Welcome party to Yann and Guillaume

Nice Party!

Hoy me gustaria deciros unas cuantas cosas relacionadas con el atentado que hubo en Marib, a 170km de Sanaa donde han muerto siete españoles y como lo hemos vivido aqui:

Cuando recibi la noticia me quede perpleja, sobretodo por que me sorprendia de los yemenitas, siempre tan acojedores con los extranjeros...

Por la noche cuando cogi el taxi para ir a casa, el conductor, como siempre hacen los yemenitas, me pregunta

- Where are you from”?

Siempre con una gran sonrisa como suelen hacer,  hay que ver que maja que es esta gente.

- From Spain!

Su sonrisa se apago:

-Oh, I am so sorry about the attack (lo siento mucho lo que paso).

Yo le mire y le dije gracias… los dos nos quedamos bastante apagados durante todo el trayecto, silencio absoluto..

Tres dias despues,  decidí ir con Samir y el doctor de SOS internacional para ver a Maria  Asuncion. Ella es la unica que no pudo irse con lo heridos a España puesto que su estado es muy critico, se encuentra en coma. Queria ir a ver si veía a sus familiares y darles mi consuelo, mi aliento. Entré a la habitación acompañada del doctor que se ocupa de ella y el doctor de SOS y alli estaba ella, dormida, apaciguada, respirando profundamente. No pude dejar de mirar sus parpados, transmitían sosiego, calma, paz..

-Te preguntaras qué haces ahí, por qué te han hecho esto a ti…me decia.

Sentía una impotencia de verla con todos esos cables, en ese lugar sin medidas adecuadas, un medico para toda la gente en coma y tu solita, sin molestar a nadie, esperando ponerte buena. Como se puede ser así, actuar con tanta sangre fria, truncando vidas de gente inocente que tan solo querían disfrutar de unas vacaciones a un lugar de ensueño.

Sin embargo, me gustaria deciros que generalizar el pais de Yemen como un pais donde solo hay terroristas, me duele en el alma. Quizas la gente me tome por loca cuando digo que me siento mas segura viviendo en Sana'a que en Madrid, el Pais Vasco o Alicante, de donde vengo. Los yemenitas son muy acojedores y tratan q los extranjeros como reyes, siempre eres bienvenido a todas las partes: Welcome! Where are you from? y para ellos los extranjeros somos una prioridad en dar ayuda.

Desde que ocurrio el atentado, cada vez que cojo un taxi para desplazarme y respondo a la pregunta "Where are you from?" siempre me dicen "we are so so sorry" esa gente que ha hecho el atentado no tiene derecho a vivir..

No os podeis imaginar como los yemenitas estan afectados y dolidos por esto, no les entra en la cabeza como ha podido ocurrir una cosa asi.

No obstante me gustaria aclarar dos cosas:

Es verdad que existen dos regiones donde se han dado secuestros y existe un conflicto armado, esas regiones son Sada y Jawf y hay otras dos regiones en que no se recomienda ir por estar consideradas peligrosas: Marib y Shawa. Estas zonas estan, ademas, advertidas en la pag web del ministerio de asustos exteriores como no recomendables y el que viene a Yemen ya sabe que no se debe ir a esas zonas. El atentado ocurrio en Marib, justamente una zona considerada de riesgo y donde no se puede acceder sin escolta, si vas alli, ya sabes que te expones a un riesgo.

La seguna cosa es que a parte de esas regiones, donde no se recomienda ir, nunca han habido secuestros ni mucho menos atentados contra turistas en el resto del pais.
Todo esto por deciros que  salvo esas zonas, Yemen es un pais relativamente seguro, aunque como en todas partes del mundo, nunca se debe bajar la guardia, ni en Yemen, ni en Glasgow, ni en Atocha...

Espero que la gente que tenia pensado venir a Yemen en vacaciones, no les haya quitado la ganas de venir lo ocurrido... aunque ahora con el aumento de medidas de seguridad, no facilitan las cosas.

Mi mas profundo y sincero pesame a las familias y los amigos de las victimas que deseaban  tener un viaje de ensueño y tristemente ha sido el viaje que les ha llevado un sueño muy profundo...

Getting there.

Arrived in Sanaa after 3 flights with two transits of 3 hours each.  That was Kuching - Kuala Lumpur - Dubai - Sanaa, totalling about 17 hours. 

The Airbus A330 flight from Kuala Lumpur was unusually empty for Emirates probably because there was another flight a couple of hours later on their B777-300.  I had four seats (like many other people) ... the flight was super silent on this aircraft type and I was served a beautiful breakfast of chicken curry with lacy pancake (roti jala) and coconut veges (sayur lodeh).  Yummmmm...

Changes since last year.

Tired as I was, I hit the roads (and alleys) to change money and get my local prepaid SIM so I could organise my social life and remain contactable at a economical price.  As I went about my errands I noticed some changes in Sanaa after my nine month absence. 

Somehow it felt more touristy and modern ... my favourite diner which was black with soot is now tiled to head-height and repainted ... certainly a loss of atmosphere.

Also since Saddam was executed, he seems to have been beatified.  There are many shops displaying photos of him, photos pasted in rear windscreen of cars ... maybe I should sell some bumper stickers while he is still hot.  In stark contrast, last trip I didn't see any icons of devotion to Saddam  (even though a friend said that there was a photo of him at the juice stand near school).

Enjoying the day-to-day

It may sound strange but there's so much to absorb with the day-to-day. Even observing what happens in shops or on the streets.

Today, I walked into a bookshop. There was no one in it except a 10 year old behind the counter ... another 10 year old walks in with a stack of magazines for sale. They start talking; the one behind the counter whips out a calculator and does some numbers. Money and goods change hands. I take it the visitor was the wholesaler! Felt like a scene from a children's movie.

As you well know by now, many people wear the jambiyah (dagger) around town. I can't believe that people wear daggers into banks and jewellers though (but not the Sailor's Club). I can't wait to do my domestic flight here ... I wonder if daggers are allowed? You couldn't feel safer walking around town and dark alleys with so many armed people.

Malaysians Abroad

Walking around the streets here, I can spot other Malaysians a block away (and vice versa). They're all Malay and Muslim. There's something that's common amongst us even if we're ethnically different ... Malay, Chinese or Indian. There's no way they would think they're Indonesian and likewise they wouldn't think I'm China-nese (sic) or Singaporean Chinese.

Few years back, Kim and his parents and I were at the pyramids outside Cairo. I saw a group of youngish people and immediately said to Kim ... "That's our crew for the flight home tomorrow" ... and of course I was right.

You can take Malaysians out of Malaysia but you can't take the Malaysian out of a Malaysian.

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Now, for our next adventure ... Shihara (Photo 1, Photo 2), yet another medieval city built in one of the most inaccessible places.  Our trusty series III Toyota Landcruiser (ie. very old) managed the paths cut into seemingly sheer cliffs with no problems.  The trip was a 4X4 lover's dream. 

With Shihara, half the excitement is getting there. We required armed guards in an escort vehicle to minimise the risk of kidnapping ... I've seen pictures from those who have been and there was a machine gun mounted on the accompanying ute. I've been told it is a kalashnikov but I wouldn't know.

FYI, there are different grades of risk for travel within Yemen, and this will be the "highest". I've so far done the "no permit required" areas.  Much of the country is in an intermediate risk grade where one has to obtain a travel permit (granted relatively easily for a fee).

I've seen that many Americans pretend to be the same nationality as their travel companions (Brits or Canadians) when not required to show passports at checkpoints.  They claim that Americans are sometimes not let through as the Yemeni government can't afford to have anything happen to Americans.

The Yemeni obsession with Qat (a kind of chewing leaf; arguably a drug) is even more obvious in the highlands where they are grown.  So much land is devoted to this pricey commodity that there doesn't seem to be enough land devoted to nutritional agriculture.  I guess you could say Yemenis are Qatholics (as their second religion after being Muslims).

In Shihara we stayed at a local guest house which could have been out of the middle ages.  It was built from cut rocks and plastered on the inside with mud. The floors supported by tree trunks which had been plastered over too.

Shihara is the wild west of Yemen.  Although we had about 6 armed guards (with machine guns) looking after us on our trip, one vehicle in our convoy got run off the road by opportunistic machine-gun toting locals.  Thanks to the armed guards following close behind, we didn't find out what their fate would have been otherwise.  The near-victim in this case was a German woman who had been in Yemen for about 8 years ... she claims that this is her first incidents and events like this are rare.

In the highlands, guns and machine guns are a way of life ... possibly in the same way that daggers are a way of life in the city.  Perhaps the arms are necessary to protect the valuable Qat.

Things here are going much better than I thought! There are three clubs in Sana'a!!!!!! for expat people of course, but any way, ladies can wear mini skirts, neklines, and they can kiss each other as any occidental club.

I teasted for my first time last thursday, we went to the Russian Club and as you can see, doesn't look too bad..

Even if people do not believe, in Yemen you can have the most fancy parties! I think, because we are not so many foreing people, always we are very welcome!

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The Aussie couple living in the building had been invited to a wedding. Upon further enquiry, the Yemeni bride was marrying a Jew. Not sure if it is better that the man was an American Jew rather than a Yemeni Jew.

Maybe the man will feature on this website soon (Jews for Allah) ... The "Before" and "After" pictures are cool but do need updating. "Jemima" is still there ... that's Jemima Goldsmith (previously Jemima Khan (Mrs Imran Khan) and before than Jemima Goldsmith as well).

At least the conversion will be painless for him (ie. will not require a hospital visit).

Historically, Yemen had a reasonable Jewish minority but many have chosen to resettle in Israel. While Yemeni Jews are held in high regard by Yemenis even today for their traditional skills in silversmithing, they are not held in high regard in other ways. Today, Jewish men are still distinguishable by their two dreadlocks on either side of their faces ... as if for the benefit of my untrained eyes.

Wanna hear the scandal within the scandal? The Aussie couple are not married and are sharing the same room ... the school relaxed its rules for money.

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Please note that links to external sites were correct when this email was written.  However, they may no longer be valid. 

The language is written using a consonant script, like some other languages such as Hebrew. This means that it is written somewhat like SMS (TXT messages) ... quite confusing as "bnk" could mean bank, bunk, bink, binak, banik etc. Additional vowel signs are shown by marks above and below the proper script to assist students and dumbos, or when accuracy is importance (as in the religious context).

I guess it isn't the most practical way of writing, especially when the script is being applied to a non-Arabic language with non-compatible grammatical structure ... little wonder countries like Turkey, Malaysia and Azerbaijan have switched to alternates like the Roman and/or Cyrillic alphabets.

I can read now but am a bit slow ... my conversational skills are still limited. As children in school we referred to the Arabic script as "beansprouts" and didn't pay much attention to the teacher! Much of the script have the same beansprout look and apart from the dots to distinguish between them. Hence it is very unforgiving to missing dots and also bad photocopiers.

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Another day trip

I am really being a social butterfly.  Being the second day of the weekend, I did another day trip ... this time with the Europeans.

The fortified mountain town of Al Hajjarah is one of the most impressive in Yemen.  There were many other villages each with different character.

Al Khutayb stood out as there were many Muslim Indian pilgrims in the pastel blue, green or pink outfits.  Very un-Yemeni.  The site is special to the Ismailiya sect  -   my teacher frowned when I told him I visited this place.  Hhmmm ...

Yemen and Yemenis

Yemenis, as with other Arabs (except opportunistic Cairo con-artists) are a friendly bunch. It is very much a tribal culture unlike in the Levant where I've had most of my Middle Eastern experience. They're dark Arabs (as I call them) compared to the fair-skinned Arabs of the Levant. There are also some Ethiopians and other Africans.

In keeping with tribal tradition, most men (and some young boys) wear a dagger on the front of their sarong ... yes, even in town, shopping, on the bus etc. We were treated to a traditional dagger dance at one of the villages we visited. Four generations (including Little Johnny) waved their daggers and pranced around to the rhythm of the drums. So refreshing to see ... at no stage did Mum shriek to Johnny "Put that knife down!" or "Don't run with the scissors"!

As for the women, they're in full black robes and also have their faces covered except for the eyes.

A favourite Yemeni past-time is chewing of qat, a leaf with mind-altering properties (perfectly legal). The leaves are accumulated in the mouth with saliva to form a ball that protrudes through one cheek like one-sided mumps. I've been told it doesn't impair one's judgment but is more of a stimulant ... drivers chew it while on the road. Many of my new friends chew qat but I haven't tried it yet.

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Today I paid a visit to the old Imam's Palace at Wadi Dhahr ... it is my second visit.  A disappointing visit I might add due to Red Bull ... a Red Bull canopy had been erected where the baraa (jambiyah/dagger dance) normally takes place on Friday.  What a blot on the landscape!  Take a look at my 2006 for the unblotted pictures!

I hadn't so much come for the building but for the Friday festivities ... anyway it was good to see the waving of the shiny daggers and feel the rhythm ... I have this fascination of children dancing with daggers.