Yesterday was a lazy day in Addis during which we went to Entoto Market on the hills. And we relaxed, which is just as well because we had an early morning start today, waking up at 0445.
Our flight to Lalibela departing at 0710 was a same-plane three-sector service on a Fokker 50 via Bahir Dar and Gonder taking a total of 2h30 including stops. At Bahir Dar, I saw my bag being offloaded. That seemed odd and I said something to the crew. Shortly after we were told to disembark and board the other Fokker 50 also parked on the apron. Our original aircraft had a technical issue, it appears.
The airport was supposedly around 20km drive from Asheton Hotel, where we were booked. Even though we had booked it at ETB400 per night, they discounted it to ETB300 without us asking. But we further negotiated it down to ETB250 for the second night when we realised another hotel was cheaper. Quite uncharacteristic of us though; I’m far too timid in negotiations. Later in the stay I realised that others were paying ETB100 and managed to bring our third night’s rate down to that.