the friendly local. However, getting there really started rough. Our flight departure time and route (different stop overs were added to otherwise a less than 2 hour direct flight) from Nairobi to Addis Ababa, the capital, had changed about 5 times even before we stepped our foot in Africa. Calling around to confirm the night before got us different times. Finally we decided it was safer too show up at the airport at 1130pm for our "2am" flight. A little while after receiving our boarding passes we discovered the boarding time was 230AM and the departure was now 330AM. An hour later we discovered the terrible news that it was again delayed to 530 due to series of mechanical issues of the aircraft. Tired and cranky we waited at the coffee shop lounge and played trivia games to pass the time. As 530AM drew near, we anxiously waited near the departure gate. At 530AM, no airline rep had shown up at the gate to broad us and the airport DA screen still showed a 530AM departure time. I was really angry and determine to find out what was going on. I walked around the airport until I found an Ethiopian airlines rep who told me the air craft was landing as we speak and the departure time was now 645AM. I couldn't believe my ears that we had spent twice amount of time waiting for this flight than the actual length of the flight. After a stop over in Kilimanjaro airport, we finally arrived in Addis at 1030AM. The silver lining of this ordeal was it can only get better from this point on.

Nairobi - Day 1

Our first day in Nairobi was a slow start. We didn't want to plan too much and wait for Michelle's arrival to pet the baby elephants. After lounging around for several hours in Kat's apartment we headed out to exchange some money at the Yaya shopping Centre one block away. We were warned not to take our fancy SLR camera, so we are not targeted as tourists that just arrived in town. The unpaved street was hopping with young man selling roasted corn, car mechanics banging away on an old Honda and ladies selling bananas, pineapples and other unidentifiable vegetation.

We then wandered around the neighbourhood which were full of consulate houses and nice apartments with very tight security before deciding to head back to the shopping centre for some lunch. Although Kenya is a poor country, Nairobi is not cheap! Our smoked ham and Gouda baguette sandwich set us back 12USD. It was delicious though. We forgot to check the tipping etiquette before leaving the apartment and sat around debated amongst ourselves how much we should give. After getting back, we checked the guidebook right away: 10% tip is welcomed since wage is very low (as expected). Kat later informed us, rounding up the bill is good enough.

We were still very much feeling the jet lag and took a 5 hour nap in the afternoon. Later in the evening, we went out to Westland area Italian restaurant for Kat's friend's going away party. Westland is an upscale expat neighbourhood with posh restaurants and bars. After dinner, we headed for a drink and tune in to the England vs Algeria World Cup game at Havana's, a Cuban restaurant and Bar.

The night ended for us at around 11PM. We went back to sleep and waited for Michelle's arrival.

Landed in Kenya after Almost 30 Hours

After 19 hours in the air and 8 hours in between, we finally landed in Nairobi! I think I have been the most tired of all the long international flights I have taken. It might have something to do with the crying baby and large man who decided to extend his elbow to my seat.

We had a 4 hour layover in Amsterdam and had a chance to check out the downtown area. It was actually really boring since we were there 7AM in the morning. Nothing was open, not even MacDonald's. But there were a few ladies in the red light district working the early shift.

We landed in Nairobi after dinner. It was a bit chilly (14 deg) since it is winter here right now. But I couldn't help love the smell the burnt wood in the air. We headed to bed after some tea and biscuits. I was so tired that as soon as my head hit the pillow, I was out like a light. However, my sleep didn't last that long. Around 2AM, I was awake wondering where was Michelle who was surpose to arrive 7 hours after us. I woke up every hour thinking it was already mid day! Around 6AM, Kat slipped me a note before going to work to let me know Michelle had missed her connection and was stuck in Cairo for 24 hours.

Ruby Roads is going to Africa

Ruby Roads is going to be on the same continent as the World Cup 2010 very soon! We will be blogging from Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania for the next 4 weeks. There will be mountain trekking, talking to locals, souvenir shopping, hanging out on the beach and of course, animal watching. Please stay tune!

Lamborghini vs Water: Understanding Chinese Consumers in a Nutshell

Everyone wants a piece of the world's largest consumer market; so what do Chinese consumers want?

I recently came across a story about a wealth Chinese woman who was on her way to purchase a car, a Lamborghini actually. She stopped to buy a bottle of water, the street vendor wanted 3RMB ($0.46 CAD). She argued with the vendor that the market price for bottle of water was 1RMB and she was not going to pay this outrageous price. They finally settled on 2RMB.

You might think, well, that is just silly. A woman who can afford to buy an ultra luxury Italian vehicle couldn't spare that an extra RMB for a bottle of water. The truth is the Chinese will not hesitate spending big dollars on items that will make "face" look good or can outwardly reflect one's status. Recognizable international brands such Louis Vitton, Nike and etc are what the Chinese lusts after. However, they are very practical when it comes to products that reflect low "face" value such as water. They are very educated on the value on these products and will not pay a penny over the market value.

Chinese consumers maybe very sophisticated about tangible products like cars, clothing, shoes and etc. However, their understanding towards service is still in its infancy. One of my professors during my studies was an executive for Disney. He talked about one of the issues with Disney Hong Kong was it was very difficult (nearly impossible) to train employees to provide North American equivalent standard of services. The Chinese' understanding of good service is currently one dimensional: getting the job done and do it fast while an average North American may value multiple aspects and often, small or finer details of a good service.. Having lunch with a friend from China, he complained about the slow bank service in Canada: "I just wanted to open an account. I was in the bank for 1 hour listening to the teller explaining in every detail of my new account. In China, it would take 5 minutes."

In order to market to the Chinese, you better understand how the Chinese behave. A lot of research should be done before entering the market or else it come can be a very costly mistake.