Day Trippin'

Today was the first trip outside the city. To leave, one needs advance permission from the Department of the Interior as well as documentation for everywhere you're going and when you should get there. This information was checked multiple times along the road as the soldiers at each station counted how many foreigners were in the car. For example, if that morning one of us had gotten sick and couldn't make the trip, none of us would have made it out the city. The Yemeni government keeps close tabs on Westerners from the dual fears of a) I hope these aren't more radical idiots trying to slip away to the Houthis or al-Qa'eda and b) if anything happens to foreigners that's another huge drop in tourism and a lot more pressure from foreign governments. So suffice to say, a van full of white people attracts special military attention, though surprisingly we didn't have an escort - some of the people in the program now were studying Arabic at the same college in 2008 and their trip to Kowkaban involved two jeeps with mounted .50-cal machine guns that went everywhere with them.
We first stopped at an outcrop overlooking Wadi Dhahr, a valley filled with qat trees and one of the imam's old summer palaces. There was a man with a hunting falcon available for pictures, and I almost cracked even with his outrageous price. I had to slowly think "patience, patience, you'll have your chance... every old man outside Sana'a worth his weight in qat has a hunting falcon."

One of the old watchtowers set in the city wall that surrounds Thula.
From there it was on to the walled town of Thula. Our minibus pulled into the main square right in time for us to hop out and watch a Jambiya Dance in a crowd of Yemenis packing a whole lot of heat. The dance went on for some time while the man I assume was the groom stood on the side with an expression that seemed to say "I am displeased with your offering". In very skilled Jambiya Dances the moves are so tightly choreographed that the smallest error can result with a jambiya in your kidney. These guys were more free-flow, utilizing known moves while improvising and pulling in as many foreigners as they could. And yes, I went through some effort to 'blend in' with the 5' 8" Yemenis and thus avoid the dance.

The Jambiya Dance, performed by men on weddings. It's one of three acceptable times to unsheathe your jambiya. The guy in the green shirt is one of the students who got dragged in.

I believe that the rightmost man with the assault weapon was the groom.
We ate lunch in Shibam in the same dining room as the governor of the province, who gave us honey bread from his own table and, on the way out, told us in Arabic "peace upon Obama". Needless to say, I don't think he was a Hill-dawg fan. So next time I run into Barack, I'll pass on the message. We also passed a 10-year-old on the stairs with his...
a) Sesame Street ball
b) puppy, Mr. Flufflepaws
or
c) a late-model Kalashnikov
If you don't know the answer at this point, thanks for being like the other 7 billion people out there and not reading anything I write.

The fortress-town of Kowkaban. It stood firm against every invading force until airplanes came along - then it got the crap bombed out of it.
It took a long, long time to hike up the side of Kowkaban, and it was pretty obvious why it was such a key spot for a fortress. Any invading army would have to make their way up hundreds upon hundreds of meters only to get to a walled city with its own spring. Only fools ever thought "hey, I bet I can capture Kowkaban today". The city itself was partially rebuilt from heavy bombing it experienced when it confronted its first enemy with an airforce. The view was amazing off the side of this Masada-like rock, although I nearly murdered someone when I realized I could have caught a ride with our minibus on the road that leads right to the city gates rather than spending an hour huffing and puffing up endless staircases and goat herds.

I'd drink from that. It looks legit.


I'm attempting to post huge swathes of photos from the summer online - it's a little problematic since the Internet here isn't exactly a workhorse. When I get it working I'll post a link with the pics I've taken so far from Geneva, Oxford, London, Sana'a, Thula, Shibam and Kowkaban.