Somalia is often regarded as the most dangerous country in the world, and I'd agree that Mogadishu is by far the most dangerous city on earth. But like all places, one or two parts of a country doesn't represent the entire nation and likewise Somalia has several different regions to explore. I spent this entire trip visiting the northern part of the country known as Somaliland. Several parts of Somalia are controlled by different governments and militias, with Somaliland's government being the most effective. I still plan to visit the two other main regions of Somalia which includes the pirate controlled Puntland in the east, and the militant controlled Mogadishu area in the south. I even considered Puntland and Mogadishu on this trip but was told I'd need to hire at least 10 guards who would cost me $100 each per day and hire a second vehicle which would cost $200 per day. On top of that, I was told there was still the risk that I could pay several thousand for a few days of protection but risk a chance that the guards would keep the money and turn me over to militants. Those regions have been put on hold, but in 2011 it seems that Al Shabab, the main militant organization in Mogadishu has been driving out and significant progress has been made, so I hope things are getting better and maybe this devastated city might become stable enough for me to safely visit someday.

I wasn't quite sure what to expect when I arrived to the west capital of Hargeisa, but definitely not a full rainbow when I stepped off the plane! My picture was rushed since I didn't want to be questioned for photography at the airport, but this was the most amazing rainbow I've seen in my life, I regret not having a decent photo of it. The local Somalis with me encouraged me to take more photos but being that I had been in this country for literally minutes and wasn't sure of the rules, the last thing I wanted was a problem with local authorities. After my trip, I realized Somaliland doesn't have a phobia of photography and so I simply made a bad choice here. The other photo on the top left is of the capital of western Somalia, known as Hargeisa. With a population of about 1.3 million people, it is Somalia's second largest city after Mogadishu, and the chaos and anarchy that plagues the entire country actually began right here.

History lesson on Somalia! Somalia became a single and independent nation in 1960, and at first, was seen as a role model African country. Within a decade, a coup led by Siad Barre put him in power and he ruled with a dictatorship like regime. Stability slowly began to deteriorate and angry citizens began forming rebel groups. Eventually, the rebels in what is now Somaliland were able to put together a strong enough army that was powerful enough to remove Siad Barre's grip from the area. Of course losing control of part of his country did not sit well with Siad Barre, and he reacted like any good dictator would and sent fighter planes to bomb rebel cities across Somalia. This was the start of the civil war, and Somalia has never been the same since. Hargeisa itself was seen as the main rebel city, and routinely bombed with almost every building leveled. On the left is a depiction of the an early battle of bloody civil war that took place in Hargeisa.

The civil war raged on, and in 1991 Siad Barre was overthrown and Somalia was divided into several regions, none officially recognized by any foreign countries as independent. Above is a monument of a hand showing the panhandle of Somalia known as Somaliland. On the right is an aircraft from the civil war that occurred in the late 1980s, with the bloody mural painted right below it. Towards the end of this trip, I had a taxi driver who spoke excellent English and talked about his time as a soldier in the rebel group known as the SNM, or Somali National Movement. He described the destruction of Hargeisa with great detail and emotion, describing everything in flames and how no building had survived the bombing of Siad Barre. He repeatedly emphasized how the city was so chaotic that hyenas had come and were living in the streets.

Above are some photos of the people of Somalia; I'd have guessed the clothing here would would be all black and more conservative, but instead I was surprised to find a variety of beautiful and colorful clothing. I'd expect Hargeisa to be considered a liberal city by Mogadishu standards but this is just an assumption. This Muslim nation is virtually 100% Sunni Islam, and Somalia first began to see Islamic influences in the 7th century. Note the man with the orange hair and beard on the right. Some follow beliefs that you may dye a white beard any color except for black. The common way of doing this is by the use of henna, which starts as a dark color but eventually turns orange.

The surrounding photos are from Hargeisa's main market. Above is the outskirts of the market; a truck passing by a stand with T-shirts for sale, and a donkey attached to a cart used to pull goods. Below are two photos of a huge area of the market that sold nothing but shoes. It honestly seemed like there were enough shoes here to provide everyone in the capital with a pair, so I'm not sure how it's possible that these guys make money with all the competition and their huge inventory Other parts of the market here sold silver and plenty of random pieces of clothings and household items I actually bought some fake Rayban sunglasses here along with a belt for a dollar each, or 6,000 Somali Schillings.

The markets in Hargeisa also and have plenty of currency exchangers lining the street. At the time of my visit, one dollar was equal to 6,000 schillings, with the largest bill being 500 schillings. So if you change $100, you'd have to carry 1,200 bills in your pocket! Above is myself in one of the markets, and on the left the currency exchangers. The giant piles of cash they have isn't worth as much as you think since the exchange rate is so bad. If those were $20 bills then I'd assume those piles would be a few million, but instead as schillings they are probably more in the few thousands. Religious laws here prevent stealing, so these currency exchangers have little fear of being robbed. I'd imagine a thief walking out with stolen money would have just as much to fear from the locals as the police since mob assaults can be common in this part of the world for those who steal. Personally I wasn't too worried walking around this market, but one of my armed guards was walking around with his AK-47 as if I might be attacked at any moment. I honestly believe he was either trying to look cool in front of everyone or impress me with his authority.

These two photos are from just outside Hargeisa, the one on the left was about 30 miles away. The small village there seems to have its local economy based off of charcoal, which is what you see for sale in the bags stacked up along the road. There were several more collections of these in the village, but they also sold food and of course served tea here. Above is a group of camels being marched to their death. I was told that these camels were being herded to the butchery where they will be eaten.

While traveling outside of Hargeisa, by local laws I had to be escorted by armed guards. There are several police blocks around the city and you'll be quickly turned around if you don't have an escort for your own protection. I was well ware of this before I had left the United States, but once I tried to arrange transportation I was explained by my hotel staff that two armed guards were required. I told them I had never heard of two guards being required but they responded it was a new law because of foreigners being attacked in Somaliland. Having done a lot of research prior to my trip I found this difficult to believe, but then again safe is better than sorry. Who was I to arrive to a new country and explain to locals how safe it was and what there laws were? The only thing I was confident about with this arrangement was that I was being ripped off and lied to. After some arguing I figured I'd accept it for time being and find out what was right and wrong as my trip progressed. Above is one of the two guards that was sent to accompany me and a photo of a police outpost on the right that we stopped in front of.

After I got my guards to join me we had to do one last stop in the outskirts in Hargeisa to get some water and fuel. Above you can see a humble shop on the left and an auto repair shop on the right, where the guy was actually checking our tire pressure for us. Cigarette smoking is in gas stations is apparently legal here in Somalia. You were even allowed to smoke cigarettes on the flight I took!

On a road trip north, we came across a swollen river since it had just rained the night before. I forgot to mention that this area of Somalia is located over 4,000 feet, so it can be cloudy and rainy instead of the dry desert like lower elevations. The rain storms I saw during my stay here seemed to be a lot more frequent than normal. Some locals I talked to told me they had never seen this much rain in their life!

I was worried about coming across some bandits or a small battle after I left the city of Hargeisa, especially after my dealings with the douchebags back at my hotel and their description of the dangers on the open road. I suppose perhaps they weren't exaggerating, because within an hour of leaving the city we came across a battle of two camels right off the side of the road. I'm not sure why my guards were so concerned, but when they saw the camels fighting they immediately pulled over and ran out the car screaming and hitting the camels with sticks to try to break up the fight. On the right, you can clearly see the guilt in the camel's eyes for what he has just done.

The region in the open road begin to get scenic as I got closer to my days destination. Above and below are some scenery pictures from an area we stopped in. I saw lots of cacti both in Hargeisa itself and around the city in the rural areas. The two pictures below are of some of the rock formations that also dominate this region. Locals say that ancient Egyptians traded in this area, which seems to be widely accepted. The part that I'm not so sure about is when people claim that the ancient Egyptians saw the mountains in these regions which inspired them for the designs of the pyramids. Above are fruit berries being offered to me that came from a large tree. I'm not sure the name of the tree or the berries but I tried a few and they were pretty good. Later on a trip to Yemen across the gulf I was offered the same berries by locals there.

Above is a nice view after scrambling up some rocky peak. I was told that the pile of rocks on the right were covering human remains in a makeshift grave. I have no idea if these were victims of the civil war or another story altogether.

In 2002, 8 years before my trip here, these surrounding cavemen paintings were discovered by some archeologists. They are believed to have been created between 5,000 and 3,000 BC, making them an incredible 5,000 to 7,000 years old. These cavemen seemed to have an obsession with cows, as that was the majority of their paintings, but they also included people, dogs, and other African animal such as lions and giraffes.

Some of the flora and fauna in this area was pretty unique as well. Like the caveman pictures, this area of the world is almost never visited so there are probably dozens of new species of both plant and wildlife waiting to be discovered. An interesting plant I saw was one that could grow straight out of the rocks. On the left you can see the root of one of these plants which other than the color it almost seems to be part of the rock itself at its base. On the right is another one of these plants; this one is literally growing from the ceiling downward, making it look like the picture has been rotated upside down.

If you drive for just 30 minutes outside of Hargeisa, you can't miss these gigantic tortoises walking around. The second one we saw was actually in the middle of the road, so we had to pull over and move it. I wanted its photo but it wouldn't come out of its shell, a local man even tried to help me out by prying it with a stick.

This type of rodent looks to me like half rat and half squirrel. It was pretty shy and I got a photo of two different ones who were trying to hide. I tried to find out the species of these guys but had no luck on the internet.

From my trip to Sudan, I saw the same exact bird species on the left, so I knew immediately when I saw it; a little bee eater. The gigantic palace of termites on the right was one of many I saw along the way, this one was by far the most unique, not just because of its height, but because it has a large base and tower in the center. Until this trip, Botswana had the largest termite mounds I had ever seen. The animals below are some more common wildlife you'd see all over Africa, the lizard on the lower left, and the large warthog below.

I'm not sure of this species of bird, but it I found it at a higher elevation in Somalia and there were about a dozen nests hanging from small branches. Very colorful!

Back to the road trip, the easiest way to get from city to city in Somaliland is by private taxi with an armed guard to get through the various roadblocks. I heard you can take a public bus from city to city but you'll still need to bring protection so that's kind of pointless. On the left is a crazy taxi driver I hired with his pimped out car. He was arranged by the same corrupt hotel staff I had complained about earlier. When I was ready to leave Hargeisa and head to Berbera, the staff still held on that two guards were required. Unfortunately I hadn't met any other foreigners on this trip so I wasn't able to confirm this, so I went to my room and called the desk and asked them to connect me to my contact in Berbera. Each attempted call resulted in a different person answering the phone, none of them speaking a word of English. It was clear to me that they were intentionally dialing incorrect numbers in order to prevent me from making contact with someone who could tell me what was a fair deal in this country. When I asked if I could dial the number myself they told me I could not. Since I had survived earlier local road trips I no longer believed the dangers they described and I also was no longer worried that they were planning to set me up for a kidnapping and beheading. Although it was a scary thought, after hours of debating I finally gave in and figured I'd not make any problems or piss anyone off here and simply accept getting ripped off again and make things straight once I arrived to Berbera. So the above overly enthusiastic taxi driver picked me up for my trip along with the two guards who sat in the back seat with their guns and off we went, road trip to the beach!

While I'm on the topic of drivers, I should mention the first thing they do after getting payment is stop by somewhere and pick up some khat. Another driver I had later on the trip can be seen holding some while he drives down the highway. Some say this chewable plant has an effect that equivalent to caffeine or even like doing speed. For some, Khat is considered a big problem in east Africa, but to many locals it's like having a beer or coffee and is a huge part of their culture. Above is also a police officer who is holding some khat in his hand; I could tell from his behavior he was using it. He ran up to the car a little too excited saying I'm from Mogadishu, I'm from Mogadishu!

During our road trip, we passed a few people who were less fortunate than us like those who's car had broken down. It was March here so not that hot yet so at least they weren't outside in 100 degree heat. We stopped at a restaurant that seemed to be nothing more than walls built over the sand and a roof put on top with a few feral cats inside. I was offered some goat with other food all shared on a single large dish that I shared with my guards. Though it tasted great, I have to say the goat wasn't visibly appealing since it looked like they had cooked some road kill and served it nearly whole on the table. Like many countries in the region, we ate without silverware which required to reach forward with your bare hands and rip parts of the goat off and stuff your face. I can't say it was my best lunch experience on this trip. On the upper right was one of my motivated guards after having lunch.

A small town I visited by the name of Sheikh is northeast of Hargeisa up in the mountains. The drive from here to Berbera is worth it alone just for the scenery, the town itself didn't seem to have much going on, but it looked a little nicer than Hargeisa and Berbera do. During part of the ride here my driver drove off the road to get me closer to some mountains that I was interested in. I couldn't help but notice many rocks painted with red here that were thrown about the area we were driving. Only an hour ago or so, on the drive up to Sheikh I had seen a foreigner walking around with what I thought was a suit and mask to cultivate bees. I was thinking how strange it was to travel to Somalia and investigate bees here, but then something clicked. I asked my driver, "Hey man, what do these red rocks mean here? Cause in Afghanistan that means land mines". My driver responded he wasn't sure if there were land mines here, but because there were camels in the area they were probably already detonated. I uncomfortably continued the rest of the off road trip hoping that no land mines exploded, which none did.

The drive from Sheikh to Berbera had by far the most amazing scenery I had seen in Somalia so far. The large mountains and windy roads gave me a lot of great photo opportunities, and it was interesting to see that some people even built homes high up here. These photos above were not from the land mine mountains, but the main road that connects the coast to the city of Sheikh. By the way, I am trying to raise funds for an expedition, you can help me out by purchasing the above photo as a small gift card to a large framed version.

Here are some interesting plant life I saw around Sheikh up in the mountains that I hadn't encountered in other parts of Somalia. A strange plant on the upper left, and some small type of cactus on the right. I also came across these monkeys running across the road below.

In less than an hour, the green mountainous scenery eventually turns dry and gives way to some desert terrain and small canyons. Most of the dryness and hotter weather is because you have descended several thousand feet. Despite all the rain we had received, the canyon above was bone dry and looked like it hadn't seen rain in weeks.

Not too much farther though is the coastal town of Berbera. It's Somaliland's largest port city and for centuries was the capital of this region, and later the British capital of Somaliland. Most of the trade in this seaport goes directly 150 miles north to Yemen. Today Berberba has a population of 200,000 people, and is the second most important city for Somaliland after Hargeisa. Once in Berbera I found my friends and realized the atrocious amount of money I was being ripped off by. It wasn't much of a surprise, but it remains the most I've been ripped off on all my travels to this day. Despite their exposure the guards still refused to accept defeat and tried to argue that they had to stay with me or I had to at least pay for their return. Someone who spoke Somali later told me the guards had accepted defeat but it was the taxi driver who was continuing to argue. Eventually though all was well, and the rest of my trip was fair. I should mention Berbera was my third destination on this trip but I only placed it towards the end because I thought showing photos in order from the capital to the coast would be more interesting.

Inside the city of Berbera, there wasn't too much that caught my eye and most of the markets seemed very similar to Hargeisa, just on a smaller scale. The photo above is what a common restaurant looks like, on the right though, was the nicest building in Berbera. This was built in 2008, so it is almost brand new and well kept. The guys here at Telesom were super nice, they even let me come in for free and use their wifi for an hour or two so I could stay in touch with friends.

Above are two photos of Somalia's coast, these are in the north so the water is actually part of the gulf of Aden which is shared with Yemen. On the left, are two kids playing in the water, with an abandoned ship in the background. I walked for several hours along the beach here, and I got a pretty nasty sun burn! Below is a picture of some more kids I saw playing in the water, and a mother and her two sons as well. Somalia's coast is probably most famous for pirates than anything else, who operate up to 600km into the ocean from any point in Somalia.

After leaving Hargeisa, I found out that this part of the world is home to more camels than any other place on earth. The beach was no exception. I walked along the coast for several hours and passed by dozens of wild camels. These camels casually walk the beach in the day time and other than people they have no natural enemies in Somalia, so they enjoy the easy life.

In most western beaches in the US, Europe, South America etc, it might be common to find crab holes and empty beer bottles along the beach. In Somalia, I found it was the same, just instead of beer bottles being left behind there were plenty of old khat sticks still bundled up.

I'm not sure where the densest place in the world is for hermit crabs, but I wouldn't be surprised if that was Somalia as well. It's hard to walk for 60 seconds along the beach without seeing a hermit crab, and they come in all sizes and use a large variety of shells here. The hermit crabs above were two of dozens of others I came across on my walk. The crab on the left I would have missed if I hadn't seen him moving since he has such great camouflage. I also saw a gigantic crab here with a large blue claw but he disappeared into the ocean before I could get a shot of him. The two photos below show some of the terrain right along the beach. Mostly the beach was sandy, but there was some rocky parts with moss growing on it, and I even came across small patches of black sand.

Many Somali's fish for their way of life along the coast. The boat on the right is from a small fishing village, on the left is a recreation boat that was supposed to take me diving but we could never get it into the water because of problems with the timing of the tides. There was a fishing village near where I was staying in Berbera, I regret not going up there and trying to see if I could meet some of the locals or even go out with them in the water early in the morning and see what they brought up with them.

While along the beach I saw a few mongooses running around with bushy tails. They don't appear long and are usually dashing across the terrain, so I was lucky to get the photo on the left. The gazelle on the right was from father up north, but more typical African wildlife.

Here are some more photos along the beach; some large herons I saw looking for fish above, and a collection of seashells and the remains of a sea turtle below.

I waited for days in Berbera for the ocean waters to clear up. Heavy rains for nearly a week caused dirty water to discolor the ocean, so diving would be about impossible because of lack of visibility. I did two shore dives. Above is some plants that were growing close to the coast, on the right was a very green plant deeper in the water.

I liked these two plants above, I called them the underwater flower and the underwater tree. I'm not sure if the coral on the right always grows in a tree like pattern or if it was just a coincidence. It would definitely be an amazing site to see a these grouped together with some color.

I was pretty impressed with my dive here, the colorful fish on the left were hanging around the remains of someone's diving net. As I was swimming I also came through an enormous school of fish on the upper left. I forgot the species down below, but there were dozens of these fish, and they weren't too scared of me so I could get close for better colors. They found something on the lower right and went into a frenzy.

Some more fish from my dive, a groupie on the left, and a strikingly blue fish on the right. I have at least 100 diving photos from this trip.

Abdirizak  from Somalia: haybad waxaad ku leedahay dulkaaga hooysharaf ayyd mudan tihiin wanaaga iyo qurux aadna tusteen ee dhulkeena hooyoo (You  have the most glory, pride and recognition when you are in your motherland.)

Abdinasir from Somalia: Really this report is interesting and important and also it reminded me our culture in some areas of Somalia.

Kayifa from Canada: Your a wonderful photographer! So many young Somalis ( including I) abroad are clueless about their homeland. Your pictures showed me a positive side to Somalia. Thanks for all your hard work!

Dewi from Indonesia: Somalia is beauty country but why now.....there is internal conflict among their own people.... leaf war behind...start new future ....let's joint hands...and help to the new future life...of somalia....for for our children and grandchildren...and for somalians people.....freedom somalia from famine and war....be peace....life....and you will be peace too

Jake from Australia: Whenever we hear about Somalia we just hear about the war and famine but you have showed the true beauty of the nation, great work. Amazing photography.

Jennifer from Somalia: This is such an incredible and insightful look at Somalia. I wish I could go there and see the culture and experience life in Somalia. Thank you for exposing the positive side. I think your little rodent friend you found is a Gray-headed thicket rat.

Barry from UK: A very interesting insite I lived in Berbera 1958 to 1960, your reports of the wildlife both inland and by the seashore have ensured me that even after all the turmoil over the decades they have survived especially the tortoise. A great report.