So I took a flight from Lailabela to Addis and the plan then was to go to Somaliland. Yes that is in Somalia.I needed to get a visa from Addis which I'd been told was pretty easy to get. To Somaliland is actually its own country, after the collapse of Somalia, Somaliland secured its own borders. It has its own Parliament and laws. Education is on the increase and this has been done by virtually no foreign investment.This is pretty unheard in Africa. Unfortunately for this little miracle country the UN refuses to recognize it as an independent state. The reason for this is that they feel this will lead to a whole wave of declaration of new countries within the country. It's a valid point but you have to feel for a country struggling to change itself due to little foreign help.

Anyway the next day I went to get the visa, as I was going in I met a guy who worked for the Finnish embassy. He asked me if I was going to Somaliland. He told me that it was OK to go as long as I wasn't going to Kenya.Apparently he had just spent 2 weeks in a Kenyan prison, with all the troubles going on at the moment the Kenyan government are very sensitive to anyone who has been to Somaliland. The reasons for this are that many westerners are going to Somaliland and then getting to Mogadishu. Once there they are becoming hired guns, most are ex-military looking to make money. He showed me his passport and this changed my mind there and then about going. Kenya was a key country to my trip and I couldn't get around going. I was really gutted as I really wanted to go and see for myself this surprising country.

On the last night in Addis I was invited to go to a Jazz club at the Taitu Hotel, normally not my thing but I have to say I had a great time. It was quite a posh bar and it was just as cheap to drink Black Russians as it was to drink beer. One of the singers that night was a young girl called Roxy, she started to sing Ethiopian which was really good, but later she began to sing R n' B classic. This girl had one hell of voice, she was as good as Alicia Keys or Leona Lewis. One day she will be discovered I think. So you heard it here first!!! :P

Having not gone to Somaliland I needed a new plan, so took a flight to Nairobi. I think I'm getting old as the thought of spending 3 days in the back of truck didn't really appeal. After the incident in Indonesia, its put me off truck's for life.

So that concluded my time in Ethiopia, I had the best time, seen things I thought I never would and shown me Africa in its great, safe friendly place that it's is. I would say if you haven't been to Ethiopia, you haven't been to Africa. It has the most varied, surprising landscape and the most beautiful people on the continent.