Back to Bab Al-Yemen

Hello All,

I have quite a bit of catching up to do so let's start with my third visit to Yemen. The trip was for only a few days but I did manage to go on a lovely day trip to Mahweet and also visit some of my favourite places, like Bab Al-Yemen and Dar Al Hajar. I also got to see an old mountain top village in Sana'a that used to be inhabited by Yemeni Jews.. as well as a few other places. I will try to upload as much as I can in the next few days.

Here we are entering Old Sana'a from a side street







This is how they make sesame oil in Old Sana'a. The camel just goes around and around crushing the sesame seeds.



This is just inside Bab Al Yemen.. things are always busy here





I think these guys were selling raisins.



The sisters



There are almost too many jewelry shops..





Here are some Jambiyas



I think we're in the fabric section here..





I think I tried one of these dates



Here's a little kid selling tobacco leaves. He put on this serious pose just for me :)



And here we are going up on to the roof of one of the art galleries. I went up this same roof when I was there in 2006.



It's a really nice spot to catch the sunset.





Here we have a Yemeni woman building a stone wall



Some dudes having a chat.. Yeah I know my descriptions are all stating the obvious in this post.





You can see the giant mosque that Ali Abdallah Saleh built out there in the distance. It seems every Arab ruler has to build a gigantic mosque these days.







More jewelry!







We were quite peckish after all the the jewelry haggling and sunset watching so we ventured off to find some food.. Next time I'd like to try the Karot juice



We ended up in this little square. There were some guys baking bread.. a guy constantly pumping out glasses of hot tea and another guy bbqing some kababs. What more could you ask for?!



Kabab dude



Yum yum



These kids approved and gave us a thumbs up



Yemenis love to decorate their motorcycles.. Actually they love to decorate all forms of transport and throw sheep skin in or on everything. It must be comfortable.



These guys were really friendly. Apparently they make the best bread in Sana'a.



With our bellies full we wandered back to the van.. here's an old house that used to belong to a Jewish Yemeni family (you can still make out the star of David). Yemeni Jews are all but extinct in Yemen now but you still see a lot of old Jewish houses.







Stay tuned.. tomorrow I'll try and add some more.