Yemen - Part III


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Middle East » Yemen
January 1st 2007
Published: January 2nd 2007
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Spices at the marketSpices at the marketSpices at the market

At the market in Amran I found this spice vendor

The northern regions



First I'd like to try to give you an idea about how it looks in Yemen and what things that strikes me as different from home. I find this a bit difficult to describe things like that but I hope you get an idea from this list


* In the smaller towns the streets are sometimes unpaved
* The land is mainly very dry and dusty
* There is often a layer of dust on the streets and on buildings
* Some days the air is thick with dust
* The main roads are paved but there are often potholes in the roads
* There is almost always rubbish littering the streets. The rubbish consists mainly of plastic bags and plastic bottles
* Markets are often crowded, busy and noisy
* Men often wear suit jacket, trowsers and a big dagger in a belt over the stomach
* In smaller villages and smaller towns some men wear a Kalashnikov over the sholder
* Men very often carry around a plastic bag with khat and they chew khat all afternoon
* Women mostly wear black dress covering the entire body including the face. Only the eyes
CisternsCisternsCisterns

Cisterns in a hill village on the way to Sa'da
and hands can be seen
* The restaurants are busy and noisy and they almost never have any menu
* Five or six times a day prayer calls are sounded from the minarets
* Cars are plentyful and they blast their horns more often than not
* It is warm but not hot at this time of the year


Hopefully that gave you an idea of what it looks like here.

One funny thing I can mention is how they prepare food in the restaurants in this country. They heat the food over an open flame coming from a furnace. The flame is up to half a meter high (1,5 feet) and reminds more of a roaring flame thrower than a place for heating food. It works excellently though. The food is ready in minute and tastes good.

Over the last days we have come to realise that we have chosen a bad time of the year to travel here. It's a holiday at the moment called Eid al-adha. This is one of the most important holidays in the muslim world. This means that for a week pretty much the whole country of Yemen is closed
Hill villageHill villageHill village

Hill village on the way to Sa'da
down. The most important services are available to us. There are shops open selling us water and snacks, there are restaurants open so we can still find food and there are Internet places open so we can still read news and write emails. But 4 out of 5 of all small shops, restaurants and Internet places are closed so we have to look much longer for what we need.
Some markets are closed down completely for this week. This has caused us to miss one the most interesting sites in Yemen - the gun market in Suq at-Talh. Some museums are closed and most government agencies are not open from Friday last week to Friday this week. Specialised shops, like the one I tried to get in touch with yesterday trying to find a special battery for my camera, are closed and don't open until Saturday. We survive and we don't have any big problems. But it is a little bit annoying that so much is closed.

I would like to tell you a little story from Sayun here that I forgot to write in my latest entry. In the morning one day in Sayun we went to the
Hill villageHill villageHill village

Hill village on the way to Sa'da
bus company and asked for tickets to Sana'a. The clerk shook his head and said that the buses were all full over the next days. But when we left the bus station both Ivan and I had a feeling that something was not right. Why didn't he take a look at the booking lists? Why didn't he suggest us to buy a ticket a day or two later? There were also other things that we felt were not right in there. We decided not to worry and not make any other arrangements for our trip back to Sana'a. In the evening we went back to the bus station and asked the guy who were sitting there then if there were any tickets to Sana'a. Yes of course, he said, and sold us three tickets. When we looked at the booking list we noticed that the bus wasn't even half full. Why the guy in the morning wanted to give us a hard time we'll probably never know. We got our tickets in the end and we can't be bothered with clerks who are being fools. In the end, what did we lose? Not more than 20 minutes of our time.
Fortress Fortress Fortress

Senara fortress outside Sa'da
What did we gain from this? A good story. It was worth the 20 minutes.

I might as well tell you another story from this trip. In many countries in the world US citizens are not very popular for various reasons. Especially in Yemen it can give you problems since there are people here that resent the fact the USA invaded Iraq in 2003. So to avoid unnecessary problems, when asked where they come from Ivan and Harvey either let me answer "Sweden" and let people think they are from Sweden too or they say that they are from Canada. One day we met some other tourists. As usual Harvey said he was from Canada. The problem was, the other tourists were Canadians. Real Canadians, not fake ones. But Harvey got away with it. They never managed to see through the little lie he told.

Over the last few days we have been travelling to the north of Yemen and back and we have been travelling to mountain villages around Sana'a.

In the north we fist came to a city called Sa'da. This is the main city of the north, only about 50 kilometers (35 miles) from
Harvey and guardsHarvey and guardsHarvey and guards

Harvey posing with our guards
the border with Saudi Arabia. There are some tensions between Yemen and Saudi Arabia and there is also a lot of drug trafficking going on between the two countries. Therefor westerners aren't allowed to travel much closer to the border than that. Strictly it isn't a very good idea even to go to Sa'da because this is tribal areas and the central government doesn't always have full control on what is going on in the north. But we thought we could try our luck for three days. A bit foolish maybe, but sometimes there are things interesting enough that they make it worth to take a chance. Besides, the tribal people are not murderers. They abduct westerners to put pressure on the government but they never really hurt their hostage.

The reason for us to take the chance of going to the north in spite of the dangers is the Suq at Talh weapons market. At this market anyone can buy things like guns from the 19th century, Smith & Wesson revolvers, hand grenades, SAM missiles and, of course, the most popular weapon in the World - the Kalashnikov AK-47. But because of Eid al-Adha the market was closed. Or at
Children dressed upChildren dressed upChildren dressed up

Children dressed up for celebrations during the Eid al-Adha holiday
least that is what the police told us. It might be that they were afraid of our safety and therefor didn't want us to roam around in Suq at Talh.

To ensure our safety during our visit in the north we were accompanied by policemen most of the time. This came as a bit of a surprise to us because nobody had told us about that. This is not as strange as it may sound. There are lots of things happening around us that nobody tell us about. But thanks to the police our visit in Sa'da was made somewhat safer. Not that I actually felt threatened without them, but their presence made sure that we had nothing to worry about. In a way it was lucky for us that the police officers followed us around because in the morning on the day we spent in Sa'da an old man with beard was executed in Iraq. This event wasn't very popular among people here in Yemen. Most of Yemenis don't care very much. But one man actually started arguing with us and blaming us for killing Mr SH saying that we would answer to Allah for that. That was
Wadi DahrWadi DahrWadi Dahr

The rock castle in Wadi Dahr
the only thing that happened to us in the north that could be considered as threatening to us. And that was only a man who was a bit upset and he found someone to yell at for a while.

In Sa'da I walked around for an hour in the morning. I then noticed that many children were dressed up in their best clothes. After a while I realised that they must be dressed up for some kind of celebration in connection with the Eid al-Adha. Many of the children were dressed up like grownups. The girls were carrying handbags and the boys had nice suit jackets on. They all looked really cute!

The second thing of interest that we saw in Sa'da was the Senara fortress. I don't know much about this fortress. It is not mentioned in my guidebook and in fact we didn't know it existed before we arrived to it. It was a nice but had a neglected feel over it. Walls and ceilings were falling down and parts of it were not entirely safe to enter. Since we couldn't visit the weapons market we for a while thought that our visit to the north
Wadi DahrWadi DahrWadi Dahr

The rock palace in Wadi Dahr
was going to be all a waste of time. But the visit to Senara saved the trip for us.

On the way back to Sana'a we visited the rock palace in Wadi Dhahr. The rock palace is spectacularly built on top of and also inside a freestanding rock. It is one of those places almost everybody who come to Yemen visit. It is near Sana'a so it is easy to visit it and it is also special and interesting enough to be worth a visit. Look at the photos and you'll understand what I mean.

The day after we arrived in Sana'a we visited a few mountain villages in the surroundings. In this country there are lots of mountain villages. The villages were most likely placed on mountain tops or at the side of mountains for defence reasons. To us they are absolutely great because we can take some really nice photos of them. Other than that the villages aren't much to mention in the blog. They are nice to walk around in for a while and the views from the villages are spectacular.

On this day we also visited a village named al Qabil near Sana'a.
ThillaThillaThilla

The mountain village Thilla west of Sana'a
Just by coincidence we there found a family who lived in a cave. We didn't get close enough to talk to them or anything. For obvious reason I have no idea why these people live in a cave rather than a real home. It must be a terrible situation for them whatever the reason is.

Next we are going to travel in the south. The day we arrive back in Sana'a again Ivan and I are going to leave Yemen and go home. Therefor it will probably take a week or so before I get around to adding the next entry to this blogg.


Additional photos below
Photos: 15, Displayed: 15


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Children in ThillaChildren in Thilla
Children in Thilla

These two girls are probably sisters
Two men with Kalashnikov Two men with Kalashnikov
Two men with Kalashnikov

Quite often men have weapons slung over their sholders. Almost always the weapon of choice in the Russian made automatic rifle Kalashnikov
Women in traditional dressWomen in traditional dress
Women in traditional dress

This is the traditional dress for women here in Yemen. Black dress covering everything but hands and eyes.
Cave homeCave home
Cave home

This cave outside Al Qabil is home for a family.
Girl with blue eyesGirl with blue eyes
Girl with blue eyes

This girl has blue eyes. It is unusual around here but not unheard of


2nd January 2007

Ake: I feel like I've been visiting Yemen, without the dust! thank you. I can't wait for the next installment. You have a real gift with words, considering english isn't your first language.
2nd January 2007

Thanks for the updates
Thanks for putting all of the photos up. They are very interesting. I'm a friend of Ivan's from way back. Please say hello to the Follenders for me!
2nd January 2007

Problem är till för att lösas
Yemen- ett land omöjligt för mig att besöka.Hårda linser+sand och blåst=omöjligt.Jag skulle inte vara seende i många minuter. Tur att jag får vara med på resan såhär på avstånd.
5th January 2007

Thank you!!
Great stories and great pics. I am a friend of the Follenders and have enjoyed staying informed of all of your adventures!! Have safe travels home.
12th December 2008

Hi There!
Hi
7th December 2009

ya man its yemen
thanx for posting these information . im from yemen from Sadah where the gun market u was thinking to visit Suq al-talh..... i live in london but i miss the yemeni ,,,,,, i dnt want the clean streets because in yemen hearts are clean thats why" i bit u have noticed this but u didnt mention it , thanks again. Hamid
14th April 2010

This helped me so much for a project I had to do for World Geography. Thank you so much.
18th September 2010
Wadi Dahr

wonderful
its sublime work........................)
2nd November 2011
Wadi Dahr

Wadi Dahr
Beautiful

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