Disclaimer: I am writing this from memory, its been almost three years (June 2003). I am also leaving out most of the political commentery being that it came from a offical source. After trying many diffrent travel agents, we finaly found one that could book us tickets on Ertrian Airlines that claimd to be fliying direct into Asmara from Milan. We landed in Milan on a Monday morning, we checked the place out and checked into a nice four star hotel that I found on hotels.com for 25% of thier walk up price. After spending a little over a day in [View Full Entry]

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I wonder if this naming-the-beer-after-the-city malarkey would catch on at home? - "I'll have three bottles of Glasgow please" - perhaps not but it certainly makes life easier for thirsty travellers like us; we've got enough to contend with, like tackling extortionate airport taxi cartels and getting our paws on dollars in a bankrupt country without a single ATM..... Asmara, formerly known as Piccola Roma (Little Rome), is essentially a result of Mussolini's grand plan to create a second Roman Empire in Africa.....but WWII scuppered that. The city is known for its diverse architectural styles, manifested in buildings such as the [View Full Entry]

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3:30am. A petrol station in Assab. The daily bus to Asmara is about to leave. Our entire room, sheets, mattress, etc reeked of (someone else's) sweaty penis, but I still wish I could have slept a couple more hours. We're facing a 1 ½ day journey up the Red Sea coast in August -- following the Danakil Depression, one of the hottest places in the world - until we reach the cool highlands' spring weather. It's pitch dark, but we're already sweating profusely in the absence of even the slightest breeze. Trying to lug my sack onto the bus, and simultaneously [View Full Entry]

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