My last stop was Jijiga from where I took the bus to Wajale, the border town to Somaliland.
Now I was sitting in the overcrowded bus, holding my knees almost behind my ears and riding through the desert. The street we used was the only one around 100km in all directions but was in surprisingly very good condition. I was told that the street was built only one year ago. Good for us! We drove almost one hour only straight and faaaar away we already could see the two hills of Hargeisa. But that was still more than 100km.
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| Main Street in Wajale the border town |
We stopped for the first time when we came to a check point. Everybody had to go out of the bus and some soldiers came along to check our passports. After 10 minutes we could go back and move on. No problems. After maybe 15 more minutes again a checkpoint. A female soldier came into the bus, looked around, noticed me and called "Passport, brother!".
During the stay outside I found another non-black passanger in the bus: a Japanese called Masa. He was the same age like me, 23, and guess what? He came to make photos! We talked a bit and as it turned out later it was good to have someone with me.
We stopped some more times until we reached the border town called Wajale. After we, Masa and me, left the bus and got our luggage from the bus roof we were looking disoriented around because no one of us knew where to go. Suddenly but expected some boys came to us and told us that if we want to go to Somaliland we had to go the Emmigration Office of Ethiopia first to "check out". Then we'd to go to the Immigration Office of Somaliland to check in to Somaliland.
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| Hargeisa big money - 4$ |
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| My bed |
The boys brought us to the Emmigration Office and of course they wanted some money for walking 40m. No thanks! I don't have much money anyway... We knocked the door but no one way in the house. After a minute a man came, opened the door and invited us to have a seat. We told him that we wanted to go to Somaliland and so he passed over a paper, kind of a list of all foreigners going to Somaliland. When we put our names in the list and got a stamp on our visa we left for the Immigration Office on the other side of the street.
As I entered the office there was a guy who asked for my passport and my visa for Somaliland. When he saw that I'm German he got crazy and told me that he loves German football! "Maybe it's not that bad as a German... at least better than been American!" I thought.
Again I got a stamp and when Masa got his stamp we left for looking for a vehicle which can bring us to Hargeisa. That didn't seem to be an easy task so we headed up first for a money changer. I changed 10$ to Somaliland Shilling what was pretty funny because I never had such a bunch of notes in my hand! 1$ is around 13 notes of 500 Shilling. If you ever saw the money changers in the streets of Hargeisa you know what I mean. |
| First hot shower in one week |
After a while talking to some people someone said that his brother has a car and will leave to Hargeisa soon. He's looking for some people to come with him so we decided to check that possibility. The brother came soon to us and told that his car is brand new, he bought it two weeks ago and that it has a high comfort. Comfort - a word I missed the last 800km! No problem, we're in Africa...
So we decided to go with this guy. When we reached his brand new car I was a bit surprised to see an 20 years old Toyota, but who cares. Somehow we will reach Hargeisa. We discussed about the price and we agreed to 140 Birr for the ride. That is around 8-9$ - more expensive than in Ethiopia, because (I was told that) everyone wants to go to Hargeisa - a booming city as I will see later. We put our luggage in the trunk and the guy said that I should sit down on the left side. So I sat down on the left in the back. LUCKY ME!!! When I was in the car I saw that the steering wheel was on the right side and the driver told Masa to sit down on the co-driver seat. We thought that we will leave now but that was wrong. In the next hour we were waiting for some more passengers and if you want to know how many people came in: it have been 4. 7 people in the sedan. Nice! But the best part was: first there came three people to sit on the back seats with me. Then there came another woman who wanted to come with us so the driver told Masa to sit down on the center console between the front seats: no back rest, head at the roof and my favourite part - the gear stick between his legs, so everytime the driver had to gang he had to put his hand to Masa's balls!
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| Hargeisa street life |
When we left more than two hours had passed and I became a bit angry for wasting so much time. We drove for maybe 10 minutes when we stopped and picked up a child which was sitting in the trunk behind my back. Nice... then we suddenly turned around and drove back! What the heck?! Masa turned around and was also wondering what happened. After a minute I asked why we drive back to Wajale. And the answer I got was the most annoying one I got on this whole trip: I forgot to refuel!!! That's impossible! How can that be?! That was so annoying but what could I do: TIA - this is Africa! You can`t do anything. Maybe I'm just too German - in time, tidy, prepared... (hahaha I'm not but that is what everybody thinks about Germans).
After refueling we finally headed up to Hargeisa. The 70km ride took around 5h through the Somali desert. Again a lot check points where everytime a Khat chewing soldier came to our car, spoke to the driver, while speaking spitted some nice green pieces of the Khat around and into the car, and then let us drive by. Most wanted to see my passport but no problems at all. I think it have been 5 check points.
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| Inside "Oriental Hotel" |
After 5 hours we reached the outskirts of Hargeisa and drove to the city centre where we were dropped of at the Oriental Hotel. Masa had made a reservation there before and I decided to stay at this hotel too. It was 25$ or 15$ a night, I'm not sure. We checked in and decided to have an ice cold Coke, then have a shower and after that we would go around to check our new home and location.
"Damn, first warm shower on my trip"... My last thoughts for today.
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