Sana'a Part 2

Ok... I will admit I've been a bit lazy and have not updated this blog in almost a year! The pictures I am about to put up are actually about a year old now.. so I have a lot of updating to do!! Anyways.. what I am about to display are my remaining pictures from Sana'a and two little videos. Its a bit of a mix of this and that.. but mostly the capital.

I have also added a few pictures from a very cool professor who I interviewed for my thesis. He gave them to me (possibly accidentally) along with a bunch of other files to help with my thesis. I have lost his email address so I am just hoping he will be cool with me posting a few here.. I thought they were really nice. I'm going to start updating this blog at a more ferocious rate.. not that anyone comes here anymore!! Enjoy :)


... It's about to rain..



The gas lantern during a blackout :)



The majlis (sort of like a living room.. but closer to the floor) at my cousins' place



More pics from my window..


Dont ask why..



A pic of my favourite road in Sana'a.. sooo wide!



Here are some pics from a walk I took one day in Old Sana'aa... An old Yemeni man approached me in the middle of my walk and we talked about things.. I can't remember now.. but he soon lost interest in me and disappeared around the corner... but then I saw him again a few moments later.. ok there is really no point to this story.





I met two young Yemeni guys around here.. One of them asked me for a sip of water from my bottle. So we all talked for a bit.. they were very nice.. should have taken their picture!



Reminds me of that saying.. "Only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun".. as u notice not many people in these pictures! It was a bit hot.. hmmm there's also that other saying.. "I never saw a fat man in the desert".. by some mad British explorer.. i think Richard Burton..



This kid was running up the wall and trying to get through that drainage hole.. He did it a few times.. Keep in mind that there is passing traffic on the road below him!







This kid was cute.. I saw him looking out his window.. so we made eyecontact.. then he waved at me.. I waved back.. we kept waving for a while.. then I pulled out my camera and the little boy just went beserk! He started jumping up and down and going "yaaaaaaay!!" So i took a few pictures.. and then he kept saying "hiiiiiiii!!" His older sisters came out of the house and smiled at me but were very shy and ran off somewhere..



I prayed Zhuhr or Asr in this mosque.. cant remember.. but i do remember the bricks were really hot!



I also checked out one of the art galleries in the old city. It had a nice collection inside.. and I was the only one there! :) So I went all the way to the roof and took pictures of people below ;)



These are typical stalls in the old markets of Sana'a



This is a Jambiya (dagger) one..









Another old historic mosque..





For all you goat/sheep lovers!!



These are more "modern" shops.. most of them have blue doors.. some are green.. others are pink i think.. cant remember now..



Here are two videos I took while I was in Sana'a.. not very good ones either..


This rooster was my friend for many nights.. and days..



this one is from the CALES institute (where i took my arabic lessons), while i was sitting in the courtyard.. .. if u listen closely u can hear the athan (call for prayer)..




This is the inside of a Dabab.. they are like mini-buses that go on predefined routes.. and they are very cheap.. 20 Riyals.. so thats about 10 cents or 5 pence.. you can literally travel across the city. There are no bus stops (but there are gathering areas), you just bang on the side or say "3alaa jamb ya sawaag" and they stop. I would ride them every other day or so.. I made a few friends. One guy who drove around our neighbourhood picked me up and had me sit in front with him. We started chatting away.. he saw that I was wearing a football jersey of the national morrocan team.. so he got all excited and started asking me if i saw the game on tv the other night.. and if i liked so and so player.. Of course I had no idea because I was not following the Morrocan team.. the jersey was a gift from my sister! So I just told him.. "Yea I love that guy.. and no I didnt see the game.. we dont have a tv!" Ok.. I agree that was a bad excuse.. anyways.. he picked me up a second time.. and told everyone in the Dabab that I was a doctor because I was doing my masters, they were all very happy for me, even though I'm not a doctor, but I didnt want to spoil their party.

One day I was standing on the side of the road trying to catch a taxi.. and a slightly crazy old lady started asking me if I knew so and so.. I kept telling her I had no idea who they were.. so anyways, the a Dabab driver stopped in front of me and told me to hop in.. and then gave me the good advice not to talk to crazy women.. he then proceeded to take me where i wanted and ignored his bus route.. he even kicked out one guy and told him to catch the next bus.. he figured he could make more money taking me as a taxi than taking a busload of people as a bus.. very opportunistic. Anyways, I always liked to go in the back corner of the buses.. dont ask why.. especially since im a bit claustrophobic..




Here's a bad overexposed photo of one of the Dababs.. I took it while I was in another one.. there are gazillions of them everywhere.. and they will try to fit as many people as humanely possible.



Ok these are all of my pics of Yemen.. the remainder are from that professor guy I mentioned earlier..

These are all from rural villages in Northern Yemen.. From what I understand, the professor and some of his associates travelled to a bunch of villages high up in the mountains. They installed some cloud water collectors, with the help of the locals. Basically they attached a sheet on to some metal poles.. as the cloud passes across the sheet it leaves behind drops of water.. which then trickle down into a water jug. It looks very simple, but also effective.















Just imagine.. being enveloped by all those clouds..



Ok this is my final post of Yemen... land of Sheba.. of Mocha.. Coffee...Qat.. one of the earliest cradles of civilization!! I wish I had taken more pictures! I hope to return one day and explore other areas and take more photos of the people.. but I need some travel partners.. so if you are interested, let me know and we can plan something! :) Stay tuned.. tomorrow I will try and put up some pictures from.. the next place I went to which I cannot recall right now.. ahh such a backlog here..