One pound of money to go

I didn't sleep much last night. The aircon didn't work, so the room was muggy. I tried setting the temperature as low as possible, but to no avail. The fans started, but no cooling. Bathing in my own sweat, I tried to get a shut-eye. And in the end, I did. But I think my total was about 5 hours. 

This morning, I asked the receptionist if he could look at the aircon. He came to my room, switched on the aircon, set the temperature to 23 degrees, and... It worked. "I did that last night, but it didn't work". "Ok" he said and left. Don't think he was particularly impressed with my technical skills. Neither was I to be honest. Still don't know why it didn't work. But hey. It works now. So hopefully, I will be able to get a good night's sleep tonight.

After a quick shower, I went down to get some breakfast. A stack of pancakes was just what I needed. I walked out into the baking heat. Luckily, the winds were quite strong. Cooling. Today I wanted to go down to the money market. Yup. It is a real place here in Hargeisa. Where you can change most major currencies in the world. On a market. On the sidewalk.

I was walking towards the market when some dude reached his hand forward as he was approaching me. Throwing open his mouth into a smile that revealed his row of choppers in most colors of the rainbow. And then some. Not exactly a model for Colgate... I threw my hand forward, and he was shifting it around like some gang-shake or something.

Dude : "Hello! Welcome to Somaliland!"

Me : "Thank you!"

Dude : "Whea <unintelligle>"

Me : "Sorry?"

Dude : "Where...aaaa....are...you from? Me-i-ca?"

Me : "No, Norway!"

Dude : "Ah...eee...ok...eeee...."

Awkward moment

Dude : "Ok....heh...ok...heh"

He looked lost. Let my hand go and kept on walking. Not sure if his English language skills ended or if he was just disappointed in my answer...

Finally, I arrived at the money market. I had seen pictures and videos of it, but it is something to see it in person. Not a huge market, but maybe ten guys sitting on benches/chairs on the sidewalk. With giant stacks of money in front of them. Tens of thousands of dollars worth. No armed guards. No police around. No worries. That is Hargeisa for you.

I approached one of the stands, and said "$50, how much". He thought for a moment. "510" he said. I didn't quite hear what he said "Could you write it down?" He wrote it down on his calculator. 510 000 Somaliland Shillings. I nodded. "Which stack do you want?" he asked and smiled. I tried finding the one with the least worn notes. But realized they were all just as worn. I pointed at one stack. He pulled it out and counted 5 wads of 100 1000 notes. Held together by a rubber band. It was a real pile of money. I had problems finding space for it in my bag. But managed to squeeze it in. I thanked him and walked back to my hotel. Needed to unload the stack of cash. Last time I had this amount of cash after changing money was in Ghana. 

I realized that since everyone here used dollars or digital payment anyways, changing into this pile of cash might not be a smart thing. But I thought it would be funny to pay. And my first try was at a bakery. I bought some cookies and a coke. 47 000 (About $4.50). I pulled out one of the wads of money. And split it around half. Gave the one half to the guy. And he obviously knew how to count. With a steady hand, he flipped through the notes in a few seconds. He pointed a finger in the air. One more note. 47 000. I sat down and enjoyed the cookies. I was burning money here. It felt...interesting.

Donkey pulling water-barrel

I went back to my hotel for some relaxing and cooling off. And to check the map for where a few of the sights around Hargeisa were located. I found that one of them was located just a couple of blocks away from the money market... So I could have gotten two for the price of one walk. Of well. Not that I don't like walking. After cooling off for a while, I ventured out again in the afternoon heat. The first stop was the Mig monument. This is a Mig fighter used to bomb Hargeisa back when they wanted independence from the military regime in Somalia. They have put one of them on top of a monument. It had fallen into disrepair. Or maybe it was war damaged? I dunno. But an interesting monument it was. 

Next up was the tank monument. Just a few blocks away. It was...well. sorta...a tank. But it wasn't real. Just a sculpture of one. Kinda weird looking too. Granted, I am not a leading expert on tanks. But anyway.

As I walked further, I noticed the map said "Pizza Hut". Really? In Somaliland? I hadn't seen any other foreign fast food restaurants anywhere, so I expected to see a small shop with Pizza Hut painted on it. But no, it did indeed look like a Pizza Hut. With the logo and color scheme and everything. In Somaliland? Didn't go in thought. So it might have been a case of "copyright infringement"...

I had promised to bring back some candies from Somaliland if I could find some. Imagine then, when I found that there was a candy shop just a short walk from my hotel. And the description on TikTok said "40 000 square feet of candies. The owner keeps over $5 million of merchandise in his shop". 40 000 square feet of candies? $5 millions worth of candies? WOW! This will be the closest thing to heaven a sweet tooth like me have ever been. 

I walked down to the shop as soon as it opened. And was...underwhelmed. I had to check the map to see if I was in the right place. Yup. This was it. It wasn't 40000 Sqf. More like 400. And I would find more candies in the pick'n mix section of a corner shop in Norway than here. And all the candy were of the "gummy type". All of which where soggy due to the heat. The woman sitting behind the counter looked disinterested in me. So I just "checked" the inventory before I left. Talk about downer! Arrrrrgh! I know they chew khat here, but whoever wrote that piece about this candy shop, must have been chewing on something spicey they found near a chemical dump.

Disappointed by the candy shop, I started looking for the place I wanted to check out for dinner. A barbeque place. I found it, and decided...neuuuu. It looked like the place you would go to in preparation for breaking the world record in exploding diarrhea. So I settled for dinner in the hotel restaurant. I chose an old fav. Tikka masala. With what the menu called mango "smothei". If given the choice, I would have gone for a mango lassi. Turned out, the "smothei" was indeed a lassi. Ah! Not a bad end to a long day. Ending with a smile!

Ragnar

Traveller with a sweet tooth