A very Yemeni festival
Tuesday, January 2nd, 2007After a couple of days in and around Kawkaban, we’re back in Sana’a plotting our next move. Unfortunately the wedding that was to be held today was postponed until next week as the father of the bride is still in Saudi Arabia after the hajj. But that wasn’t too disappointing as yesterday we got to be a part of one of the most bizarre things I’ve ever experienced.
Yahia, the very nice Yemeni man who runs a hotel in Kawkaban, drove us to a few of the nearby villages. Yesterday morning, we went to At-Tawilla with a Belgian couple we met the previous day. The village itself wasn’t as interesting as I’d hoped, but while walking around we heard some chanting and went to check it out. The local men (and boys) were marching through the village with their jambiyas (daggers) around their waists and kalashnikov rifles slung around their shoulders, pausing every once in a while to perform a circular dance with their two instruments. They eventually began marching out of town, on the main road to the next village. We followed them until they veered off the road to a ridge clearing overlooking the mountains, with clouds covering the valley below us. There they danced some more before embarking on part two of their “dancing and shooting” festival — taking their kalashnikovs and firing them into the mountains. If there had previously been any doubt in my mind that this was the wildest, craziest and most tribal country west of Afghanistan, there isn’t anymore. Watching and photographing these men (and boys!) firing their guns into the terraced fields was certainly the most unusual ‘festival’ I have ever seen. I got offered a chance to fire one, but the whole concept freaked me out a bit, so I declined.
The rest of our time in Kawkaban was nice and relaxing. We did another pleasant hike, I chewed some qat on the roof of a truck going up a mountain, and we chatted with Yahia and especially the Belgians, who have also travelled a lot through the Middle East.
Having interrupted the tourist police’s afternoon qat chewing session, we got our travel permits today and we’ll be heading to Zabid tomorrow. We’ve heard mixed reports about this city near the Red Sea coast, but its old city is the second of Yemen’s three UNESCO World Heritage listed sites so hopefully it will be an interesting place. There’s also a Friday morning fish market nearby that’s supposed to be one of the best markets in Yemen.
Nick