What’s in Yemen, anyway?
Why, plenty of things, and thanks for asking.
Yemen is one of those places – and there are a few that we’ve been to – that doesn’t have much appeal for the average tourist. But that’s half the reason to go in the first place.
Living among endless cranes for more than a year, I have a strange urge to see a completed building or two, and while Qatar has none of these, I think Yemen has a few. And if it was built 1000 years ago, all the better. So that’s one reason.
More than that, Yemen is an old place with old towns and old traditions, and this is the sort of thing that appeals to me the most – walled cities, historic mosques, local marketplaces, imposing fortresses etc.
Different people are attracted to different parts of the world for different reasons. One person I talked to not so recently has a special fondness for Africa. Others can’t get enough of Europe. Wendy has an affinity for all things Latin American, perhaps more than any other place. Of the regions I’ve been so far – as is probably quite clear to those who have been reading my emails/blogs from the start – the (admittedly broad) area between Calcutta and Jerusalem is the part of the world that fascinates me the most. I envisage that some of the cities in Yemen will remind me of Rajasthan, or Peshawar, or Damascus, or even Jerusalem itself.
At this point, I probably should explain that Yemen is just the start of a much broader journey. We’ve given ourselves six-and-a-half weeks to get overland from Sana’a to Dubai, spending about three weeks each in Yemen and Oman. From Dubai, we’re flying to Senegal in early February to spend about three-and-a-half months hauling ourselves around west and north Africa.
Anyway, to get you started (and to get me started, for that matter), a map of Yemen is below. We’re flying into the capital Sana’a on Saturday and figure to spend the first week or two in that general western area of the country, as there are plenty of places of interest there. Then we’ll head east towards the ‘Manhattan of the Desert’ (to be explained in due time), and eventually to the Omani border.
Tags: Arabia, musings, planning, Travel, Yemen
Nick
Thanks a lot 4 the info
thanks for all the information.