Articles by Doug Nienhuis
I am a Canadian, and I am currently traveling through Asia with a touring bicycle. These are stories and pictures from my trip.
018 – A Family Tree
Afternoon was a time for taking more pictures of the Tiru Gondar family. Zebachew, Sisay and Tadele traded sunglasses and jackets amongst themselves to achieve just the right note of affluence for the camera.
It was also time to learn more about the family and Zebachew drew me a family tree. Their family came from a rural area near Bahar Dar in Gondar on the shore …
017 – Something Incomprehensible
I took another long ride around Addis the next morning. I retraced the route Sisay and I took to the Lion Park and then kept on going. Occasionally I’d turn off onto little side streets, more paths than streets, and arrow a little deeper into Addis. On one of these paths, I was doubly overwhelmed. First was the smell of human shit. I was right …
016 – Too Black
On Sunday, Sisay, the 17-year-old cousin of Zebachew, took me to Lion Park and the National Museum. The first was his idea, the second mine. To get there we took one of the truck taxis. Forty-five cents each. It wasn’t crowded and the streets were almost empty. Ethiopians take their days off seriously.
Running one of those taxis takes coordination not just between the driver and …
015 – Abiy and Dereje
Beside the hotel was another small building containing two billiard tables. When I discovered them by peering through the open window, the roomit was crowded with men playing a game I’d never seen before. Five small pins sat in the centre of each table, one red and four white. They did not use cues but threw their balls by hand. The object was to strike …
014 – You You
When Dawit stood me up on the trip to the market, I took the plunge and unleashed the powers of my “Route 66” mountain bike with its Rhino rims, Python tires, Snakebite tubes and 24 speed LX gears on the city. I simply chose a direction and went. The layout of Addis was still a mystery. I find if my first day in a new …
013 – Tiru Gondar And The ‘Only You’ Bathroom
After breakfast I went back to the Palm’s small office to talk to the owner about my desire to find a quieter place to stay. I knew I just wanted to simply move next door to the Tiru Gondar Hotel, a place I’d seen the previous afternoon, but I didn’t dare go over on my own. I was afraid a chance misunderstanding could lead to …
012 – Eggs and Ethiopian Coffee for Breakfast
I woke up the next morning more tired than when I went to bed, and set out to see if I could use a sit-down toilet I’d noticed the previous afternoon. I hadn’t seen any water hook-up to the toilet, but I assumed it could be flushed with a bucket of water. I hadn’t seen a bucket either, but I figured all this would become …
011 – The Tall Man and the Fat Man
When I left Alfa at the taxi stand, I started out walking back across Abiot Square towards the Palm. On the north side of the square there was a small tourism office and I stopped to see what they had in the way of maps, but it was closed. When I turned around, I found two men standing there and smiling at me. One was …