Greetings again from the land of the thunder dragon! We made the looooong drive west from Wangdue Phodrang into Paro where the airport is. This is where they take you last in Bhutan so they can get rid of you quick. Haha! My hotel is even right next to the runway of the tiny airport. Anyway, Paro is a cool little town. It’s basically just two or three streets and the airport. It is home to the Paro Dzong (fort)…
From Thimphu, we drive through the beautiful Dochu La pass to the Punakha Valley. It seems that not too long ago, Bhutan took in hundreds of refugees from nearby Assam in India. When India demanded they be deported back, Bhutan reluctantly complied, but regretted it. Now Dochu La pass is covered in hundreds of small stupas that they built as a self imposed penance. It’s a really beautiful, if not somber place. After the pass we arrive at my hotel…
Tigray is a region of northern Ethiopia rather than a specific location and just happens to be the last area I’m exploring on this trip. So why explore this region aside from the vast and stunning mountainous landscape? Tigray is famous for its rock hewn churches, most of which are anywhere from 500 to 1500 years old. Ethiopians liked to build their churches in caves or carve them high up the mountains right out of the rock in order to…
Every trip seems to have one section that doesn’t quite go according to plan, and I think this section is it. After my Simien Mountains tour I was supposed to go straight to Aksum, but was told instead that I would have to spend the night in Debark and go to Aksum in the morning. Morning came and my ride didn’t show up. I then spent the whole morning trying to arrange a ride in a town with no local…
After an extremely short flight over some beautiful terrain and Lake Tana, Ethiopia’s largest lake, I’m now in another former capitol of Ethiopia, Gondar. The rule here started with emperor Fasilidas in the 1630’s after a couple of centuries of great instability. The empire was ruled by him, then his son followed by his grandson and remained stable until about 1730. After that every emperor that took the throne found himself murdered under suspicious circumstances and the empire slowly disintegrated….
From the chaos of Addis Ababa straight to what is arguably the most popular tourist destination in all of Ethiopia, Lalibela. The town sits at almost 7800ft above sea level and the green hills and mountains all around are just stunning! You need to be in shape to be here because every street and walkway is on a definite tilt. Most of the history of Lalibela is steeped in mystery. It apparently rose to prominence with the Zagwe empire when…
After a two hour flight from Zanzibar I now find myself in not only the capital of Ethiopia, but the capital of Africa. To be honest, I didn’t know there was such a thing as the African Union until I started researching this trip, but it’s based here in Addis, as are the embassies from all over the world. Addis is a huge city with a lot of people, I mean a LOT! There’s obviously a lot of poverty and…
I woke up early one last time in Dar es Salaam and made my way through the busy city center, this time to the ferry port and boarded the very nice Kilimanjaro 3 bound for the island of Zanzibar. The Indian Ocean water around these parts, by the way, is just the most crystal clear blue you can imagine. You can almost see all the way to the bottom. After a two hour ride I reach the port of Stone…