Blogs from Sana'a, Yemen, Middle East

"Welcome to Yemen" Nous voila arrives au bout du premier vollet de ce voyage. Nos familles peuvent etre rassurees, nous sommes sains et saufs, et pour être honnnetes nous ne nous sommes jamais sentis en grand danger au Yemen... Pourtant, en venant d'Oman, nous avions a traverser une des zones reputees les plus dangereuses du pays, un immense desert qui serait le fief des hommes de Ben Laden. Ce que nous y avons decouvert ressemblait plus a un jardin d'eden qu'a un camps d'entrainement pour apprentis terroristes ! En depis de tous nous efforts pour passer inapercus (Pascal en djelaba !), les deux "fransawis" deviennent rapidement la principale curiosité du bus. "Welcome to Yemen", on nous donne a boire, a manger, a chiquer ... le douanier lui meme insiste pour nous offrir un cadeau de bienvenue ... read more

From the previous post people will know I loved Yemen and had a great time in Sana'a and then in Aden. Travel was restricted by the government, mainly to protect foreigners from the attentions of the tribal folks who like to kidnap people to pressure the GOY to help them - and for money! So this was pretty frustrating, particularly when you are trying to work in the rural sector. Eventually we did get permission to go north from Sana'a City (the capital) to Amran City which lies a couple of hours drive north. Amran is rather unsafe because of its proximity to the area where the Houthi rebels are fighting the government and where there are large numbers of displaced person. But our trip was uneventful and fun. I went with a delightful colleague, Sara ... read more

My Yemitco bus leaves 9am for Sana'a, on my last night I hang out with Seb a French dude that teaches French at a University in Aden, he is also a Couch Surfer host, I wish I contacted him earlier but too late now, he is good fun, in 2 hours of walking the streets in the crater souqs he reminisce about Kazakhstan where he lived for couple years and one of my favorite countries in Central Asia. He laughed when I told him how uneasy it makes me feel when locals stare at you on the streets here in Yemen, he said he is used to it by now. We had a good dinner of some bean dip thing i cant remember the name, right next to the hotel I am staying, he said it ... read more

Lufthansa flight from Frankfurt stops in Addis Ababa, i did not know that! it is not written in my itinerary so at the counter I double checked with the agent and I was told indeed a quick stop to refuel and drop off passengers, I did not mind it really but never thought I will be going back to Ethiopia again, this soon! More than half of the people got off and lots of empty seats for the one hour 20 minute flight. I was at most anxious moment when we landed in Sanaa, this is my 1st time in the Middle East, I did not really know what to expect, shuttle bus took us to the terminal and I immediately got off to be the 1st in line at the visa booth, I was stopped ... read more

Saba hal heir! Alors, les femmes, les femmes...On fait les femmes sont que des voils noirs ou l'unique parte visible son les eux. Pour moi, le monde femenine est interdite. Tout contact peut etre motif du conflict. Par contre mes amies europees m'ont raconte de la vie cache a les hommes. Dans les fetes femenines, les voils noires dispare, et seulmente reste que des habies diminutes et les transparences. Encore pour l'opinion des europees et americaines, les yemeniees sont presque nudes. Mais que est-ce que est alors la raison de cette change de comportament? D'habille tout en noir cache pour un islam radicale et sexiste a une fete que parei presque une orgie femenine. La response nest pas unique. D'un cote, bien sure comme dans tout les pays du monde, les femmes se veux sentir jolies ... read more