The word "ark" conjures up many images: Noah's Ark, a Star Trek-style interstellar ark, or a Biblical ark. I'm in Axum, reputedly home of the last of the three and perhaps the most famous: the Ark of the Covenant. Axum has been compared to Jerusalem or Varanasi in terms of holiness. As I stroll here today I envision the colour and stone architecture place the town in dusty northern Mexico rather than in northern Ethiopia. Last night I got here after a 10-hour hot and dusty bus ride filled with crying babies, hairpin turns, and going slower than a 500-year old giant tortoise. When I asked about hiring a bicycle at the Africa Hotel (where I'm staying) the guy continued to harass me about it. I opted to walk and then I went to the Sabaean Hotel for breakfast. This swish hotel seems out of place in this tiny town not far from the border of Eritrea, but the food is good and cheap as chips. Filling myself up for this hot day with fruit and french toast I found a place to hire a bike. When I tried one out, the brakes didn't work. No brakes + no helmet + going downhill = great disaster! Then he showed me a "brand new" bicycle which I could hire for 200 birr for the day. When I rode around I visited Axum's giant stelae. One ticket covers all of Axum's sites except for the St. Mary of Zion compound, and with my student ID I got my ticket half price. At the stelae, guys were harassing me to buy souvenirs and asking if I want a guide, but with a bike I can get around perfectly on my own. In the Temple of the False Door I scared these local guys because they were in a section inaccessible from the side either of us were in and they weren't expecting me to be there, so they took my picture through the hole. As I rode my bike up a hill in search of Queen of Sheba's bath this souvenir seller ran up the hill after me, annoying me so much that I had to tell him to leave me the hell alone! When I went to ride down the hill this "brand new" bike had no brakes whatsoever! Using my jandals as brakes I had to really work hard not to crash into an oncoming vehicle or worse. Entrance to the St. Mary of Zion compound is a whopping 200 birr. The new church is huge and rather ugly looking. In between the old and new church is a small building which houses the one thing that every visitor (and Ethiopian) wants to see but is the one thing they can't: the Ark of the Covenant. Just one specifically chosen guardian has access to the Ark and as I got near the railings guarding the chapel locals tried to direct me away, but one person was nice enough to take my photo in front of the home of the Ark.
Nobody really knows for sure if the Ark of the Covenant is in this chapel at all. Rumours place the Ark many different places: Israel, Zimbabwe, Oak Island (Nova Scotia), England. The most conclusive evidence is that the Ark carried by Moses down Mt. Sinai is here in Axum. Done there, I dropped off the bike and ended up paying only 60 birr instead of 200. I nearly killed myself going down that hill. Now that I've shared my story about the Ark, I must talk about Anne. She's a beautiful, natural-looking French lass who lives in Kinshasa working for UNICEF. We met in the Simien Mountains the other day on the way to Chenek. Then I ran into her the following day at Debark and as I was scoping out some lunch I ran into her again today. As we chatted she seemed curious about how I travel as I chowed down on some cooked vegetable salad. Vegetables at Ethiopian restaurants have been rather tough to find but I'm learning how to scope them out. Since Gonder I've had absolutely no apetite for meat; being in Ethiopia and watching a sheep get killed the other day might even make me become a vegetarian. Anne and I agreed to go out for dinner tonight. I don't know if I can call it my first date in Ethiopia but possibly. As I walked up to King Ezana's tomb a young Ethiopian started to follow me. At first I thought he was just another hassler or hustler but he seemed willing to show me the tomb. Since I had no torch I got a candle for a small donation to see the inside of the tomb. Excavation of many sites here in Axum has barely begun. After our little jaunt into the tomb he invited me to an Ethiopian wedding reception. The couple had only been married the day before and there were lots of guests, lots of food, and (annoyingly) lots of flies. Nonetheless they enjoyed the fact that I was there and they offered me food but I was full and there was only meat. On the bus last night I was chatting with a young man named Girum. He's an assistant professor of political science at one of the universities here in Axum, and he told me to call him and we'd get tej tonight but the young man showed me the tej beat. Just like how I have no appetite for meat I've had very little for alcohol since that hangover in Gondar. We drank some of the golden elixir with bees buzzing around. Tej beats are rather quiet places, and some are dodgy-looking. The one I went to in Gondar had no sign and looked like an old, dilapidated school house. After a flask of tej I realize how beautiful Axum really is. Aside from all the souvenir sellers and people begging for money I must admit I really like Axum. Practing my Amharic with some locals I say "shai efullagallew, sakwar ahideullam" (I want tea without sugar) I have a cuppa before I meet Anne for a lovely dinner where we ate earlier. We had so much to chat about and she's really very talkative and beautiful. Then I asked her if she wanted to get tej, and she agreed. She's flying back to Kinshasa tomorrow. In a tej beat with a lovely lady surrounded by a heap of drunk men who'd had their fill of the golden wine, it was slightly awkward but a fabulous experience.
Tomorrow I'm journeying to Mekele and I wanted to see Girum again before I leave. The three of us chatted for a while whilst talking politics and Ethiopia. The hot story up here is Eritrea. Many Eritreans live in and around the area and Anne describes it as being like East and West Germany. It's not possible to enter Eritrea from either Ethiopia or Djibouti, and if possible a bus from Axum to Asmara would only take about three hours and cost around 60 birr ($3.25) but an Eritrean who wants to visit their family has to get to Addis, fly to Yemen or Kenya, and then fly to Asmara. All that costs at least several hundred dollars and that's not even including visa fees for any connecting country. It's sad from a travellers' perspective because I'd love to go to Eritrea. Still though, I'm in Axum and I can't complain. Anne and the Ark: one I can't see, yet the other is extremely beautiful.
