General: Ethiopia

Ethiopia is one of Africa's most fascinating countries to visit. The tourist posters for Ethiopia often use the slogan, "Ethiopia: Thirteen Months of Sunshine". How does Ethiopia get that extra month of sunshine each year? It's easy! They still use an ancient calendar in Ethiopia which requires an extra "short month" each year to synchronize with the actual solar cycle. So, the western (foreigner's) calendar is ahead of the Ethiopian ...
...residual Y2K problems go to Ethiopia. According to the Ethiopian calendar we are just beginning the year 1997). Ethiopia has more than just an interesting calendar; in the north of Ethiopia-between the towns of Axum and Mekele are 20 very ancient Christian churches (about 120 in the entire region) carved out of solid mountains of granite. Axum is said to the be the actual resting place of the ancient Ark of the Covenant of Old Testament fame.
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Ethiopia is one of Africa's most fascinating countries to visit. The tourist posters for Ethiopia often use the slogan, "Ethiopia: Thirteen Months of Sunshine". How does Ethiopia get that extra month of sunshine each year? It's easy! They still use an ancient calendar in Ethiopia which requires an extra "short month" each year to synchronize with the actual solar cycle. So, the western (foreigner's) calendar is ahead of the Ethiopian calendar by 8 years. (If you want to avoid any residual Y2K problems go to Ethiopia. According to the Ethiopian calendar we are just beginning the year 1997). Ethiopia has more than just an interesting calendar; in the north of Ethiopia-between the towns of Axum and Mekele are 20 very ancient Christian churches (about 120 in the entire region) carved out of solid mountains of granite. Axum is said to the be the actual resting place of the ancient Ark of the Covenant of Old Testament fame.

Not only does Ethiopia have an unusual calendar with 13 months instead of the usual 12, rock hewn churches, the Blue Nile, the Ark of the Covenant, and wonderful local food, they also are home to Africa's oldest airline: Ethiopian Airlines. Based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopian Airlines serves 43 destinations, mainly in Africa, but as diverse off the continent as Hong Kong, Frankfurt, and New York. Many other destinations are served by code-share agreements with other airlines.

The Hub: Addis Ababa:

The hub for Ethiopian Airlines is the Bole airport at Addis Ababa. This is, for sub-Sahara Africa, one of the most modern and well equipped airports on the continent. It is larger and better organized than any other airport that I know of on the continent outside of Johannesburg, or, possibly Cairo. The airport terminal is a nice, modern building with an immense "tinker-toy" inside structure. If you enter the airport from Addis, your taxi will stop in the car park near a huge queue of luggage trolleys. The wheels on the luggage trolleys are flattened on one side-due to their being dragged with the brake on-so, choose your cart carefully or you will get one that will shake your luggage off the trolley. . (This only true of SOME carts). Crossing the driveway you will encounter a booth with policemen checking your ticket and passport before allowing you to continue up the walkway to the main terminal building. Be sure and arrive at the Addis Ababa airport very early, because there is an intense security screening at this airport at several points before you board the airplane. Entering the main terminal building you will immediately have to queue for the baggage x-ray screening and metal detector. Once through that screening you need to proceed directly ahead-about 50 meters-to the check-in counters. Generally, you can go to any counter to check in, and there are airline personnel to keep the queues orderly and moving. Those airline workers assisting the queue are very good to assist you with the check-in procedures and will answer your questions.

Following check in, go directly to your rear towards a wall with eight windows. Two of those windows have a sign overhead saying "Passenger Servic Charge" and those are the airport tax windows. You will need to pay your airport departure tax at that window, and receive a special stamp on the back of your ticket receipt to show at the next stop in the airline check-in ritual of Addis. The airport departure tax is US$20 if you are leaving on an international flight, and 10 birr if you are flying a domestic route. Leaving the cash office, you head directly ahead and to your left to enter the passport control area. On entering this area you will find a security guard who checks your boarding pass for the departure tax stamp and, sometimes, asks you to weigh your cabin luggage.

From passport control you enter through a doorway to find stairs and escalator going up to the main gate area of the airport. The stairs take you to the area of the information booth and gate four. There are several T.V. monitors showing flights and gates for departures.

If you arrive on an Ethiopian flight and are transferring to another on-going flight, you ignore the baggage claim and passport control signs and look for the transfer door. (A bazillion travelers a day transit Addis Ababa...and, all of them go through a single three foot doorway-one of the only examples of poor planning in this bright and airy modern building). That door is normally crowded with dozens of people jamming around in a kind of scrum attempting to get through the metal detector. Often there are airline personnel, airport security, and Ethiopian federal police who do attempt to organize the scrum into a queue, but be aware that you will be traveling with many North Africans for whom a queue is only for the lowly "other" people and certainly not anything they need to cooperate with. They will happily push you-and, I mean HARD enough to knock you to the ground-to get you out of the way. Once through the metal detector scrum you join a queue at the transfer desk. If you already have your boarding pass for the next flight-lucky you! You can skip the confusion that reigns at the transfer desk and go directly to the gate and duty free area up the escalators just behind the transfer desk. Otherwise you can join the hundred or so other poor souls all trying to get a boarding pass for their next flight. The terminal is well equipped with a number of video displays informing you of flight departures and gate information. The video display will be in Amharic characters at first, and then refresh into English language. (Amharic, the official language of Ethiopia, is a Semitic language with an "alphabet" of some 800 characters and is read from left to right).

In the combination gate and duty free area are a large number of shops and two or three snack bar--restaurants. If you have a long lay-over, Ethiopian Airlines will provide a generous meal. You will find the lay-over meals served cafeteria style in a large dinning room in the second row of duty free shops on the end of the terminal not far from gate 5A. Usually, the meal is pretty much the same: Huge portions of steamed cabbage and other steamed vegetables, huge pieces of mutton, beef, pasta-several varieties-along with salads, dessert, fruit and several kinds of soft drinks. You can't possibly carry it all back to the table with you.

If you are unfortunate enough to fail to qualify for the Ethiopian Airlines free meal deal, then try the London Restaurant on one end of the duty free area almost directly across from gate 3. They have the best food at the airport-other than the airline free meal-and, you will find some very lovely young Ethiopian ladies there serving the tables. I have found these ladies invariably pleasant and careful as they serve a sometimes less than pleasant traveling public. For a small extra charge they will conduct the traditional Ethiopian coffee ceremony ritual in a small decorated area of the restaurant. This is an experience you should not miss.

Unless you like wasting large amounts of money, I would skip the internet café. The per-minute charge is higher than most places I visit, while the connection speed makes up for that by running with all the grim determination and efficiency of a 1953 Studebaker. (I had the feeling that I was attempting to suck concrete up through a straw...it was THAT slow). The last time I tried the internet café, the system took 25 minutes to open the sign-in page on Hotmail. I gave up on actually sending a message because I was due to fly out in only three more hours...certainly not enough time to compose and send an e-mail on that system.

Flying into Addis I have made an interesting discovery. If I get my visa in advance at the Ethiopian Embassy in Kampala, I have to pay US$70 for the visa. If I wait to get my visa on arrival at the airport, I only have to pay US$20! PLUS, getting through the visa line can SOMETIMES be quicker than going through the regular passport control. (This last trip passport control and the airport was JAMMED with people returning from the Haj and the faithful followers of Rastafarian Bob Marley by the thousands coming into Addis to mark the 60th "birthday" of Bob Marley-had he lived that long). I earn an extra US$50 for just standing in line. If you choose to get your visa at the airport, you will find the visa office on the left as you enter the passport control area. There are two windows, one marked "visa" and the other marked "cash". Enter the system at the "visa" window. You will need to have the entry card given to you on the airplane filled out and submit your passport as well. You work your way up in the queue, and finally reach the visa window. Hand your documents through the window, and after some time, the visa officer will direct you to the "cash" window where you again wait in yet another queue to pay for your visa. If you have lengthy lay-over, and care to go into Addis for a brief visit, there is an informal cost-free system in place. You go to the airline interline service counter (around the corner from the visa office) and produce your passport and boarding pass. They take your passport and give you a numbered "chip" and allow you to leave the airport temporarily. On reporting back to the airport go directly to the booth at passport control that is labeled "transfers" and retrieve your passport there. If you leave the airport under the informal system, according to the published rules at the airport, you are not required to pay the departure tax upon re-entry to the airport.

A Good Place To Stay

When I travel through Addis Ababa I almost always stay at the Queen Sheba Hotel. I've tried some other places, but I usually always come back to the Queen Sheba. The hotel is located on Haile Gebre Sellasie Street just opposite of the Bulgarian Embassy in the central part of Addis. At the airport they have an information desk, and when I arrive on an evening flight I usually find one of their touts vigorously soliciting customers just outside the customs area in the main airport. If you work with their airport tout the hotel will cover the taxi into town to the hotel ( 70 birr...or, about 9 dollars). Be very certain that you have a hotel reservation in Addis BEFORE you arrive in there is an AU meeting going on. I was once in N'Djamena Chad waiting for Ethiopian Airlines to fly into Addis...and, the airline bumped everyone who did not have a confirmed hotel reservation.

The hotel building itself is a rather plain looking five story affair that fronts directly on the street. The lobby is a bit small, and filled with locally made furniture-a rather nice lobby, actually. Every room at Queen Sheba Hotel is a suite, and that is one of the things that attracts me there. I have plenty of working space, and I can meet with my Addis Ababa contacts, too. The rooms each have a sitting room, bedroom, and toilet/bath. The toilet/bath is plain, but clean and nice. Sometimes you have to put up with the hot water heater intruding inside the shower...I always think of this as the "instant electrocution hot water shower"...but, still it isn't really a problem. Addis can be very cold at certain times of the year, and the Queen Sheba always includes a nice compliment of wool blankets on the bed to keep you warm at night. (Rooms: US$50-70 depending on business).

Food is available in the dinning room-accessed though the lobby and up a separate set of stairs to a mezzanine level. It is not expensive at all to eat very good european style (if you wish) food. The local Ethiopian cuisine is also available on the menu. The cost of meals is in a range of US$5 to US$7 per person.

Airline Equipment:

Ok, here are the details on Ethiopian Airline's equipment. Ethiopian flies a variety of mainly Boeing aircraft. For their long-range passenger services they use the venerable 767-300ER in a two class seating arrangement. (Business class is called "Cloud Nine"). These are used primarily on their Asian, European, and USA routes. I haven't any personal experience on these routes.

For continental Africa, Ethiopian flies the 757-200, 737-700, and the 737-200. I usually find the 757-200 on the routes going to West Africa, Egypt, and occasionally East Africa. Ethiopian Airlines has four of the 757-200's flying. The coach class on the 757 is in the three-by-three seating arrangement. The leg-room is very roomy. If you can manage to get a seat assignment for the exit rows, the leg room is almost like business class. The overhead bins are exactly like the ones on the 737-200, so they can be a bit cramped. On flights to N'Djamena, Dakar, and Bamako there is always a chronic lack of overhead bin space, because the airplane will be full of market traders returning from Dubai...with fully half of their load in various plastic bags which they like to jam into the bins. Be aware, they don't take lightly to you reorganizing the bins to make room for your carry-on items. The 757-200 has an in-flight entertainment system with video monitors through out the cabin. The cabin crew hands out the ear-phones at the start of the flight, and most of the seats have working ear-phone outlets. Once in a while the color on the video monitors can be bit off, but nothing too serious.

The meals served on Ethiopian are NOT Ethiopian cuisine! The meals are best described as standard European airline fare, but with generous portions. They also have the quaint habit of waking you up at 3 AM with your dinner-on an overnight flight-and, the flight attendant will sincerely insist that you MUST eat your meal. I have to admit that I am not in the habit of waking up at 3 AM to eat, so that service is a bit annoying at times. Coffee is an important part of Ethiopian life, so if you are a coffee lover you'll love Ethiopia. The love for coffee has even impacted that black, hot, largely unpalatable liquid served on most airlines. Ethiopian Airlines serves wonderful coffee; however, it might be a bit too strong for typical American tastes.

The seats on the 737-700's (Ethiopian has four of these aircraft) seem to be a bit more cramped than the 757, and still just a bit less legroom than on some USA airlines. The entertainment system on the 737-700's is very nice with LCD flat screens that fold down from overhead about every three rows. Entertainment on the Africa regional flights usually consists of informational videos about Ethiopia, the airline, and their frequent flier program called Sheba Miles. After the screening of these infomercial type videos, you can usually count on 30 minutes of either Fraser or Home Improvement. This will be followed by a wildlife show sponsored by Toyota and a Canadian version of "candid camera" called Just For Gags. On intercontinental flights they also screen a recent release full-length motion picture.

The aircraft interiors on all the aircraft are actually nicer than the typical airline interior I find in Europe or the USA. The 757's-especially-have very plush seating in economy class. The lavatories are kept spotlessly clean on Ethiopian Airlines. All of this is true of the 737-700's and the 757's. Ethiopian also has one aging and tired 737-200. I normally find this aircraft on some domestic routes (Addis Ababa to Mekele for example) and on some shorter African routes (Addis to Entebbe). This airplane once refused to fly two days in a row due to various mechanical problems and stranded me in Addis for two days-giving me the opportunity to sample one of Africa's finest luxury hotels at the expense of Ethiopian Airlines. I never have any fear about the maintenance ability of Ethiopian Airlines. They have a huge repair base in Addis Ababa and I see airliners from several different African airlines being worked on there. They also have their own fleet of Cessna aircraft for the in-house flight school which is based in Addis Ababa.

On domestic routes Ethiopian Airlines also flies the twin turbo prop Fokker 50-they have 5 of these aircraft. They also have 4 of the De Havilland Twin Otters for domestic flights. The Fokker F50 is a nice aircraft. The inside is tastefully decorated in a darker red...with yellow and green accents. The rows on each side of the aircraft are numbered differently because there are two extra rows on one side at the front of the cabin. The overhead bins are larger than I expected for a twin turbo-prop aircraft; very nice and capable of handling my generous sized combination brief case and computer bag. The overhead bins for rows 3/4/5 (or, rows 5/6/7 depending on what side of the aircraft you are seated in) are very tiny because the overhead wing intrudes into the cabin at that point. For residents, the cost of flying the domestic routes compares favorably with the cost of going by bus. There is a separate-and, more costly-fare schedule for non-resident foreigners. The cost of domestic flight doubles for the non-resident.

Like all airlines, Ethiopian does over book their flights. Unlike flying in the USA, where you may have a number of remedies for unfair treatment, those might not exist in Ethiopia. So, it doesn't do much good to get upset with the airline agents. The best approach, which has worked for me, is to be firm about my disappointment, and press for a positive resolution while maintaining a cool head and giving respect to the airline agent. On my last flight-at the end of Haj and with thousands of Rastafarian jamming the flights-my flight was hopelessly over booked. If that wasn't bad enough, there was a group of students from the University in Addis flying, and they had priority on any available seating. The airline agents flatly turned me away at the check-in desk. But, my "be firm but nice...and, joke around with them a bit" approach finessed me a seat on the flight. (The supervisor was the same person who got me a room at the Sheraton once...on another problem flight delay...and, he remembered me. Patience pays off!)

So, There You Have It . . .

Ehtiopia is a great place to visit. The history of this part of Africa is ancient, but, largely unknown to Westerners. Ethiopian Airlines is a good airline for travel in Africa. The aircraft are nice, and well maintained. But, for Ethiopian Airlines it is their people-the gate agents...the flight crews...the cabin crews that make Ethiopian Airlines worth flying.
 

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