it smells different

Back to Bab Al-Yemen

2011-03-25T15:17:00.003-04:00

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.

Portugal: Almourol

2010-05-29T06:14:00.007-04:00

After checking out Tomar (see previous post), we navigated our way down a number of winding roads and tiny villages to get to Almourol Castle. The castle is situation on the top of Almourol island which is in the middle of the Tagus river. As you can imagine, this was another stronghold for the Knights Templar during their reconquest of Portugal from the Moors.

The castle was already there before the Templars arrived.. I think it was originally built by the Romans as some sort of fortress.. then the Moors came and turned it into a Castle.. When the Templars arrived, they did some extensive reconstruction and designed it similar to the castle in Tomar.

After the reconquest was over the castle was abandoned and forgotten for the most part. It is now a national monument and the property of the Portuguese Army. It is said though that on moonlit nights it is haunted by a Moorish prince or princess (i can't remember) who is longing for her/his lover.

The only way to get to the castle is on this boat. Entrace to the castle is free, but you have to pay 1 euro for the boat ride.. we shared the boat with a French family that kept feeding the ducks their meter long baguette.

some nearby fisherman who didn't really know how to fish (according to cat)

forgive me if I post too many pictures of the castle, but I just want to show you all the angles :)

once you disembark you have to walk down a little path to get to the castle. The island is pretty small, but there are cacti everywhere which is a pretty good natural defense.

the castle really has a comanding view over the river

on the way back..

I had a popsicle to top off the day.

Portugal - Tomar

2010-05-28T08:07:00.011-04:00

I think out of all the places I've visited in Portugal so far, my favourite is Tomar. Cat, Filipa, Nuno and I drove up there in April this year. It was a looooong drive.. we had a GPS thingy but it mooed like a cow everytime we had to make a turn, so we switched off the sound. We did not pay more attention though (I didn't pay any attention at all as I was sitting in the back) because at some point we missed the exit and added about another hour or so on our trip. Anyways, I got to see a lot of nice countryside so it wasn't a waste.

So let's get started.. Tomar was founded in the 12th century by the Knights Templar of Portugal. For those of you who don't know the Templar Knights were some of the most skilled Knights during the Crusades. The non-combative members of the Order were very smart with their money and devised many innovative financial techniques or forms of early banking across Christendom. When the Crusaders lost the Holy Land support for the Templar Knights dwindeled.. and eventually mistrust grew around them. King Philip the IV of France had large debts owing to them and instead of paying them back he arrested many of them, forced them to make confessions of their guilt and then burned them at the stake (I guess that's one way to deal with your debts!!). He then ordered the Pope at the time to disband the Order.. and that was that! Or was it? The Templars in Portugal managed to escape the fate of their comrades because the ruler of Portugal at the time, King Dinis, made up a new Order, called the Order of Christ, and tranferred all of the members, assets and knowledge of the Templars to this new Order. Later this Order became a great catalyst to the Portuguese age of expansion and exploration. Sorry if I am going off track here but just wanted to give some background to these Templars because they built some really impressive fortresses across Europe and the Holy Land and were generally good at kicking butt (if I'm sounding like an expert it's completely unintentional.. I wikipized most of this info). Ok.. enough history for now.. i'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Here's a picture on the way there.. I foolishly thought that the hilltop in the distance was the fortress of Tomar, but it wasn't..

Finally we arrived.. We had to quickly gobble up some lunch because we arrived a bit late. Of course, nothing in Portugal can be done quickly and we ended up spending over an hour eating lunch.. the portions were huge too.

We had to climb up to the top of the town to check out the Covent of the Order of Christ, which is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Finally, we got there..

I know, it's pretty scary isnt it?

Most people would just walk through the gate.. but since I'm a crazy Yemeni I decided to climb over the fortress walls. The Moors tried to capture this fortress in 1190.. I can see why they had trouble!

That round building is the Templar church. The Templars liked to build circular churches and model them along the lines of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem because they thought it was a remanant of the Temple of Solomon.

Mr. Nuno

Time to go inside! I think it cost about 6 Euros.. which is really not bad considering the scale and history of the building.

Portuguese love food and tiles..

Inside the circular church

There were 8 different courtyards, or cloisters as they call them, in this maze of a complex.

You can see the cross of the Templars in the design of the fountain

I thought the stairs were really cooool

Here we are on the roof

This area reminded me of the monkey kingdom in the old Jungle Book movie.

This circular window is quite famous but unfortunately I don't really know much more than that!

I guess people were much shorter in those days..

I think this was the great hall where a lot of the monks and other members of the Order lived.

I think it's supposed to be haunted too

A pretty nice view for a monk

There was hardly anyone there when we went to visit... except for this German tour group!

Ela gosta apanhar sol

This is where the food went in

and where it came out! :) ok maybe they didn't eat as much bran as I do.

Ok.. sorry Nuno, but I can't be the only one looking silly. Here is Mr. Dynamite relaxing outside the fortress.

Portugal: Trip to Évora

2009-05-03T16:29:00.005-04:00

Hello all,

I know it has been quite some time since I have posted anything here. I have decided to clear out the cobwebs and update this beast. I have quite a backlog of pictures to share so this will take some time.

Let me start with some photos of Évora, Portugal. I was lucky enough to visit Évora back in January 2009. The city has a history dating back more than two millennia and was conquered by the Romans back in 57 BC. After some time it was conquered by the Visigoths during the barbarian invasions.. and then the Moors came and had their turn in 715 and transformed the city into a flourishing agricultural centre.. but then lost it in 1165 following a surprise attack from Gerald the Fearless. From that point on it was pretty much in control of the Portuguese and became one of the most dynamic cities in the Portuguese Kingdom, only to decline in 1759 when the famous Marquis de Pombal closed the University and expelled the Jesuits who had founded the school.. It is now considered a city rich in heritage, culture and art. Ok, enough of my blabberings.. here are some pics.

And now in colour!

naaatas

Just to prove Portuguese people are short

Ok.. maybe its not the same door, but u get the idea..

This is an old Roman Temple.. sometimes referred to as the Diana Temple and is considered one of a kind in Portugal. It managed to survive destruction because it was incorporated into a medieval building.

This is the entrance to the Capela dos Ossos (Chapel of Bones) It was built in the 16th century by a Franciscan monk. He built it during the counter-reformation and wanted his fellow brothers to contemplate the idea that life is transitory so he built the chapel out of skeletons. Pretty interesting idea if you ask me. The saying at the entrance translates to “We bones here, for yours await” or something like that.

About 5000 skeletons were used to build this chapel, most coming from the surrounding church cemeteries. It also includes two desicated skeletons hanging on chains.

A bit spooky innit?

Stay tuned for more pictures..

Portugal April 2007

2008-11-05T01:47:00.002-05:00

Greetings. I know this is a bit backwards, but I am posting some pics of my trip to Portugal in April 2007. It was my first time in Portugal and I have to say I had a great time. The following are just a few pics of Lisbon (Lisboa).. hope you enjoy.

Here is my tuga tour guide..

a not so old aquaduct..

Elevator down to the Tagus River

This bridge is pretty cool.. it has a train that runs below it..

Enjoying my apple

I think Portuguese people have a thing about touching their noses..

One of the things I liked most about Portugal were all the tiles.. I think they got the idea from the Chinese..

I always feel more comfortable in areas where people expose their laundry

Here we are in the Castle of São Jorge.. I like Castles.. so you will have to endure a few more pics of this one! I like the castle trees especially.. they are all leaning in one direction or another..

I started touching my nose too..

According to a famous legend, the Castle was reconquered from the Moors because some Knight noticed that one of the doors of the Castle was left open.. he sacrificed himself to keep the door open while the crusaders piled in.. and that's how we lost Lisbon!

Here u go eep.

Possibly the best urinal I have ever seen.

more tiles..

here's some life

Here is my favourite portuguese writer, Fernando Pessoa..

blowing her caravels to victory

rich people and their boats

not so rich people and their boats

i forgot the significance of this monument.. you will have to make up a story for yourself :)

standing with the bulls

standing with a ball

close call

a national park beach..

lone flower in expo

here I end with a few pics of the lovely beaches of Lisboa.. the Atlantic can be fierce.

Portugal Part Dois - Peru Deliciouso

2008-04-27T13:41:00.001-04:00

I'm not really in the mood to type today so I will just plop a few pictures from my Portuguese expedition. Most of these pictures are from a small town called Salgueirinha. I enjoyed some lovely wild turkey, wild hare, and over dosed on ferrero rochets!

Here's the turkey. I have to say it was the most delicious thing I've eaten in a long time, definitely the tastiest turkey and was so very moist.. mmmm.

oranges

Portugal is famous for its cork.

Don't worry sheep lovers, I didn't eat any sheep.

Please don't beat me.

I still haven't finished this book

The rest of the pics are from Lisbon..

You can hide, sometimes.

Or the world can hide from you.

Not sure which is best.. more pics to come.

Portugal Part 1- Sintra 2007

2008-01-13T14:29:00.000-05:00

Greetings,

As usual, I have been lazy... so let me not waste time giving the usual excuses for my tardiness. I am going to share a few pictures of a lovely place in Portugal that I had the pleasure of visiting.

Sintra is a beautiful old town about an hours drive from Lisbon. There's almost too much to see in this area... There's the Sintra-Cascais Natural Park, the Palacio Nacional de Sintra, Pena Palace and Castelo dos Mouros (Moorish Castle!).. there's also the Sintra Mountain Range, which is quite nice.

Unfortunately, we only had a day and hungry bellies, so we decided to spend our limited time checking out the colourful Pena Palace.

The Palace is the finest example of 19th century Portuguese Romanticism and the integration of natural and built heritage (It's good I kept the brochure). It was built by Dona Maria II (1819-1853), who was the Queen of Portugal at the time, and Don Fernando II (1819-1885) who I think was the creative genius behind the palace... from what I have read, it appears as though he went for a walk one day, fell in love with the area, and decided to build something grand.

The palace itself is perched on top of some huge rocks which you can see jutting out at different points. Prince Fernando decided that not only did he want to build a magnificent Palace, he also wanted to surround it with the most varied and exotic plant life that he could find. This is complemented by the Palace itself, which was put together in a number of different styles (neo-Gothic, neo-Manueline, neo-Islamic, neo-Renaissance, and others).. (Ok that's what Wikipedia says, but I have to say that I totally agree)... Each room in the palace was built in a different style/fashion... unfortunately, we were not allowed to take pictures inside... so you'll have to go and see for yourself.

Ok, enough blathering... here are some pics!

For this very important trip I was escorted by a group of distinguished "Tugas", Andrea,Carina, Nini, and Catarina.

It looks like something from Disney Land doesn't it?

Yes yes.. there go my hobbitsss

As you can see it was still a bit early in the morning for some people..

Here we are inside... there's a square courtyard in the middle... Reminded me of the Andalusian villa style... with the fountain in the middle..

This reminds me of that movie Labyrinth.. with David Bowe I think..

We are somewhere deep in the Palace now... heading towards the gigantic kitchen... The corridor got progressively smaller.. but interspersed with small windows with marvelous views of the mountains..

A view of the Atlantic... we were not far from the furthest Western point of Europe.

Do you see the Castle in the distance? That's the Castelo dos Mouros... or the Moorish Castle.. built by the Moors in the 9th or 10th century.. anyways, dinner is ready so I will have to stop here.. but I hope that this little glimpse can give you an idea of why Sintra is a UNESCO World Heritage site..

Stay tuned for Part 2.. hopefully I won't take another year to post.

Sana'a Part 2

2007-05-03T10:02:00.000-04:00

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..

Long long long drive from Sana'a to Seyoon

2006-07-29T06:21:00.000-04:00

Hello,

During my second visit to Yemen, I had the opportunity of joining my cousin and his employees on an 8+ hour drive from Sana'a to Seyoon. He had to check out some oil fields in the middle of nowhere and then meet with some people at a power plant in tSeyoon. I figured.. "its an experience".. The drive seemed endless.. first through mountains.. rocks.. then sand.. sand and lots of sand.. then mountains again.. We passed through 37 military checkpoints in total.. the number varies every so often. For about half the checkpoints the soldiers asked about me.. saying "hatha Yemeni?" (This guy is Yemeni??) I was travelling with 3 Yemeni's and one Indian guy, but they never asked about the Indian guy!

Some of the checkpoint soldiers were pretty funny. I recall driving through endless desert perhaps for an hour or more.. in the distance there was a bench and an umbrella.. On the bench sat a lone soldier.. he got up and waved us to stop. He had reddish, almost blonde hair, and was quite skinny. He asked us if we would like a military escort.. My cousin said "we will take our chances". I'm not sure if the soldier was serious or joking. I can't imagine what kind of escort he could give us.. Anyways.. here are a few pics..

Isn't it cooool how the sand slowly attacks the rock

This used to be an ancient city ruled by Queen Sheba, I forget the name of it.. we didnt stop to check it out.. not enough time.

Some camels grinding stuff, I think sesame seeds into oil..

I'm not sure if those are bedouin.. could be..

Giant rocks!

After crossing the long stretch of desert (part of it from the Empty Quarter), you will reach another kind of mountain range.. the flat tops.

Ahhh.. here's one of the oil fields we visited.. it was still in its early stages of development. My cousin's company was constructing these storage tanks. So we dropped by to check em out.. we also spent the night here.

We each slept in one of these containers, they have a bed.. a/c..table.. tv.. fridge.. shower.. toilet.. dvd player.. it was quite comfortable..

even herbal essences

I found this when I arrived.. I ate the remaining Mars bars.. left the tangerine..

I guess these are designed for MEN

We left early in the mornin..

A typical shop around Seyooon..

I wish I was in the front seat!

I noticed that a common passtime of Yemenis in rural villages is to sit on the edge of the road next to speed bumps. They like to see who's coming and going..

I don't know what this is.. anyone have any ideas?

On the way back we stopped on the side of the road in Ma'rib. It's almost like one of those wild wild west provinces where people do what they want. Many of the people who live here don't bother with liscense plates.. They are pretty independent and dont like to be told what to do by the government.. (so I have been told). In the past it was an area where many tourists were kidnapped.. Anyways my cousin stopped the jeep in a very common place known to many Yemenis, aka the middle of nowhere.. After two minutes a Toyota pick up truck.. you know those small 4x4 white ones.. emerged out of the desert. Out popped a Yemeni guy in traditional gear with his Ak47. He was one of my cousins friends.. apparently he was going to join us and show us Queen Shebas solar temple..

I believe this is Queen Shebas solar temple..

We were not allowed in because there was a tour group inside.. So I had to settle with sticking my camera through the fence. We couldn't wait for the tour to be finished b/c we didnt have much time.

Here's another temple that is nearby.. not sure what it was about..

This is my artsy picture of my cousin's friend. He was a really nice guy.

Can you guess what this straight thing is?

Of course.. no drive through Ma'rib would be complete without checking out the dam!

I read somewhere that this is the largest lake in the Arabian peninsula...

That's me and the Indian guy.. his name was Shaker.. like a salt shaker.. but I dont think I have it spelled correctly.

This is part of the old dam, that was built during Queen Shebas time..

Ok.. that's all for today.. I will try and put up more pics soon..

Mystery pic

2006-06-04T12:58:00.000-04:00

Hello you and you,

I have a superduper crazy prize for whoever can guess who is in the picture below, and where he/she/it is.. heheh..

*This contest is not open to the subject(s)in the picture below. Prize can be changed or consumed/enjoyed by me (deebug) at any time without notice. Warning: do not feed the animals*

Yemen - Sana'a Revisited

2006-05-18T13:02:00.000-04:00

Hello,

As some of you know I am in Yemen again. I've been here for about two months now, but I haven't taken too many pictures. I've been quite busy catching up on sleep, and enjoying (almost to the point of insanity) all the peace and quiet, oh yes, and doing a little research too. I don't have much time, so I will just dump a few pictures of this and that (in a confusing order).. enjoy!

Ahh here's a picture during my first power cut :)

Deep in thought

The qamaria in my room.. when I wake up and look at it, half a awake.. it looks like its constantly changing colour.

And here I am, in my morning/afternoon ritual of starring out the window

This is the view from my window, so it's usually quite nice, and sometimes I get to see sheep and rosters..

brushing my teeth..

Ok enough of me for now.. here are some pics of Old Sana'a. Some of them are from a short walk of through a random neighbourhood in Old Sana'a. Other pics are from the roof of the school where I took lessons to improve my arabic.

Ok me again!!

My arabic teacher, one of the nicest people I've been lucky enough to meet.

Ahh inside the school.. studying before a test..

One of the toilets in the school.

Ok that's it for now.. I have to run home! Ciao!

Oman - Jabal Al Akdhar (Green Mountain)

2006-01-26T20:51:00.000-05:00

Hello,

These pictures are from a two day trip to Jabal Al Akhdar.. Apparently, it's the highest mountain range in the gulf region; it would be nice to tell you how high, but all I can say is really high (Ok about 10,000 feet above sea level) It's in the Addakhiliya (Interior) region of Oman. There's a city at the top of the mountain range, on the plateau.. Apparently, in the old days they used to transport goods up there by helicopter.. now there's a paved road.. but they only let you ascend if you have a 4 wheel drive..

So here we are on the way... I was travelling with my cousins and their kiddos..

danger signs!

a small village in the moutain chain.. observe the terrace farming..

Here's another village.. this one is abandoned, however..we went down to get a closer look..

Crazy locals.. .....yes they are related to me

when u have to go .. u have to go...

i think the roof was about to collapse..

my cousin faizah and i

my cousin rifat.. i dont know how he got up there!

this is an old irrigation system in the village..

Rayhanah and I climbed up through these ruins..it was fun!

an old abandoned house..

i think this was the majlis room..

it took a while for me to choriograph (spelling?) this shot.. rayhanah was being difficult!

Farhana with the kids.. young climbers

an artist at work..

a fossil!!

night time..

for u mountain holics..

my cousin rifat gave me many lessons on rock formation .. pretty interesting stuff

the hotel we stayed in......it was pretty nice..

she reminded me of mikey mouse for some reason..

the serious baby..

munchkins

Oman- Qantab

2006-01-21T08:43:00.000-05:00

Rayhanah and I headed to Qantab one warm winters day..

some ruins next to the beach.. no one knows much about these ruins.. I'm guessing it was an old fishing village.. just a guess..

Rayhanah's head next to ruins.

Eep looks like u have a beach.. Rayhanah hired one of these fishermen to take us on a boat ride around the area..

The water was pretty greeeeeen.. I guess it was algae season or somethin.. Wawie, maybe u can explain..

That's the private beach for a new Shangrila hotel they're building on the other side..

happy days

some people fishing..

and then my batteries died..

more pictures to come..

Oman Revisited- New Years & Misc

2006-01-20T21:50:00.000-05:00

Hello

As some of you know, I spent my x-mass holidays in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Oman. I didn't take too many pics of Dubai or Abu Dhabi, I did, however, take many pics in Oman.. so that's what you'll see for the next few posts.. Below are a few photos (which I almost forgot about) from a new years party in Muscat and some other pics.. enjoy.

This is my cousin's cousin's (no that's not a mistake) pyramid shaped house.. it's pretty cool.

The party was a 'sea-world' theme.. i went dressed as a Omani fisherman

The view from their back yard.

It started raining heavily soon after midnight.

In case of emergency, break glass and ride off in a harley.

lots of pirates with cell phones..

Aunty Latifa's rooftop a few days before with my cousin and his cousins..

The confused roosters next door.... seriously confused.

Ghada conversing with the Baboon

Maha - hates it when doors are left open.. can assemble an M-16 before you have a chance to "explain" and is totally obsessed with Friends.

Wawie - loves to cross the road without looking.. enjoys eating cheese for breakfast and tends to leave doors open.

Hana - is able to knit complicated sock puppets with her toes. Warning: Do not look directly into her eyes.

Aunty Latifa's farm..

a pair of giggling farm hands

The beach next to Aunty Latifa's house.. What are you look at?

yes.. i know this is the most exciting commentary so far.. stay tuned for more mind boggling superfluidity of thought.. observe the beach once again.. eep i took this pic for you btw

fishermen boats.. which they use to catch fish.. from the sea.. in boats.. amazing.

stay tuned for more pictures from the Sultanate of Oman.. long live Qabooose..

Dam Square Skating

2005-11-30T00:51:00.000-05:00

Hello..

Decided to put up pics of people for a change.. here are some from ice skating a few nights ago. Enjoy!

Catarina and Parmjeet..

looks like im having bowel problems..

Cat and Meaghan racing..

Parmjeet picked it up pretty quickly

Utrecht

2005-11-19T19:46:00.000-05:00

Hello.... . yes it's been a little while..

A few weeks ago my cousin Salma came down from Budapest to visit me with some friends. Here are some pics of a day trips to Utrecht, which is about half an hour by train from Amsterdam. It's a bit of a university type town from what I've heard.. It's a nice place to walk around..

Here's a pic of the bicycle garage at the Utrecht train station.. imagine how huge the one is in Amsterdam..

and more canals..

ok ok.. enough .. for now..

hah..

we thought this was a pretty cool building.. they have a gallery upstairs..

Salma's pointing out that they painted windows at the top..

Salma just bought some dutch waffle things.. ohhh they're so good..

The top part of this church tower collapsed a few hundred years ago.. it was described as an "apocalyptic crash!".. the tower fell on the church, so today the church is two buildings, that used to be connected, with a gap in the middle.. If i recall correctly it took them about 200 years to clean up the mess.. It must've woken everyone up..

some cool photos from one of her friends

yes and i cant forget this..

First Video

2005-10-23T15:22:00.000-04:00

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Thanks Wawie for motivating me to try it out.
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House Cleaning..

2005-10-23T07:49:00.000-04:00

Hello..

It's been a while.. I can't seem to sleep.. soo.. I've decided to post pics from various forgotten or neglected folders in my laptop.. I hope it's not too discombobulated.. try not to make sense of it..

faceless family..

playstation family

crazy family

sisters.. remember this tree?

when i was a kid i used to stand beside this pole and stare directly up.. it always looked like it was wavering back and forth.. i scared myself into thinking it would fall on me.. then id see how long i could stand there.

East Compound in disrepair..

kids used this.. thing.. to climb up on the roof of the playground..

my little cane collection..

my favourite rug!!

next five pics are courtesy of Mr. Bobo.

Spain..

Wales (who knew?)

Austria

Amsterdam

my little kitchen..

Rembrandt House & Free Tower Tour

2005-09-13T23:30:00.000-04:00

The other day I decided to check out Rembrandt's house, since I had a free museum pass, his house is just down the road, and I felt like some learning. Rembrandt is considered one of the greatest 17th century Dutch artists.. He produced large volumes of etchings, prints, paintings.. as well as all sorts of other things.. and I won't show you any of those.. I just took pictures of the inside of his house, which is also a museum full of his works.

I just realized I didn't take any pictures of the outside of his house.. oh well!

The maid slept in a bed like this one, but in the kitchen. I believe this bed was for one of the living rooms, can't remember..

His printing machine..

some of his etching tools..

lots of stairs in his house.. it was considered a very big house at the time.. Rembrandt was a great spender and not only bought a very large house, but also collected rare and prized artifacts from around the world.. They had a room full of them.. but yet again I did not take a picture of it.. u'll have to see the house yourself!

hmm.. another bed.

After Rembrandts house I hopped on my bicycle and started pedalling, when I noticed a big sign on one of the clock towers.. I managed to decipher the words.. "tour" and "free".. so I investigated.

It turns out there was a free tour of one of the clock towers! So I waited for half an hour, then joined the next hour long tour.. Yes it was an hour.. and it was in Dutch! I think I was the only Non-Dutch person there.. but it was cooool.

This is the tower in question..

some wood..

a giant bell..

welcome to the twilight zone..

At 6pm they let us all tug on ropes which rang the bells.. it was fun! One of the tower people blew up a balloon and had each of us touch it to feel the vibrations. I got a bit of sawdust in my eyes when I first tugged at the rope.. it was still fun though!

The view from the top of the tower was quite nice as well..

I noticed that quite a few people had roof gardens.

poor attempt at cheesy photo

unrelated windmill picture!

unrelated bridge picture..

unrelated duck picture!!

and finally.. unrelated sideways tree picture.. :)

Walking westwards..

2005-08-29T17:01:00.000-04:00

Hello all.. This is an historic moment!!! I'm posting pictures that I have actually taken today!! I've finally caught up to my blog.. feels good. Anyways.. it was a sunny day today, so I figured I should go out for a walk and enjoy some fresh air.. I decided to walk in a westward direction until I got tired.. so I'm not sure where I went.. but it was definately into the sun..

These towers kind of sneak up on you..

My friend, eep, requested that I take pictures of ducks.. so here are a few..

Reminds me of the Cheshire cat.

Enjoying fowl life

Sail 2005

2005-08-27T15:58:00.000-04:00

Last week was the Sail festival.. it happens every five years in Amsterdam. Boats of all shapes and sizes float in from all over the world to share in the celebration of.. boats.. I guess.. I'm not really sure how it all started.. I never did pick up one of the brochures.. anyways.. if you like boats, then this post is for you!

I think the ship in the distance is an original ship used by the Dutch East India company.. it's always docked by the Scheepvaartmuseum, although I think someone took it for a spin during the festival.

I bet this person knows how to enjoy life.

This is actually a beach.. It's probably the highest beach above sea-level.. They had water running down the middle of the bleachers.. and beach type huts at the top of the stairs..

I'm sure this guy has an interesting story to tell..

What about these guys?

I think this woman/man has a safe on his/her boat.. Maybe they're making a sequel to the Italian Job?

I tried to catch up to this shoe.. but it was going too fast.. and I was carrying a big rice cooker.

Unrelated picture.. incase you need a break from boats..

The best view of all the boats.. I discovered.. was on the top floor of the post office building.. in the men's washroom.. A lot of other people discovered it too.. by the time I left there were women there snapping photos..

Unrelated picture 2

Security guys..

They had DJ booths on both sides of the harbour.

excitable man..

People were paying to get on this cran.. apparently it gives the best view of all the ships.. I should have told them about the washroom.

a long way from home..

Unrelated pic 3

The NEMO building.. thats the one with the beach at the top.

Do you see the name of this submarine? It's Zeeleeuw... those are the kinds of letters I usually get in a scrabble game.

This is a Omani sailing boat.. I just had to check it out.. its called Shabab Al-Oman.. loosely translates into "The Guys of Oman" or something like that..

They had some cool gadgets inside..

the captain was a bit young..

they had some pictures and info about Oman..

The Omanis started playing music on a bagpipe-like instrument.. with drums.. the men started dancing.. The Dutch people were really enjoying it..

A Year in Amsterdam

2005-08-24T18:08:00.000-04:00

Hello again.. as some of you know, I'm spending the next year or so in Amsterdam.. It's all, of course, to do with higher education.. Soooo for the next while you will be seeing pictures of Amsterdam and possibly surrounding areas.. I'm not sure which pictures to show first.. so I'm just going to throw a bunch of pictures from a bunch of different days of me wandering around my area..

Ahh.. why not start with a standard canal picture.. You can always bet on a tourist being on one of these bridges taking a picture of a canal.. I guess that's why they call Amsterdam the Venice of the North... I live just down the road from this canal, if anyone is looking for me...

Another canal!! There are hundreds...

And another!

Ok I'll give you a little break.. Amsterdam is the city of cyclists.. They have their own special biking lanes.. its pretty cool. Bikes bikes bikes.. everywhere.. and I still need one.

The building in the distance has been converted into a shopping mall..

I think I could get used to living here..

Most of the old houses here are leaning in one direction or another due to the loose soil... A few hundred years ago there were severe floods that destroyed much of the city. This led to the construction of a dam on the Amstel river.. and yes.. that's where the name Amsterdam came from.. The city planners actually imported timber.. I think from somewhere in Scandinavia and drilled them into the ground to act as a foundation for much of the city. Most of the old parts of the city are still supported by this underground forest.. I learned this from a quirky Dutchman at our school.

Do you see the hooks on the houses? I hear that they use them to lift heavy objects up to the top floor, rather than taking the stairs..

A quick snapshot of Waterlooplein market (in the distance).. its an open air flea market.. A great place to find old obscure things.. LP records.. clothes.. DVDs.. ancient stereo equipment.. almost anything.. I'll do a post on that another time..

Here's the train station.. its quite huge.. I think part of it is a train museum as well.

Here's another picture of that canal I first showed u..

Dam Square.. The big building used to be the town hall, but after a royal family was established, they turned the hall into the royal palace.. Now I think its open to the public.. I'm sure the Queen found a nicer, tourist-free place to rest her feet.

Bobo would enjoy this..

I'm not sure what this is for.. it leads from the window all the way to the ground.. A friend of mine suggests that maybe its for a pet.. perhaps!

Here's another picture of that first canal.. back to haunt you! It's easy to take canal pictures!

There are only a few towers in Central Amsterdam.. the tops of them, (like this one) are made from wood, otherwise it would be too heavy, and sink into the ground.

A glimpse of one of the stalls in the flower market.. more of this later...

In the near future expect to see many pictures of rain.

Canada- Niagara in a Nanosecond

2005-08-20T22:34:00.000-04:00

The last place I took Rayhanah was, of course, Niagara Falls! It's the standard place to take visiting relatives, even if they don't want to go! And if no relatives visit during the summer, which is rare, the family must go anyways.. it's sort of like an annual visit.. Don't get me wrong though, I actually like Niagara.. There are some interesting places there.. besides the falls. Unfortunately, there are only a handful of pictures.. and just of the falls! But trust me, there's a lot more to this freakish city.

So.. the picture below is of the American side of the Falls.. All Canadians (I'm sure) agree that the Canadian side of the falls is much nicer! The boat in the picture is the Maid of the Mist.. it takes passengers right next to the falls.. its a great experience.. and it feels good getting all that mist in your face.. There are also caves behind the falls that people can walk through..

These are the Canadian or Horseshoe Falls.. I like hearing the water the most.. its kind of soothing.. Although, when I was a kid the falls really scared me.. I was afraid of all that power and always imagined myself falling into speeding current..

here's a closer look.. ok.. this is where I used to imagine falling in.. right before the edge!

A bunch of people have gone over these falls.. some by accident.. but many actually did it on purpose.. crazy daredevils!! Some have survived.. a small kid actually survived without any protection..

Apparently this is the honeymoon capital of the world. I'm trying to figure out why..

Here we are getting on the boat.. We got to wear these cool raincoat/poncho/spacesuit type things.. I should have kept mine.. it would have been handy in Amsterdam.

That's it! Didn't take any more pics for some reason.. Oh one good memory is that I parked at the Skylon parking lot for freee!! :) heheheh..

Canada - Quebec City in another minute

2005-08-19T18:30:00.000-04:00

After a couple of days in Montreal, Rayhanah and I decided to head Quebec City for the day.. Quebec City is the capital of Quebec, which is one of the provinces of Canada.. it's the predominantly French one, since that part of Canada was first settled by the French.. It used to be called New France before Montcalm lost his wits on the plains of Abraham.. but that's another blog altogether.. Anyways, similar to Montreal, we didnt take many pics.. just a few.. we were only there for a few hours.. but i thoroughly enjoyed it.. especially peeing on the side of the highway in pitch darkness. Ok I'd better shut up and post some pics..

Rayhanah took about a gazillion pictures of this building.. I have no idea why.. Omanis..

It looks like this guy is talking to me.. but he isnt.. ..

And here I am walking like a duck.... Sometimes I wonder about myself.

Random statue picture.. one of them looked like the devil from the side.. It had pointy horns on its head and a big stick.. but when we turned round the bend we realized it was one of the old Popes.. oops.

Word... to big bird.

Ahh.. oui oui.. regarde!

Rayhanah was also obsessed with these windows..

Here's a cool pic Rayhanah took with the Sephia filter.

I like the balance in this picture.

The water below is the St. Lawrence River.. It connects the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean.. I think Quebec means "where the river narrows" in Iroquois, but don't quote me on that.. my grade 10 history is kinda rusty.

Over yonder is Chateau Frontenac a huge hotel, it was named after a former Governer of Quebec, or New France as it was known back then.. He was quite a character.. When the British Americans (before the 13 Brit colonies revolted) attacked, Frontenac pretty much poo poo'ed them, and said, "Non, je n'ai point de réponse à faire à votre général que par la bouche de mes canons et de mes fusils." ("I have no reply to make to your general other than from the mouths of my cannon and muskets.") Oh, and yeah.. he kicked their red coat butts back to England! Anyways, today I believe the hotel is a UN heritage site, check it out if you're in the area..

Here's a closer look..

Ohhh.. should have brought my machette..

This is a very nice boardwalk.. During the summer its full of people walking about.. kids eating ice cream.. punks doing stunts on bikes.. old people wandering cautiously.. people with huge zoom lenses.. and of course some lost American tourists.

Canada - Montreal in a Minute

2005-08-18T15:38:00.000-04:00

After our camping adventure, Rayhanah and I decided to head to Montreal and spend a few days with my sister, Laila, who was working there at the time. It's funny.. now that I look back, I realize that we hardly took any pictures of Montreal.. (there are no customary skyscraper pics!!) I've always thought of Montreal as a Europeanish Toronto.. there is a bit of rivalry between the two cities.. anyways, here are the few pics I have..

Here's a pic of Rayhanah infront of the Queen.. I think she just thought that she might have seen another Omani.. hehe.

I think Rayhanah took this picture.. Aren't those cool stairs??

This is the old part of Montreal.. I don't know what I was doing.. or trying to do..

I think this was a haunted house/restaurant type thing.. Where you eat in fear I guess..

Rayhanah and I just had a fairly good crepe.. The waitress actually discouraged us from ordering too much food.

Rayhanah took this pic, of course..

One thing that I love about montreal is all the shawarma shops! There are lots of lebanese..

enjoy

Canada - Camping @ Elora Gorge

2005-08-16T16:52:00.000-04:00

Here are some pics of our camping trip to Elora Gorge. It's a public campsite about 25 mins from Kitchener, in a small town called Elora. Initially, there were supposed to be six of us, but at the last minute three of them cancelled, so it ended up being the three amigos.. Bobo (yes he's back), Rayhanah and I. But I think things turned out better this way.

We managed to pick a nice spot that wasn't too close to anyone else.. I think in this picture Bobo is trying to cook me.

In the end he settled for chicken wings! I have to say Bobo can start a fire in record time.. gotta love his chopstick style!

And of course, Bobo must climb a tree at some point..

Rayhanah was a great help when it came to pitching the tent.

Ahhh.. nothing quite like relaxing in front of a fire! At one point during the night, we started playing cards by the fireplace.. We were all so engrossed in the game that we didnt notice something sneaking up on our picnic table.. I finally heard a rattle and flashed my torch in the direction.. A racoon dropped our plate of brownies and ran off!! It was pretty disappointing .. the cooon messed up our brownies!! But I guess we shouldnt have left it on the table.. ah well..

The next morning I feverishly (don't be fooled by my look of complacency) started making pancakes while the kiddos enjoyed a game of badminton.

naturally followed by football (soccer)

Eventually we decided to check out the Gorge.. since that's one of the main attractions.. and a great place to release gas..

We could have gone tubing down the rapids.. but the water was pretty cold.. and the walk to the starting point was a long drive by car!

So we settled with just sticking our feet in the water.. My feet were numb after a few seconds..

This guy kept going up and down the rapids..

some cool roots..

Isnt this cool?!

This guy had fun..

Thanks for carrying the pringles can..

You can see the tubers on the left-hand side of the pic.. I felt sorry for these people as I drove by.. There were so many of them on the road rolling their tubes along.. but by the end of it.. I just felt like running them over.

These people were smart and used a truck.. although one of their tubes fell off..

We also spent some time fishing.. we didnt catch anything. Bobo wanted to have a competition to see who could throw their line the farthest.. Well.. he won.. he threw it so far that it got stuck in a tree on the other side of the river! He had to cut his line and leave the hook in the tree.. Tubers started passing by and one guy noticed the line coming down from the tree.. we just watched him look and tug at it in puzzlement.. hehehe.

I think Rayhanah's complaining about something or other.. probably why she's not ruling the world yet.. hehe.

and finally.. here's a picture of a chipmunk.. for those of you who've never seen one..

Canada - Toronto/Island

2005-08-15T07:26:00.000-04:00

I finally returned to Kitchener.. to an empty house.. Hadi, my nephew (who was living with us), was hiding out at a friends house because he didn't want to be surprised by me (I had kept my return date a secret, just to surprise him!!).. my parents were still in the middle east.. my sisters were in Toronto... So what did I do?? I checked my email, of course! Then I took the car for a spin! And then.. I just started calling people out of the blue.. Anyways.. I spent the next few weeks just relaxing, recouping, restocking my belly... and looking for a job.. of course. So I took a break from the camera.. gave it a nice rest.

After about a month or so I had my first visitor, Rayhanah! She's a relative of mine.. I keep forgetting how we're related.. Anywhoo.. she was coming for a month-long visit. So I'll show some pics of the places and things we did.

The tourist has now turned into the tourguide!

So.. in this post I'll show just a few pics of Toronto.. and Toronto Island.

(but let me get a glass of milk first)

Well.. ok here's a picture of my backyard first.. don't ask why..

There's eeep mowing my lawn.. heheh thanks again!

Ok here are a few customary pictures of Toronto skyscrapers...

And of course the CN Tower.. I think it's still the tallest free standing structure.. or something like that. Rayhanah I'll take you to the top next time!

My sister, Zahra.. As you can see, we have advanced to a point where we no longer need out-houses.

I won't show any more pictures of the city itself.. you'll just have to come and check it out yourself.

The next batch of pictures are of the harbourfront and Toronto Island.

Soooo.. I figured.. why not take her to the harbourfront..

Swahili speakers might find the name of this boat funny.. Just insert a letter near the end ;)

I'm not sure if these steam boats actually work..

So.. one day we met up with a friend of mine, Ana. She wanted to take us to a restaurant on Toronto Island. It was coool.. since it was actually my first time taking the ferry!

Here's a picture from the boat ride.. The white dome thingy is the Skydome.. It's a stadium with a retractable roof..

So here we are on the island..

A nice get away from the hustle and bustle of city life..

Does anyone know what's written on this bench?

Ana and I are taking a break.. Actually I'm the one who needed it.. I injured my knee during a soccer game.. so I was having a hard time with all the walking..

It turned out this restaurant was "secluded", and it happend to be on the other side of the island! I walked along this endless boardwalk.. when you look straight across it disappears over the horizon.. there didnt seem to be an end!

Some birds for eep..

Ahh.. well we finally arrived at the restaurant.. It was actually quite nice..

here's another bird pic for eep..

Rayhanah.. Miss happy go lucky..

Me.. well the picture says it all..

Ana giving me a look like.. "hah, you wimp, whats wrong with you?!" heheheh (actually she was very sympathetic)

I remember having a nice chocolate cake..

On our way back we noticed that there was a boat landing area just around the corner.. So we hopped on that ferry.. It took us back to our original spot.. then back to Toronto.. So we could have avoided all the walking from the beginning.. but I guess we would have missed out on the wonderful boardwalk :)

Oh.. Ana wanted to show Rayhanah one more thing before we said our goodbyes.. BCE place.. it's pretty cool .. There's actually a house/building within this building.

Thats it for now..

U.K. - Portsmouth

2005-08-13T11:20:00.000-04:00

After a few relaxing days in Paris.. (we played lots of Risk with my cousins) ..Bobo headed off to Wales to see some relatives.. he also headed to Spain.. but you'll have to ask him for those pics! I headed back to London on the Eurostar.. spent a night there.. then I headed to Portsmouth.

I was born in Portsmouth, back in 79.. When I was younger we used to drop by Portsmouth every other summer or so.. We used to have a fair bit of family there.. these days there arent as many. I was curious to see all sorts of things from my childhood.. and of course see some of my cousins.

Portsmouth is a coastal city in Southern England, opposite the Isle of White. It's been around a long time..

I hear that marines and special forces divers train in that tower in the distance.

There are lots of ferry services around here.. its nice to just sit and watch them go back and forth all day.

I think this is the only Catholic Church in Portsmouth

I always liked the grassy areas in Portsmouth.. they're ideal for games of football. Although, I have to admit there was a time when I didn't like crossing these green zones.. all those crazy dogs freaked me out!

One of my fondest childhood memories was of going to the fun fair!! The fries in newspaper.. the candy floss.. the roller coasters.. and of course the occasional drunk Englishman. I remember flying a cool virtual reality airplane simulator here.. back when that sort of thing first came out..

I remember losing change in this ride..

Watching the hovercraft was also a ritual of visiting Portsmouth..

You might have noticed these in some of the other pictures.. They're man-made fortress islands that the British built to defend against French naval attacks... They built a number of them.. and of course.. once they completed all the islands.. the French never attacked again!

There are lots of War monuments and lots of old people in Portsmouth..

"England expects every man to do his duty" .. aye aye!

A weird picture of me..

I believe this is called the Quebec House.. Where some of the earliest settlers of Quebec came from.. naturally.. (I guess they weren't all french)

This is where they used to have some big artillery guns.. you can see the grooves where they'd attach the guns..

Apparently King Henry the VIII.. the crazy one with all the wives.. Well.. he married one of them on top of this fort.. And right after they wed.. one of his ships sank in the harbour. He immediately blamed her for the bad luck and locked her up in this round tower.. not much of a honeymoon!

my cousin Zahra.. can you guess that she's a dentist?

Did you know the first Australian colonists arrived from Portsmouth?

I think this is the door through which they brought in the slaves.. there was a market here, as well where they'd sell them.

This rock is quite interesting..

you can read why..

I really enjoyed meeting up with my cousins from long ago.. as well as checking out the city. After a few days of relaxation.. I hopped on a plane and headed back to Canada.. My seven months or so of vacation were over... I must say I had a good time!!!

Thanks for all the comments and advice! My next post will show a few sites in Canada.. I did some travelling on my return.. and then I'll start posting pics of Amsterdam.. simply because that's where I am at the moment.. so stick around ya'll.

Venice---> Monaco ---> Nice ---> Paris

2005-08-09T16:33:00.000-04:00

Bobo and I enjoyed Venice.. but all of a sudden we felt a sense of urgency. I was running out of time.. and Bobo wanted to check out other places.. Our original plan was to head to Croatia next. However, getting there on train was going to take quite a bit of time, and we figured that we wouldnt actually have that much time there to relax.. So instead we decided to go to Paris. Bobo hadnt been to Paris yet.. and I felt like returning to my cousins' place to relax for the next few days. At this point we were both perpetually hungry and worn out.
So we headed over to the train station to make reservations for the next train to Paris. I'll never forget what the ticket clerk said.. "The train to Paris is fully booked.. today.. tomorrow.. the day after tomorrow.." They had first class seats available, but they cost about 89 Euros each! It turns out there is only one train a day to Paris.. Bobo and I stepped aside for a while.. we furiously studied our train schedule booklets.. we figured there had to be a way out of this place! Every route we picked was thwarted for one reason or another.. It was almost like we were in Alcatraz.. although im sure the inmates had bigger meal portions. Flights leaving Venice were in the hundreds of Euros.. on our way out of the train station one of those guys in a suit asked us if we were looking for accomodation.. we asked him to get us a ticket to Paris.. he got the idea and left us alone. Eventually we came up with a slightly demented plan.. We made reservations for the next train to Monaco.. and from Monaco take another train heading to Paris. The slightly demented part involved us arriving in Monaco at night.. dumping our bags somewhere.. and walking around the city all night until the first morning train to Paris departs and hop on that. This way we can tour Monaco at night and save our money by not sleeping anywhere.. we were also feeling a bit adventurous. So we hopped on the next train.. to Monaco..

Here's a pic of the station, its quite nice. We arrived around 11pm i think.. it was pretty much deserted..

There's Bobo with his bag..

We didnt find any place to deposit our bags.. Some train stations have automatic bag depot things..

I ventured out of the station for a little bit.. just to see what it looks like outside..

an exotic hospital? after standing there 5 minutes i must've seen at least half a dozen sports cars drive by..

As u can see we were pretty high up..

We asked a woman walking by if she knew of any places to check out.. she told us that everything in Monaco was closed because the prince had just died. How unfortunate... just our luck. So we decided to spend the night in the station.. well until we were approached by two policemen.. they told us that the station closes at midnight, and that we'd have to go to the Nice train station to stay overnight.. We hopped on the last train to Nice..

Bobo found a nice bench in the Nice train station.. took out his bedsheets.. made a nice pillow.. took off his shoes.. and was just about to lie down.. when we were approached by two french policemen with a crazy K-9 dog.. it had a muzzle on its mouth for good reason! They told us we couldnt sleep on the bench.. they asked us to get up and follow them. We walked out on to the train platform.. it was pretty dark.. just us and these two policemen.. I thought maybe we were going to be fed to this dog.. But instead they put us in a room with other unfortunates. The room had the most uncomfortable benchesin the universe.. I can say this with confidence. I must have tried a million different positions.. I just couldnt sleep. Bobo, of course managed to find a way by combining two benches..

He actually started a mini-movement.. Other people started moving benches around once Bobo found his solution.. I just sat there.. I decided it was a good time to clean my pocket knife that had a gazillion functions. I took out some wet wipes.. and started cleaning all the blades.. saws.. scissors.. screwdrivers..etc. As I was cleaning the blades I couldnt help but stare at a corpulent man across the room from me. I must have looked a bit crazy to him.. my hair was a mess.. I hadnt shaved for days.. and I kept starring at him while I polished my knife. I did it on purpose acually.. I was slightly dellusional and got a kick out of it. The poor man couldnt fall asleep.. he kept glancing at me with a disturbed look on his face.. hehehe.. poor man.. Anyways.. im digressing..

After a few hours the policemen came back in and told us not to leave the room.. I think they were releasing the dog.. So for the rest of the night we were prisoners once again. In the morning we rushed to the ticket booth and asked the lady for reservations for the next train to Paris. She told us all the second class seats were booked!! You can imagine how we took that news.. We ended up buying first class tickets.. even though I had one more free train ride on my pass and Bobo had a few more on second class. (In fact I cheated earlier (and got fined) with my pass so i could save a day for the trip back to paris (so I wouldnt have to buy a ticket).. and in the end i never used that last free day.. how ironic) The first class tickets were not as expensive as the ones in Venice.. so we bore the costs. I must say.. first class isnt that much better than second class.. the toilets just smell a lot nicer.. but it doesnt justify the huge price difference.

On our way to Paris we went through an area that had SNOW!! Keep in mind we're travelling around the end of March.. we hadnt seen snow the whole trip..

We started wondering that maybe we should have stuck with going to Croatia!! Well.. we arrived in Paris.. it wasnt snowing there.. thankfully.. and we had a great time with my cousins and their kids..

Italy - Venice

2005-08-03T01:00:00.000-04:00

Venice was our last stop in Italy.. The weather was beautiful.. It was cool arriving on train.. they have dug out enough land for the train to make it all the way to the main island. I'm running out of blogging time.. so I'm going to squeeze many pics in this post.

Here's the view from our hostel.. The train station was right across the canal, but despite this it took us almost an hour to find our hostel.

Bobo insisted that I take a picture of this laundry.

These are the boat buses that ferry most people around the major canals and to the surrounding islands and mainland. Its pretty easy to figure out which bus to take.. and if ure a "dumb tourist" its easy to ride for free.. ;)

Here we are trying to find a certain square area where they supposedly had cheapER restaurants.. :)

Bobo started drooling when he saw this boat..

Compare the next two pictures.. one is a real picture.. the other is a painting done in the 1700's that I saw in the Louvre.

This boat was used to pound in the wooden poles along the canal.

I thought this pic was cool

We went island hopping at night.. Venice is pretty quiet at night.. there isnt much nightlife.

This guy was squid hunting.. It was quite interesting.. Bobo and I watched him and a lady walking up and down the canal at night. The lady had a stick with a wire.. and the guy followed behind with a net. It turned out the the woman had a female squid dangling on the wire.. Apparently the female squid gives out distress signals and attracts male squids.. and as soon as the male squid arrives the guy scoops it out with his net. We watched them catch one.. it was fascinating.

Bobo wanted to take an artsy picture with this bench.. dont ask why. I kept thinking.. "man i dont want another fine!" hehe.

back from the dead!

A lot of fancy restaurants had these little orchestras.

I think he was trying to take a picture of the moon.

Vatican City

2005-07-29T17:32:00.000-04:00

On one of our last days.. Bobo and I decided to cycle over to Vatican City.. We took a nice route along the Tiber River, then crossed one of the major bridges leading directley to VC. Crossing into the city is very easy.. u just walk in!

Anyways.. I'm in a bit of a rush so I'll just shut up and throw on some pics..

On our way there..

This is the bridge we took to cross over into VC.. There's Bobo proudly standing with his pink bike.

I could use a haircut..

Not sure where these tourists were from..

A list of all the Popes!

We were there shortly after the last Pope died.. So we lined up to check out his grave.. We arrived at the grave quicker than I expected, so I wasn't ready to take a picture.. We were only allowed a few seconds before we were motioned to move along .. As a compromise I took a picture of another Popes grave..

Not sure who he was.. I hope he doesnt mind.

And finally, my weak attempt at making a panoramic photo of VC.. I know it looks weird!

Italy - Rome Part 2

2005-07-28T12:09:00.000-04:00

Here are some more pics of our stay in Roma..

We came across these reddish oranges a number of times..

Smart cars are everywhere..

There are even more mopeds!! They're everywhere.. swarms of them.. If u can survive crossing the street in Rome, u can probably do it anywhere.

Hmmmmm..

I don't remember where this was, but we stumbled upon it on our bikes.

Here's another one of those statue people.. This man/woman/thing was perfectly still. I was hoping someone would drop money so I could see what it does..

I really enjoyed the diversity of plant life in Rome..

This was part of a large park on the northern end.. It had very large ducks!!

The inside of a random Cathedral.. can't remember which one.

In this picture we were sort of lost.. and for some reason I insisted we climb this flight of stairs. Yes I know it doesnt sound like me..

This is what we found at the top.. I'd love to meet the owner.

There are ruins everywhere in Rome.. Its neato finding some in the middle of busy urban areas.. Although I'm sure that doesnt help with preservation.. I noticed that quite a few cats were living in these cordoned off ruins.

The height of the Roman Empire..

Gladiators..

We were told off for eavesdropping on a tour guides' monologue on the history of the Colloseum.. then we contemplated sneaking inside the arena, since we saw other people doing it.. but I wasnt in the mood for getting another fine.

more pics to come..

Italy - Rome Part 1

2005-07-27T02:43:00.000-04:00

After our misfortune in Florence, Bobo and I headed to Rome. We decided to slow things down a bit and spend the next four or five days in the capital; we were tired of the constant travelling. The moment we exited the train we were hounded by men in suits asking us if we needed a hotel. One man in a nice suit gave us a map of Rome and told us where various hostels were (Probably the only ones he had a stake in).. Once we picked one to check out, he insisted on taking us there personally. I was a bit apprehensive about following a tall guy with a home-made name tag on his designer suit, black leather gloves, a funny walk, and constantly sipping on a styrofoam cup of steaming hot coffee while having a side conversation on his expensive looking cell phone.. Images of the Godfather flashed through my head. Anyways, we followed him for a bit, then after a few minutes Bobo and I told him that we really appreciated his efforts, but that we could find the rest of the way on our own. He pointed us down an alley then left.. We were about to enter the hostel that he pointed out when all of a sudden we saw two Canadian backpacker guys looking for their hostel.. They told us their friends were there waiting for them.. So we joined them figuring it was a safe bet, since fellow Canadians were already there. I dont know why I'm giving so many details.. it's not really important.. I don't remember what the point of this was.. oh well.. here are some pics of the first day or two..

Here's one of Bobo's hostel window pics..

I noticed that the toilets on some of the Italian trains flushed stuff right down to the rail tracks.. pretty coool huh?! The stuff u see in the toilet is actually the pebbles on the tracks as we zoom across (It's not poop!). I was hiding in this bathroom when the ticket lady came down our aisle to check our tickets.. I had a ticket, but I just wanted to see if I could get away with hiding in the toilet; as they sometimes do in the movies.. Well.. it actually worked! It's not too difficult to ride the trains for free.. u just have to be alert and get off on a stop right before they check your ticket.. then hop on the next train and do the same until u get to your destination. Sometimes one can ride for an hour and a half before they check tickets.. and sometimes we didnt even get checked at all.

Pinocchio (not sure how to spell it) dolls were hanging around quite a few shops in this alley.

Nearby was this Bird Man.. he made bird-like music.. looked like a bird.. and behaved like a bird.. His music wasn't too bad... At one point he started kicking a bell at people, and they'd kick it back.. I kicked it back once.. it was cool!:)

Here we are at Trevy Fountain.. they say if u toss a coin in here it means you will definately return to Rome one day. I needed all my change :) This fountain was jam packed with tourists.. I blame Audrey Hepburn.

Throughout Rome one will find these types of guys.. I think they make a living out of posing for pictures with tourists.

Designer handbags (all fakes) are commonly sold on side streets in Italy.

Here we are at the Parthanon..

inside..

Lots of artists everywhere.. Bobo chatted with a number of them.. unfortunately none of were giving away free art.

There are a number of these statue-like people in Rome. This guy waves if you drop a coin in his can..

This mime really freaked me out..

Hanging with Caesar.. not sure which one..

Rome is full of old, new, weird and ancient all mixed together..

This is the Memorial or Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. One has to be there to appreciate the size of this thing.. it is ginormous!

No one is allowed to sit on the first flight of stairs.. Bobo forgot this and sat down for the picture.. As soon as I snapped the picture a military guy blew his whistle and motioned Bobo to get up. Every few minutes we heard the whistle as other forgetful tourists made the same mistake.

Changing of the guard..

the upper level..

One of Bobo's pics

and another..

We had a great view from the top.

Do you see the Colloseum in the background?

I just like the clouds in this picture..

Well.. I'll cut it here.. gotta save some pics for the next post..and i'm getting lazy.

Italy - Florence

2005-07-20T18:09:00.000-04:00

We left Genoa after a couple hours and headed towards Pisa, where we had to transfer once more.. I contemplated hopping out of the station to check out the leaning tower, but we only had about 15 mins.

Anywhoo.. we eventually arrived in Florence. A nice Australian/Italian woman gave us her map of Florence along with some helpful tips. Shortly after exiting the train station, a little girl ran up to me with change in her hand. She kept saying cinque chente or something like that.. and gesturing with her hand.. Bobo said maybe she wants change for a five. I wasnt really paying attention.. (I think I was mulling over the 20 Euro fine).. so without thinking I took out some change from my pocket. The little girl quickly picked all the Euro coins (left the swiss francs).. and just as I realized I was getting robbed, she ran away. It all happened in a matter of seconds.. I felt really stupid afterwards.. I remember telling myself I wasnt going to get robbed or pick pocketed.. I was even paranoid about it from time to time.. Oh well.. I dont know why I'm rambling about it now.. I guess just to set the mood.. It was overcast, the rain arrived soo after I was robbed by the little one.. Suffice it to say, I wasn't in a good mood.. Bobo, on the other hand kept laughing the whole time.. heheh.. thats what friends are for eh! :) To make matters worse, it took us a while to find our hostel (in heavier rain, and we were too cheap to buy umbrellas), and when we did, the fools at the desk made a mistake and gave our reserved beds to someone else..hehe.. we just had to laugh at our poor luck.

We didn't stay in Florence for very long.. the weather was terrible.. and our room mates, Thomas and Bob (Brits) were excessive snorers.. Bobo and I managed to walk around most of the city the next day.. We didn't go into any buildings though, although we should have probably checked out the huuuuge one (I think it was called the Duomo, or something like that).. There was a long line up though, it was raining, it wasn't free, we were tired, and most importantly we were hungry.. so instead we looked for a place to eat... We just tried to enjoy the city, the people, the outdoors since we didnt have much time.

Here's are two pics Bobo took from our hostel window..

Breathe that air!!

At one point we wandered away from the tourist areas.. It was nice, not seeing so many Americans.

The University of Waterloo (my Almamaaata) has a replica of this exact Boar on it's campus just outside the Modern Languages Building. They say it's good luck to touch the nose of this beast. Bobo and I bumped into the original purely by accident.. I recognized his snout immediately and just had to give it a pat! :)

This is a replica of David.. the real one was in the huuuuge cathedral.

There were lots of market stalls around this area.

Another one of Bobo's pics

The next few pics are of the huge cathedral.. I wish I had more pics, but my camera was out of service during our stay in Florence, and Bobo had limited memory on his.

You can imagine how hard it was to fit this building through the lens!!

Italy - Genoa

2005-07-13T20:12:00.000-04:00

After two short days in Nice, Bobo and I headed east towards Italy. Shortly after crossing the Franco-Italian border we hopped off in the city of Genoa. We had about a two hour wait for our connecting train. Bobo and I decided to leave our bags at the station and roam around the city..

I recalled one of my economics professors mentioning that Genoa used to be a very rich city full of merchants and traders. I was curious to see how the city looked centuries after its period of greatness.

Just outside the train station there is a monument to C. Columbus.. yes he was Genoese.

Try and count all the hotels in this picture..

We stumbled upon this somewhat free museum..

My artsy photograph of the day.

Lots of stairs!!

We were going to make up a story about this dark never ending alleyway..

I think I took the next three pics to show the different colours.

Bobo and I thought this was really cool.. A sundial on the side of a building!! Wow!

Bobo and I picked up the scent of something FREE!! We both don't like diet coke, but this lady was giving away free samples. Of course we had to get some!! I asked her if she liked diet coke... It turns out, she doesnt like coke or pepsi.. she prefers water :) Anyways, she told me that an indian family had just asked her to take a picture with them.. She told me they were totally weird for asking that. So, I said.. "I'm also weird, can I too take a picture with you?" At first she seemed confused, but then she got into it, took off her glasses and did her hair. I'm waiting for my cheque..

France - Nice

2005-07-10T19:15:00.000-04:00

After seeing Mazen and Wawie off in Geneva, Bobo and I boarded a train heading to Nice, France. On one of the trains Bobo and I were caught trying to cheat with our Eurail passes; we had to pay a 20 Euro fine :( ..

When we transfered trains in Avignon, one of the ticketmasters told us to board the wrong train.. So for the first part of the trip we got fined.. for the second leg we had to sit with the luggage.. it was lots of fun!

We arrived in Nice on a nice sunny afternoon.. This time we made reservations at a hostel. However, when we asked the tourist information lady where exactly this place was, she told us it was a 20 minute bus ride away from the beach; on the internet it was a "3 minute walk"!! We decided to pick a closer hostel.. but had problems locating it since the street it was on, was not on any map.

In our search/quest we bumped into a German backpacking couple.. They told us that they just left the hostel in question.. Apparently it was closeby, but they couldnt really tell us where to go, since they were both quite high. The girl kept pointing randomly at our map with her rolled up ganja. They were quite friendly though.. They asked us where the train station was, we told them it was just down the road and to the right (The next day I saw them in the hostel starring at a map of the world.. I think they were still trying to find the train station or perhaps figure out what country they were in).. We wandered around a bit more.. I remember at one point we were in a really beautiful area.. There was a really old Church surrounded by palm trees, lots of kids playing football, lots of colours.. and lots of arabs! Nice is full of North African arabs.. Anyways, I asked a very nice old man for directions ( he looked like that fashion designer guy, Karl Lagerfeld.. he had the black suit, silver hair and big sunglasses). He was also Arab, so when he found out I was Arab, he affectionately grabbed me by the arm and walked with us, insisting that he will show us where to go. He was bang on the buck, we followed his instructions and found the elusive hostel, on its non-existent road.. I think I'm rambling.. ahh I'll show what little pictures I have..

Here are some pics from the train ride.. The ride along the French Riviera was beauuutiful.

Mulling over our fines..

When we arrived the weather was great, by the time we found our hostel it was starting to get overcast.. Bobo wanted to hang out at the beach.. which is one of the reasons we picked Nice.. We didnt do our homework though.. b/c Nice only has pebble beaches! We passed through Cannes before arriving in Nice, it had nice sandy beaches.. they were nearly deserted too.

out of focus

We made ourselves a nice big horsemeat, swiss cheese, and tuna paste sandwich. We were starving!! Interestingly, the horsemeat was from Canada.

Yum yum!!

Sorry, I don't have any more pics! We only stayed there a night, and left in the morning.. we were on a tight schedule.. In retrospect, I think we should've stayed another day at least.

Switzerland - Geneva

2005-07-08T02:19:00.001-04:00

We left Lucern a bit late.. arrived in Geneva even later.. and we didnt have any reservations!! We walked all over Geneva looking for a room.. all the hostels we located were booked... even shady hotels were booked.. We eventually found one hotel that had a free room.. However, just as we were about to pay for it Bobo ran into the lobby (he was a solo mission to locate one last hostel) and told us he found a room in a hostel.. Bobo to the rescue!!

After we dumped our bags, we headed out to find some food.. We were all starving and Mazen, being the generous cousin that he is, had promised that he'd treat us to steak dinners that night. Previously, we had been surviving on a diet of bread and cheese (to save money).. I think he finally cracked and wanted a change from that philosophy. I was all for it.. however, Bobo and Wawie kept asking Mazen if he was sure about it, and that he didnt have to.. Ugh.. all I could think was .."If a man says he wants to buy you steak, keep quiet and nod your head!" heheh.. I think I was cracking too. Anyways, by the time we dumped our bags it was already past midnight..It was proving difficult to find a restaurant open that late that was serving steak.. Soo instead we went to a Chinese Restaurant.. (of course!) and we ordered up a storm!! Duck, Crab, Chicken, Beef, Squid, I think Lobster too.. we were also going to get eel, but it was rediculously priced..

Here's a pic of Mazen looking very content, and me looking like I've never seen food before.. Thanks cuz for the wonderful meal!!

The next morning we all woke up early to check out the city. Mazen really wanted to check out a castle that was nearby.. However, there wasn't enough time, Wawie and Mazen had to board their train back home.. Yes.. this was our last day with them.. it was a sad day :(

It was a bit chilly.. We walked along the lake.. and through a nice park. I'm also missing pictures of Geneva.. so forgive me if there isnt much. The majority of these pics are Bobo's, thank goodness his pics made it back.

'

There was a science museum in the middle of the park.. It was free so we checked it out..

Bobo and I bought 2 Kilos of Swiss chocolate from a store around here called The Manor. They had a good deal. It's sort of like a big dept. store.

The Swiss seem to like these..

Mazen and Wafaa were excellent travel companions.. Bobo and I missed them quite a bit.. As we said goodbye to them.. Bobo and I realized that we had no plans of our own.. We didnt know where to go next.. So we looked in a train schedule booklet.. and decided there and then to head to.. well u can guess.

Switzerland - Lucern

2005-07-06T01:13:00.001-04:00

After our stay in Zurich we boarded a train and headed to Lucern. It had a small town feel, but was still quite majestic. I also seem to be missing some pictures from Lucern.. argh!! Oh well.. I have to make do with what I have..

I believe these wooden covered bridges are about 600 years old. They've been partially burned and rebuilt over the years.

Inside the bridge you can see what I think were biblical images.. It was pretty cool.

Wawie on wheels, part 2! We rented bicycles from the train station and biked all over Lucern. Its a very picturesque town.. We decided at one point to check out a large park area on the eastern side of the city. We figured out a route on a map and headed down the appropriate road.. Rather.. we headed up the road.. it was an up hill road that seemed to never end.. At one point I asked a lady (she had a very nice mustache!) where the closest park was.. She said there were two beautiful ones.. but they were both up some other hills.. At this point we were exhausted.. and gave up looking for the elusive park.. So we just coasted all the way down.. taking random roads.. as long as they headed downhill.. It was lots of fun!

We also checked out this huge old wall that flanked the hillside of the town. It connected a few large towers.. Two of which we could walk inside.. When we walked along the wall it seemed fine at first.. Until Mazen said.. "Hey, this is pretty scary".. I dont know if he was joking or not.. but that really got to me.. I looked down.. observed the narrow.. wet.. slanting walkway.. and the three bars that probably would let me slip through and down to a .. anyways.. I started to freak out a bit.. but I managed to walk the length of the wall and back! Phew!

Wild primate spotted.. perhaps it's Yeti's cousin..

This was the view from our hostel.. It was a bit out of the way.. but it was a great place.

Here are some night pics..

The bridge again..

A church..

I'm not sure what this was.. but it looked great on the mountain at night..

I dont remember what this was..

I couldnt decide between the next two pictures, so I put them both in.. One is just a zoomed in picture of the other.

Switzerland - Zurich

2005-07-05T02:10:00.001-04:00

After a week or so in Budapest, Wafaa, Mazen, Bobo and I hopped on a train together and headed to Zurich. The scenery along the way was quite beautiful.. Snowcapped mountains.. houses nestled here and there.. greenery everywhere..

On the train, Mazen and Bobo managed to take over a large sized cabin.. It was actually a little play ground cabin for kids.. They had toys.. cushions.. and a small tv. We were only able to enjoy it for a few minutes.. An old lady joined us.. Shortly after, a large rowdy crowd of Austrian boys tried to come inside, but the Austrian lady shooed them away.. I believe she told them they were too old to enter (ha!)..

Let me tell you a little more about this lady.. We started talking to her.. and it turns out she was a little nutty. She educated us on various subjects.. notably that the www. in URLs stands for 666 in Hebrew, so the internet is Satanic.. (of course!).. , along with the barcode thing.. (that they all start with 666).. She was quite nice though, and crossed the barcode on Bobo's luggage tag, thus countering the forces of evil. She also gave us lots of little tips about where we were heading.. After a few hours the Austrian boys came back and asked for a "percentage".. and then corrected themselves by asking for a "donation" to their hat.. hehe I think they wanted beer money.. b/c thats what I saw them buying at the next stop.

Anyways.. enough blabbering..

The view.. It was hard to take pictures without getting a reflection..

It took us a while to find our hostel.. I've noticed that most hostels are hidden away in easily missed corners. Ours was somewhere around here..

Mazen and I devoured nice meaty Gyros!

Heads ready to be chopped off!!

I thought this was a nice phone booth.

A good place to clean your pipes

Zurich by day..

One of Bobo's pics

Me with my chicken sandwich..

We walked along the Lake towards a big park area where we could see the Alps.. it was quite nice.. and the weather was perfect.

There are swans everywhere..

The nature nut in action..

A little taste of China in .. Zurich??

Bobo and I must have played on this see-saw for a good half hour.. I think Wafaa was lying on the grass somewhere.. and Mazen went to investigate some broken slide.. eventually they joined us and we had more see-saw fun.

The parks are full of cool statues.

We starting talking to an arab ice cream vendor.. We told him of our plans to head to Bern. He managed to convince us to go to Lucern instead.. "Lucern ahsan!" he said.. We were sold! So there and then we changed our plans..

The water was really shimmering that day..

Hungary - Budapest

2005-06-29T01:30:00.001-04:00

After some dilly dallying in Paris, Mazen, Wafaa and I hopped on an early morning train to Budapest.. I think the ride was about 14 hours! We crossed through Switzerland and Austria.. Bobo flew over from England and met us there a few days after we arrived.

Unfortunately, I lost most of my pictures of Budapest!! I don't know where they've gone.. It's really quite depressing.. I took some of my best pictures in Budapest.. I'm really sorry guys!! Anyways, I managed to find just a handful of my pictures, and I have supplemented them with the few pictures that Bobo took (they have dates on them).

The Danube.. I took some great pics of it.. that no one will ever see.. sniff sniff.

A tree by the Danube..

Swarms of bikers crossed the river.. there were literally hundreds of them.. I dont know what was going on..

Young Frodo with Bobo..

We spent one day jogging on an island in the middle of the river. They have a rubber running track that runs along the perimeter of the island.. It was quite a run!

Bobo listening to DJ Bobo

We traversed to the Buda side of the city one evening.. It was quite beautiful.

An innocent looking bunch..

maybe not so innocent..

hehehe

I really enjoyed Budapest.. They have a cool major intersection called the Oktagon, which actually looks like an octagon. Bobo, Mazen and I checked out the Turkish baths in the eastern side of the city.. some funny stuff happened there!! We also enjoyed some Gypsy music, medevil themed feasting, late night card games, and great company..

The population is fairly homogenous.. mostly Hungarians, although there were some tourists. The architecture is pleasing to the eye.. many buildings have lots of details on the edges.. I guess it's just another legacy of a past empire..

I'll have to go back to Budapest and re-take some pictures.. argh..

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Now playing: 4 Strings - Living A Lie
via FoxyTunes

France - Paris Part Deux

2005-06-28T02:37:00.000-04:00

Here are some more pictures of our wanderings through Paris. I paid the city a visit twice, once with Mazen and Wafaa, and a second time with my friend Hung (aka Bobo).

Here's a park that Bobo and I biked through one day..

Bobo started really getting into his picture taking.. he'd get low.. fiddle around with the settings.. take a few shots.. then complain about his sister's camera.. I decided to photograph the perfectionist at work.

This one is my favourite.. Maybe Darwin was right.

Another shot of the Louvre..

inside the Louvre..

i can relate

can you guess what they're looking at?

Here are some pics of the Notre Dame..

A talkative American musician..

Bobo and I also headed over to an area called La Defense.. It's like a mini-city on its own.. Lots of skyscrapers.. big businesses.. and interesting architecture.

Before reaching our destination we devoured a lovely sandwich.. It was the best 3.50 Euros I spent.. Fresh bread.. fresh juicy tomatoes.. chunks of tasty chicken.. crisp lettuce.. mixed in with some eggsalad.. ahh.. it really hit the spot..

Getting closer..

I wasnt sure what these buildings were..

And finally we made it.. There were hardly any tourists here which was quite refreshing.

This is the view of where we came from.. u can see the original arch in the distance.

which path to take..

France - Paris Part Une

2005-06-24T00:50:00.001-04:00

After a few days in England, Mazen, Wafaa and I shuttled down to Paris on the Eurostar. The train ride wasn't too long.. shared a window with a Japanese Art Student.. eavesdropped on some obnoxious kids a row ahead of us.. snoozed a bit.. and then voila.. we were in Paris! After a minor hickup, Wawie and I navigated our way to my cousins' apartment.

Here are some pics of our first few days of venturing..

This was my first view of Paris.. just as we exited the Metro (of course we took the wrong exit).. In the distance is the Arch de Triumph..

Relief often comes at a price in Europe.

We did quite a bit of walking.. my nephew Saleh insisted that we could easily take the Metro anywhere.. but us goofy tourists decided to walk.

Paris is very tourist friendly.. a lot of the popular touristy sites are near each other.

Had some tea and crepes to escape the rain.. our waiter was making jokes the whole time..

Some people had ice cream in the rain..

I found some vintage tintin comics here, alas they were all in french..

Squatting man at the Louvre..

Its easy to sneak into the Louvre (not saying I did..) .. send me some mandazis and i'll fill u in.

We eventually took the Metro home.. had to get back in time for dinner!

I thought this was a cool Metro stop.. the Louvre one has little artifacts..

If I recall correctly this is Centre Pompideu.. it really clashes with the surrounding neighbourhood.. It reminds me of the Davis Center at U of W.

This is the surrounding neighbourhood..

Some textures and colours for u . .

Here are some night-time pictures..

An out of focus picture of the Arch.. it's quite big when you walk right up to it.

Thurrayah and Mazen.

The Champs Elysses at nuit.. it's always bubbling with activity.

Someone really likes icecream!

Louis Vuitton freaks.. :)

Ok.. ok ok I broke down and took a picture of the tower.. ugh..

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Now playing: 4 Strings - Living A Lie
via FoxyTunes

UK - Sheffield

2005-05-20T21:24:00.001-04:00

After a day or two in London, Jalal drove us (Wawie, Looney, and I) a few hours north to his lovely apartment in Sheffield. This was a place of relaxation.. everyone slept in each day.. Usually by the time everyone was up and ready to go outside it was around sunset.. So we saw Sheffield mostly at night.. and there's nothing wrong with that! It's a pretty nice place.. lots of students.. there's a big university there. Jalal has some great friends and he's great company so we all had a great time.. thanks again Jalal (and Hiba too)!

Here's the view from Jalal's apt..

For some odd reason, on one day Wawie and I were both awake during the daylight hours and we were both presentable, so we ventured outside and took some pics..

Some pics of us bowling with Jalal and his friends,

Here's Ma'moun! Affectionately called Laymoun by Jalal.. (sorry if i spelled it wrong!)

We also played some pool.. here's Kenny.. with a serious shot.

One day Jalal started telling us about this place called the Peat District.. or something like that.. Apparently, it's a pretty nice place by day.. but really spooky at night!! There's one section of road there called the snake's pass.. The road gets very windy.. its pitch dark.. and its impossible to get any reception on your cell phone.. A lot of crazy things have happened on this snakes pass.. So naturally he took us there..

i noticed this little frog upon exiting the car

there's a really old building with a moat.. i think it was a castle.. but it was so dark it was hard to make it out..

a deer in headlights..

We also went to this "haunted house" .. people still live inside.. and they're a bit crazy.. Mazen wanted to wander around.. the rest of us just wanted to drive away.

Don't these two look like criminals?

United Kingdom - London

2005-05-19T02:55:00.000-04:00

While I was in the Middle East.. comfortably eating shawarmas and patting my belly.. I had an interesting MSN conversation with my cousin, the Looney Mun.. He mentioned plans to visit his siblings in Europe.. I mentioned plans to continue my bummish adventures.. so we decided there and then to embark on a Euro trip together! It's not exactly how those cheesy euro-trip movies start.. but oh well..

Anyways.. after 6 months of R&R in the Middle East, I headed north to London, our rendez vous point.. We were to also meet with Wawie, Jalal, some other cousins and an Aunty.

Here are a few pics of London..

Jalal, Looney, Me

Picadidly.. the guy to the right of me is my cousin Khalid.. doesnt he look like Looney? Yes.. they're cousins too.. hehe

China Town

A crab that almost escaped China Town ..

This picture is for Hadi and Eep.. Axis and Allies.. we all know who dominated..

Here's Big Ben..

I have to agree with Jalal when he told me that it looks like we're standing behind a painting..

The exchange of contact information.. Jalal and Khalid had never met before.. and yes.. they are cousins too.

Jalal's comfy car.. if you see these plates get outta the way..

He's got about three screens in here.. sorry its outta focus..

Some night life..

Wembley Stadium at night.. it's almost completed..

Oman - Day Tour

2005-05-16T18:26:00.000-04:00

Here are my last few pictures of Oman.. Many of these pictures are from a day trip drive with two of my dear cousins.

I was told that this mosque has the world's largest chandelier as well as the worlds largest carpet.. hehe. I was going to check it out..

I thought this mosque looked like it had a Turkish design.

I believe this is a picture of Muscat.. It is the capital city of Oman and a fairly large port city.

The thing in the distance is a giant incense burner..

Here's another one, inside a roundabout..

We decided to check out the Souq Al-Muttrahh.. I think that's what it was called.. It was cool.. I found some old british antique stuff.. like field glasses from 1912.. but then I saw some more down a few stalls.. that were identical heheh.. I ended up buying a nice, red cane.

I think these are forts that were built by either the Portuguese or British..

British sailors used to inscribe the names of their ships... do you see?

This sign literally means Castle of the World Street.. or something close to that..

Maybe the guy making these signs was replaced.. ?

Here's one of the palaces of the Sultan of Oman.. they call him Qaaboos

Here's the gardener appreciating his work I guess..

As you can see, security is of utmost importance..

After checkin out the palace, souq, forts, etc.. we naturally headed towards the auto junkyard/repair areas.. it was cool.

We then headed towards some big hotel.. called Bustan or Bustani.. I can't remember..

The Sultanate of Oman - Bits and Bites

2005-05-13T00:26:00.000-04:00

I visited Oman twice.. once for just a few days, the second time for a wedding. It is a beautiful country.. perhaps more quiet and laid back than Dubai. I remember hearing lots of Swahili everywhere.. A long time ago many Omanis settled in East Africa.. and in the last few decades many have returned. I think Zanzibar was ruled by a Omani Sultan.. but not sure.. Anyways, I had a good time there.. didn't take too many pics though :)

Hah.. if u weren't sick of sand.. here's a little more..

The scenery changes every so often..

Here's the border between Oman and the UAE..

During my second crossing I was in the great company of four ladies.. aunts/cousins. The officials let all but one of us through.. They wouldn't let my cousin in because of some silly archaic rule.. I won't get into the details.. Anyways, we tried to reason with the clerks but they wouldnt budge.. They mindlessly followed protocol.

When we realized we were talking to a brick wall (well I was wandering around mostly.. looking for the washroom), the four ladies all pulled out their cell phones and started to search for some "wastaa" (getting something by knowing someone).. It took us about 30 or so minutes to find the right person.. Apparently, one of my Uncles' brothers is the Chief of police in Oman.. or something like that.. So it just took one call from him to set the clerks straight. They immediately let us through.. It's amazing what you can do with a little wastaa..

Anyways.. we finally arrived.. here's a picture of the beach near my aunt and uncles house.. I thought this guy was doing some funny stretches.

A big festival was to occur here, but I didnt go..

I spent a lot of time at shisha places (although I dont do shisha).. The place in this picture is called the Shadow.. They have a big screen outside where they usually show music vidoes.. Ocassionally they will start to play a movie.. and after 15 mins or so.. just as u get into the movie.. they'll change it and flip another movie.. and do the same thing again and again and again.. I felt like I was in a psych experiment.

I kept ordering Shai Magreb.. Morrocan tea.

I took this picture in a shopping mall.. We were there really early in the morning.. waiting for someone. I kept starring at the ceiling.. I remember a Omani guy came in with just his pyjamas on.. He was escorted out by a security guy.. but he took it well.. they shook hands and made some jokes.

I thought this was funny..

And this too.. I wonder who this Pocari person is.. Whoever it is.. I like the taste of their sweat.. and it's full of nutrients! :)

Oman .. and I think much of the middle east that I have seen is full of roundabouts with odd objects inside. I think they make some of these roundabouts just so they can shove something inside that they dont want to throw away.. like that piece of junk you keep in your room for no particular reason.. and this one is not even close to odd..

Here's my cousin Naji and his Banana tree.. he's very proud of it..

Here's my cousin Ibrahim, posing in traditional Omani garb..

He can also magically transform into Superman..

More to come..

UAE - Loose Ends..

2005-05-10T15:54:00.000-04:00

Hello.. Here are some remaining pics of the UAE that I either forgot or could not fit in the earlier posts..

I think this is a pic of us landing in Dubai..

I just found these pics that my sister took of Abu Dhabi..

The next bunch of pics are from a camping trip to a place called Hatta. I think parts of it are owned by Dubai and parts by Oman.. This time I went with a different group of family members.. There were lots of kids! I decided to pack very light..

It's an interesting geographic area.. Ocassionally these valleys flow with quite a bit of water.. For that reason, it's common to find trees and other sorts of plant life growing at the bottom of these dry valleys.. it can look pretty odd sometimes.

Yes, I was "roughing" it again.. The parents and little kids stayed in these huts.. each with its own nice hot shower! Since I was neither a parent, nor a small child (debatable).. I slept in the majlis hut.. A majlis is usually a room in a house where arabs laze around on pillows.. play cards.. smoke shisha.. mix politics, religion and too much coffee.. This, however, was a majlis hut.. or more like a barn.. The doors were open throughout the day.. and the holes and large gaps between the thin boards of wood were not very reassuring.. anything could have crawled or slithered in! How exciting!! :) I was not alone though.. two of my young nephews were with me. We entertained ourselves for most of the night..

Yes, I was the fool who blasted the soccer ball over the edge.. It was fun and dangerous running down to the bottom of the valley.. Kids, dont do it!!

The infamous hut!

UAE - Nashash- Desert Camping

2005-05-08T21:35:00.000-04:00

Hello!! This batch of pictures is from a desert camping trip to Nashash in december. I went with a gaggle of family members in three fully loaded 4x4s. We drove for about four or more hours south east of Abu Dhabi.. I think it's near the border with Saudi Arabia.. Prepare yourself for lots of pictures of SAND!

Long drives in Canada involve a lot of starring at greenery.. trees.. hills.. fields.. the occasional tim hortons.. sometimes it gets tiresome. In the middle east, it's usually desert and more desert.. but strangely I rarely grew tired of it. Anyways.. enough rambling.. here are some pics..

These days many camel herders use SUVs or small pick ups to move the camels around..

Here's the bungalow that we stayed in.. Yes I know it's not the same as camping in Canada.. with the tents.. mosquitos.. stinky outhouses.. racoons and bears.. This sort of camping involved nice spacious bedrooms.. big shower stalls.. a big kitchen.. living area.. satellite tv.. too much..

Shortly after nightfall my sister and I decided to venture out and do some star gazing.. It was beautiful.. I'd never seen so many in my life!! I could even see clusters.. or what I thought might have been galaxies.. not sure. I tried taking pictures but my camera couldn't capture it.. sorry!

I bumped into these wild arabian women.. I escaped before they picked up my scent..(don't feed them)

I stayed up the whole night with hiba (beating her in burnout3 as well) telling her stories so she'd stay awake, and keep me awake so I could see the sunrise over the dunes. Unfortunately, I fell asleep just as the sun was rising.. buuuuut I did wake up a few minutes later.. so I rushed outside..

Yeah.. I know I took too many sunrise pictures.. I couldn't help myself..

I like all the different textures and designs of the desert.

There was a small settlement nearby.. I think they were growing something..

When you are at the top of one of these big dunes make sure you have something to cover your eyes.. A gust of wind can easily send sand flying into your face..

I've been spotted by my Uncle!!

Can you guess what she's writing??

I waited.. knocked politely.. whistled.. everything.. I never found out what lives in there.. :(

I was searching for oil..

Here's the family artist..

The drama-queen..

This is supposed to be a python that swallowed a baby.. :)

On the drive home we stopped at a place owned by a guy called the Rainbow Sheikh..

This globe thing is basically a very large RV.. he's sometimes travels with it around the country.. can you guess what tows this behemoth?!

Yes.. this truck works!! He has a collection of gimungous vehicles..

Impressive.. but they should at least get the spelling right..

There was also a guy giving camel rides.. it seemed like the touristy thing to do..

I liked this bird house..

UAE - Abu Dhabi

2005-05-07T15:27:00.000-04:00

Hello folks!! For this post I'm going to do something a little different.. First of all, let me say that I had a wonderful time in Abu Dhabi.. It was where I went to totally relaaaax.. I spent so much time sleeping.. playing playstation.. sleeping more.. and sleeping. As a result, I don't have too many pictures.. and I didn't explore the city too much.. So I figure why not let an Abu Dhabi native tell you about this great city.. so without further ado.. here's Wafaa aka Wawie's take on the place.. (to avoid confusion my comments are in brackets)

"Abu Dhabi is the Capital of the UAE. It’s the biggest and most populated of the 7 cities, although you wouldn’t think it at all! It’s a relaxed place, really green, and is also surrounded by the sea on almost all sides. Al-Ain (a large oasis city inland) is also considered part of Abu Dhabi, and is called “The Garden City of the Gulf”. Its origins date back over four millennia, and archaeological discoveries date settlements in Al Ain to around 3000 BC.

(I was constantly fascinated by the golf ball-like objects on top of the Etisalat buildings.. I'm sure someone lives in there!!)

The picture below is of the late Sheikh Zayed Al Nahyan, former president of the UAE, who passed away last year during Ramadan. He was a great leader, he had so many visions for the future… and it was he who turned the UAE into the flourishing beautiful country that it is. May he rest in peace.

The picture below is of a massive mosque under construction. It’s been under construction for about three (or more?) years now. Anyway, it’s been forever. Apparently the reasons why it’s taking this long are political. I guess religion and politics never mix well.

Tis the clear crystal water and white sands of the beach. Aaaaaaaah. The water is calm the whole year round.. and warm most of the time too.

(Can you guess what fruit this is?)

(Do you see the golf balls?!!)

This is one of the 7 gates to the Emirates Palace. It’s an almost finished 6 star hotel that is “An enchanting landmark that's a wonder to behold for all who venture through its magnificent gates”*. I believe it will also be the main conference centre where all the big shots’ll be chillin’. My favourite part of the hotel is the giant dome on top of the building, which glows different colours at night.

(I was walking home one night.. late at night.. and i decided to take pictures of these camels.. They have them all along the corniche.. this is how the infamous story started...)

(Ok.. I agree there aren't enough people in these pictures.. so I'm going to post this pic of my two cousins/neice and nephew in AD.. Hiba and Ali.. heheh I figured u two are cool enough not to mind!)

(Thanks everyone in AD for a great time!! Thanks Wawie for the commentary!!)

UAE - Dubai - Mish Mash

2005-05-06T11:58:00.000-04:00

These are the last few pictures of Dubai.. If you want to see the non-postable ones drop by my house and fill out a form.. hehe.

The next three pictures are from the Gold Souk. This is not the best place to drag your son..

My sister (I won't say which one) almost had a break down bargaining for a gold bracelet.. she was not used to the local dance.

Gold is a fair bit cheaper in Dubai.. compared to Canada.. My mother's eyes light up when she's shopping for gold. She has a severe case of gold fever!!

I spent a lot of time with the benches.

This is a new residential area called the Arabian Ranches.. a few of my relatives bought houses here. They all sold like hot cakes.

This is the tag that's connected to the key of ones locker in the Wafi changing room. hehe.

I thought this was a cool picture that my sister Zahra took.

I discovered this sign in a wholesale shopping mall.. As I was taking the picture I noticed a guy standing next to me.. He was the artist!! I wanted to take his picture, but he insisted that I take a picture of his sign once more.. then he vanished.

Speaking of malls.. one cannot visit Dubai without checking out City Centre!! This is one of the biggest malls.. It's where almost everyone goes at some point during the week. A lot of the youth hang out here and try to chat to each other using their Bluetooth devices. A lot of people go just to walk around and around and around.

This is Mercato (not sure if I spelled it correctly).. I think this mall is supposed to have the Italian theme. It's also pretty popular.. near the beach.. but a bit expensive.

This is the new Dragon Mart.. it's a huge mall full of chinese vendors. It's nearly completed..

The inside is pretty much done..

No trip to the mall, with your sisters (and crazy cousin), is complete without some horrendous shoe shopping.. ugh.. what was i thinking?!

I think this is near the old part of Dubai.. They're trying to restore parts of it.. and set up art galleries, coffee places and what not..

My cousin/aunt Amal was impressed by the fish that this Kashmiri lover had hanging in the back.. hehe.

Here's Sheikh Zayed road.. there's a good shawarma place down there somewhere..and a cool coffee place called Shakespeare.. hehe.

Another good picture by Zahra..

There's so much more to Dubai, unfortunately I was a bit of a lazy bum when I was there, so I didnt see or take pictures of everything. It's a fairly cosmopolitan place.. the locals are out numbered a few times over by all the foreigners working in Dubai. It has almost anything you can think of.. and if they don't have it.. chances are they're building it. If you want some good mandazis call my cousin/aunt Amal (she does deliveries) !! Thanks Aunty!! :)

UAE - Dubai, Global Village, Dubai Tennis Championship

2005-05-05T12:42:00.000-04:00

The next few pictures are of Global Village, an annual event in Dubai. Businessmen from countries all over the world set up a mini market full of stalls with goods from their nation. They also have cultural things floating about.. I thought it was good.. but many people didnt think this years Village was too great.

It's pretty huge.. We spent a few hours walking around, and it wasn't enough to see everything..

In some countries I noticed that they had some stalls with people and goods from other countries.

My mom got in the way of this shot..

My nephew Ali and I in the Yemeni zone.. I hope u don't mind Ali!!

Some traditional dancing..

I think these two were outside of the South Africa zone.. Oh.. I won a bag full of brochures, a deck of Titanic cards (with scenes from the movie on each card), and a small South African canvas painting thing.. All I had to do was answer some questions to a guy with a mic.. "How are you?".. "Where are you from?" .. "Have you spent a lot of money?" .. "Thank you, here you go..".

The Canadian zone only had a few stalls.. but they had the best music.

Anywhoo.. the next few pictures are from the Dubai Tennis Championship. This year they had some big players like Agassi, Federer, Williams, and some others I can't remember.

I don't remember who these people were..

This was the semi-final match between Serena Williams and Jelena Jankovic. Jankovic was playing really well!! Serena lost the first set 6-0!! She got really upset halfway through and broke her tennis raquet in half.. She made it look so effortless!! Don't upset that woman!! She forfeited in the second set with an injury..

Jankovic liked to pull out over ripe bananas from the freezer down there..

I think these two were the no.1 ranked womens doubles team.. They played really well.. and were smiling the whole time.. even when they were losing. They ended up winning..

I never knew one had to go down this low in tennis!

UAE - Dubai - Wafi, Madinat Jumeirah, Jumeirah Beach

2005-05-04T00:20:00.000-04:00

Hello again!! I'm going to cheat here and put three posts in one.. I've realized that I don't have that many "postable" pictures of Dubai.

The first set of pictures are from a place called Wafi. The whole area has the ancient Egypt theme.. There's a Wafi mall (full of expensive things).. Wafi restaurants.. a cinema.. spa, gym, pools.. sauna.. everything.

My cousin's have a membership for the gym so I was fortunate enough to enjoy the swimming pools.. Oh.. they have a cool pool called the lazy river. Basically, you just lie on a tube.. or float on your back and let water currents take you down a windy stream.. I went around a few times looking very silly, but very contented in a tiny tube thing.

The first few pictures are of Wafi at night.. I think we were invited to eat at one of the restaurants..

Even the parking garage has the Egyptian theme going..

I think this was the entrance to the mall.. They have cool glass domes.. wish I took a picture of them.

I believe the fellows below the tacky christmas decorations are all part of the royal family.

My sister.. She thinks she's a princess...

The next four pictures are of a place called Madinat Jumeirah. It's been created in the last few years. There's a big hotel.. a large souk area.. some nice canals.. It's very beautiful.. stylish.. and expensive.. but then again.. everything is expensive for me..

I'm sure I took more pictures of this place.. I just can't seem to find them. Oh well..

The last bunch of pictures are from Jumeirah Beach.. yes its right down the road from Madinat Jumeirah.. Property value in Jumeirah has really gone up in the last few years.

The building you are probably looking at is the Burj Al-Arab.. It's a hotel that has been designed to look like the sail of a boat. It's the worlds tallest hotel.. they built it all on reclaimed land.. There are lots of visionaries (crazy people) in dubai.

That's my cousin Ahmed with his goofy cousin.. Thanks for taking me to the beach! :)

United Arab Emirates - Dubai - Creek

2005-05-02T14:14:00.000-04:00

Hello!! I'm back.. sorry for the delay.. I'm a few months behind with the pictures. I'm going to try and update this webpage in the next few days.. so expect a flurry of posts..

After a month in Saudia, I flew over to Dubai, in the United Arab Emirats. Dubai was sort of like my home base for my travels to Yemen, Oman and England. Collectively, I've spent most of my 7 months in Dubai.. so as you can guess I have many many pictures.. but dont worry.. you won't see most of them!! (mostly family pics)

Anyways.. what can I say about Dubai.. hmmm there's too much really. A few decades ago it was just a small town.. mostly sand. Today it's a booming city.. skyscrapers.. mini-cities.. islands.. almost anything you can think of is being built in Dubai. It's a huge commercial and financial hub in the middle east and its surrounding regions.. I will not go into too much detail.. hopefully you'll get the idea with some of my pictures.

Dubai is also where most of my extended family lives.. hundreds and hundreds of them.. I was there for a few months.. but I dont think I met all of them.. I'm really happy for meeting the ones that I did. It had been about 12 years since my last visit.

The pictures below are of an excursion with my cousin Naji to the Dubai Creek. The creek separates Dubai into two parts.. Deira and Bur Dubai.

I think this is where the smaller boats come to unload their wares.

Naji, my cousin (the guy in white), is about to bargain with one of these guys for a boat tour of the creek. These guys pilot the small boats.. I forget what they're called.. but they usually ferry passengers across the creek. It costs only a few pennies to cross. We hired one of these boats for an hour-long tour.. just for the two of us.

First, however, we had to drop some people on the other side..

I wonder what he's thinking..

This guy is really relaxed.. he probably has all the answers to lifes questions.

The Sheikh Zayed skyline in the distance..

Hello!!

He was a very quiet man..

The creek ends up ahead.. that green building on the left is a gas station for the boats. The creek opens up into the Persian Gulf.

I think this guy was fishing..

This area is considered the old part of Dubai.. very little is left of the old part. The two square towers are common in the old areas. They were designed to keep the buildings cool during the summer..

After our tour of the creek, we decided to check out the other side..

This is one of the entrances to the old souk. You can find all sorts of things here.. but make sure you bargain well!!

Back on the other side.. enjoying some coconuts..

Final minutes..

2005-03-19T17:03:00.000-05:00

Hello.. I can't type much.. I'm flying in a few hours.. I just want to say that I'm not sure if I will be able to update this blog for the next little while since I will be on the move again.. I'll try my best, however, to find some time and a hi-speed connection.. take care!

S

The Yemen Chronicles Part 12 Odds and Ends

2005-03-12T14:50:00.000-05:00

This shall be my last post of Yemen.. The pictures below are just a few miscellaneous pictures that I didnt add in my previous posts.. for one reason or another.

I was fortunate enough to spend a month in Yemen with wonderful family and friends. Thanks everyone!! I'm determined to visit Yemen many more times, and I encourage anyone else who is interested..

Kawkaban- I mashed two or three pictures together and created this wide angle view.

Sanaa- I slept in this room for about a week or two.. This picture doesnt really show the array of colours that would dance around the room.. but you can sort of get a feeling for the softness in the light.

Aden- a man contemplating..

Near Seyoon

Aden- There are a lot of these shops near the sea.

Near Ibb- Doesn't this guy look like a swindler?

Near Ibb

Sanaa- A loveable taxi

I can't remember where this is.. but doesnt the soil look really red in some places?

Aden- I enjoyed this chair

Sanaa

I thought the pig thing was funny..

Aden- I would love to know what made it bend.

Aden- The illustrious President Ali Abdullah Saleh

Aden- Another view of Elephant Bay

Near Ibb

Near Dar Al Hajjar

It's about 2 am right now.. I'm on a few medications... so I won't ramble for too long. I just want to say.. once more.. thank you Yemen! It may sound a bit cliche.. but after exploring my roots I feel a bit more 'complete'. I recommend everyone to discover their roots.. dig up the past.. try on some old shoes.. cough out some dust.. It's quite enjoyable.. Ok.. I'd better shut up..

The next post shall be on.. some other place.

The Yemen Chronicles Part 11 Sana'a - Bab Al-Yemen

2005-03-06T19:30:00.000-05:00

Here are some pictures of Bab Al Yemen (The Gate of Yemen).. its a huge 1000 year old market. It is a lovely labyrinth of sights, sounds and smells. There are a variety of different markets within this one giant market place.. Ah.. too many to list. Many people also live inside this area.. One can smell the the spice market before they reach it.. The vendors have huge burlap sacks filled to the top.. I wish I had taken a picture of it! Oh well..

There used to be 8 gates around the market, but now only this one remains. In the past they used to close all the gates after sunset, and open them once more around 4 in the morning. I think this guy (the speedwalker) might be looking for the other 7 gates.

During one of the revolts or civil wars (I can't remember) the ruler closed the gates. It was blasted open by a tank shell, and as you can see it left a mark.

On my last day in Yemen I went to Bab Al-Yemen to enjoy the atmosphere one more time, and take some pictures. I went alone so I could wander around and hopefully get lost, which I did a few times, but I managed to find my way back. Due to technicalities though I wasn't able to get there early, so in some of the pictures there isnt much light. Anyways, ignore my blabbering and enjoy the pictures.

'Sawarni Sawarni!!' Is what this kid yelled at me the moment he saw my camera.. As you can guess it means, 'Take my picture you goofy tourist!' .. I obliged.. his name was Ahmed. Most kids will want their picture taken if they see you snapping pics.

As I turned around some random corner I bumped into this pack of Japanese tourists.. They had a really smug professional guide with them, so I thought ..'heheh.. why dont I linger behind them, and let this guide show them, and me the best places around here' .. It turned out, however, to be bad idea.. the Japanese tourists were taking pictures every other footstep.. we were moving at a snails pace.. I didnt have all day so I had to part ways.. Do you see the Jambia (dagger) shop on the right hand side? There are hundreds of them here..

I bought one of my jambias from this guy.. For a jambia and belt it cost me about 17 Canadian Dollars. I bought two since it was pretty cheap..

This is the Masjid Al Kabeer (The Great/Big Mosque) It's very very old..

One of my cousins was telling me that this mosque was built by an Ethiopian King, back when Ethiopia had Sana'a under it's control. The King wanted to build this mosque in the likeness of the one in Makkah, and then destroy the real Makkah. He wanted to divert the pilgrims southwards so he could make more money but his plan never worked.. I'm not sure if this is true though..

The Yemen Chronicles Part 10 - Sana'a

2005-03-01T18:10:00.000-05:00

Sana'a is easily the most beautiful city I have ever seen. Sana'a was my home base during my month-long stay in Yemen. I'm lucky to have relatives who were nice enough to put up with me for that long!! Thank you!

So much can be said about Sana'a.. I know I could never do it any justice with the few pictures and words that I'm spewing out.. I simply hope to give you a taste.

The name Sana'a means 'fortified place'.. it has had a number of different names in the past.. and has been mentioned in various Holy Books. As you can guess it's a very very old city (Supposedly founded by Shem, the son of Noah!) !! Bahh.. I don't know which historical facts to mention.. there are just too many!

For example did you know that Sana'a was once the centre of Christian pilgrimage in Arabia?! There used to be a large cathedral, apparently it was the largest christian building south of the Mediterranean. It was built by some architects sent by Justinian, the Byzantine Emperor.. This was way back in pre-Islamic times. The city has come under the rule or at least influeced by various civilizations such as.. the Abyssinians, Ottomans, and Byzantines to name a few..

The city is pretty high up.. over 7,000 feet above sea level.. Many of the houses have rooms on the roof called a Mafraj that allow for a panoramic view of the city. Often the room is full of men in the evenings chewing qat.

I thought I'd be out of breath when I arrived in Sana'a, simply because of the elevation. I was ok though.. the air felt really crisp actually.. and I probably wasnt out of breath simply because I hardly ever exterted myself..

Sana'a was my first impression of Yemen.. and I have to say I felt like I was in another world. It felt as though I was in the REAL Arabia.. it's hard to explain. I also felt very comfortable even though it is very very different from Canada. Anyways, I'm blabbering too much.. and I agree it's very incoherent right now.. The pics in this post are mostly of the not-so-pretty parts of Sana'a.. I feel like showing them first..

Well, ok this picture is of one of the pretty parts of Sana'a.. I couldn't resist! This was one of the first places that I saw in Sana'a.. the old part of the city. It rained the day I arrived.. it all felt so surreal the first day.

This is the view from my cousin Huda's apartment.. It's a pretty nice view.. especially in the evenings ..

I think the University of Sana'a is down the road and to the right.. It's quite large.

I'm in the habit of always wearing my seatbelt.. in Yemen u're lucky if u get a seat! :) Actually, I was almost in a serious accident the second day in Sana'a. I was sitting in the passenger seat of my cousin's Land Rover. We were driving down a two-way road.. and all of a sudden he stopped and decided to do a U-turn, since he forgot some papers at home. He was so preoccupied with these papers that he forgot to look for oncoming traffic. I was looking though.. and I could see a Land Cruiser speeding down the other lane.. heading towards us. For some reason I didnt say anything.. I was just hoping he'd see the car.. and I had a weird feeling that I'd be ok no matter what. Anyways, that feeling didnt last longer than a milisecond because I eventually told him to 'STOP!'.. he braked just in time.. the Land Cruiser somehow managed to squeeze by our car and the sidewalk.. it literally came within a hair of hitting our car! The guy in the Land Cruiser started braking after he passed us.. his car almost fishtailed.. He stopped about 20 meters away just before hitting another sidewalk. He backed up his car then drove and screetched to a stop right infront of us.. Out he came.. an angry Yemeni (very rare!) He was gesticulating wildly and yes he had an AK-47 strapped on his back, he also had a big Jambia (dagger).. So I thought to myself.. 'Sheesh! I just survived the crash.. now he's going to shoot us!' . Hehehe .. he eventually cooled down.. and my cousin left him with a hug or shake of the hand.. anyways.. that's something I'd never see in Canada.

This very long wall encircles the President's house.. (I liked the Vice President's wall.. it had some life sized model Fighter Jets leaning out over the wall).. I think the president's wall goes around a whole mountain top.. it's quite hideous actually. Within each of the turrets there's a very large gun.. The people, however, generally seem to like the president.

he has these Roman-style colums at the main entrance.. I thought it looked really out of place..

This is the parade ground.. it's also a regular street.. I thought it was really cool.. It has to be on of the widest roads.. You can pretty much drive wherever you want on this stretch.. it's like a big empty parkinglot.. it all heads towards a big roundabout .. You need to be a good driver to nagivate through the roundabouts here.. it's just a mess of cars going in circles .. all cutting each other off at the same time.

This is a giant mosque that the President is building.. it's not a very good picture.. but trust me it's big!

Most of the gates or doors are painted blue.. different colours mean different things.. I think white doors/gates mean the place is a pharmacy..

I took these three pictures at the same intersection, at the same red light. In most big intersections you will find people wandering between the cars trying to sell you all kinds of things you really dont need.

Eep I did this for you! The falcons talons felt a bit prickly on my hand.. I was just thinking to myself.. this bird can rip the skin off my hand if it wants to! It was gentle though..

Ahh, here I am chewing some qat with my cousins and their friend Abdullah.. the guy on my left. We chewed non-stop for 7 hours!! Usually they dont go that long.. but I think that night we just lost track of time. I drank about 4 bottles of water and a bottle of Canada Dry.. near the end I was peeing in the bathroom every half an hour!! When you chew you have to drink water to keep hydrated.. We talked about all kinds of things.. They filled me in on some of Yemen's history and current political situation.. social issues.. problems with Rolls Royce engines.. although I didnt contribute much.. I was very content to sit there and chew my leaves..

Ok.. and here's an embarrassing picture of me dressed in some Yemeni garb.. well ignore the Mario's 2 For 1 Pizza top.. I did this for my Mom!! I hope you're happy! I think my Saroon is too low..

Soon I shall show you pictures of the old section of Sana'a.. that's the really beautiful part! :)

The Yemen Chronicles Part 9 - Hadhramawt conclusion

2005-02-16T13:34:00.000-05:00

Here are a few remaining pictures of my day trip to Hadhramawt..

..After driving through various parts of the region, we headed to this funny looking palace that has now been converted into a hotel. It looked like it was in the middle of nowhere.. and yet surrounded by greenery.

This is the entrance..

Do you like the colours? heheh :)

This used to be a swimming pool... I wonder how many things are living in there.. I felt like jumping in..

I believe it used to be this guy's palace.. Thats a bushy mustache.

I really liked the plant life around here.. it seemed very natural.. a little out of control..but not too crazy..

If I havent mentioned it before, Canada Dry is VERY popluar over here.. I've drunk more Canada Dry in Yemen in 3 weeks, than in 14 years in Canada.

Our driver all of a sudden stopped the car and told me to look at this palm. It has 4 trunks!!

Our driver took us out deep into the countryside.. I had no idea where we were going.. We passed through a military checkpoint.. They asked if we were all Yemenis.. Yes yes we said.. they let us through.. We drove and drove and drove.. there was desert and mountains all around us.. I thought maybe he was kidnapping us.. who knows.. and then.. out of nowhere.. we ended up at this oasis. It's simply marvelous.. Do you see how the palm branches are glistening?? Apparently, they're special date trees ..

The rocks are all white and rounded.. so I'm guessing the water comes out to this point or has been this far out.

It's hard to describe how beautiful it was to see this oasis.. One has to travel the route we took to truly appreciate it.. everything was totally barren for miles before we reached here. It was very peaceful too.. I didnt see anyone around.

I really liked these smooth round rocks..

I was very happy to see Hadhramawt.. Apparently my ancestors moved to Hadhramawt a few generations ago to kick some butt (They were tough warriors! They were tough because they came from a very rough, mountainous and inhospitable region of Yemen called Yafi').. They defeated the rulers of Hadhramawt and then decided that they liked the place.. so they became the new rulers of the land... Eventually they were defeated by some other tribe.. but it is still a well known family.. So if I go to Hadhramawt and mention my last name, people will bow down and kiss my feet.. heheh.. just kidding!!

If I go to certain areas.. like Shihr it is likely that the people there will know a lot more about my family history.. which is really cool. I have to go to Shihr the next time I'm in Yemen .. and this is just my dad's side of the family.. My mom's side is also quite famous, more so perhaps.. There was this guy generations ago on my mom's side called Sheikh Ali (or Harhara, i cant remember which one now) who made peace between all the warring tribes.. they were like royalty back then.. (Once, in Saudi Arabia, when a Yemeni gardner found my mom was from Bin Sheikh Ali, he went over and kissed her on the shoulder!) .. All this information though is from parents/uncles/aunts so take it with a few large grains of salt! :)

My Aunty Mary recently gave me a copy of my family history dating back to the 12th century.. so it should be a good read.. It's in arabic though so it'll take a while to understand... Anyways.. sorry for the ramble.. its late..

The Yemen Chronicles Part 8 - Hadhramawt Contd.

2005-02-15T13:30:00.000-05:00

Hello again,

Here are more pictures of my day trip to Hadhramawt..

this is somewhere in the countryside.. There are those women in pointy hats. I noticed the women here were taller and bigger then the women in northern Yemen. I also drove by a few places where they were making mud bricks.. Unfortunately, my camera couldnt turn itself on in time to catch pics of that.

I think this mountain would give good shade when playing football.

a mountain of mufflers..

with very low rates..

I think this was in Seyoon.. that big white building used to be a palace. Now its a museum..

Ahmed on the left, and our driver on the right.. I forget his name.. Ibn something.. i think.. I can't quite remember anything tonight. This is at the top of the museum.. It was 'closed' but we sort of let ourselves in..

Ahmed thought this was really funny and insisted I take a picture..

Some kids returning from schooool..

Here's a palace that's falling apart.. I can't remember where.

A mosque.. somewhere :)

I think these pictures are in Tarim.. Tarim used to be a centre of knowledge in ancient times.

another mosque

Another old palace.. It's really sad that many of the old buildings are falling apart.. with each one a little bit of history and heritage also falls apart.

nice pink shoes

The Yemen Chronicles Part 7 Hadhramawt (Shibam)

2005-02-13T14:56:00.000-05:00

A few days after flying to Aden, I was sitting in my other uncle/cousin's office (Abdul Aziz), he asked me if I'd like to fly to Seyoon for the day.. just to check out the sites. Once again I said 'yes please!'. I love my family!

Seyoon is a fairly large city in Hadhramawt, one of the larger governates of Southern Yemen. I was happy to see Seyoon, but even happier to see the nearby city of Shibam.. It is an old city, that has been the capital of Hadhramawt during various points in Yemen's history. Throughout it's history, it has been the commercial focul point of the nearby Wadi of Hadhramawt.

It is a very unique city in that it contains the FIRST EVER skyscrapers in the world!! Yes yes!! They were made from MUD and CLAY hundreds and HUNDREDS of years ago (amazing!).. some have up to 16 floors! Most of the ones standing today are about 4-500 years old.. the oldest existing building is said to have been built in 753 A.D. . The city has been burned and pillaged a few times.. rebuilt.. moved.. rebuilt.. flooded.. rebuilt.. razed and rebuilt.. Yemen is full of resilience. Enjoy the pictures.

Here's a picture I took on the flight from San'a to Seyoon.. In Hadhramawt the mountains have flat tops.. as opposed to the mountains in Northern Yemen.. if you remember those.

That block of buildings is the city of Shibam.. It was a fair bit larger a few hundred years ago. In the last hundred years or so the city suffered due to surrounding squabbling sultans.

We have just met our driver at the airport, I've just forgotten his name... and we're heading to Shibam.. it was about a 10 minute drive from Seyoon.. very close.

here it is..

Here's an old decrepit building in Shibam.. it's sadly falling apart. You can see in this picture that it is truly made from mud and clay..

We arrived early in the morning.. around 8 am .. so most of the people were still hitting their snooze buttons..

Notice the cool window frames.. Often one can determine the age of a house by looking at the design of its windows.

This early in the morning there were more goats than people walking around, and even the goats looked sleepy.. it explains why the place smelled funny.

The doors on most houses are full of carved designs.. I think there are some verses from the Qur'an on the top of this door.. There's also a date on the door, so one can have an idea of the age of the house. This one was about 200 hundred years old.. if I remember correctly.

More goats!! At the top of these houses there are flaps that are left open in the summer.. so wind circulates through the house and leaves the place feeling cooooool. In the winter months the doors at the top are closed so as to keep the heat in. It works really well due to the design of the houses.. Free air-conditioning! :)

I just found these lying on the side of an alleyway..

I like the balcony-type things at the top.

Yemenis also know how to drive cars well past their expiration date.

We only spent about an hour in Shibam walking around.. we couldnt do much since most of the people were snoozing..

We headed back to our 4x4 and headed to Tar'im. I'll post those pics soon.. tc.

The Yemen Chronicles Part 6 - Aden contd.

2005-02-07T14:00:00.000-05:00

These pictures are a continuation of my two day trip to Aden with my uncle/cousin Munir.

This is the entrance to a qat market in Aden.. I don't remember if I've explained what qat is.. so I'll explain..

In Yemen much of the land is used to cultivate qat, a leafy plant that many Yemeni's chew. There are dozen's of varieties.. with different shapes, colours and flavours. The plant contains mild stimulants that generally relax the person chewing them. It's not really a drug, but it has a noticeable effect on the person chewing it. Chewing qat is very much a part of Yemeni society. The work day of many Yemeni's revolves around qat chewings (in arabic 'khazaning').. It's often an excuse for people to get together and socialize until the weee hours of the night. I'll explain this a little more in another post.. Anyways, my uncle Munir bought two bundles of qat..

I believe this is Breka.. This is where you will find fisherman and fishmarkets.. I should have taken a picture of the fish market.. but I was mesmerized by the fish eyes.. I just kept starring at them.. We bought a few fair sized ones.. sorry bobo, i cant remember the names..

The water you are seeing is from the Arabian Sea, incase you are wondering.

After buying our fish.. we drove down the road a few meters.. and entered this open air restaurant. You can bring any raw food from outside.. (like our fish) and they will cook it and serve it to you.. cool huh? What I also liked, was the fact that under each table there was a cat(s) eating our crumbs.. keeps the place clean i guess :) The cats have manners though, they will only jump on your table after you pay the bill.. hehe.

May you rest in peace.. in my belly!! hahah..

I agree with this cat.. the fish was gooood!

Now we're heading to Siraa..

She reminds me of my sister.. I won't say which one!

I think this is Siraa.. or maybe it's Breka.. and the one before was Siraa.. all of a sudden I cant remember which beach is which.. bah..regardless its a beautiful beach..

A silly warning sign.. heheh..

Don't they look like giraffes??

Here's a sunset picture for you sunset lovers.. I missed the sun going under the horizon because I was busy chewing qat and losing a chess game to my Uncle.

And here's another with two suns!

The Yemen Chronicles Part 5- Aden

2005-02-02T13:53:00.000-05:00

One day my Uncle Munir aked me if I'd like to fly with him to Aden.. for a night. Of course, I said.. Yes please!

Aden is a port city in the Southwestern part Yemen. It's history as a trading port dates back over 3000 years. In ancient times not much is known, but from explorers like Marco Polo.. Vasco de Gama and others, it's clear that it was a very rich and powerful port city.

Aden has a large natural bay that's located along an ancient trade route. The city benefited from monsoon winds that propelled ships between East Africa and Asia. This would explain why if one goes to East Africa one will see a great deal of Arab influence in the culture and language. In fact, my ancestors migrated from Yemen to East Africa generations ago, to the Island of Zanzibar, off the coast of Tanzania. Zanzibar used to be a major trading post along the east/west trade route.

The Portuguese tried to capture Aden in 1513 but they couldnt quite do it due to it's heavy fortifications.. In 1538 the Ottoman Turks managed to get a hold of it, but only because they had some inside help!.. In parts of Yemen it's common to see a bit of Turkish influence.. like Turkish baths, or Turkish writing on old houses. In the late 1700's Aden became an important component of the British colonial policy. The Brits made some deals with the local rulers and turned Aden into a Brit protectorate.. In 1967 (I think this is when they kicked the Brits out!) Aden became the capital of Southern Yemen (San'a was the capital of North Yemen.. in 1990 the two Yemens united into ONE) . In the 70's Aden started to decline as a primary port, due to intense competition and the temporary closing of the Suez Canal. To make matters worse Aden was pummelled during the 1994 civil war.. for quite a while the city stagnated and is still in poor shape.. but recently things have been improving. There's a plan to turn Aden, once again, into a major free port city.. anyways.. i'm digressing too much!!

My Uncle Munir and I stayed in the Sheraton.. it was pretty nice. I got a free emergency sewing kit! .. This was the view from my room :) The area is called Elephant Bay. Do you see the elephant? I was planning on checking out the pool.. but that never happened.

Eep! Here's another picture for you.. can u figure out what kinda bird that is?

The city of Aden is referred to as Crater simply because it is surrounded by a crater. I believe there are only two ways in and out of the city.. the rest of the area is surrounded by rock.

That house with the little ladder at the top is where my parents got married.. way back in the stone age. It supposedly was a nice house back then.. now we have no idea who lives there.

local pool sharks..

a typical tea/coffee/whatever place ..

Now I've realized that its common to find large scale models of fighter planes in the middle east. At least this one is in the shade.

I won't bother explaining :) Read the sign!

Isn't it cool?? It's all a big mystery!! These tanks extend deep into the mountains!

Local kids come here now and climb up these hills to chew their qat or scratch their names into the reservoir walls.

As I was starring at the sky, an old man called me over and told me to look... 'look over here!' I found this tree growing out of a well..

Doesnt this well remind you of that movie, 'The Ring'?

I'll soon post up a few more pics of Aden.. gotta go find some fooood.

The Yemen Chronicles Part 4- Ibb and Nadra

2005-01-30T02:33:00.000-05:00

Hello again,

The pictures below are just a continuation of my trip to Jibla.. I felt like dividing the pictures in two posts.. don't ask why.. Ibb is a fairly large city in the southwestern part of Yemen. The history of Ibb apparently goes back to 1000 yrs BCE. I don't know much else.. sorry!

My dad says that traffic is a sign of progress!

I'm not sure where this is.. If you see a car with yellow plates it means it's a taxi. Every other car in Yemen is a taxi.. and every other taxi is near prehistoric. . Gasoline prices in Yemen are low due to heavy government subsidies. In fact, people are starting to smuggle gasoline into Saudia Arabia, that's how cheap it is!

In San'a it's common to see tiny mini van buses.. they're called Dab'abs. They drive on designated routes with their side door open.. I think they have to keep it open by law.. so if anything happens the passengers can just hop out! Anyways.. I'm digressing too much..

These kids were playing Karem in the epicentre of the traffic jam! Crazy mountain people..

Often I would wonder what life was like for kids like these.

I hardly saw any camels in Yemen. These two are probably best friends.

I wish I could have had a closer look at that house in the distance! This is a great country for hermits.

Ok.. here's Ibb..

I took this picture from a restaurant atop one of the peaks. It has a great panoramic view of the city.. but the place is a bit shabby.

While we were eating, a group of boyscouts marched by chanting and banging on their drums. It happened to be a national holiday! The holiday celebrates the day that the Yemeni's kicked the British out.

Now we're heading to Nadra..

Hey eep, are you there? Do you see those birds?! I took this picture for you!

Here we are, approaching Nadra... it is quite lovely.

heading back home..

The Yemen Chronicles Part 3- Dar Al Hajar

2005-01-27T17:02:00.000-05:00

I'll give you guys a break from the endless mountain pictures and show you Dar Al-Hajar.. it's a former palace of one of the Imams of North Yemen. This palace is quite famous throughout Yemen and much of the Arab world. Anyways, my cousin Maher drove me down to check it out..

Ok, just one picture of mountains! Or maybe two.. this is on the way there..

This is Wadi Dhahr.. After taking this picture I was approached by two falconers..or falconeers ..however u call them.. those people with the falcons on their hands! In the mountains it's very common to see predator birds..

If one looks closely.. one will notice a large building on the left hand side of the picture. It sort of blends into the mountain... THAT is Dar Al-Hajar..

Here's a closer look!

Imam Yahya built this palace in the 1930's.. it was intended to be a pleasant summer palace.. He actually built it ontop of the ruins of a prehistoric building.. The prehistoric part looks cave-like in the picture..

This used to be the Imam's swimming pool.. The building opposite is a majlis.. A place where people get together, socialize and lazily lie on pillows.

This is one of the barracks that the Imam had built on one of the surrounding mountain tops.. I think there were 7 in total.

This Imam tried to keep Yemen closed off from the rest of the world.. I read somewhere that he kept the country's national treasury under his bed! Eventually he was assassinated in an attempted coup. (In San'a I saw the car that he was shot in at the national war museum.. I could feel the glass and the bullet holes... I think he survived the car shooting.. but was murdered later on.. or maybe i'm thinking of a different guy)

This is the prehistoric part of the palace... I believe this was an ancient burial room.

This is one of the many rooms.. my cousin Maher is poking his head in one of the closets. Some of the closets doubled as small rooms. They were used as hiding places when the palace was in danger. The Imam would sleep in the closet..and one of his goons would sleep in his bed.

When sunlight passes through these Qamarias (the thing above the window) it lights up the room in a beautiful array of colour.

This is a cool little closet.. if u've noticed they are above the ground... to get into this one you pull these wooden steps out of the wall.

I think this is where the Imam dried his laundry. Do u see one of the barracks in the distance?

I was told those imprints in the floor are actually footprints from Queen Sheba's time.. Apparently the people had huge feet back in those days.

I believe this is where they made their bread.

Yes I'm arguing with one of my imaginary friends..

This is one of the majlis rooms.. There were a few in this palace.. The Imam had one for women and one for men.. he also had winter and summer ones. The summer majlis was cooler inside than the winter one simply due to its location in the palace.

This is one of the palaces refridgerators..

These holes are for rifles, so the Imam's guards can shoot any dangerous solicitors.

Ahhh.. this is where the Imam would sit every morning to dry himself off after a good morning bath. It was pretty comfortable.

This is a window from the roof, it has wood along the bottom so women can look down without being seen.

Anyways.. its late, and im tired.. so goodnight... i'll post some more pictures soon. Take care ya'll.