ጣና ሐይቅ እና ገዳማቱ Lake Tanna and the Monastries

After visiting the city of Bahir dar, I went to Ethiopia Hotel and hired a boat so I can visits the monasteries on lake Tanna. When you travel alone its always good to visit the nearest tourist center and ask for information how you can hire a boat or any other thing you may require. For instance at that time I went to Ethiopia hotel and the guys will arrange a boat for individuals or for a group of four, so it will some how minimize your expense when you share and hire a boat.

We visited four of the monasteries. It took us half of the day to visits only the four monasteries.

• Debre Maryam
• Daga Estefanos
• Narga Selassie
• Tana Cherkos
• Kebran Gabriel
• Ura Kidane Mehret 
• Bete Maryam 
• Azuwa Maryam 

You will be really amazed by the calmness and the wonders you will experience when you travel and see this blessed land. Have a great time till we meet at Tisa Abay

ባህር ዳር, Bahir Dar Ethiopia

My visit at Bahir Dar was quite nice. Its mostly advice to travel by consenting any tour guide book, templates or even to browse and plan your days for the visit of your stay.  So went to the tourism office and collected the tourist sites in and around the city.

Bahir Dar (Amharic: ባሕር ዳር, Baḥər Dar, "sea shore") is the former capital of Gojjam province and the current capital of the Amhara Regional State. Administratively, Bahir Dar is a Special Zone. Bahir Dar is one of the leading tourist destinations in Ethiopia, with a variety of attractions in the nearby Lake Tana and Blue Nile river. The city is known for its wide avenues lined with palm trees and a variety of colorful flowers. In 2002 it was awarded the UNESCO Cities for Peace Prize for addressing the 
challenges of rapid urbanization.

Originally the settlement was called Bahir Giyorgis. In the 19th century, Bahir Dar was visited by Belgian, French, British and Italian travelers, who described it alternatively as a village or a town. The Italian traveller Mario Alamanni (1891) estimated its population between 1,200 and 1,600.

After I booked my hotel I started my visit by moving around the city, had my coffe at 'wede buna' then I went to Semaetat hawelt ' liberty monument' I had the chance to see the museum as well, then I head to His Majesty's Palace. From there you will see the epic view of Abay and Tana one over the other.I called it a day and went to my hotel. The next morning I went to Ethiopian Hotel and hired a boat to visit the islands. 

The city is quite clean and full indigenous trees across the streets. Later at night I went to a local bar and had an amazing time with the locals. They were having quite a time and they were willing for me to join them. So they were talking about life in general and just to describe them to you, One of the guy is Ginbegna, the other two are Anati' Carpenters, so the wife of the Carpenter called and he have bought meat for their dinner but couldn't join her earlier Because he is having his honey wine, so he answered his phone and begged  her to wait for him about 30 minutes. The way he was talking to her was humble enough nd he even stood from his sit. I really enjoined  their company.

Thank you for your time, as usual you can comment like or share the page if you found it helpful
Good day!

Awra Amba Community, Ethiopia

So after my visit at Gondo I went to see Awramba community, where the men do the actual house hold routines like cleaning the house, preparing food and so on, while the women take care of the other routines for the day. I this community

Awra Amba is an Ethiopian intentional community of about 463 people, located 73 kilometres east of Bahir Dar in the Fogera woreda of Debub Gondar Zone. It was founded in 1980 with the goal of solving socio-economic problems through helping one another in an environment of egalitarianism — in marked contrast to the traditional norms of Amhara society. The name means "Top of the Hill" in Amharic.

Founded by Zumra Nuru, who currently serves as co-chairman of the community, with 19 other people who shared his vision, as of 2016 Awra Amba has some 450 members, and is lauded as a model to alleviate poverty and promote gender equality in a country where women are generally subservient to men.

individual rooms for the elderly

Work shop

Zumera

Zumra's Wife

cafe

 The village is unique not only for its attitudes toward gender, religion, and education, but for the social security it provides its members in need. There are formal committees to provide services which include: education, to receive guests, to take care of patients, the elderly and children, and community health. They have established a literacy campaign for adults, a library, and a preschool. Despite living in a culture which practice early marriage, the people of Awra Amba have decided girls should marry only after reaching the age of 18, and boys at or above 22.

I meet Zumera and we had a small chat about his community and his vision. When any guest arrives one mentor is given to him, luckily for my my guide was his wife. She took me through out the compound and explained to me about their culture work routine, how they take care of the elderly and all other rules and regulations every individual should follow while living in the community.

It was quite an amazing experience to wittiness the role of men and women in this community, while living in a country where all things are monopolized by men and gender roles are so masculine.

They have a gift shop as well where they sell hand woven scarf, bed sheet, and cultural out fits.

you can like comment and share it if you found it help full.
I will meet you in Bahir Dar on my next Stop.

ጎንደር Gondor, Ethiopia

My first visit to Gondor was December 2011, It was quite an adventures tour I had at the time.

Gondor is a fictional kingdom in J. R. R. Tolkien's writings, described as the greatest realm of Men in the west of Middle-earth by the end of the Third Age. The third volume of The Lord of the Rings, The Return of the King, is largely concerned with the events in Gondor during the War of the Ring and with the restoration of the realm afterward. The history of the kingdom is outlined in the appendices of the book.

Timikete Bahir

Abbay Dildiy

Fasiledes

Lion Cage

Snake view from Goha Hotel

Based upon early conceptions, the history and geography of Gondor were developed in stages as a part of the major extension of Tolkien's legendarium that he undertook during the writing of The Lord of the Rings. The role of the kingdom emerged gradually, when a side adventure in the plot became the focus of later writings. The textual history was traced by Christopher Tolkien in The History of Middle-earth, and the subject has gained attention from later researchers and fans.

My colleges and I traveled to  Gondor using a double cabin pick up, we traveled across Abay "Dildiy"
which at the time was new (Abay Bridge). Then our destination was to Debark, a town about 65 km away from Gondor, after we arrived and spent a night in the small city of Debark, my colleges had to travel about 70 Kms by foot for surveying and taking coordinates to sketch the site map for the road of Debark to Keraker. I traveled back to Gondor the next morning and started my visit from the center of the city, around Post office.

Then I collected the site map from the tourism center of Gondor and planed my days consulting the Guide map.I was such a spectacular moment I had while visiting Fasiledes. While I was in the compound I was just picturing all the horses, Lions, the community, and all the interactions they had back in time! If your really find time to visit please make sure to site in one of the corners and memorize all the things the tour guides told you about, then you will find your self in the early days walking in the compound with all the interactions from the early days!

After Fasiledes you will pass by the JanTekel tree, legend has it that the tree was planted by his Majesty Ras Teferi Mekonnen. Then I went to Goha Hotel at the tip of a mountain, you will see the whole Gondor from the top of the mountain.

I went to visit the Felasha village, and all corners of city Of Gondor. It was such a great experience I had with the people and all the great things nature had provided. After completing my visits at Gondor I traveled to Zumra, I will see u there on my next post.

Have a great time
[Djibouti , 1242]

Djibouti[Gurigeyga labaad,Ma deuxième maison,بيتي الثاني]

[@Red Sea]

Djibouti, 

My Second Home

I came to see Djibouti in August 2009 G.C and it was quite an experience. I traveled from Addis Ababa to Djibouti buy bus. We traveled through Nazareth, Dire Dawa, Awash, and we spent the night Logiya, we hit the road at 0400 am in the morning and passed through Millee, and we arrived at the boarder of Ethi _Djibouti at Ghallafii and after we cleared our papers at the custom office at Ghallafi we got in to the city of Djibouti.It took us two days to reach.

Djibouti French: Djibouti, Somali: Jabuuti, officially the Republic of Djibouti, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is bordered by Eritrea in the north, Ethiopia in the west and south, and Somalia in the southeast. The remainder of the border is formed by the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden at the east. Djibouti occupies a total area of 23,200 km²  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Djibouti

The city has quite an amazing sites and places to visit. Normally we as Ethiopians, don’t have the culture of visiting our nearby neighbors and see for ourselves that there are lots of things we can explore in our own.Mostly you will hear Somali, Afar and French languages. There are also Indians, Yemenis as a business men in town. 

Lac Assal

Lac Abbe

Tadjourah

So as I said there is a lot we should learn and explore. Mother nature is really amazing, Djibouti have the best types of fishes at the Red sea. You will be surprised to see the flow of the fishes, (Trigger fish, Seer fish, Tuna fish,Grouper fish, Barracuda fish, Snapper fish are the major ones) when we are at sea. Just to give you the heads up Barracuda fish is the best.I really wonder how to use this natural resources in friendly manner to the ecosystem. As to my understanding the Chinese have started a small fishing farm at the rear of the red see. 

Here are some pictures to give you the depth insight of the city

There is St Gabreal and St Mary Church, Minilik Hotel, Buna House, Various Ethiopian Restaurants, Ethiopian Community restaurant its as if you are near Dire Dawa

Shawarma Local Cousine

Inside Djibouti Port with Naval Oficers

Force member from Japan

Kampnski Holea Djibouti

Coffe House down town Djibouti

Beach view Aeron

Minilik Hotel, Djibouti

So please drop your comments and questions on the drop box below and  you can change to any of the language you prefer and read. I hope it will give you heads up on the City Of Djibouti. You can share it if you found it to be useful. You can contact me through my email if you like to.Thank you for your time. Have a great time.

Jimma, Oromia, Ethiopia [ጅማ አባ ጅፋር]

 [@ Djibouti Port]

Jimma is one of the zones of the Ethiopian Region of Oromia. Jimma is named for the former Kingdom of Jimma, which was absorbed into the former province of Kaffa in 1932. Jimma is bordered on the south by the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Region, the northwest by Illubabor, on the north by Misraq Welega, and on the northeast by Mirab Shewa; part of the boundary with Misraq Shewa is defined by the Gibe River. The highest point in this zone is Mount Maigudo (2,386 m). Towns and cities in Jimma include Agaro, Genet and Saqqa [Reference : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimma_Zone]

Abba Jifar Palace June 2011

Picture taken from Jimma Museum

Moti Abba Jifar II was King of the Gibe Kingdom of Jimma (1878–1932)

Abba Jifar II a member of the Oromo people, the son of Abba Gomol and Queen Gumiti. He had several wives: Queen Limmiti, who was the daughter of the King of Limmu-Ennarea; Queen Minjo, the daughter of the King of Kaffa; and Queen Sapertiti, also from Limmu-Ennarea

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abba_Jifar_II]

        Mostly I plan my visits so it could be economical and today I will share how I manage to go to different places with least cost possible. As I said previously my objective is to inspire those of you who think that money is a barrier to travel. Of course you need money to travel but you can travel if you save for a year or two depending on your income. The only problem we have is that we don’t have the culture of planning at all. Hence, when you want to do anything its seems impossible. So please just  try a little and you will see what you can do, how about you do some reading about the area you leave  in and  things to do or see in the vicinity? Believe me there is a lot we don’t know about the things to do in the city you leave.

I like meeting people and maintain contact with all my friends, colleagues and any one I met along. So while checking on friends or colleagues I will get the information that some of them have traveled out of Addis for work or for business so I will ask if they are going to stay for a while, whether they are going back to the place again, then I will do my research on the exact place they said they have traveled or moved and squeeze my plan towards them. Hence I planned my trip for June 2011 G.C.

My trip to Jimma is a good example of for the point I mentioned above. A good friend of mine joined Jimma University as an instructor, as I told you I mostly keep on checking on friends and if there is anything new. So one day I called him we talked and I learnt that he was on semester break.  So I bought my ‘Salam Bus’ Ticket  and I went to Jimma.

Gibe bereha'[ጊቤ በረሃ] June 2011

I had an amazing view starting from the morning sunrise as the bus leaves Addis Ababa; we stopped by at welkite for branch. After couple of hours we headed in to the ‘Gibe bereha’ after we passed several villages and cities we arrived at Jimma safe and sound.

June 2011

City view from Abba Jifar Palace [Yifru]

Jimma Cinema

I met my friend and we walked around for a while and we had our dinner then we called it a day. The next morning after we had our breakfast we went to piazza, there is this famous café at the corner and their macchiato is a killer! So we had this amazing macchiato then we head to the museum which is about 10 min walk from the café.  We leant that some of the souvenir and equipments of the Aba Jifar have been moved from the Palace to the museum for convinces. And there are also souvenir and cultural equipments’ which describe the cultural heritages of the region in general. In the afternoon we stopped by the cinema hall and we visited the Jimma University as well.

City Square

Jimma museum 

 The next morning we went to one of the restaurant around the campus and ordered some food to go. After we carried our food and water we started walking to the great palace of Aba Jifar, which is about 5 Km from the gate of Juma University. We walked through the villages around and feeling the fresh breeze. After we visited the compound and the palace of Abba Jifar we took our lunch, we sat for a while wondering the view and the calmness of the area. Finally we started walking back to the university.

Wooden case used to carry clothes
 kept in the Palace[June 2011]

Bed of Abba Jifar found in the Palace
kept in the palace[June 2011]

It was quite a great time I had on my stay at Jimma. Centeral Hotel,’ ዝናሽ ጠጅ ቤት’ are quite a nice place I saw on my stay.   One of  the things  I love most about traveling is that you get to see and interact with the people leaving there, and they will show you places to see, eat , and go to as an outsider to their town and if you are wise enough you will get very useful information by going to the places they like most. Eat with them, drink and play with them then you will learn a lot. It’s not how fancy they are or not but when you give credit to them, and to the things they do, they will feel at ease and tell you many things before you even ask them.

Thank you for your time. I hope you had some insight, please send me your feed back, comment or any question and share it if you find it helpful.