Djibouti
Djibouti City, December 16, 2011
Salaroche

Flying from Beijing, China, to the country of Djibouti, in the Horn of Africa, presents passengers at the window seats with some unusual landscapes, specifically when flying over Southern Saudi Arabia and Yemen. 

The Southern Saudi dessert looks quite different from the Yemeni one. It looks like spotted with Pancreas-like clusters of Dunes. Once you're getting closer to Yemen, the dessert has a lot less dunes and the only visible ones look like long, rather- straight, parallel lines of hard sand.

Once flying over Yemen, getting closer to the Gulf of Aden, right before the rocky mountains begin to proliferate, the dessert often looks flat and untouched by the wind. Then the dark mountain formations prevail over the dessert.

Aside from the rocky formations, the dessert descriptions I've made here are very likely subject to unexpected changes of shape, according to the whims of the winds that may blow in the area.

Djibouti city is OK. There are plenty of beggars, the standard of living is low, and they're financially dependent on foreign aid, but the people in general look like they're feeling OK. You don't see a lot of sad faces around here.

The expat community is formed mainly by French, which figures, as this country is a former French colony. There are two official languages here, French and Somali. Then there are some people who speak Afar and some others who at least understand Arabic. Fortunately, my French is still very fluent, so I have no problem communicating with the locals.

Some Djiboutians tell me I was lucky to arrive here during the cold season. For them, 32 degrees celcius (90 F) means cold temperatures. Wonder how hot it gets in July or August.

Getting a cold beer at any of the many local bars is easy, although prices are not in line with the local standard of living. A pint of Stella Artois can cost you some USD$15 and a regular Heineken bottle goes for an average of USD$6. Given that this is an import market, the Djiboutian franc is pegged to the dollar, which is also a way to ensure potential investors of stable returns.

The black market seems to be quite large around here, particularly when it comes to trafficking with money, goods and people. The latter is the reason that prostitution abounds in this area.

Some locals speak to foreigners in the streets hoping that someone may ask them for directions. They're ready to play the role of city guides for a few francs. Most of them speak French and a good number of them are bilingual French-English.

I bought a straw cowboy-like hat to protect my bold head from the constant sun, but I took all decorations off of it, soaked it in water, and then bent it out of the cowboy shape. As a result, my hat now looks more like a straw leprechaun hat than anything else.

As I was walking down the street wearing my hat yesterday, a local guy asked me whether I was a sailor and another one said to me "Arigato".

Arigato? What a difference a hat makes.

Salaroche