Dire Dawa

Dire Dawa is a second largest city in Ethiopia with 420,000 people.

Understand

Dire Dawa (which means Place of Remedy”) is one of two chartered cities in eastern Ethiopia (the other being the capital, Addis Ababa). Dire Dawa was founded in 1902 after the Addis Ababa-Djibouti Railway reached the area. The railroad could not reach the city of Harar at its higher elevation, so Dire Dawa was built nearby. It is a major hub for many ethnic groups in Ethiopia, especially the Afar, Oromo, and Somali.

The city is an industrial centre on the Dechatu River, and home to several markets. It lies at the foot of a ring of cliffs that has been described as "somewhat like a cluster of tea-leaves in the bottom of a slop-basin".

There are two ATMs in the city at Dashen Bank and Ogaden Bank.

Get in

By plane

• Aba Tenna D. Yilma International Airport (DIR  ^IATA). The second largest airport in Ethiopia. Ethiopian Airlines flies several times a day, as well as Air Djibouti and a few other smaller airlines of Middle Eastern countries. The unrecognized break-away Republic of Somaliland also has an airline that flies to Dire Dawa. (updated Apr 2019)

By car

Dire Dawa is connected to Addis Ababa and the historical city of Harar by road, but fly or take train from Addis to get in to Dire Dawa.

By bus

There are three bus companies operating services linking Addis Ababa and Dire Dawa. The cheapest, least comfortable and slowest is the government local bus service. This can take anything from twelve to fifteen hours. The most expensive is the Sky bus service, a luxury Chinese coach with toilets and a movie system, which takes around ten hours. The Salem bus is a reasonable middle option, which is much quicker than the local service but still a bus rather than a coach. Tickets for government buses are bought in the main bus station. Sky bus tickets are sold from a discrete office in the Cornell area of town. Salem bus tickets are purchased at the Samrat Hotel opposite the Ras.

Harar is the other major destination. Small mini buses leave whenever they are full from the main bus station and take about an hour. It rarely takes longer than fifteen minutes for a minibus to be ready to leave.

By train

A brand new railway line has been inaugurated between Djibouti and Addis Abeba, reducing the journey time from days to a few hours. The new 🌍 Dire Dawa Station station is however inconveniently located almost 10 kilometers outside the city centre, in the town of Melka Jebdu.

Get around

The blue and white minibuses are in abundance in Dire Dawa, as well as the small blue taxis. The best way to get around is to use the minibuses or to contract the blue taxis for the duration of your stay. Most Dire Dawa taxi drivers don't have a sense of time, if you tell your contracted taxi driver to pick you up or drop you of at a certain time, expect him to be late an hour or two.

See

Dire Dawa station of the Djibouti-Ethiopia Railway.

• The French-built train station can give you a 19th century feeling.
• At night and early in the morning, the Dechatu river basin has a heart warming sunset and sunrise scene.
• 🌍 Palace of Haile Selassie. A small palace built for former Emperor Haile Selassie. There have been talks to turn this into a museum, but no plans has materialized yet. (updated Apr 2016)

Do

Most of the residents of the city chew the narcotic leaves known as "Chat" (aka qat, khat, catha edulis). In the afternoon, in many places, Dire Dawans sit in circle and consume khat, with several cups of coffee. During this time there could be a heated discussion. Avoid political topics, especially with the Ethiopian Somalis or Somali refugees. Other than that, you could have an interesting experience with the lightly narcotic drug. Caution:- "Khat" is illegal in most countries of the EU and the US.

Twice yearly there is a religious ceremony at the nearby city of Kulubi (30 birr by minibus, 1 hour). It is a mass gathering with many small stalls selling clothes, sugar cane etc. Hotel prices in Dire Dawa double or triple for the three day period.

Buy

Wood stoves in the Dire Dawa market)

Souvenirs, electronics, and clothes.

There are two shops in town selling Harar coffee: Green and Gold is one. Almo is the other.

The market near the river has traditional African spices, incense, and fruits such as guava, sour sop and custard apple.

Eat

• Paradiso restaurant found on the road to Harar near the edge of town is regarded as the best Italian in town. It is most famous for lasagna and the roasted goat meat with rice. The traditional Ethiopian dishes are also of high quality.
• Samrat Hotel has good variety(including an Indian menu) and good looking food in large quantities. It does not taste very good though.
• African Village has good traditional food.
• Peacock Hotel has some nice ice cream and pool tables.

Drink

Sleep

Budget

Basic accommodations are in abundance.

Mid-range

• 🌍 African Village. Near Tsehay (pronounced say hey) hotel. It offers traditional looking huts and has a communal courtyard for meeting other people. The prices are reasonable and based on the size of the room. (updated Apr 2016)
• 🌍 Hotel Blossom, ☎ [phone]. (updated Apr 2016)
• Ras Hotel. Close to downtown in Dire-Dawa is quite pricey for the offerings. (updated Apr 2016)
• 🌍 Samrat Hotel, ☎ [phone]. (updated Apr 2016)

Splurge

Connect

Stay safe

Generally safe. However, you need to pay attention to your belongings. Your backpacks, camera and other shiny tourist items can attract pickpockets and con artists. (Recently, due to increasing immigration of Somalians, and a tension that may have created with locals the city is being heavily policed.)

Avoid political discussions, especially in regards to Somalia.

Cope

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