Bahir Dar Things to Do

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A few kilometers from Bahir Dar you'll find the Blue Nile Falls.

You can arrange transport from Ghion Hotel where many tourists unite and where daily trips are being organised or directly at the bus station. I don't remember the exact price of the transport but it was something in the range of €1-€2.

To get to the falls you have to hike a little (some 30min max). The route is basically a circle, so you can choose between two opposite directions you can take. I have no preference.
You'll always have to take a ferry (not as fancy as it sounds, just a simple boat with a little motor), which costed 10Birr or so.

The Falls are wide or not wide depending on the season, but in my opinion always worth the trip!!!!!!!

To show you that walking at night in this city is very safe.But can you see some thing in this picture? …..... Flying car..!!!!!
Ethiopian invented new technology car.. ,car move without wheel..! just flying a lttile bit above the ground.

Nooo…….... Just..... Joking….!! :0 )
It’s because the picture was blur..so it looked like those 2 cars has no wheels.
And I just want to confirm that walking in this city is very safe.There are many people came out to walk around.The temperature was cool down ,people seem to have good mood.They jusy came out to meet,see things and chatting.There were street lights along most of the road which show that the city has very good organize and enough income for payment and maitainance......,very impressive

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Walking around along the lake is quite safe.There are no begglar hanging around along the river .During day time ,when it still hot,the city is quite empty ,but there are so many people come out to meet each other in the evening because temperature is much cooler down ,many of them even wear some jacket.There are many couple of all age walking happily around town.It’s a nice walk,seeing people passing by.
On the third picture, when I was taking this picture ,there ‘s a youngster ride bicycle passing by and see us.He stop his bicycle and try to practice his English with us..faranji.He was the only one in the city that try to approach us and he was very talkative.He was so brave to ask me email address but in a nice and friendly way.This area was the beach in front of Gion hotel .When I wanted to walk through the back gate (which was locked) into the hotel area ,hotel security didn't allow him to enter,but he let us through ,may be he thought I was the hotel guest.I don’t know what he said but I guess that security try to keep hotel guest to be safe from disturbing.

Bahir Dar is set at altitude of 1,830m.It lies on the southern tip of lake Tana,with tropical climate,make the city very green.There are many street lining with palm trees ,it’s really beautiful.
Talking about people..If you've heard about annoying characteristic from children that always follow faranji or some young man try to be your amater guide.There are no such thing in this city..People here are quite relaxing .They look at faranji of course but they let us be free.Almost nobody try to bother us.I asked Mola about this ,and he confirm that this city is different ,people are nice and we can walk every where safely.I can feel it..When I said hello to them ,they seem to be a little shy and said hello back with beautiful smiling.So lets say.. my first city in this country made me quite impressed.

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While walking around Bahir dar,lets know a bit about Bahir dar. Bahir Dar or Bahar Dar in Amharic: means “sea shore” is a city in north-western Ethiopia and is about 578km north west of Addid Ababa. It is the capital of the Amhara Region
Bahir Dar is a Special Zone, a designation in between a chartered city ,or something like a district
Bahir Dar is one of a tourist destination in Ethiopia, with attractions such as boat trip along Lake Tana and Blue Nile river and visitting blue nile falls at south western of the city. The city’s avenues is lined with palm trees and many beautiful flowers. In 2002 it was awarded the UNESCO Cities for Peace Prize for addressing the challenges of rapid urbanization.
Here are some pictures of Bahir dar .

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From University area,I walked down to the lake shore to ask around the price from some private boat that may give me good price .I got one promised price for 3 islands 600 Birr.The owner hang around at the pier ,you don’t need to make much effort to find them ,cuz they ‘ll see us “faranji” and immediately approach us.And now it depends on how we negotiate the service ,how many and which islands they’ll bring you and what kind of boat, slow boat with small engine or a little bit better and faster boat ,just negotiate well .If possible ..ask to see the boat and confirm well that it’ll be the boat they present.I just confirm by taking picture of the boat.This one in my pic,look ok with roof and life west ,good for small group of few people on board,but I didn’t impress much,cuz he’ll bring us only 3 islands ,may be because his boat and the engine is quite small and it can’t be fast enough to bring us to too many islands. But if you are not keen on the monastery much ,3 islands may be enough,and those 3 islands will normally be the most "must see" one.

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By boat you can access this monastery , preferably in the morning cause the waves on the lake aren't as strong as in the afternoon.
Trips can be booked from the Ghion Hotel for a reasonable price. Just ask if there is a boat leaving the next morning and ask to join. We paid 100 birr each (and another 10 or so to access the monastery).

Although I am not that much of a church visitor, the church at this peninsula was a pleasant surprise for me, not only because of the paintings but also because of the age the building and the decorations.

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This waterfall is also known as Tis Issat meaning smoking water, as the continuous dropping of water creates a smoke-like bounce of water droplets. The Blue Nile Falls has an enormous height of 37 to 45 meters or around 150 feet and its width is estimated at about half a mile. Watching the river water drop down the waterfalls is truly breathtaking

Bahir Dar was very different from what I have already seen in Ethiopia. It had an occidental look, people had an occidental look and did not care too much about us. It was the only place in Ethiopia where although being super beautiful + intelligent and with blue eyes, people ignored me (and I was happy for that). Bahir Dar, being very flat, is also the only place where bicycle seems a very extended means of transport, which is very nice! There are lots of cafés, restaurants and other amenities thought for local people and not for tourists like us. People enjoyed meeting, chatting in the cafés, going to restaurant with friends . . . That is the big difference between Bahir Dar and other Ethiopian sites like Lalibela, where local people seem to live and work for tourists and all the amenities are basically thought for tourists.

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Once you are face to face with the falls go down again to have another side view from below. It is a muddy path but there is a pleasant corner at the end where you can sit on the rocks, admire the falls and take more pictures without getting another shower (picture 1).
It was during this excursion to Tis Isat when I understood the meaning of the Ethiopian proverb on my homepage “The foot that is restless will tread on a turd”: all the path from the village to the falls is full of mud, mud and sometimes slippery stones to avoid mud . . . or to fall on it (picture 2). That’s why I decided to take long stick and a young + handsome valet to help me along the way, crossing the small streams and jumping on the stones. He was expensive (I had to pay also for the rent of the stick!) but turned to be also a good company and told me nice stories. However, some younger tourists were luckier than me ;-) (picture 3)

Going back to the main point, you can watch the falls for the last time taking a cup of coffee under the shadow of a tree.