Tonight is my thrid night in Bahir Dar. The minibus came to my hotel in Addis at 3am (one hour early) and after a quick rush to get things together I ended up sitting on the bus until 4:30, when we finally left town. Although the sunrise was really beautiful over a patchwork of green fields I was too tired to appreciate any of it’s beauty.
We arrived in Bahir Dar at 2:30 but I didn’t get a room until 5:15. It was so ridiculous, waiting around that long, that I thought I might be on candid camera. Add to the frustration a lingering case of flu and no sleep and you get one angry Megan. Once I was given a room someone was already in it so I was told to wait while another room’s key was found. Twenty minutes later I stormed up to the front desk to find all of the staff laying around with no intentions of giving me a key. And to top it off the shower was not only not hot, but it was ice cold.
So my time here didn’t start off well and today I was completely undwhelmed by the monasteries I saw on Lake Tana. The first was one was from the 80’s… the 1980’s! I can only assume the boat drover got a comission for taking us there. The second monastery we stopped at only allowed men so three of us gentle folk sat around for an hour while the two men on our boat saw “the most beautiful monastery ever.”
The third monastery was fairly interesting and had the added bonus of a funeral outside so our tour was accompanied by a lot of wailing and chanting. On the way back the boat driver decided to bypass the other monastery we were supposed to visit and pretended to have no idea what I was talking about when I questioned him.
I’m happy to get out of this town tomorrow morning. It might take a few hours of waiting around to secure a spot on a minibus for the three hour ride north to Gonder but I think staying in Bahir Dar any longer will only further my “mood.”
4 responses to “A Few Monasteries and Lots of Frustration”
Welcome to Africa
don’t pay for your room until you’ve seen it, and don’t tip until you’re home and happy :/
Gosh, Megan! The continent of Africa does not seem to be treating you well. Illness, gropes, hassles, etc…
What is our world travelling heroine to do???
Oh, you know. I’ll be find in the end…