Travel

I’m now in Dar es Salaam, the largest city in Tanzania. The nine-day journey from Hargesia, when I last posted here, was long and difficult. On my first day (19 June), a taxi and two minibuses brought me from Somaliland to Harar in eastern Ethiopia. After the first of several nights with no hot water, […]

For the past four days, I’ve been in Hargeisa, the capital of the Republic of Somaliland. Somaliland is a self-declared independent state in the northern part of Somalia. The world’s governments and the UN have refused to recognise Somaliland’s declaration of and referendum on independence, because doing so requires admission that the former Somalia is […]

From my last stop in Lalibela, I went to Bahir Dar for four days of relaxation after a fast-paced trip. My next travel section was a marathon – a 12 hour bus ride to Addis Ababa, a few hours for dinner, then ten hours of flying back to London via Istanbul, a connection that I […]

In the weeks since I left Egypt, there have been two terrorist attacks at places I visited – a shooting at the Pyramids on June 3 that killed two guards and a suicide bombing at the temple of Karnak today in which two of the three perpetrators were killed. The intent of the perpetrators seems […]

While in Lalibela, I ate twice at a restaurant called Ben Abeba that I think deserves its own post. It is the coolest place to eat in Ethiopia, and the food is excellent as well. The restaurant is located at the end of a ridge, giving it panoramic views of the valley below on all […]

The first three capitals of Ethiopia were Axum, Lalibela, and Gondar. I’ve now visited all three, and they were truly spectacular. After crossing the border form Sudan, my first stop was Gondar, which became the capital in the 17th century. Each successive king built a new castle, which combine influences from Moorish, Portuguese, and British […]

There has been civilisation for millennia at the place where the Blue and White Nile meet, but the current incarnation of Khartoum is relatively recent. Today, three cities have grown together here, each on a different bank of the Nile. In the South is the original city of Khartoum, in the west is Omdurman, founded […]

I arrived in Aswan after 2am and spent the next hour looking for a place to stay. My first choice was closed for renovation. I would spend four nights in Aswan. On my first day, I woke up late and worked on planning the flights that will take me back to London in a few […]

After getting my visas in order, my vaccinations complete, and bags packed, I was off on a five hour flight to Hurghada, on Egypt’s Red Sea coast. There was some initial confusion about the arrival time and duration of the flight, which differed from several sources. It was caused by Egypt’s last-minute decision not to […]

Luxor is perhaps the Egyptian city with the most ancient sites. I chose to visit the most famous three – the Valley of the Kings, the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut, and the temple complex at Karnak. I arrived in Luxor by bus around 9:30 in the morning and immediately went to the train station to […]