FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF ETHIOPIA (Blue Nile Falls Vlog)

Just arrived now and this is pretty spectacular. After two days exploring the Rakhine churches it was time to get on the bus and head from Lalabela to Bahia Dar. Eight hours later and we've arrived to the town of Bahia Dar. Actually this morning I'm just about to jump on a boat and go out into the lake. Good morning. And from what I've seen of this place I think you're gonna like it because I'm really excited about this section of Ethiopia. By the way Ethiopia has 100 million people. It's the 12th largest population in the world which I had no idea before getting here. It's a huge country and there's loads to see. I think in this video we're only really gonna scratch the surface of it but it feels like one of those places that could get a lot of tourism in the future. And I'm just really enjoying it so far so hopefully I can show you in this video some of the things that we're getting up to. So I think we're on the way to a monastery right now on this little island. Europort and something monastery. But I just have one of those moments where you're kind of like oh yeah I'm on an island in the middle of a lake in Ethiopia. And sometimes you just have to kind of have to catch yourself when you're traveling because it's quite easy to sort of forget where you are or just take it for granted. But I just had a real thing like where I just caught myself. Oh yeah wow this is exactly why I started traveling and to get to do random and cool experiences like this. I think it's going to be a good day. From everything I know we're doing it's going to be a good day. So this church has three sections. That the first one is chanting place, the second one is here is holy place and the third one is the holy of holy place. So a lot of buildings here instead of plaster they use this mud and straw like this. This is all just like mud, dirt, stones and straw. And from what I was just told that has been like that for the last 600 years. So without hardly any renovation this building has been standing like that with that since the 14th century and you know new buildings wouldn't last that long. Yet simple methods like that still last. Culture. They're all watching him as well. This monastery goes back to the 16th century I think I was just told and I just filmed that little bit in there but I did ask him after and apparently it's Saint John the Baptist and it is a religious scene. It just looks kind of a well you saw it. So Ethiopia is very Christian and it is interesting to see this side of the culture but you know I'm more interested in the nature. So that's what we're going to do this afternoon and I'm going to go show you what you can see here nature-wise. Yeah sure, oh thank you, it's lunch. That's cool. Thank you, thank you very much, thank you. Well we just got to finish off with hippos and pelicans and that was yeah a really cool end to that little boat ride. We're now walking to the Blue Nile waterfalls and this should be really good. I think it's about a 30-minute hike to get there. We've just driven an hour outside Bahir Dar and well you'll see in a second. Okay here we go. We've just arrived now and this is pretty spectacular. It's actually huge and I don't think I've ever seen a waterfall that goes like across the ridge like this does. We've seen some pretty huge waterfalls before but this one that goes like right across the hill. As ever it's the second biggest waterfall in Africa called Blue Nile Falls and yeah it's right there. I'm about to go down to the bottom of it now and see it from there as well so I think I'll get a little bit wet. Okay we've got to walk across this to get over. There you go Blue Nile Falls. What an epic way to start Ethiopia and to finish this video. So first impressions of Ethiopia. Okay let me start by saying this. Ethiopia is an incredibly beautiful country. There is so much to see and I'm actually filming this after spending three and a half weeks there. I decided to film it after the videos which you'll see coming up to give you a full sort of roundup of what my impressions were of Ethiopia. So I want to say that there's some incredible things to see there and the natural scenery I think in Ethiopia is unlike anywhere else I've ever seen. Like once you get to the videos on the Simian Mountains which is next and Danakil and even what you saw in this video there's there's some really really amazing things to see but you probably guessed there was a but coming up. It's quite a difficult country to travel around and I think that's because it's still developing. Tourism has only just started there and it's one of the poorest countries in the world and the reason I'm saying this is because out of a group of 16 of us five of us on different occasions had things stolen or pickpocketed. Like even on the first night in Addis Ababa I got my phone pickpocketed out of me. Luckily I caught the guy grabbed it back off him and that was just one case of many. So I think you have to be careful like I wouldn't that's not a reason you shouldn't go there. You should 100% go there because like some of the stuff I'm showing you I mean it's it's an amazing place to see but you just have to be aware of that and be careful with your stuff and like even people in hotel rooms had some of their stuff taken so just be extra vigilant on that side of it. You also have to be quite used to being around guns everywhere. I think this is similar in a lot of Africa but in Ethiopia I noticed a lot of people with AKs a lot of people with guns almost everywhere and this is like it's as a job it's mostly for security and it's for your own safety but just you know be aware of that. The food mostly it's funny actually what I want to say about the food because everyone beforehand told me how amazing Ethiopian food is and I thought it was it was okay it was like but it's not nothing to go crazy about and I'm sorry Ethiopians if you're watching this I am but like that was just my personal opinion it was okay but it was nothing incredible but you do have western options in every place as well like I think pretty much every restaurant had pizza, pasta, some sort of meat and veg and then the Ethiopian options as well. The reason I started this with it is incredibly beautiful is because it is and I had like a few negative things to say but I want to be really clear that that didn't impact my overall experience of the trip and of the country because I would 100% advocate to go there I would tell people to go there I would like I think a lot of people will be going to Ethiopia in the future I think it's just kind of on that crest of tourism right now and it's going to take off and then maybe with that more things will improve as well maybe like there'll be less theft from hotel rooms and yeah just just just be aware. The other thing to mention is I think it's also a tense political time in Ethiopia right now and while I won't get into the ins and outs of the details there was some violence while we were there and one of the places we were going to go to I think it had seven or eight deaths in the week we were there and so we didn't go there and change the itinerary and I actually one day I was just sat in the back of the bus and I looked out a police truck going past and in the back of the pickup truck there was a guy that had recently been killed because he had his throat cut like that you know blood all over him and the police hadn't covered up the top all in so like this I'm not I mean while it can happen anywhere I think when you do go to any country you should do your research beforehand and find out exactly what the safety situation is and again I'd advocate that for Ethiopia. Now to finish I really want to say like come back for the next two videos because what I'm talking about for the like mind-blowing natural scenery are definitely in the next two. We went to the Simian Mountains after this one with the Galada Baboon which is yeah I've never heard of it before so come back and see that and then we went to Danakil Depression which is the hottest place in the world and it felt like being on another planet so come back for those and you'll get to see exactly what I mean and I don't want to finish this on a downer because it wasn't like the whole trip was fantastic it's just that you have to be aware and take your personal safety and possession safety into account. That's it those are my first impressions of Ethiopia I hope you enjoyed this video and check back for the next ones coming up.