getting stoned

It never happened to me, but I have read plenty of accounts here about it. I would not make it your sole reason for getting a guide.

CK

This is one of our best subject headings ever .

As I'm sure you noticed in your previous travels, solo women are always treated differently than solo men, groups get another type of treatment, couples get yet another type of treatment. If you feel uncomfortable, try to join up with another traveler.

I traveled alone, and as an East Asian woman, I am gawked at in every country I travel that isn't East Asian. Sometimes you can feel threatened even if the others aren't doing anything actively aggressive. I'm relatively short and many Ethiopian men are relatively tall, and even though they are also generally skinny, when they gathered in a circle around me, leaned in closely to stare at me and asked me loud, pointed questions, I felt a bit threatened. Yet, they weren't actually harassing me, some people just have a strange way of displaying curiosity. I just had to realize that and calm down.

I felt that a lot of the "pestering" is kind of random, so there's not much you can do. I did not personally get many people trying to be my guide, to sell me things, etc etc...it was really just people screaming "ferenjo! Cheena! Japon!" over and over and over and OVER+ but the same people weren't following me all day. It's +super+ annoying, but it only lasts for a few seconds (until the next screamer)...it's somewhat +more annoying to me to have to spend time explaining to someone repeatedly that I don't want to buy his crafts or use his guiding services.

As for making contact and having lovely experiences, no doubt a great deal of that is luck. The further off the beaten track you are, the less "birr ferengi birr" you will probably get. Although I often got that from children who laughed and ran away when I said no...like they'd only been joking.

If you want to try making contact with people away from the towns, try the GTZ or TESFA treks--I have only done TESFA but GTZ has been getting wonderful reviews.

I did use a guide one day in Harar (100 birr) but it was only partly to make all my "fans" calm down...it was also because he was knowledgeable & informative about the old city. Also, few people in Harar spoke English so he was a relief. It's up to you! I spent the first two days alone and really witnessed how crazy people in Harar could be.

{quote}Some posts give me the impression as if I almost go into a battlefield.{quote}

Don't think this way! Keep an open mind. I went to Gondar having read it was the worst place on the historical circuit for hassle, but I tried to push that out of my mind. Then Gondar was where I had the best experiences with locals inviting me to their homes and taking me out for drinks.

Hi,

from my 2 trips to Ethiopia I can say that it is indeed a very diverse country and it's often not easy. You will always encounter some of the most friendly and lovely people there, especially far of the beaten track and you will discover that Ethiopia belongs to the most interesting countries. But I also found that a lot of the touts and guides in Ethiopia belong to the most annoying and aggressive on all my travels. Sometimes you have to be very rude to get rid of them - but that's my personal impression, experience and no generalisation !

Even travelling with guides or other locals doesn't necessarily prevent you from hasseling.

I found that most of the people are very reserved. You can have some nice experiences when you take the initiative - most locals are not used to it and surprised. I had a lot of fun playing table football with a couple of small boys on a stopover in a small village from Gondar back to Addis. Another time I played the drums in a traditional music place in Gondar - People were laughing, smiling and one local put a 1 Birr note onto my forehead - my first self earned Birr ;-))

Don't let you put off by some bad experiences mentioned in the forum. Just go there and discover it by yourself.

Have fun and a nice trip !

I have been to Ethiopia twice and concur with Rolf....
some seriously need to go to charm school....i mean getting nastily harrassed by men - shamefully aggressive and rude
saying that it is interesting I had a nice time esp in Dire Dawa
but it isn't top of my list to go back to.

The simple fact is that things are changing rapidly in Ethiopia as far as tourism goes. I was there 10 years ago, 5 years ago, and last year, and I saw the locals' attitude towards tourists change greatly over that time. On my first trip, travellers were seen as interesting and someone the locals would to try to speak to if at all possible. 5 years ago this was still the case, only a little less so. When I was in Ethiopia a year ago travellers were seen as a source of money and not at all interesting, by the locals. It is only going to get worse. I am not going back there, as I think it is a shame the way it has changed. Not that it is necessarily the tourists' fault - you can't rely blame anyone for this shift in attitude.

I'm not sure about whether men or women find the hassle more annoying, however it may also be the case that some people travel to countries and never try to learn any local words that are useful. I myself learned just a few key words of Amharic, which made all of the difference. They were the usual yes, no, thank you, please, and simple food ordering/transport words, but also words like 'go away' and 'Ethiopian' (to be used in response to umpteen calls of 'faranji') to use on the kids. This either made the kids leave us alone or to end up laughing, which made our time there much more pleasant.

You need to take these things into account when you discuss people's reactions to 'getting bothered' in Ethiopia.

And yes, women get 'stoned' too. We had kids throwing stones at our vehicle in 'New York' near Konso, which is notorious for this type of thing.

Stone throwing is not a major problem, so don't worry about that.
A guide is of use in so far as he keeps away all the other umpteen hobby guides (everyone studied tourism, that's what they tell you, hahaha) and all the money crying people. But with strong nerves and packed with good books you can manage your trip without a guide.
Notice: Whatever hassle occur (and IT IS A PEST and it therefore really might piss you off!), what you will remember above all is the smiles of the Ethiopians, different from for example the Thai smile, it's a real and therefore touching smile.

In the three times that I have been to Ethiopia I have only been stoned once this was in Awassa and the lady clearly had some mental imbalance (ie it could have happened anywhere), what happened to my friends in Tigrai was totally different (one of them male one female), this was aggresive violence by a group of people this is the one place in Ethiopia I feel that it would not be wise to go to without a guide.
I don't feel that stone throwing is a huge problem but you should be aware that it can happen.
I agree entirely with Julie L, I certainly notice how the attitude to tourists has changed even in just two years(tourists are nothing more than cash cows to be milked in perpetuity ) this attitude however is much less prevelent in South Ethiopia (and I'd make an educated guess that it's the same in the west) as these areas see few tourists.
Jeraboa