What to do in Somalia (ending part 3) We have decided to devote a whole day trip to the main (read only) sights Somaliland - Laas-Gil. So is a complex of caves, which were only recently discovered rock paintings of ancient people. This place is one of the grandest monuments of ancient cultures in Africa, his age - about 10 thousand years. To go there, we needed a special pass, so I went to the Ministry of Tourism, which is also at a reasonable price you can hire a car and a mandatory protection. Tourism minister was affable man, and I even drank tea with him while waiting for his pass. He decided to give me a free English-speaking guide, and I was amazed when we approached the man unceremoniously greeted me: "How are you doing, buddy?" - And with a pronounced accent resident of West London. My newly acquired guide, like many Somalis, whose natural tendency to wandering was only strengthened by a terrible state of his native state, in the recent past have migrated abroad. His family lives in Kensington (district of London, ca. Perevi.). He had an interesting habit, he kept talking to local on-Somali, inserted into a dialogue of different English spoken words. I noticed this feature of the way of talking to many locals. Perhaps this is due to the fact that in their own language no modern terms. We agreed on the protection of one soldier who flaunted his Kalashnikov assault rifle, but found that his companion, at that time was in the hotel, we had too hire a security guard to pay another $ 20. Apparently, it was necessary that the ratio of tourists and guards were equal, that's just in our machine room for one more person was not, and began to think that local authorities do not want to mess with papers, and thus relieve us from the lease of the second car . It is obvious that we are the occurrence of these contingencies have been satisfied, in fact, like the fact that we had to pay for the services to us incomprehensible. But ... nothing, we could not help it, and maternal care of security, which requires to be strictly complied with the proportion of "one tourist - one guard" has served the pretext to get us to fork out. Before you leave the town, our security guard insisted that we stopped and bought the leaves of khat (an evergreen shrub whose leaves cause a reasonable person euphoria and excitement. In some countries, used as a substitute for alcohol, approx. Perevi.) and quickly started to chew on, after some time he reached the bliss and become totally useless for us in terms of our security. Tea with the Minister of Tourism If Laas-Gil was in any other country, it has long been listed by UNESCO to the World Heritage List. It is surrounded by quartz fields in the middle of the desert bare rocks, rich in this mineral. On the rocks there are a large number of petroglyphs, mostly images of man, dogs and cows. About these mysterious ancient works of art almost unknown. Known only to the estimated time at which they were made - between myatym and the third millennium BC. For what purpose and how they were made, also remains a mystery. Paint to this day is still vivid. Interesting that local families invited to similar drawings but paint, which it used, faded in the cliff just 2 years. When you're near one of the first manifestations of the creative person's thoughts, you do not leave a magical feeling of unreality. Familiarized with the creations of ancient people, we looked at a small news bureau, which found only a few posters with simplistic text. The building is not locked and the key. The superintendent should be, opened it, scratch a stick in the hole, which was once a doorknob. Guestbook sized notebook A4 was launched in 2005 - this place was discovered in late 2002 - and only half filled. It's time to go back to Hargeisa. Breaking off-road section between the main highway and Laas-Guillem, our poor car is not designed for such races, could not stand such a strain. By the time we reached the city outskirts, our right rear wheel was fully launched. We stopped to change it, but, characteristically, the spare wheel does not fit (he was a completely different thread diameter bolt-on). Our accompanying decided that we should wander around in the hope that someone might pump. In the end, after this tactic to nothing resulted, for obvious reasons, we were lucky, passing by a late bus, which threw us into the city center. Images Laas Geel, I spent another day after a visit to Laas-Gil, walking through the streets of Hargeisa. Then we decided to go back to Ethiopia. Time passed, and I did not want to exchange their paper dollars for bales of Somali shillings, which then circulate in retail outlets. The road back was partially covered by rubble. Checking the card, I discovered that it was for her we had to go the last part of the journey from Djibouti, but apparently it was not so. Most likely, we will "cut off" the path directly through the desert. As soon as we approached the border, the road turned into a cloud of dust billowing around the huge clouds. Border crossing was just a few houses, which houses the office of immigration control. Some time later, we safely returned to Ethiopia. Somali shillings and their equivalent in U.S. Home of the material:
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