Pickpockets and other Ethiopia Warning Or Danger Tips

Ethiopia is a fairly safe country. I never felt like being in danger or unsafe. If you travel by public transport keep an eye on your luggage and watch out for pickpockets in certain areas like bus stations and markets in the cities.

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Ethiopian kids can be cute and lovely like kids can be everywhere on the world but they can go on your nerves after a while! Often it will happen to you that 20 or more kids will follow you pointing at you and yelling you, you, you or Faranji all the time. They may follow you for a long time, and I mean a long time, and sometimes show their excitement by throwing small stones at you. The best response is to point at yourself asking Who? Me? or shouting back Habesha (Ethiopian). They also approach at you saying Hello! Money!. Ask the kid Lemin (why) or tell them that they should give money to you. Wait and see the interesting reactions!

Where I come from parents tell their kids not to accept presents of foreigners or go with them! In Ethiopia it seems to be the other way round, like parents telling their children: Go, find a Fanranji and follow him!

These kids can be good fun but to be honest I was happy to escape from all this after four weeks. It stops immediately when you cross any of the borders to the neighbour countries.

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There are many beggars living in this country. The average income is about 50 $ and a lot of people do not even earn this money. Of course to them tourists look wealthy and Ethiopians have problems in distinguishing between a low budget individual traveller, a package tourist or an aid worker with different budgets. White means wealthy! This is understandable and it can break your heart to see poor people begging.
People come to you demanding money. It can make you feel you would be a bank on two legs. Begging seems to be part of the local culture. Its hard not to give but I usually don´t give money to individuals as it would be only help for the moment but rather donate some money to a decent organisation.

I was told by different locals I met when talking about this topic: Its not too many people begging but too many people giving!

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Probably you will be overcharged sooner or later. Take it as a game! First you need to find out about the prices the locals would pay for the same thing. When you feel like being overcharged try to bargain or ask if this is a special Faranji price? It often helps if not – you don`t have to buy, check out some thingelse! I always told the guys that in my country everybody is charged the same doesn`t matter what colour he has got. Most of the time they didn`t believe me.

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It only happened to me in Ethiopia but it happened twice: I picked up some flees. At first I though this nasty little beasts were hopping over from the mule onto my sleeping bag while walking in Simien Mountains, but it happened again a couple of weeks later. In one place the owners asked me to choose a different room because: `The bed is living! At least they told me!
Check the beds in the rooms carefully!

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In restaurants the menus are often in Amharic on one side and in English on the back side. Check the prices because sometimes they vary. Always ask about the price to avoid misunderstandings. Sometimes when the waiters are not too used to speak English they mix up numbers or they only have a guess because they don`t understand what you are on about!

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