I want to go to Ethiopia next year. Should I book a tour, like

Oh and I don't think I'll be doing the Omo Valley, it seems like it's mostly just a human zoo kind of thing

>>1237850
I think you are sort of asking people who do not know you to evaluate whether Ethiopia falls inside your comfort range for solo travel. Not sure that is possible. Might work better if you give us some feel for your travel experience, I guess.

And I agree, avoid "Human Zoo" sit where possible. Unless you are into that I guess.

>>1237876
>next year. Should I book a tour, like a 15-16 days tour of the North with an Ethiopian company, and just do the travelling to and from the country by myself, or would it be fine to "backpack" the country and just book a couple of shorter tours to some of the more dangerous places, like the Danakil Depression?
>I'm really excited about seeing the country, and I know that it's possible to travel solo, so don't tell me that it's too much of a risk - I'd rather just like to hear from someone who has experience or maybe knows someone who has done it.
Why not just be quiet, and let OP get advice from someone who has been there...what he asked for initially. You don't have to reply to every thread, you know. It moves slowly here.

OP, most tourists do the exact same set of historic sights, which requires a lot of driving, and they're popular. So popular,so much so, that they call it the "historic circuit" and so it might actually be very cost effective for you to join a tour, but of course to do your real traveler cultural immersion, you will want some time without a tour. Students learn in English in their school days, so you will not have language issues in the cities and tourist sites, at least. As far as safety goes, christian country, don't even worry. But, being alone, after dark, being incapacitated when alone, and other common sense is just your paramount way of life when traveling anyway.

>>1237876
Well I was asking for experiences mainly because I want to know whether people found it boring/hostile/lonely/etc. I'm young and comfort levels aren't that important, I'm mostly worried about safety. What I was thinking was also whether I can walk around the capital safely, so that I won't get stuck in a hotel room while I'm there.

>>1237885
Yeah I know about the historic circuit. Did you go to on a tour? I've been looking at something like this one: http://agoboethiopiatour.com/16-days-north-ethiopia/

I thought about doing one or several shorter tours, as I stated in the OP, and at least I know that I'd really like to go to Harar as well, which is not included in the above tour, and neither is the Danakil Depression, which is also a must for me.

The knowledge of English must be a big plus, but I'm still not sure whether travelling between all of the destinations will be too much of a hassle, but on the other hand I'd also like to do some of it that way, going with a bus sounds like a cool experience.

What were your favourite places, did you like any lesser known places, etc? Just if you have any input, feel free to share!

>>1237885
Been travelling for 4 years, only time I've ever been robbed was in Ethiopia, 40mins after I left the airport. Don't listen to people that tell you this shithole is safe. Around blacks, never relax.

>>1237928
>Around blacks, never relax.

Opinion discarded. Of course a poor country like Ethiopia is not totally safe, we're obviously talking whether it is reasonably safe or not.

People get robbed in SEA as well, would you not consider that area to be reasonably safe?

>>1237903
If you are single you won't last long by yourself simply because near supermodel looking girls will attach themselves to you esp if you go to any bar or even cafe in Addis Ababa. If you don't want to do bars go on Tinder it's packed, packed with girls.

Then you can just take the girl with you to explore the rest of the country which is entirely a postcard picture everywhere you turn.

The Omo Valley market is usually where they scam tourists into going and buying highly overpriced trinkets likely not even made by the tribes.

Like any third world country you take the usual precautions: you take a taxi everywhere and don't walk around cities esp after dark, you meet locals so they can tell you where the dangerous areas are to avoid, you carry two sets of money one for the "robbers tax" and the other well hidden somewhere else though unlikely you'll get robbed there, esp if you're with a local.

>>1237945
Hmm. I mean I'll be sure to go on Tinder and pick up some beautiful girls - what do they expect from a guy? Like should I be masculine and "dominating"?

But I'm not sure I'd fancy travelling the country with some random girl I met off of Tinder. Also, I'm not rich and I certainly don't want for her to go around the country. Did you do that? Isn't it annoying having to travel with some superficial girl who's hanging with you because of your money?

Can't you walk around at all? I mean if I'm in Addis Ababa, I can't explore it at all?

Do you have a tip for how to hide the money? D

>>1237950
don't want to pay for her to go around the country.*

>>1237950
You should just be yourself. Also you will probably need to avoid bars like Memo’s Nightclub which are entirely hookers and know what bars to go to that are full of non pro locals who want a date. Tinder you can pretty much know just by looking at them if they're half naked, bent over in the pic it's prob a hooker.

Ethiopian girls aren't always about the money, remember a lot of the men are just drunks or bums/stoners plus there's loads of academic girls there looking for fun with a foreigner who don't care about money, though it's so cheap in Ethiopia you could live off almost nothing per day.

According to Australian travel advisory though (typically the least alarmist advisory of all western countries) you shouldn't go there right now due to a state of emergency still being in effect and ongoing political crisis http://smartraveller.gov.au/countries/africa/east/pages/ethiopia.aspx

Maybe next year will be better

>>1237959
Are the hookers bad? I figure it might be easier if they're cheap.

It does sound like an idea to find such a local girl, but I still doubt I'll want to spend enough time building the trust needed for me to take her around the country, and also I might get tired of her and that would be awkward.

Do you have any links talking about Ethiopian girls from a foreigner's perspective? All I find are either links about prostitutes, child prostitutes or solo women travelling Ethiopia. Or is all of this just based on your own experience? If yes, can you go a bit further into details about how you met the girl you ended up travelling with and how you came to trust her so fast?

>>1237959
Oh and is it easy getting weed/hash?

>>1237971
You will not go five seconds in public without somebody offering you weed it's literally everywhere and all the girls approach you "Hey wanna smoke with me" not expecting anything in return.

>>1237968
Based on my own experience though there's NaughtyNomad's (Mark Zolo) site he doesn't do hookers. I went a few years ago no idea the state of Addis Ababa now but of course be prepared for the worst poverty you've ever seen which is why I took taxis everywhere (that were 'approved' by people I knew in the hotel I was at).

The girl I met was at a cafe near a university and she was a grad student who I decided to take with me though I scored with and hung out with 3 other girls before meeting here (those ultra sexy rasta looking chicks "Hey come smoke").

You meet those stoner chicks in Gambia too

>>1237974
Daaamn that sounds too good to be true. Maybe I should do more than 3 weeks, there's a lot to see as well. Do they smoke hash or bud?

But how did you know where to take taxis to? I mean I don't know the good bars/cafes in Addis Ababa.

Also, how long did you stay in the country and how was your itinerary?

>>1237989
I also just asked locals where to go, like in my hotel the qt girl behind the counter.

However if you want the ultimate African experience I'd say go to Sierra Leone, specifically anywhere near Lumley beach. Most everybody speaks english, everybody is partying 24/7 and it's even cheaper than Ethiopia. There's no security issues either and girls again follow you around asking if you want to go smoke with them on the beach.

You go on booking.com or somewhere, get your expensive Lumley beach place for a few days then you walk around and find the much, much cheaper places right on the beach that aren't listed which are like $20/night.

You also meet girls during the day not at night which is much better, so you can hang all day at a beach bar with them and then later take them back to your hotel all night. Again these are locals not prostitutes (mainly all girls out at night though are charging money). You will also experience local guys trying to proposition you their girlfriends for money which was absolutely fucking strange. "Hey man, you seem cool want to fuck my girlfriend?" "Wait..what".

>>1237997
>"Hey man, you seem cool want to fuck my girlfriend?" "Wait.. what"

I need to go there.

>>1238001
It's the strangest mix of local guys trying to cockblock you if they see you trying to get set up with a qt local girl, and other local guys coming up to you and pimping out their wives and gfs. They def weren't pro pimps either this one guy I met with his wife everyday at Lumley we hung out with then out of the blue he's like "Eh my girl like you so fuck her for X dollars". Then I met another guy who tried this, and another, and another.

Meanwhile if I was sitting with a local girl, they'd come over and try to leech free drinks and cockblock, but offering me their girls for cash was no problem. Africa is the craziest place.

There's a bar in Sierra Leone where you buy joints and go smoke them in beer garden with a bunch of girls (who may be hookers or non pro local students, depending on which time of the day you go). I found out about this when an absolute gorgeous chick saw me and insisted I go smoke dope with her, and she bought the dope. Normally I'm not dude weed! but couldn't refuse that offer

>>1237997
Haha damn, thanks for the tip. I thought about including another African country, but Sierra Leone is a bit far, as I'm also planning on going further to Asia after Ethiopia.

>>1238005
Can you tell me a bit about the cockblocking and terrible attitudes of men in Ethiopia? I know you're talking about Sierra Leone, but I just read exactly the same complaint in the comment section on NaughtyNomad - a guy was saying that it's so bad that he ended up not enjoying himself.

Oh, where do I fuck the girls? Can I bring them to my hotel room, or should I get a private apartment?

>>1238008
Cockblocking in general happens everywhere I've been the only place it was really bad was Mongolia (cockblockers trying to fight me) and my own city which is full of wild snorlack beasts, those fat girls who are friends of superhot girls in nightclubs that immediately try and cockblock.

Ethiopia I didn't have a problem but I'm not a nightclub guy so avoided them for the most part, and the few times I went it was with groups of other locals I knew by then so no random cockblocking happened that I can remember. We also mainly hung around the chilled lounge parts like these clubs where you can eat for free after paying the cover.

Keep in mind I went to Ethiopia a few years ago so no idea the current situation there.Addis Ababa is an absolute shit hole in most areas I limited myself to just taxi trips to well known university cafes/bars where I met my local crew to explore the rest of the city, and well known restaurants ect. Every foreigner I talked to there was just some prostitute shagging British guy so I avoided talking to foreigners they had no idea the good places to go and recommended me whore houses masquerading as bars filled with HIV.

I didn't have a problem taking girls back to my hotel ever but I paid for 2 people, I always do this when traveling or slip the desk clerk or night watchman a "tip" (bribe) when coming back from bars. I'm not a super player or anything either, I don't try and fuck as many girls as possible just enough to find one really good one who wants to have fun and travel around with me in a no strings attached kind of FWB deal I lay up front. The only reason I don't go with hookers is not any moral reason it's because in a third world country I expect them to try and scam me, set me up for a scam later, or have diseases since they need to sell a lot of tricks per day in those shit holes

>>1238009
Oh I forgot Turkey, which has actual organized cockblocking done by groups of kebabs in bars and clubs so I never went to any and used Tinder instead. But that's a story for another thread. Anyway never go to a Turk nightclub the ratio is like 100 men to 1 girl and the girl will be a fat foreigner that every guy is trying to pick up at the same time.

no bump

>>1238009
How long did you stay in Addis Ababa? It sounds like you were there for quite some time.

What were your favourite places other than Addis Ababa?

>>1238020
I was there only a few weeks and left because I wanted to see the rest of the country, found my girl to go with and was tired of the shit tier state of typical African cities. I bought tours in Addis Ababa with the girl checking them out first to avoid scams and we went all through the national parks like the mountain ranges.

We also avoided the human zoo tourism but places like Harar and tiny villages they'll end up being that way anyway.

My most favorite thing to do there, was my girl, me and a local translator/guide (armed guard) plus driver going to Lake Turkana to meet some of the locals but not with a tour group. We decided to bring a lot of beers, coolers full of meat and food, and some various money and gifts and have lunch with them instead of just taking selfies and doing the human zoo thing like the rest of the tourists. The only problem was keeping our driver away from the booze as he was more than happy to get totally wasted with us so we paid him extra to abstain as motivation. Otherwise it was a cool afternoon of drinking beers with some crazy village people and an outdoor bbq plus they were more than happy to not have to work that day and lived in much total abject poverty in a hut. I don't know if you can do this anymore because the idiotic Ethiopian gov built a dam there now and it's full of fighting over land these days and bandits.

My recommendation for the city would be to go on some travel buddy site and meet up with a local as your wing man. He will chase away cockblockers, he will hook you up with weed, and will take you to the real bars and clubs where locals hang out and not hookers. It's the best way (just you typically pay for all the wingman's drinks, but it's ethiopia so it's like $1).

>>1238039
Alright, sounds cool man. At least I'd really like to go to the Danakil Depression, see the rock churches (not the really difficult one, though, as the climb is a bit too scary), national parks and more stuff on the historic circuit. Did you go feed the hyenas in Harar? I might seem like a 18-year old, blonde girl wanting to go and take photos with exotic animals, but I really, really want to feed hyenas at night, it sounds fucking awesome.

Do you remember the tour company?

It does indeed sound interesting, however I'm actually mostly there for the natural and historical sights (Danakil Depression is definitely my biggest must-see), and to experience travelling in Africa of course, so I'm not sure it's something I'd bother looking into, but thanks anyways!

Is that online wing man arrangement a normal thing to do?

Oh, and also, with regards to the girl, it all sounds really amazing, but honestly, don't you think you got a bit... lucky? I mean it's one thing that the girls want foreigners, but that you found a girl that you trusted, who would be willing to travel the country and fuck you, isn't that very lucky, you think?

Thanks a lot for all of your inputs, I really appreciate them and actually didn't expect anyone on here to be able to say so much about the country.

>>1238046
My wing man was a local tout from the hotel these guys are everywhere in Africa in gambia they called them bumsters. They are young with no money but essential as wing men keeping trouble away and hooking you up with shit. I got my tout laid too since girls flock to your table and the tout gets some action since normally they can't even afford cover charge. I didn't feed the Hyenas there was a crowd around the one Hyena guy we saw so avoided assuming pickpockets were working the crowd. You'll never get bored in Africa it's crazy all the time

I went to Ethiopia as well, but my experiences were dramatically different than the other guy and I only had a week in-country total, a few days of which was spent in Addis just recovering from the shitfest that I had in Nairobi just before.

I did a few days in Addis, a few days in Harar, and then ended with a few days in Addis again.

I never saw the north or other parts of the country, but Harar was amazing and honestly one of the highlights of my time in Africa. The culture is quite unique there, and the picture of the hyena feeding is probably my favorite picture. Personally I was there during Ramadan so I was literally the only tourist in the city at the time, so it was just me, my guide (supplied by my guest house), and the hyena feeding guy. Was a really cool experience just to see them interacting with eachother, and then most people actually think the photo that I took there is a photoshop.

Addis is quite safe because the government is totalitarian and cracks down on anyone that messes with foreigners extremely harshly. Locals told me that it was safe for me to walk alone down random alleys at 2AM, and so I did it, without any problems. The only issue was attempted pickpocketing by little kids that tried to grab my arms or distract me, but it was really obvious and not hard to get away from.

As far as girls go - my experience was totally different from the other guy. I didn't know or attempt to meet any real local friends, so that might have made a difference. I just tried Tinder and Badoo and the other regular dating apps, where there weren't many girls at all. I did some reading and on the recommendation of a few sites I signed up for AfroIntroductions, and ended up meeting a really awesome and cute girl off of there that I spent the rest of the time there. But it took a couple dates to get very far - I was legitimately the second guy she had ever been with.

My impression of Ethiopia is that it's generally extremely conservative.

>>1238118
>the picture of the hyena feeding is probably my favorite picture
Post it here, man.

>>1238187
I don't post anything identifiable here. It's a bit different than most and looks like I'm playing tug-of-war with a hyena though.

>>1238301
Can you obliterate your face? What would be your concern posting a travel photo on a travel forum? Is there another forum you could direct us to for the photo?

>>1238118
I found it highly conservative in the rural areas but Addis Ababa was like any other city so the clubs and bars full of girls like they are in my western city. I wasn't around for Ramadan though.

Another thing about Addis Ababa is beggars literally everywhere, you cannot walk one step without a dozen kids and bums asking for money. Some of these people are poor villagers who beg for 6 months of the year in Addis then go back home, others are drug addicts/bums, others have polio deformities and shit. If you give to any of these people you will be surrounded by a dozen more so never do it.

>>1239529
Did you go to the Danakil Depression? What cities/places were your favourites?

So what's the internet like in Addis?

Some digital nomads claim Kigali in Rwanda is doable for work.

I use remote desktop. Need to do some video skypeing too. I guess it is not really realistic to do that from Ethiopia.. but one can dream.

>>1237931
Shit i got robbed by a pikey in my village

Just letting you know that the lava lake in the Danakil Depression overflowed recently. It's still interesting but no way near as amazing.

Harar is amazing. Gonder has great resorts. Book a tour, senpai. Take it from an Ethiopian. It's safe right now, all the trouble from last October has died down.

Danakil depression is far, don't think it's worth it. Neither is omo valley.

Get real coffee and chew on real khat senpai.

>>1239628
I know, and it really sucks, but I'm actually mostly going there to see a scene like in the pic in OP

>>1239629
Thanks man, I will. However, I will still go to the Danakil Depression, the colorful scenery in the OP pic is what made me want to visit in the first place

>>1239624
>pikey
?

>>1241042
A dirty gypo

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>>1239598
Bump for this