Journey to Ethiopia

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An opportunity to make a business trip to the 2nd most populous nation in Africa was a bless for me. The trip to Addis Ababa, capital city of Ethiopia took abt 10hours from Kuala Lumpur with stop over in Dubai.

Arriving Addis, we were welcomed with friends whom had been waiting us outside terminal building since afternoon. The temperature was comfortable ranging between 19-24 C. Located at 2300m above sea level, Addis enjoying cooL weather all year round and because of the high altitude, I had short breath almost at all times? Probably due to lack of oxygen 😊

Ethiopia is also known as one of the oldest sites of human existence,and the site is well acknowledged by Muslim world as one of places which has close relation to expansion of islam througout the world. Habsyah, is the other name for Ethiopia known among muslim.

We were put up at Hilton Hotel in town, and since I was very tired of long trip from KL, the day gone while I was on the bed 😊. Day 2, we headed to Ogaden where our camp is located.Flying out of Bole International airport on a 6 seater AiroComander with only 1 pilot for 2.5hrs flight was scary but fun to me. There was again a new experience for me landing on STOL prepared by our contractor earlier before.

Unlike Addis, the temperature at Ogaden was very hot reaching 50 C during day time. It took another 4 hours for us to arrive at the camp due to poor road condition.

There is a small city called Gode,where mostly Somali people are living and doing their day to day activities. There are restaurant, shop, wet market etc. Life seemed to be very difficult with lack of facilities. You could see flies all over the market and for us it might by unhygienic but for them it is normal.

1 week in Ogaden, time for me to move to another location which is located about 1 hour flying by helicopter. There was nothing special about the place, so i would not write anything here.

My trip to Ethiopia was for 2 weeks long for some business purposes. The trip however, brought me to new and invaluable experience which might only come once in my life. The people, environment, language and culture open my eyes that there are people out there live in their own world, far apart from modern and high techologies.

Some info which i could share here:

Addis Ababa is Capital of Ethiopia. The currency is Birr. Weather is cool between 19-24 C all year round. Addis is well linked to Dubai, Bangkok, Beijing, London and etc by air and the Flag Carrier is known as Ethiopian Airlines (reputed as one of the best airlines in African Continent).

p/s: wait for my next trip reports to Mozambique, The Philipines,Cuba, Uzbekistan, South Korea and many more...

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Photos

Cruising over 20000ft
Lovely weather at cruising altitude...

Mandi - delicacy from Lebanon
One set of mandi may feed 4-5 persons.

Camel meat
Sources of protein