79 Somaliland

Only a few hours to the border with Somaliland. What an exotic destination. What a scary destination! But the reality is, Somaliland has been an independent country from Somalia for 34 years. The only thing they lack is worldwide recognition. I guess if they had oil then the rest of the world would leap at the chance.And so this is a very different country and the people are peaceful and friendly. They all say there are rumours that recognition by the USA is going to happen very soon. Seems weird that South Sudan broke away from Sudan and instantly got recognition, but poor old Somaliland has to wait.It actually took longer on the Ethiopian side of the border than Somaliland. Soon we were sailing along pretty descent roads towards the capital, Hargeisa. Paul generally uses notes left behind by previous groups who had been this way. They said it took them hours, arriving after dark, so, with that in mind, we had a bush camp planned. As it was, however, the road was brilliant and it took less than two hours for us to arrive at Hargeisa. It would have been even quicker apart from the numerous police checkpoints along the way. We stop, and then Paul and Liz have to face the same interrogation. A couple of times they even came on the truck to look at our passports. Arriving a day earlier meant an extra night in a hotel there instead of bush camping. Luxury! We found the New Daresalaam Hotel and met the incredibly helpful and friendly hotel manager, Mohamed. My room on the second floor up (the third floor) wasn’t quite ready. “Would you like a coffee?” He enquired, holding my arm and leading me to the restaurant.He also helped us change money. We all piled into his car and he drove us to the change street. This was a laugh. You don’t go to the bank; you go to the change street where money changers sit in the open with large stacks of cash in front of them. The reason for the piles of money is that their largest banknote is 5000 Somaliland Shillings which is about US 50 cents. So my US$50 note suddenly became a hard to manage brick. I did a lot of walking in two days. The first morning I walked to the livestock market. Who wouldn’t want to see goats, sheep and camels all in one place with eager buyers and sellers. So many photos I would love to have taken, but in this very conservative place with tourism almost non-existent, it’s too hard. I did manage to strike up friendly conversations with people and turn that into a photo request. I walked into the city centre a couple of times; it was about 2.5 kms so not too arduous. Spending time in the market was fun. Sometimes I would get some very friendly reactions. Sometimes some conversations with only a few words in common. Here and there a bit of Arabic. Generally though, the people were very shy, and again it was difficult to take photos. At one point it was me that was being videoed when I met one cheerful group. Many of them were just as intrigued and interested to see me as I was with them.Our second night there, we decided to head out to a famous restaurant where you sat in an old Soviet plane. Good old Mohamed, the hotel manager, offered to take us in his car. It was a fun experience, but maybe the food wasn’t that memorable. Having said that, my roast goat was pretty tasty. The most fune was counting up our wads of money and adding it all togther to pay for the bill.I went to one bank to see if I could get some new notes for my collection. They pointed me to the Somaliland Bank. Once there, I enquired, only to be told that they only had the 5000 notes new. I handed a wad of 1000 notes and asked if he could at least give me clean ones. He took them and went away. To my utmost surprise, he returned not just with brand new 1000 notes, but also 500, and the now disused 100, 50, 20, 10 and 5. Even some 1 shilling coins. I was blown away!One young man went past and said “hi” with a strong American accent. Turned out he was an American citizen born in the USA to Somali parents, Abdihamid Ali. He had come here with his mother and intended to stay for a couple of years. I was surprised to find out he was only 14, so the decision to stay here and go to school was pretty big, but, he was enjoying life in Somaliland. We met for tea later and then had dinner at a restaurant he knew. $3.50 for a huge plate of camel and rice, which, I would say was the nicest meal I’d had in a long while (sorry Ethiopia). First impressions of Somaliland are great. Definitely feels much closer to a middle Eastern country than an African country. #Ethiopia #oasisoverland #Hargaysa #Somaliland