As Good as Advertised . . .

Yes, it had only been a week since we travelled north through Ethiopia’s ancient historical sites and visited several of the MCC programs in those areas. Yes, we were glad to go north but it was work. We all came back feeling exhausted from the trip. We had planned to go somewhere else for a real vacation as far back as May, but where to go? Kenya? Egypt? Yemen? Dubai? North to Europe? South to South Africa? But the cost of travel and the unknown as far as lodging seemed to be more work than we wanted to do.

How about staying in Ethiopia? Even before we travelled north we questioned whether there was anywhere in Ethiopia that we could relax & rest. There was no evidence of any place ‘getting it right’. The trip north seemed to confirm our doubts. Even the nicest places, at Lalibela and Gonder, there were always a bunch of small things (sometimes big things too) that bugged me. The Roha Hotel in Lalibela was without electricity and water as often as in Addis. The Goha Hotel in Gonder gave us rooms that felt like I was back living in a basement apartment with the accompanying musty odors. There were many small things that showed that the management didn’t know how or didn’t care about paying attention to details. So we felt the despair of not being able to go anywhere in Ethiopia where the industry would get it right.

But we booked rooms at a place called the Sabana Beach Resort on Lake Langano. Open for less than one year, it was advertised as a place ‘where your senses come alive’. Our friends, Sam & Kathy, had taken their family there earlier in the year and highly recommended it, which is why we chose to try it. But would it be as good as advertised?

It is a 3 hour drive from Addis to go 200 kilometers south to Langano. Monday morning I fought the usual traffic and the girls managed to hang out in the back of the Land Cruiser in peace and quiet. We left cool and rainy (between 12-17C or 50-65F) and arrived in the warm sunshine at Langano (20-25C or 70-80F). As we drove into the large compound of Sabana it was clear that a lot of work was done to transform a bare and rocky land into a beach resort. There are four rows of bungalows at four levels, almost like risers for a choir.
The level below ours, about a 3-4 meter drop, is enough to allow us a view of the lake, although not completely unobstructed (one needs to book the 100 level bungalows for that). There is grass here! Highly unusual in Ethiopia. Granted, it isn’t the finest Kentucky bluegrass but green and pleasant nevertheless. The construction of the bungalows are a blend of west and east; thatched roofs with iron wrought structure. Another amazing feature is the shower that has real water pressure and well-controlled hot and cold water (in contrast to our shower at home where the knobs that are so sensitive that you can look at the knob and it changes from brutal cold to blistering hot).


Sabana Beach resort has been as good as advertised. The beach has a nice beach with water slide on a platform, kayaks to take out, volleyball, soccer and table tennis equipment. The restaurant’s menu is actually diverse; from Ethiopian food to Mexican chile to Indian curry to American ice cream and they taste pretty close to the way they should taste. There is a conference room with a DVD player/projector where one can watch their favorite movies (bring your own).

It is hard to believe one is still in Ethiopia when one is here. It was quiet (no TV’s in the rooms) with the only noise being birdsongs and the far off baying of mules and lowing of cattle. It was a break from the daily bombardment of people, animals and vehicles. The days were partly cloudy but no rain, a break from the rainy season. We made the most of our time here; playing on the beach, watching DVD’s, playing games (Monopoly was played with Amani and Dad being the last two standing), lots of reading books and magazines, relaxing over food and the girls simply playing.
Just about the only disappointment has been the full moon sequence which obscured a normally brilliant starry, starry sky (the last time I was at Langano in April one could see the Big and Little Dipper, the Milky Way in all its glory and the Southern Cross as well as many other constellations).

We were able to relax and rest as each day passed. Thank you Lord for the short but sweet getaway . . .