MOTO CAFE

Welcome to the Moto Cafe - it is not the "original" Moto Cafe, but below there is a link to the Original. I suggest that you take a tour of the host's trip to India! Very worthwhile-and relaxing if you need a break from your routine here in (britain) (canada) (america) (sweden) (russia) (jordan) (france).

The Moto Cafe is on the side of a 7,000 foot high plateau in Eritrea. I drove down the mountain one Saturday morning, following the beautiful tiled highway that leads, eventually, to Massawa on the Red Sea. About 40 kilometers down the mountain I came to the Cafe.

It is an old building, built into the mountain and overgrown with vines and plants. A wooden porch bends down to allow you in the front door. An old black dog named Bubbles, mostly hair, lies on the porch, smiling at you as you push past him to get thru the screen door.

The first time I visited the Moto Cafe, I remember seeing two old men playing chess in the corner. They were drinking steaming hot tea, taking long, slow sips in between moves on the chess board. I was thinking this was peculiar, as it was about 107 degrees....but I have since taken up the custom myself. There is a long marble-topped bar in the Cafe, with old-fashioned drink dispensers and ice cream holders. A huge stainless steel cylinder full of "Vanille" sits by the drink dispensers.

Along the back wall, there are two sofas-one new and one old. The old one is covered with a heavy floral patterend velvet like cloth. Pillows from around the world scattered over the couch. The new sofa is a sort of natural pine scandanavian design type thing, without any cushions....just the bare wood. I could never figure out whether it had been designed that way or if the cushions just hadn't arrived yet.

That first time I came in, I had left my 1932 Fiat sedan parked just outside under a large palm tree. A thin man in his fourties came in after about ten minutes to tell me that I had had a flat tire, but that he and his brother had fixed it and they were wondering if I might buy them a pot of tea in payment for their services. I did. Tesfai and Malik then proceeded to tell me the stories of their lives - how they had fought in the resistance aginast the Italian invaders and how they now worshipped the mighty Emperor who had saved his country! Meeting them changed my life, but I don't think they had really changed my tire.

But today when I came in, there was a different crowd. Arnie and Jane were playing chess at the back table. Arnie is a large man from Iowa, a designer and humorist. Jane is a petit Russian woman, and next to her on the table I noticed a stack of French philosophy books.

On the old sofa, surrounded by photographic gear and an artist's box of paints, an interesting character from Amman, Jordan. His name is Ahmed Khaldi and it turns out that he is a web-designer and fine artist.

On the new "sofa" there is a small scottish terrier(named Tracy). She is pulling on a a piece of rope. On the other end of the rope is a man named Milo Marks.

Milo is a world-traveller and mathematician. He is wearing a most distinctive hat that his mother once gave him....a grey-green tweed hat that seems oddly appropriate, despite the intense heat.

At the bar, currently hugging the icy-cold cannister of vanille is a blonde Swedish woman, Eva-Lena. She has a stack of notebooks next to her, an old leather pouch full of pens and pencils, and a laptop computer. But right now she is hugging the vanilla cannister and talking to an artist named Alp Ozbereker. Alp has a sketchbook open in front of him, the pages covered with colourful little bits of imagination. Flying people, dogs with wings, buildings designed by aliens.

Looking quite beautiful in a low cut summer dress, AND painting the illustration of the Cafe that you see above, is Ana Nelson, who tends bar and keeps her artist's eye on everything that goes on here.

Today is an interesting day at the Cafe. I have been coming here now for thirty years. I have met many interesting characters here, but none so interesting as the people here today.