Ethiopia Transportation Tips by SirRichard

'Mode': AROUND
Category: Bus
Getting TO/AROUND: Travelling by bus in Ethiopia is a challenge and a real experience. Most tourists travel by plane, as it's not very expensive and definetly faster, but travelling by bus you get to know better the people and the landscapes, undoubtely.
There are just 2-3 asphalted roads in Ethiopia, so travelling by bus (specially in rainy season) is slow and uncomfortable. Expect the bus stucked in the mud, wheels problems, smoke out of the engine and so.
All long distance buses leave at 6am, when the sun is out. Most of them take 6-10 hours, if you do trajects such as Addis-Bahar Dar, Gonder-Axum and so.
Buses are old and the seats are hard, but the worst is the heat: ethiopians are not very fond of opening windows, sometimes because wind bothers them, sometimes the windows are broken and it's just impossible.
In mountainious trips is not unusual see people puking in the bus, as they get easily sick. There are plastic bagas prepared for that. When they finish they just throw out the bag by the window.
The buses stop every 4-5 hours (for lunch usually at noon-1pm) plus a few times for pissing, in the middle of the road, of course!

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'Mode': AROUND
Category: Bus
Getting TO/AROUND: Taking buses in Ethiopia is a memorable experience. Something to remember, not only for the neck and back pain, but also because there is always something unique on each ride: once you get stucked in the mud and have to push the bus out, the next a cow comes on the way and gets hit, the next a tyre is broken, or maybe the engine...
Anyway, after all those hours and incidents you get to know your trip mates, in spite of the language barriers, and that makes the trip a real human experience.
Warning: if you have back pains or claustrophobia, avoid the buses!

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'Mode': AROUND
Category: Bus
Getting TO/AROUND: Travelling by bus in Ethiopia lets you enjoy the landscapes and know some local people. Long distance buses (6-12 hours) stop just once for lunch (except the 2-3 pissing stops). At those stops there is only very basic local restaurants. Expect nothing but injera there, or maybe some biscuits and water in the street stalls.
In the pic you can see me sharing a lunch with my bus mate and his family.When the bus stopped they took me to the restaurant and shared their food with me. It was a giant inhera (fasting food) that I shared with his mother and brothers. I invited them at the end. Inviting in Ethiopia is a pleasure, as the whole meal was about 4 USD for all of us!!

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'Mode': AROUND
Category: Bus
Getting TO/AROUND: If you travel in the rainy season (I did, july-september) you will have a few incidents on the road, mud on the tracks, mountains that fall and cut the road, etc... In these cases, people go out of the bus and help the truck stucked to get out. All passengers help carrying stones, we put them under the stucked truck wheels and push to get it out. Nevertheless, it takes no longer than 30-40 minutes to solve the problem.

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