Another relatively fancy hotel which I went to see for next time is the Ghion. A very Ethiopian hotel but still quite nice (remember photos can lie it is not quite as nice as the photos show. It has the look and feel of a old beauty well pass its prime). To be truthful Ethiopia is not one of those places where you can expect to find something decent for cheap. This is not South East Asia!!
Here are a few interesting things I saw at the Hilton which is now the place where expats and diplomats hang out:
- Their menu had four Ethiopian dishes in grand total. I ate in small local restaurants and ate Ethiopian food everyday every meals and never had the same dish twice. Ethiopian food is very good. Thank goodness I have already somewhat mastered the art of eating with my hands...actually with my HAND (no "s") you only eat with your right hand.
- People who have adopted Ethiopian kids apparently bring them back for brief and relatively luxurious holidays...and by the way the locals hate it.
- A big wig general or something like this (I am not up on my military ranks) from North Korea was in Ethiopia while I was there, I was told on a weapon selling mission.
- Apparently all over the world investors have noticed Ethiopia (I am not sure what about) but there was investors from places like the UAE (United Arab Emirate) in the hotel (I know I talked to one of them...the mehndi on my hands....that's why he talked to me).
- Security is so tight that each time you come into the Hilton you have to go through a metal detector and your bag has to be X-ray-ed. Each car which enter the grounds has mildly searched. Now imagine getting back into the hotel with clearly re-used plastic bags filled with green grass as packing material (see blog below). They weren't impressed.
- The expats and diplomats have on going parties and fancy affairs. There was a big to-do about something rather every day I was there.
- Addis has hot springs and apart from being able to get to them in the pools and spas of the hotels there is also a public bath/shower down the hill form the Hilton.
One good thing about the Hilton is that, by pure chance, it is across the street from the mapping agency of Ethiopia and I was the second person in the all of Ethiopia (and the world for that matter) to buy the new 2008 map of Addis Ababa. It came out while I was waiting in their office. It is a great map with the satellite photo of Addis on the back and most landmarks are marked on it.
This brings to mind an interesting fact about Addis and Ethiopia in general: streets do not have names. They've started giving them names so now big avenues have names, but typically roads and streets have neither names nor numbers!
