The manager at Ghion didn't keep his promises. After confirming a room over email, I faced lame excuses about overbooking. Two Lebanese girls had ridden with me from the airport in the hotel's van, and also found their promised room not available.

While I enjoyed the beautiful open-air restaurant next to Lake Tana, I overheard yet another group of displaced guests being moved to another hotel. Later I heard that a large local family that had reserved two rooms was now crammed into one.

View from Ghion's deck restaurant
I was given the option to lodge with the Lebanese girls the first night and move to a single the second night. Considering this now put us in a hostel-esque situation, we wanted to renegotiate the price. Bisrat's first offer was laughable at 75 birr each, considering the girls had been told 125 birr for a double and I'd been told 75 birr for a single. With evil grins, we argued that the Lebanese girls were possible terrorists and they didn't want to sleep with a stranger who might stab them in their sleep. Bisrat dazedly agreed to 125 birr total.

Immediately after the girls left to explore the town, Bisrat bought me a beer and bitched, "I don't like Middle Eastern people being here." Cheers!

Breakfast at Ghion's lakeside restaurant

The restaurant was a gorgeous place to relax. The fruit juice wasn't the best I had in Ethiopia, but the variety on offer was good. For dinner I ordered a dish of fish chunks tossed in a red spicy sauce, served with sliced baguette. Tasty, and a nice change from wat and injera.

The room itself was large enough for three, with a double bed and a cot brought in for me. The water was warmish but the shower was hand-held in an uncovered tub. There's a slight risk of malaria in Bahir Dar but my cot didn't have a hook to hang a net from. I simply draped my own net over my body while the Lebanese girls shared the double bed under the hotel's net.

For convenience, I booked my monastery tour through the hotel. 300 birr for a full-day tour (including Narga Selassie monastery) was pricier than I expected, considering the Bradt guidebook lists 700-1000 birr total for the boat and we had 5 passengers to split it. Still, they'd originally tried to charge 350 and I overheard the staff telling other guests 400. The service was fine, but it was hard not to feel overcharged. The five of us were strangers, however, all signing up at different times; perhaps a group could negotiate better.

The second night I had the room to myself, and refused to pay more than the agreed-upon 75 birr, although this room was a double. I must have looked just angry enough that the oily Bisrat eventually backed off. It didn't stop him from flirting, from trying to meet up with me in Addis, from saying he would be sending me business proposals via email...but with the beautiful setting and bargain price, I would put up with him to stay in the Ghion again.

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