First week in Djibouti

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I've checked through the travelblog and found out that there was only one entry for this tiny country at the north-east of Africa. Well I thought nobody will choose this country as a travel destination - people rather choose Ethiopia perhaps.......but I have still decided to start my work here in Djibouti. For the next 20 months I'll be staying in this country.........God knows how long I can stay put......

The journey from Malaysia to Djibouti not so pleasant - 7am Malaysia time departing from Kuala Lumpur and reaching Djibouti at 2am Malaysia Time - a total of 19hours including transits at Dubai and Sana'a Yemmen, and a stopover at Bahrain. It was raining cats and dogs when I have reached Djibouti at 9pm local time. I've heard that it seldom happens....perhaps I've brought the rain.

Nothing much special about this country....it's like a normal third world developing country (as my colleague told me so) - at least Im sure it's developing coz' I can see many construction work carried out around. Crazy drivers are all around the street, where people have to pay 100% attnetion since stepping out from the house coz it's very easy to get hit by a car here.

Surprisingly some crazy drivers are French too.....yeah, French is like everywhere....people here speak French and most of the billboards are in French. There is a French military base here nearby the sea....I wont say it's a beach coz I saw no sandy beach or coconut trees. During Thursday night (yeah the people here rest on Friday) the streets, especially the pubs and red light district will be full of French (at least all the white people here are assumed as French). At daytime it is very often to see French children cycling around, French ladies walking around with ther dogs. ...I also heard there is a US army camp here but never met any of them.

While the French people here are living on a luxurious life, the local are so poor where there are people living on the street and water/electricty supply is insufficient. The whole city is like the 50's Kota Bharu city (capital of Kelantan, West /Malaysia) where all the buildings are like 3-4 storeys height. Besides the local Djiboutians, there are also refugees from Somlia and Ethiopia. So it's a multi-language society here as well.

Perhaps I should take and post some pictures here after I explore more about this country. I've heard there is a site where the movie 'Planet of The Alpes' was shooting and the local music is great too. Perhaps I could discover more great thing about Djibouti in the coming months.

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Photos

Duty Free Shops
Dubai International Airport is just like any other country's, lots of branded duty free shops......

Mc Donalds!
The most familiar name in the airport!!!!

Comments

[kiat hoe]

Take care
Great to hear from you. And it is nice to read your story and experience in Djibouti, the strange country for most of us in Malaysia. Hope you enjoy your work and travel there. Hope to hear more from you also. This would be a great experience for you. Ya, is there has a very big different in temperature of weather in day time and night time? Take care oh..

[katie f]

awesome
hey i am doin a project on Djibouti and i was wondering if u could tell me about the cultral borrowing and maybe the religious beliefs and anythinh else impacting the cultre sry bout all this but i think that it is sooooo kool that u r in this small country that most people dont even think of..... i will be commenting ur group alot more but is it really true that the french is every where