Yemen
Trip Start
Jun 19, 2007
1
14
Trip End
Aug 18, 2007
Sanaa, Yemen
Saturday, June 23, 2007
onboard a flight full of Arabs. There was only one other non-Arab that I
could see - a white woman that appeared to be traveling alone. Upon entering
the airport I obtained my visa for 30 US dollars and was ushered to a counter
with no line labeled 'Diplomats'. In a matter of minutes I was through
immigration and I almost felt sorry for the mob of Arabs left behind in long
lines with their screaming children. Almost.
Stepping outside it was obvious to me that I was no longer back in the UAE.
It was much cooler here. Of course, ANYWHERE is cooler than the Hell on earth
of the UAE in the summer. The weather was cooler but not exactly nice. It was
very overcast and the air was quite dusty.
After hopping into a cab I got another big indicator that this wasn't the
UAE. Before we got out of the parking lot, a local woman came to the window
of my cab and started begging for money. She was wearing an obaya-the
traditional all black gown with headdress that covers the face. The driver
shooed her away with obvious unkind words and she shot him a glare of pure
hatred from her only visible features before moving on to the next car in
line.
This was a bit of a shock. In my current home such a thing is unthinkable.
The local women live such pampered lives; most don't even need to work let
alone beg.
As we left the airport I had a fantastic time people watching on the drive to
the hotel. The men here have such a unique way of dressing. Many of them are
wearing a gown type garment which I was told is called a futwa. It's not so
different from the candora worn back in the Emirates except that they are
more casual and tend to come in more colors. What really sets the Yemeni men
apart from any other group you'll see in the Middle-East (or anywhere) is the
traditional jambiya they have jutting out from their belts. It's an
ornamental curved dagger and nearly every other man you see walking around
is wearing one. It's great! Another interesting thing about their style is
the fact that they also where a standard western suit jacket over their
futwas. It's such a bizarre clash of style and culture, but it somehow works.
Once I got checked into my hotel I rested for a bit and then headed out into
old Sanaa. It was midday at this point and most shops were closed. There
were, however, scads of children out in the streets playing. School was out
for summer apparently. Roaming through the narrow streets I could understand
why this part of the city had been declared a World Heritage Site. The
buildings were mostly light brown and, oddly, they seemed taller here in the
old city than any other place in Sanaa. It was quite pleasant walking through
the mostly empty streets and occasionally passing a mosque with a tall
minaret rising high above the other buildings.
During my stroll I encountered a boy named Abas who told me in passable
English that he could show me around. I initially declined but he was
persistent and I was probably lost at that point so I decided to let him
guide me. Abas turned out to be an interesting kid who had picked up a lot of
different languages. He told me he could speak some German, Italian and French.
I asked him if he could speak any Spanish and he just said, 'Italian, Spanish
same same.' When I got back to my hotel I gave him a tip and rested for a bit
before going out for some dinner.
At the restaurant I had a nice meal of chicken and hommus. Not exactly exotic
when you live in the middle-east. With a full belly I went back to roaming
many of the same streets I had seen at midday and Old Sanaa had come alive.
The market area was bustling with activity now and
all the empty narrow streets had turned into jam packed rivers of people. I
waded through the mobs for an hour or so but didn't see anything that really
interested me. I had heard rumors of stalls selling machine guns but I was
never able to find one. The one thing I did see a lot of were men walking
around with one cheek bulging out like a hamster storing food. They were all
chewing qat.
Qat is the drug of choice in Yemen. It's a leafy plant that you stuff into
one of your cheeks for hours and chew. It's also a stimulant and
reminded me of the miners I saw in Bolivia years ago who did the same thing
with cocoa leaves. Oh, and it's addictive.
It was comical how qat is so much a part of these people's lives. Virtually
every taxi or truck driver I saw had enormous wads of the stuff bulging out
so far it was a wonder they didn't get stretch marks. It's also funny in how
hypocritical this rampant drug use is. As an Islamic country alcohol is
strictly forbidden and yet the average Yemeni is spending 30% of his income
on qat!
My second and final day in Yemen, I decided to go to a qat souq (market).
The taxi driver dropped me off and I was surprised to see that the 'souq' was
just a bunch of guys in a parking lot sitting under various beach umbrellas.
Under each umbrella sat a qat dealer with many, many plastic bags full of
green leafy qat. I wandered around and took pictures until a couple of guys
sitting in the back of a truck waved some qat at me as an offer. When in
Rome...
The guy handed me a few leafy stems and, being the amateur, I started
plucking the leaves off and shoving them in my mouth. They had a little
chuckle and then one of them leaned in close and said, 'No, like camel.' He
then grabbed some qat and shoved it, stem and all, in his mouth. I followed
his lead and began shoving more of the stuff in my mouth. It didn't taste
very good but I was suddenly the main attraction in the qat souq, as a small
crowd formed to watch the goofy foreigner try his hand at qat chewing. We all
had a nice laugh and after I had formed a reasonable qat pack in my cheek I
offered to pay and they refused my money with a smile. I walked back to my
hotel, not feeling particularly stimulated, and spit out the big green wad in
the trash.
That afternoon. I got to the airport very early and boarded an Ethiopian
air flight to Addis Ababa.
My quick impression of Yemen- for what it's worth being there only a day
and a half-is overall good. Yemen really is classic Arabia in the modern world.
The people are poor and they seem to lack the arrogance that can often be
found in other parts of the oil rich Middle-East. I never once felt unsafe,
either. For anyone that's interested in real Arabian culture or the language,
this is definitely the place to go. And it's so cheap!
Ethiopia next...
