After I skip more than a few days of posting on my “Where I Slept” series I never catch up. For that reason I’m going to skip ahead from where we left off in January and transport us from India to Ethiopia—skipping over Southern India, Jordan and Egypt. Don’t worry, I’ll fill in the blanks eventually. I’m excited to write about Ethiopia because I wrote so little about it here at the time.
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | 30 March, 2007 | $2.27 (my portion of a 3-bed room)
My first night in Ethiopia was shared with two American men I met at 3am in the airport parking lot. It’s hard to explain how much my usual decision-making process changes while I’m traveling. Normally I would not approach two strangers in a dark parking lot, let alone agree to share a taxi, then a room with them. Who does that!? I rely on my instincts on the road and my instincts told me that I could trust these guys more than riding alone in the middle of the night into a city I know little about.
When we arrived at the hotel and the nightwatchman pulled aside the rusted metal gate to allow the driver into the compound I was glad that I wasn’t alone. We were told that they had a 3-bed room. Fine, I said, we’ll take it. This is how I met the two men I spent the next two weeks with traveling around Ethiopia.