19th March - 8th April 2006

Yemen (Aden and Sana'a)

"Welcome to Yemen"! is the warm reception you get from kids, shopkeepers and people in the dusty streets. They mean it sincerely too, stopping to greet you with a few words of English.

I stayed 3 weeks in Aden and Sana'a combined, and was pleasantly surprised by my visit here.

Sana'a, the capital city of Yemen, is a most exotic, beautiful city. I stayed in the Old City, which is world heritage listed, and a living museum full of fantasic buildings made from mud and stone. Perhaps the people themselves with their exotic garb should be heritage listed too!

The buildings are hundreds of years old, but might've looked thousands to me. Walls start off wide at the base and taper inwards to the top. Bands of different colour brick or geometric shapes decorate the walls, and often the first level or two have no windows, for fortification in more hostile times.

The entire old city is enclosed by thick butressed walls, and they used to shut the heavy wooden gates at night to protect the town and it's citizens.

I stayed in a fantastic tower-house with a view over some gardens and a cobbled street where kids play during the day. It had stain glass windows up higher and opening windows letting the breeze flow through during the day, which reaches about 30degreesC. At night it dropped to about 15degrees, but was a very pleasant temperature.

The exotic clothing (Arabic), was on par with the beautiful buildings. Men wear an embroidered sarong which is wrapped around and rolled down an inch from the top to hold it together. Other men wore white ankle length flowing gowns - one piece, right up to the neck. Both styles of dress were often accompanied by a smart, buttoned jacket over the top, usually brown, green checked or blue. I bought a sarong and jacket for about $10 apiece. Most wear a turban type cloth of checkered red or brown patterned with tassles at the sides. I got one to wear too. It's tied by folding in a large triangle with the apex at the back wrapping around the head and letting the tail flow back over your shoulder, takes about 30 seconds to do, and it helps keep the sun off.

Also part of the uniform is a jambia, a scary-looking sharp, curved knife in a short hooked scabbard. Mainly ceremonial, and most men carried one. Looked very dangerous, but they don't use it except if in desperate self-defence. But in practice it never happens, and is a fashion piece.

I wore the full Yemeni garb (minus jambia knife) to the interesting National museum - sarong, cream coloured shirt, checked green jacket and turban wrap. The guard at the entrance with a big rifle stopped me, and smilingly said some words in Arabic and motioned to stop. His friend from the ministry of tourism smiled and translated to me "Stop. Yemenis not allowed inside - only tourists" and we all had a good laugh, since I was dressed so authentically !

Adding to the exotic dress code are the women who wear black, head to toe, but they have jewels and patterns embedded in the fabric for fashion. All you can see of the woman are their eyes, which are mysteriously beautiful. Apparently it is shameful for them to make eye contact with men and they usually glance away. It's also rude to stare at them, unless you are married, so I look away now too, not wishing to offend as an ignorant tourist !

I liked the music from Yemen too - passionate, stirring - rythmic hand clapping or drum beating, with a kind of violin orchestra and expressive singing, also some wind instruments. They played a stirring tape on the bus ride up through dusty villages, and it complemented the starkly beautiful landscape scenes of arid, rocky mountains and desert.

Back to Sana'a - all the winding streets are made of cobbled rock. Mainly pedestrian walkways. There are mosques with towering minarets which burst out devinely in the call to prayer 5 times a day. People wander in and out, in their garb complete with daggers and often a cheekful of qat (pronounced 'Kut'), a green leaf which is stuffed in one side of the mouth and masticated endlessly.

Many of the hotels had a special room up on top of the building with views over the city, and stain glass portals up higher (like my room - which has a 15 foot ceiling), with comfy cushions. This is meant for sitting around chewing qat and chatting to family members or friends (in the past - tourists don't seem to use it).

I ate at the local cafes here which was fun. Only men seem to be around in these boisterous, busy places. Lots of noise from the gas fires, thumping of bread in musical rythms, yelling of orders from all corners of the rooms, waiters clanging tin mugs to attract business, and people slapping backs or laughing heartily and yelling across the room at mates etc.

I love going to fruit juice shops afterwards, identified by a stringed curtain of mangoes, to take a large glass of lime juice - containing some sugar and cold water. It's very refreshing in the heat, and probably healthy giving some vitamen C to break down all the oily food.

The market (souq) in Sana'a is amazing - spices, fabrics, jambia knives, exotic clothed merchants selling all sorts of silverwares, perfumes, sultanas, dates, coffees, qat, etc. There are ancient trades like blacksmiths bashing out steel blades or other items over an anvil and hot charcoal furnaces, camels in a harness milling sesame seeds walking around and around a pole. Old men walk hand in hand or embrace, kissing each other's cheek three times, some with gold teeth, and bedecked with flowing turbans and green sheathed jambia knives.

I wander the myriad laneways and take photos of grubby looking kids - all extremely friendly and wanting to say a word or two in English. I played some volleyball with a group in the street - no net, just hitting the ball to each other. They got excited and all thronged around, tiny hands grabbing at the camera to see their face in the pictures I took.

The women are very mysterious - all you can see is their eyes, and it seems to be taboo to have anything to do with them. I got told off by a woman in a black burkha selling pita bread from a huge basket on her head. It was from a distance inside a cafe, and the men working in the restaurant ushered me forward to get a closer angle. Somehow the women breadsellers saw me with my camera and one stormed over to complain. The restaurant owners had a big stick ready to whack her if she caused me any trouble, but he was just making fun. I didn't manage to get a better photo anyway, and tried to let them all know that. It's like you are capturing something personal from them.

It was never been a problem to take photos of men, in fact they usually are very happy to be in the pictures and put on a toothy smile or grab their mates to join in the posing.

It's all been pretty dazzling on my senses, but I had a ball experiencing the Arabic culture here, and seeing things I've never seen in my life. I'll always remember the wonderfully friendly Yemeni people, the rugged scenery and of the architectural beauty of Sana'a.

I met a local Yemeni fisherman who was interested to join as crew, but after his brother discussed the plans, he started asking for salary, return fare, food and insurance. It was a backup plan but not one which excited me. Luckily I had a response from an interested crew on the internet. I much preferred this option, because I knew her heart would be in the sailing, and not doing this for a job.

I met Joanne, my new crew from Manchester, at Aden airport after she had a stopover visit to Sana'a. We then provisioned with tins, and went to the markets for fresh vegies, beef, 2 chickens and a very large bottle of yummy lime juice .

We set sail on 8th April for the 2 month cruise up the Red Sea.