How to get ripped off without knowing

This time I'll tell you how I got ripped off and didn't even realize it. Cool!

Some kids at the market

View in to an alley

As I told you before I left the property of the hotel and only wanted to have a look around. My plan was only to go around the street in the part of Addis Abeba called Piassa but I got caught by three boys who were standing around there. They talked to me, asked where I was from etc. and I found them very friendly. It seemed to be a holiday or at least that was what they told me. They wanted to show me around Piassa and some other places so we went down the streets and took a minibus to Mercato. Mercato is the biggest open-air-market in whole Africa with around 13,000 persons working on an area of 1-2 square kilometers. There they have different areas, for each business one. I went through the spice area and the iron area where they worked a lot of different steel works. Quite impressive!

Need some plastic cans?

Injera

Well, I usually don't drink coffee at all but I thought: where should I try coffee if not in Ethiopia, plainly the land of coffee? So I was invited to a cup of coffee - not bad at all. Meanwhile it was noon and we went to eat some Injera, the national dish of Ethiopia. It is a veeery large pancake, made of a local grain called Teff. You get some cups of meat with sauces and pour it on the "pancake", take your fingers and tear a piece of the pancake to grab some meat and eat it. Tastes... let's say interesting, very different to our western food. But I can't imagine to eat that all day long: for breakfast, lunch and diner. But as we know humans can get used to everything so I didn't worry about the well-being of my Ethiopian fellas. After lunch we went some more around the streets. We decided to go to a Khat-bar to sit down and relax a bit. A bus ride and some minutes of walking later we reached a part of the city which almost looked like the border to a slum. Cute! Good place for me to stay, I thought. My new companions seemed to watch my back so I wasn't afraid of anything. As we entered the so-called Khat-bar I was surprised to see what I saw. It wasn't that shabby at all but far, far away from what we can call a bar (or anything like that) in our hemisphere. We went through a room and sat down in the room in the back. That all was more a wooden shed than something else. A lot of pillows on the floor and a big carpet. That's it. Oh, I forgot the Bollywood posters at the walls. We sat down and a girl came in and brought us the first bunch of khat. For all who don't know khat: that's s plant which is grown in Ethiopia and Yemen and is consumed all over Eastern Africa. In the leafesthere is Cathin, an Amphetamin-like substance, which shall effect analeptic: you feel good, talk more and you're not tired.

Solomon (left) and Daniel (#+-?(&%)

I tried. At the end we sat there for 5 (!!) hours and chew all the time, ate fresh rosted peanuts and drank tea and lemonade. After all that time I had enough of this khat stuff - they almost forced me to chew some more but when I almost had to vomit I realized: okay, the defo enough! They paid and we went on. During the stay I also talked to two guys, TI and Solomon, nice guys but didn't talk that much.

Meanwhile it was 6pm already and dark outside. We went to have some diner - Injera again - and took a bus to go to a bar with live music, beer etc. After a while we found what we were looking for and entered the bar. It was nearly empty and we each ordered a beer. While talking one of the guys left to get some weed - I was told that one joint is around 4$. I wasn't that educated in that business but I always heard about 10€ for a small package in Germany so I expected it to be a good price. When I came back I told a friend of mine about that and she laughed. They once bought a blunt (a joint full of weed for the less-educated-non-smokers) for 0,16$ in Uganda. Damn, that's a price!! We smoked two of these sticks and went back in. At the end they weren't good at all... After that the third guy, Daniel, (who bought the stuff) left us.

Well, I didn't know so I enjoyed my evening with some more beers (St. George - pretty good stuff) and when the live music started I began to get funny. The ladies in their white dresses startet to sing some traditional songs and asked me for a dance. Me?! Dancing?! Until the 3rd liter of beer that is usually a bad idea. But there was no way out so I had to. In the meantime there came two or three other white guys to this bar which seemed to have a lot more fun of that "strange" dancing.

At all that seemed to be a very nice evening. It seemed. Until we left the bar and I checked for my money. Due to the reason I had no big luggage and that the Taitu Hotel was that expensive I checked out in the morning already and took all my stuff like rucksack etc. with me. So when I left the hotel's property I thought I'd be back soon or look for a new hotel but what I didn`t expect was a day long tour through Addis. That's the reason why I didn't put all my money, which I had in an envelope in the rucksack, into my fanny pack und my shirt. BAD MISTAKE!

During our stay in that Khat-bar I went for a slash. Man, I wish I had a picture of that toilette! I thought - and that was the big mistake - I could trust these guys sitting with me in the room. They brought me through the city, invited etc.. I left my rucksack in that room with these guys, Daniel sitting beside it. You know what happened? You know! He took the money. That was almost all money I had with me. around 650$. Good deal for you, lucky motherfcuker!

So when I realized it, it was too late. The other two guys didn't know where he was living or didn't want to tell, so I was in a fix. Nice very first day in Africa!! Fortunately I had some money left in my fanny back so I wasn't completely without money. But 50$ for three weeks isn`t that much, is it?!

To learn how I managed my trip through whole Western Ethiopia up to Somaliland's capital Hargeisa just stay tuned!