The flight was around midday or 1 PM. We needed one hour to get to the airport. The hotel arranged for us to join a van going to the airport which left at around 1030 PM. That morning, Haresh started complaining of a bad flu (when Haresh gets sick, he becomes very uncooperative) and, the hotel (Tukul Village) was helpful and, spoke to a doctor who prescribed medicines on the phone (not the best guarantee of getting a correct diagnosis without seeing a doctor but we were short on time). The hotel staff sped off on a Bajaj rickshaw and, came back with the medicines and, a packing tape, empty boxes and a pair of scissors (to pack all our souvenirs). Haresh popped the pills and packed our souvenirs (If Haresh had had brought along the 2 suitcases he was allowed, let me not get into all that here.). We had a quick delicious breakfast and, packed our bags into the waiting van.
It was of course drizzling lightly. We said good by to the hotel manager Alex who said he was sorry the Internet did not work, the POS didn't work, etc. We asked Alex where we should stay in Gondar and he recommended Goha.
We met the same 2 European girls we had the previous day at the churches and, Kavita immediately said, "it's those girls again, Ami!" It was meant to be a matter of fact statement but it came off as if she was tired of seeing them and, everyone laughed.
We started the drive towards the Airport. I wish I had made a video of our descent down the mountain. It was raining, there was a beautiful emerald green panorama as far as we could see and, the views down below were stunning. The road is a dirt road, it's not the red earth we have here in West Africa, but a deep brown-blackish earth. We winded down the hill and then drove towards the Airport.
After we checked in, we had about an hour until the flight. There was a coffee corner and, we sat to have some piping hot coffee prepared by a lady, in all white. The coffee tray was laid with green leaves and, laid out with the small cups. I was later told that the significance of the green is welcome.
The flight to Gondar was short and, we were soon on ground. It was another beautiful air strip where we landed. The terminal building was beautiful with arches. We soon collected our bags. The arrival hall was full of pictures of local hotels and the
Simien Mountains National Park. One taxi driver came to us and, told us he would take us to Goha Hotel. I asked to talk to the Hotel. He let me ring them on his mobile phone. I spoke to someone and, they told me the rate of $ 70 or $ 80 per night. I thought this rate was too much for a standard room and, asked for a discount. Anyway, we decided to hop into the same taxi driver who was driving some passengers to Goha Hotel. I thought we would check out a hotel I had seen advertised in the arrival hall but one quick look at it as we passed told me it was not going to be a very good choice as it still seemed to be under construction.
It was about 20 minutes to the hotel. We passed through the main city. As it was Sunday, it was quiet. The city appeared to be a major one.
Goha Hotel is on a hill and, has magnificent views of the city. It's a 3-4 minute drive up to the hotel. It has a playground for children close to the entrance gates. Clearly, it's an old, iconic hotel but needs renovation as it's a little too shabby. The light went out for almost an hour at night.
We checked in at the reception and, the room rate was about $ 80, if I remember correctly. We opted for a standard room as it was only one night. I tried to pay by visa card but it didn't work. Worse, was how the hotel staff kept up a pretence that the card reader does work at times but clearly, from my experience in Lalibela and even Addis, paying by visa hardly works.
After putting our bags away, we walked around the hotel. The grounds of the hotel outside the restaurant area are stunning, mainly for their views. There was an empty swimming pool and non-functioning fountains. Too bad, everything was so shabby but the natural environment made up for it. There were magnificent trees and flowers all over the grounds of the hotel. The view from our room as quite beautiful, it felt one was looking out into a forest.
We had an excellent lunch with the usual delicious soups. I asked the hotel manager what we could do for a little bit of sight seeing in the vicinity. The manager told us there was a village nearby where Jews lived and it was 2 minutes away. I asked him whether there were any souvenir shops and he said, it was also close. We got a Bajaj at the entrance and, asked the ground hotel staff to translate for us. It quickly ensured that this village was not so close and no one was sure what this place was. Anyway, we agreed with the Bajaj driver how much he'd charge us to take us for a little souvenir shopping and back. It was a nominal amount! Three of us went for a shopping spree. I bought a wooden Gonder cross, a horse made out of yarn, and a couple of scarves.
We went back to the hotel and relaxed a bit in our room before going down for dinner. I had some Ethiopian red wine although Haresh was feeling sick with a fever and cold. I had bought the scarf for him as he complained it was too cold (he had hardly packed properly before coming on this trip, why can't men pack ?). The night was pleasant enough: there was hot water for a shower, a TV with a couple of channels, and we had hot tea brought up to our room.
23 JULY 2018
The sights we saw in Gonder were magnificent. We visited Fasil Ghebbi (the Royal Enclosure), Fasilides' Bath and the Debre Berhan Selassie Church.
If you look up Gonder online for tourist information, you'll see that it's palaces and structures are referred to as Ethiopia's Camelot. As usual, comparing a place to Europe's self sense of glory is misleading and downgrades the significance, beauty and essence of the place. It obfuscates its history. It presents you with a Eurocentric sense of humanity, history and progress. ("Dakar is the Paris of West Africa." "Beirut is the Paris of the Middle East." "Kedarnath: Bollywood's Titanic.") You somehow start thinking that everything actually started from Europe , that that is the birthplace of history, ideas, and humanity itself. You start looking for Paris in Dakar. You start looking for Camelot in Gonder, when you should just be looking at Gonder.
I have definitely experienced some fantastic realisations about Ethiopia's proud ancient history and the presence of Christianity in its lands. Some of Lalibela's oldest rock - hewn churches date back to the 7th century and, Christianity has apparently been in Ethiopia as early as the 4th century. Lalibela was imagined to be mirror of Jerusalem, the city where Jesus preached. The complex of churches, carved out of rock, is breath-taking in it's architectural achievements but also by how ancient it is, how definitively Ethiopian it is. Visiting churches in countries colonised by European powers can be a dull experience as a tourist because the church is more or less a European church, planted there for the colonials. And, Christianity therefore arrived as part of the colonisation project. The Lalibela experience was amazing because one experienced Ethiopian Christianity through the structures of the churches, the architecture, and the art.
The first thing we did this day, though, was to go to a bank and withdraw some cash using a card. This was easy and, we had enough cash to pay the hotel and so on.
After this, we went to Fasil Ghebbi, the Royal Enclosure by Bajaj. We found a guide there who would take us to the Fasilides' Bath and the Debre Berhan Selassie Church.
I wish I had taken some notes during the tour of Fasil Ghebbi to remember what we were told about the palaces, library, the queen's palace, etc. The structures were built from the 17th to the 18th centuries. Like all the days we had experienced, it was cloudy and cool. The grounds of Fasil Ghebbi were emerald green. If you look up
Fasil Ghebbi on Wikipedia, you'll read:
Fasil Ghebbi (Royal Enclosure) is the remains of a fortress-city within Gondar, Ethiopia. It was founded in the 17th century by Emperor Fasilides(Fasil) and was the home of Ethiopia's emperors. Its unique architecture shows diverse influences including Nubian styles. The site was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979. Ghebbi is an Amharic word for a compound or enclosure.
The main palace is graceful and has round and square towers. The windows and doors have arches.
Fasilides' Bath was described as an Olympic swimming pool to us by the guide. I was confused at this and, even Kavita thought it was going to be a huge swimming pool. When we arrived, about 20 minutes away from Fasil Ghebbi, we saw this was the Emperor's Bath Palace. (It reminded me of how Shalimar Gardens were constructed away from the City Fort/Palace in Lahore where Emperor Jahangir would go to escape the heat and enjoy music and dancing.) It was utterly enchanting.
The façade is a tower which, from the back, overlooks a deep bath. The Tower is constructed in the middle of the Bath, supported by arched columns. This Bath is surrounded by a stone wall. There are ancient trees all around and, in fact, one side, the roots of the trees have grown over part of the stone wall. They are intertwined and, immense in size. For a moment, I thought the place was from a fantasy film.
See a description from a
website:
King Fasilides commissioned the construction of what is know as Fasilides' Swimming pool, or Fasilides' Bath in Gondar, beyond the the heart of the city north-west of the Qaha River. There is a two-storeyed battlemented palace standing in a square pool which receives it water from a canal filled by the river, but which is empty most of the time for sanitary reasons. The beautifully restored palace with several rooms and connected to the land by a bridge makes part of the city's UNESCO World Heritage Site, that includes the Royal Enclosure, Fasil Ghebbi, Fasil's Castle and Mentewab's Palace at Kuskuam.
The Bath was empty but is filled when the Ethiopian Epiphany is celebrated on 19th of January. We were shown photographs of Epiphany by a hawker just outside when we completed the tour.
Debre Berhan Selassie Church was our last stop. While looking up tourist spots, I saw that there was a beautiful church to see at
Lake Tana with beautiful art. Of course, it was too far for us because we only had a day in Gonder. Lake Tana would have been a beautiful experience for its beauty and its biodiversity. Apparently, there are many islands in the Lake with monasteries. There were monasteries around Lalibela too but we didn't muster up to any of them. The Narga Selassie Church is on one of the islands. That name struck with me, Selassie.
When we reached the 17th - century Debre Berhan Selassie Church, we found it was locked and, the keeper was away. The guide asked the person at the gate to phone the keeper and, come back. We waited for a few minutes and, finally were able to see it inside. The Church is an immense structure in the middle of a stone-walled enclosure that has the same round tower and graceful arches, features we saw earlier.
The Interior of the Church is fully covered in murals or frescos. The walls were full of iconography, battle scenes, arch angels, saints and Christ. The ceiling is full of angels. I was utterly filled with wonder looking up at the ceiling. The walls and ceiling were aglow with the afternoon light. The tones of the paintings were earthen red, red, brown and yellow. In a way, this was the most special moment of the entire trip. I was looking up at Abyssinian angels which were everywhere. I looked around and, was surrounded by an iconography which I had never seen before. It was a startling revelation - this Christian iconography which I had never seen before, had never studied or seen in books or films.
I was transported to my high school Humanities class at the American Community School of Athens (ACS) that I attended from 1995 to 1998. It was a pretty sophisticated class that delved into Western civilisation.
