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Published: December 15th 2009
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Felix Airways flight back to Sana'a took 2:45 stopping in Mukhalla and Aden! The captain is quite cool he told us what we will see in the air so we can take our cameras out and take fotos. We saw Qalansiah beach from the top again, and some small islands in the Socotra archipelago, we only got served water all the way through Sana'a, no food, sucks! At Mukhalla airport there is a couple of crashed airplanes still in the grassy area near the tarmac, scary, they should put it away so we dont get scared! Same thing in Aden airport! Took heaps of fotos of sceneries from the plane, deserts in Mukhalla area and some towns and sea and beach and busy city in Aden and also saw an extinct volcano near the sea, cool!Behind me sat 2 "socialites", 2 elderly women one Brit and the other American,both expat wives laughing so loud and boisterous, they talk about their world travels, " honey,, we did this and that when we were in Barcelona.." I wanted to shut them up. I have to suffer for couple hours, my mp3 helped a lot to block them out.
Arriving in Sana'a a
transport bus took us to the terminal from the plane but the terminal is locked! We have to wait for them to open the doors, my backpack came out right away and I got myself a taxi to Golden Dar for $10. Old station wagon type taxi the man does not know where exactly the hotel when we got to the old town and have to ask around. Met Ziad there, i settled in my old room amd we went to have lunch, I wanted meat so we went to a kebab place, sat outside , was raining so we moved inside. Then I needed internet, I had 400 emails to sort out! Walked with Ziad to buy his flight ticket to Taiz, $25 for locals half the price foreigners pay! Then he showed me where the immigration police office, across from National museum and then off to dinner where we met Tamon something, the Japanese dude I met on my 1st day and another Jap who speaks good English, we have the same itinerary for Haraz so we agreed to meet up there.
The next morning I started the day by having breakfast at the rooftop,nice sunny weather
better than last night raining on and off. I walked to the immigration registration at the police station near the museum, I showed the guard the paper that Abdul wrote registration in Arabic, the dude indicated I need to call the man doing the registration, he wrote the number in Arabic, I explained to him I can't read it and I have no phone, realizing quickly that I am not leaving until this man gets there, he took it upon himself to find someone to call for me, his phone is dead, so another security guard made the call, and I was told to sit down and he is coming, all in sign language. Meanwhile A young boy of 10 came with his Dad who works there, he speaks English and he entertained me for the 1 hour I have to wait for the guy, I taught some more words, and he told me the names of the people around us while we sat in front of the station people watching. Everytime I ask if the man is coming, the guard would charade the act of driving, meaning he is on his way? maybe.. I hope.. moments later commotion came
when this taxi pulls up and we have to give him the way, the boy pointed to me, that is the man, but there was no one in the back seat, then I realized it was the taxi driver himself who is the immigration officer. He doubles as a taxi driver, no wonder the charade of a man driving, they literally meant it!(ha, ha)
The man shook my hand and asks for my passport quickly and with his cell phone calculated how long ago since I arrived in Yemen, the stamp in the visa indicates registration within 2 weeks of arrival, he did the paper work in his office in Arabic, stamps my passport and off I go. Then off to the internet place to read my mails, the city is quiet, hardly anything open, I stopped by the impressive National Museum, great collections of artifacts from different regions of Yemen and from there I stopped by the Military Museum, the man won't sell me tickets as it closes in 20 minutes, come back at 3pm, I begged him to sell me the ticket now and I won't be long. He did and in I go, the guard asked
me camera? I told him i had none, great collection of military stuffs, guns and all, no fotos from what I understand but the locals take fotos with their cell phones so I did the same. There is a statue in the middle of the room, quite impressive, I think it was an ancient soldier, in the middle of the room alongside the cars. We got booted out eventually and I walked back to the hostel.
I found Abdul and Amin the caretakers of the hotel getting ready to chew qat. Amin offered me some but I turned it down, I did not sleep a wink the last time I tried it, he said qat makes him horny and he needed 3 ladies, I stopped him there, trully these dudes are horny! even in Socotra the fellows will chat me up and eventually the conversation would end up about women and sex., they told me qat makes them horny and pervy. I went back to my room for a nap then off to the tourism police to get a permit to travel outside of Sana'a. There were heaps of gringos, it was chaotic, they entertain everyone at the same
Sana'a
National Museum time and took me more than an hour to sort out my permit, they issued me a permit but made me promise I will not travel tomorrow until I checked with them if the permit approval went through. I was a bit confused but I said I will just to get out of there. I have to fill out a form indicating where I am going, enumerating all the places then the dates I will be there, I just made up days, the permit issued in Sana'a only says the dates I can travel from when to when so I hope it wont be a problem if I change my plans. They also made me sign the photocopy of my passport saying I will check with them before I leave tomorrow. Later Josh told me there is some protest going on in Aden and probably that is why they hesitate to let us out of Sana'a if we wrote Aden in the sheet.
Back in the hotel, I waited for Josh, he did not turn up so I went for a walk only to turn back because it started raining. When I got back he is in the lobby
Sana'a
National Museum filling up the guest form. He stopped by the tourist police that is why he is late. We dropped his stuff in the room and we looked for internet again. After that we looked for dinner, we found a kebab place, this dude is funny to ask directions or ask a questions to the locals he would yell hey or oy out loud, I felt embarrased at first but then he said they dont know what he meant anyway he just wanted to get their attention quick, I remember Ziad does the same, he yells to the waiters from where we are seated to ask for tea or water, so it is normal here I guess.
After dinner we checked out some antique shops, we found some nice jambias which I might be keen on buying on my last day in Yemen. Back in the hotel, power went out and the generator does not give us light in our room, luckily it came back on soon enough. Off to bed, tomorrow to Haraz mountains.
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