Things You Need to Know Before Traveling to Ethiopia

Ethiopia is a landlocked country located in East Africa, particularly Horn of Africa. It is renowned for its rich cultural heritage dating back to 3 million (3,000,000) years ago, and is exceedingly gaining attention from traveler community.

Ethiopians measure time quite differently; they follow the 12-hour system and count cycles from dawn to dusk and dusk to dawn.

Ethiopia follows a different calendar and runs 7 to 8 years behind the Gregorian calendar. The current year in Ethiopia would be somewhere around 2013.

According to Ethiopian calendar, there are 13 months in a year; with all 12 months with 30 days and the last month called Pagume having 5 days in general and 6 days in a leap year.

Ethiopian coffee is pretty strong. It may get quite overpowering for you, if you are a beginner.

Ethiopia is located at a higher altitude than plains. Therefore,  spend some time acclimatizing once you are there, otherwise it may lead to nausea, headache, and dizziness.

The country has been called Ethiopia internally for at least 1600 years but to the outside world it was Abyssinia. In 1931, the Emperor Haile Selassie requested the world to use Ethiopia as the country's name.

Ethiopia is second-most populous African country, and one of the fastest growing economies of the world.

The birr is the official currency of Ethiopia. However, most of the establishments also accept US dollars in exchange. Euro is another preferred currency.

Ethiopian food often does not need utensils. It is a common trend to eat the meal on injera – Ethiopian version of flatbread.

One of the species of Ethiopian malaria is chloroquine resistant. So, make sure you have the needed medicines handy while visiting Ethiopia.