We managed to cross the border from Sudan to Ethiopia with no small relief, especially as just as we reached the border, the truck\'s engine started to smoke and steam, we all jumped off fearing for our lives, but we had to jump right back on as our driver shouted \"get back on, the border\'s closing\", not wanting to be stuck in Sudan we did just that. Entering Ethiopia was a huge contrast to Sudan (which was a nightmare of bureaucracy) as upon entering, the officials were really nice and polite and then proceeded to hand out customer satisfaction questionnaires for us to fill in!! How very civilised! From the border we travelled to Gondar, then onto Bahir Dahr and took a minbus to Lalibela, and a couple of days later back to Bahir Dahr which is where I am right now. Gondar was a pretty nice town, where I got a tour around the old castle ruins, and we got hassled by the locals in only a minor way which was nice. Our trip to Lalibela however was something else, after a 10 hour minibus ride there we all hit the sack pretty early and were up early the next morning for our tour of the \'rock hewn churches\', unfortunately these were all falling to bits so being held up on the outside by scaffolding which ruined the experience somewhat but is necessary to keep them from crumbling to the ground. While the churches closed at 11am to 2pm we were taken to the market to have a look round, this was a real ordeal, we were totally mobbed by the locals, the children in particular who follow you around, either trying to sell you stuff or ask you for money, sadly this town is so far out of the way that they all appeared to be riddled with disease far worse than anything I have seen so far.