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- News – November 2015 (Lalibela/Ethiopia, 11/30/2015)
- Website statistics: 'Webalizer' has been shut down in February 2013. 'Google-Analytics' is now the current counter.
- 'Google-Analytics' showed 24'452 pageviews during November. The visitors come from 235 countries!
- ('Google-Analytics': October = 21'579 pageviews / September = 19'829 pageviews)
- 'Logaholic' shows now the following figures in November 2015: 20'080 visits / 90'915 pages
- ('Logaholic' October = 20'037 visits / 89'120 pages; September = 17'623 visits / 81'749 pages)
- Record day since 12/17/1998 = the birthday of our website: on 11/5/2007 = 13'407 visitors and 787'456 hits ('Webalizer')
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- We wrote about the annoying children situation in Ethiopia in our last News October 2015 and wondered if it might be better
- when going north or east. Far from it – solely on the truck road from and to Djibouti the urchins aren't anymore so often
- around due to the extremely heavy traffic (1'500 trucks per day in each direction). Unfortunately this curbs any joy to discover
- – the only goal is to find a safe place behind fences, secured by watchmen.
- What else did happen in the month of November? After our visit to the Bale Mountaines National Parc we jumped into the
- turmoil of Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital with 4 million people (it's said that the city might have the double!). We had not
- only to look for a new Djibouti visa that expired in between, but intended also to visit Somaliland. Both visas set us back at
- once US$310. Simultaneously we had an interview in form of a 13 minutes "YouTube"-Video. After six days we left the
- rather dirty city in direction East – Harar, a rather Arabic looking place. Once there, our attention was drawn to the risks of
- visiting the close-by, self-declared and from nobody recognized state of Somaliland. Additionally we read in the English travel
- advisories (FCO) that the terror group "al-Shabaab" would plan attacks to and kidnappings of westerners in Somaliland.The
- visit of our 184th country in our very conspicuously car might be too risky. Thus after four days we head to the more peaceful
- Djibouti instead. However the 435 miles [700km] from Awash to Djibouti City requires an enormous driving concentration
- because the vast truck traffic doesn't take a lot of consideration for midgets. Obviously this is going to change soon, as the new
- railway line from the sea to the metropolis of Addis Ababa, built by the Chinese, is ready (the first freight train run on
- November 20th). Surely the truck drivers will be worried about their job, if the railway takes over the freight.
- Djibouti was for us a real change to Ethiopia: There's the language – besides Arabic – nearly exclusively French. All prices
- are very high, i.e. European – partly even higher, as nearly everything is imported. On the other side nearly everything is
- functioning again: The water flows out of the tap, the electricity is rarely cut, the supply of stuff from Europe is working,
- petrol (gasoline) is again available – all conveniences, which lack many times in Ethiopia. After nine days we drove from our
- 184th country back to Abyssinia, as Ethiopia was called back to Emperor's time until 1974. Comfortable was the fact that
- we left the very hot places (even in winter time) and arrived again in moderate climate zones.
- Said this we are now in the well known "church city" of Lalibela, a UNESCO Heritage Site, situated on an altitude of about
- 8'200 ft. [2'500m]. This site is a must for every visitor to Ethiopia, even if the recent erected protective roofs are – to our
- opinion – disturbing the whole atmosphere. At least nothing is destroyed, like at other world heritage places of e.g. Palmyra/
- Syria, Bamiyan/Afghanistan or Timbuktu/Mali.
-
- At the latest on December 11th, 2015, we shall leave Ethiopia in direction Sudan. Firstly Sudan's entry time limit is expiring
- and secondly the Ethiopian visa is expiring too. With mixed feelings we will remember our 183th country – on one side the
- children gangs won't bother us anymore, but on the other side we will miss some of the very beautiful landscapes (Simien
- and parts of Bale Mountains, as well as the Danakil depression), due to the lack of space in our Toyota for the mandatory
- guide and/or guard. It might be partly justified that such an escort is necessary, but it's for sure also a kind of making money,
- as "whites" (Faranjis) are often asked to pay up for unnecessities.
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Tongatapu Island |  |
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Rarotonga Island |  |
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Temples, Pagodas, Shrines | |
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| The visit of 6 countries with and 1 island without our LandCruiser | Middle East | |
| The visit of 10 countries with and 1 without our LandCruiser | Southeast Asia | |
| The visit of 4 countries with and 1 islandl without our LandCruiser | Indian Ocean | |
| The visit of 4 countries with and 1 without our LandCruiser | Far East | |
| The visit of 14 Pacific Islands with and 1 without our LandCruiser | Pacific (Febr. 2008-Jan. 2010 + Aug.-Sept. 2010) |
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| The visit of 13 Caribbean Islands with our LandCruiser | Caribbean (June 2003-Dec. 2004) |
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| + added from the United Arab Emirates: | Fairytale Wedding in Dubai (March 1999) |
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| + added from a earlier visit to the USA: | Las Vegas (Millennium change) |
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| + added from our Arabian Peninsula round trip: | Pictures from Yemen (May-June 1996) |
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| + Flashbacks of our Worldrecordtour: | Pictures from "all the continents" (Oct. 1984 - April 1997) |
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