Arriving in Gondar by bus from Bahir Dar is a relatively straightforward task, in comparison to the majority of journies you need to do by road to get around the historical loop in Ethiopia. Three hours along a straight, and for the most part tarmacked, road by minibus at any time of day you choose. Ideally, this would be the case travelling around the rest of the country too, in which case it would be a travellers' dream instead of the almighty slog that it actu...

Leaving Addis Ababa after four and a half weeks of rain, power cuts, students going on strike, teachers constantly complaining and sniping, inane Ethiopian TV, cheap nights out in the local bar with bad live music, and the worst catering company anyone anywhere could ever imagine was a relief, to say the least. Our last days in Addis were spent counting down the days before we left. Or at least that's how it felt at the time. Most people on the teaching course I ...

I've been in Egypt two weeks now and it's been generally completely enjoyable,with very few problems other than inevitable persistent touts who can be as irksome as the flies are in places like Luxor and Cairo. I'm on my own now - I've got another week to go and leave next Thursday. It's never much fun travelling alone, especially on days like today when I'm stuck in a small coastal town on the Red Sea waiting for a bus that never comes to get down to Aswan. ...

As promised, the final installment of my epic trip around Egypt. We took a train down the Nile to Luxor from Cairo. To give some idea of the disparity between 'tourist' prices and ordinary prices for Egyptians, the night train (a 10-11 hour journey), which foreigners are strongly encouraged to take, costs about $80 per person. The day train, 1st class ticket costs about $15 per person. 2nd class $9. Despite us having to waste a day traveling, the prohibitive pric...

There is a funny thing going on with time in Ethiopia. First of all, it doesn't seem to mean much to most people. Timetables? are you having a laugh? Buses go when they're ready to go. You wait until they are full. It might take five minutes, it might take an hour or more. You never know. In any case, Ethiopian clocks work differently, and when they say 'midnight', that could mean six in the morning. Or six at night; I could never quite work it out. I did know th...