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Published: January 29th 2011
Hotel reception sees me walk in. I ask for availability and she replies. “Yes but you are not allowed to bring any women into your room.” I throw my hands in the air, look disgusted and say “What!...” shack my head, pause to wait for her reaction. Hejab wearing lady is like ‘well that’s the rules’ type expression. I smile and say, “Only joking.”
But this is the major problem with accommodation in Djibouti its not that one of the cheapest places is $35. But even after charging me this extortionate rate they have the audacity to not give me the freedom of choice on bringing a prostitute back to my room. How outrageous! No wonder this country doesn’t receive much tourism dollars!!
I’m actually trying to make myself not sound like a tightarse by complaining about lack of freedom of choice. (What about the ladies opinion of single white males!) Apart from many people not knowing that this country actually exists. Djibouti is an expensive country for the backpacking tourist. There are some worthwhile sites to see but with the lack of tourists its either expensive to do it or you have to rely on luck and you
can join a tour.
With this lack of tourists the tours usually only run when a group from the army or navy book and then you can join them. Djibouti doesn’t have many assets so there survival is through providing their land to western countries for military purposes. This means that there is a strong American presence in the area.
One of the major things to do is to go out to Bay of Ghoubbet (a bay off the Gulf of Tadjoura) and swim with whale sharks (Oct-Jan). And Djibouti is one of the best places in the world to swim with them.
Because of the uncertainty of when boats will depart. I dumped my bags when I first arrived and walked around town asking every company whether they had a departure soon. At 730pm and after 2 hours of trying I found a place. Dolphin Discovery had one leaving the next morning.
I spoke to the manager and he said that roughly 90% of his business is from the army base. 15 US Navy join me on a large boat and we sail for 1 ½ hours along the Gulf of Tadjoura to the bay.
I regretted not seeing them in Tofo Mozambique months ago but Djibouti of all places gave me the chance to redeem myself.
Surprisingly it was cloudy for most of my stay in Djibouti. Due to the clouds the water wasn’t that exciting a colour. The coast was a bit unforgiving with undulating hills of a black and dry look. Tiny pockets of golden beaches would pop up ever now and then that would be only accessible by boat.
Over these hills at the end of the bay is Lac Asaal the lowest point of Africa. The boat used is quite large and could easily fit 30 people and then some. We anchor and set off in 2 groups. One group first for an hour and a half followed by my group once they returned. This is just one of Djibouti’s advantages. The last time I saw whale sharks in the Philippines it was more than one boat and about 30 odd people swimming with the whale shark. Here it was a group of 10 than 9.
Whilst waiting the snorkelling was quite good. There was however crabs everywhere swimming way off shore. I’d never seen them
so far from a rock before. It was fascinating seeing them panic in a ferocious swim with their legs.
When it was our turn we jumped into the smaller boat and went 1km up the end of the bay and scouted for whale sharks. The world’s biggest fish, they come up barely with a little fin visible. It didn’t take long for us to jump into the water and start swimming with them.
They seemed around the 10-12m mark so smaller than what I saw in the Philippines but more on mass. Because they were swimming just 15m from the shore they were limited in their swimming area. And when they chose to swim away they’d move further out where it was deeper. It didn’t really matter because when you turned around. There was another one with its wide-open mouth and miniscule beady eyes.
Because of this small distance between the shore and the whale shark, swimming time with one whale shark was not really long. Just one fish after the other. The longest I swam with one was with a baby whale shark about 6-8m. It was a bit rough so the snorkel did get filled
with water when swimming. In fact you swallow so much that salt was not provided for lunch because its not needed.
The added bonus during the whale shark swim was the crabs trying to grab the attention. Glimpses of orange were like the sea is throwing obstacles in the way of your superb views as you breeze past trying to keep up with the whale shark. Your imagination gets the best of you sometimes. Oh my God a crab is on my shoulder!
After lunch, which is provided (an unusual African inclusion,) it was a 90-minute rough ride back to the city. Djibouti’s main site the salt lake of Lac Assal is similar to whale sharks it only goes when a group is going or you pay for a vehicle yourself. So due to expense I didn’t go.
Instead I spent a bit of time in the capital and went diving. Djibouti was the last mainland country to gain independence from France in 1977. So French is still spoken, you can get baguettes and everything in town is expensive. The capital has two major quarters. European, which is slightly cleaner and better kept than the African quarter.
The locals must find it hard, research suggested 50% of the country is unemployed and relied on foreign aid still. Also 40% of family’s expenditure is devoted to producing qat. That stimulant plant that is so common in this area.
All locals say how expensive it is here. They get about 6 hours of power cuts during the summer days. Everything is imported, they have very few exports. The country has benefitted from the Eritrean-Ethiopian war. Due to Ethiopia now being landlocked they do most of their trade here. 80% of GDP is through the Djibouti ports to and from Ethiopia.
The current President has been in for almost 10 years. And they are changing the rules so the President can continue. They have elections but there are no real contenders. I asked a couple of times about what happens if Somaliland get independence and Ethiopia decide to do more business with them. They didn’t seem worried saying that pirates don’t go near Djibouti.
This was one of the happier countries in Africa for me. They were able to take a joke and make a joke. Maybe that is because they have continued the siesta theme.
Diving or De Plounge (The French way sounds so much more exciting!) is out near Moucha Island and I decided to go with Lagon Bleu. They are associated with the most expensive hotel, the Kempenski. Diving is relatively cheap at $40 a dive. I walk through this other world of the hotel reception and social area. Compared to the dirty streets (most parts). This day didn’t feel like Djibouti at all.
The island is about 30 minutes boat ride, which again can get rough. Instead of American soldiers, this trip sees Djibouti’s other tourist French families. Lagon Bleu offer a day time stay, overnight packages or the tightarse way to do it is to act poor and go for one dive and get all three experiences for the price of one dive!! See Kempenski charge a fee to use their facilities too. That’s about $15. The island trip is about $50.
My intention was to dive the wreck sites but they were out under the rough sea so I did a reef dive, which was okay. 7m visibility no real standouts accept these old wheelbarrows lying at the bottom not yet liked by fish. My mouthpiece on
the regulator sounded like I was snoring with every breath, which got annoying.
Sun came out after I finished my dive and that enabled me to catch some rays and try and build a tan. In Africa, so far I have followed the cold weather so I seem to be always wearing a jacket so despite the clouds most of the time it has at last been hot.
The dive company did inform that they charge 5000 for lunch that’s $27 and they don’t have a boat to take me back so I have to stay and the rules are if you stay during lunch you have to buy. So perhaps in the future I would just come in the afternoon. I cried poor and eventually through luck I was able to board a boat that was heading back to the mainland.
They drop you off at the pickup point at Kempinki jetty and I thought well what the heck I might as well spend a bit of time here. So I lazed about on the comfortable deck chairs used the amazing toilet facilities and headed back around 330pm. That was the posh Djibouti experience for $40
with a dive. Great day!
Another major problem Djibouti has is that its neighbours don’t help. It has Eritrea who’s President doesn’t like anyone. Somaliland which doesn’t have representation here and Ethiopia who don’t provide VISA’s at embassies anymore. Instead to get out of here and continue my African trip I had to fork out an even more extortionate $310 to fly 90 minutes to Addis Ababa to catch New Years. Djibouti was thought of but with its Muslim background and in majority of cases it’s a dry country I felt it better fitting to enjoy New Years in a more tourist friendly area.
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Maisondubonheur
Pierre-Alexandre
Souvenirs
Hi, I was there last year, I did the opposite, staying 3 nights on Moucha and one night in town. Was indeed an experience! I had Moucha for myself most of the time once the day trippers had left...the most impressive may have been the constant low level flying of military helicopters and aircraft...better than any national day show!