Tis Abay and a burning Hotel...

Tis Abay, literally translated as 'Smoke of the Nile' is wildly known as the Blue Nile Falls, and as previously mentioned is promoted as one of the not to be missed highlights of Bahir Dar.

Having lived in the country of the Nile for 11months, cruised down the Nile, sailed on the Nile while watching the splendors of sunset over Cairo, seen the Nile empty itself into the Mediterranean in Rosetta, and yesterday seen its source, I was pretty excited to see what other splendors this fascinating river full of history and culture has to offer.

On Sunday... I woke up early, had a nice macchiato with the manager, booked my trip to Tis Abay for that afternoon and headed off to explore the streets of Bahir Dar.

I tried heading off to the Wyeto Village where they make the tankwa boats (boats made out of papyrus), but as it was a Sunday, nobody was at work or at school and I thus got terribly harassed.

On the way to the little village...

I decided to walk by the lake and enjoy the scenery, but there were loads of people swimming and having a bath in the lake. I got followed, teased, stared at and what not. I decided not to give up and turned on to the main road, maybe that might be a little bit better, but it turned out not to..... people on their bicycles stopping and following me, cars hooting as they passed by and passing comments in a language I didn't understand..... It didn't turn out to be too pleasant and so I gave up on the village and headed back to the safety of the hotel.

Bahir Dar is quite well known for the pestering of tourists, its also well known for children throwing stones at tourists, but thank God this didn't happen to me.

After a nice lunch of Injera and Shiro and a beer with some other people I met in the hotel, a group of English, a German Couple, a Spanish Couple, a Norwegian and me headed off to the famous Blue Nile Falls. We drove for about an hour, which passed quickly due to the amazing scenery on the way.... the road was not in the best condition so it also turned out to be quite a bumpy ride which made it impossible for anyone to sleep.....

Walking up to the Blue Nile Falls

When we finally got there, we walked up and down the hills until we finally go to the famous falls. One must know that a couple of years ago, the Ethiopians built a hydraulic dam next to the falls, and thus this decreases the amount of water the falls emits. Nevertheless it was a Sunday and dam was open, but the falls were still quite a disappointment. Not so much water and it seems as though the pictures in books and posters are not from the same falls. Nevertheless the view was still beautiful, and apart from the pestering of the little children and people trying to sell you stuff and asking you for money, the walk up to the sight is also one not to be missed.

The infamous Blue Nile Falls

You pass by little villages, children playing a little flute like instrument and women weaving beautifully colored scarfs.... well I call them scarfs, but they are actually used by the women as belts, and I could actually use them for anything I deem fit!!!

Monday was a totally relaxing day..... I somehow didn't manage to sleep as long as I would have liked to..... and having seen all I needed to see in Bahir Dar I decided that I would take it easy..... and take a nice stroll in the city..... go to the Market again ( and bargain my way through some of those beautifully colour scarfs with my little Amharic knowledge)..... and last but not least try a final attempt at seeing Hippos.

So once again I pulled on my walking boots and headed off to the Nile Bridge, where it is said that Hippos lie........

I walked and walked (for about an hour), got stared at again, got followed (not as much as the day before though as most of the people where at school and work) and got insulted.

Woman weaving the cotton for the scarves

A teenage boy followed me while I looked for the Debre Maryam Monastery ( which is not on the main road and pretty much in the middle of nowhere) when I nicely told me to go away and leave me alone, he insisted that he wanted to be with me and take me to the church. I once again (trying to be as polite as possible) told me that I'm on holiday and I want to be left alone and enjoy the peaceful scenery..... he then very calmly and nicely told me 'Miss I think you have a problem..... you have an anger management problem.... and I will help you solve it'...... this is where I flipped and probably proved him right about the anger management problem!!!

Anyway, I somehow got to the bridge, but alas no Hippos, so pretty disappointed I headed off for a nice cold papaya juice (my new craze since I've discovered the papaya fruit here in Ethiopia) by the lake and dug into my nice book for the rest of the afternoon.....

view from my hotel... breathtaking

The rest of the day was pretty chilled out, until our hotel decided to catch fire. All of a sudden a man comes running up to me:

Agitated Man ' Miss miss, is your room over there'
Thea calmly ' No it back there by the lake, why?'
Man became calm and sat 'Ah ok, cause the hotel is on fire'

This is where I jumped off my seat and ran to the sight of the kitchen catching fire, fire coming out from the chimney and fireman agitatedly trying to put it out by putting the water hose down the chimney.... although it was pretty serious it was quite a funny sight!!!!

my hotel on fire!!!

Once again I enjoyed a nice dinner with a retired Australian geography teacher who's hobby is walking in Europe and who has been practically all over the world, and a Norwegian Dentist who has also been traveling quite a lot all over the world. Both are also traveling around Ethiopia alone.

Once again we chatted about life, about countries we have been to, and after talking to them I actually realized that I haven't seen anything at all in this world!!! There is still sooooooooooo much to do and see.... they also gave me hints and tips about Pakistan, Nepal and India, which hopefully would be my next travel destinations within the next year or two.