Mum decided, booked three tickets and we were packed and off. Desination Yemen or the wild west of Arabia as the media call it. The first plane took us to Dubai where we had to wait till early morning to board the decond plane to Yemen. It was early evening and Mum rang her childhood friend but he was out of the country, so she rang my cousin Mo who picked us up and took us to diner. The restaurant he took us to was a typical Yemeny restraunt, very sifferent to any I had been to. Women and men are segregated so we were taqken to a private room upstairs. There was only a carpet on the floor so we sat down and Mo ordered the food. a large plastic mat was put on the carpet and masses of different dishes were put on the mat. I ate till i nearly burst. Mo took us for a drive around town as my sister and I had never been to Dubai. It was all very modern and impressive but all I wanted was to see the desert.
It was dawn when we on the plane, I had the window seat and we were flying south across Arabia. About fifteen minutes into the flight, Mum tolf me we were over the Empty Quater. The sands were like an ocean, rippled with dunes. The sunlight and the shadowsof the dune made the desert sands look like the were of every shade of yellow, orange and red. I could not turn away from the window, the sights were magical.
In about four hours, we landed in Sanaa airport. There were armed soldiers everywhere carrying machine guns. We walked from the plane to the terminal and the forst thing i saw there were the flies. they were buzzing on the window panes and there were thousands dead on the floor. The taxi that took us to the hotel was a small mini bus, and the driver had a big lump of something he was chewing in his cheek. Mum said it was a plant called Qat and they chewed as a stimulant. The hotel was luxurious, with marble floors, coffee and cake shop, air conditioning and no flies. Actually i did not see many flies for the rest of the trip so maybe the flies at the terminal was the gathering point for Yemens flies. Our room was on the fouteenth floor and the view of the city was amazing. Sanaa is the capital of Yemen and it is built in a massive crator, surrounded by mountains, which are dotted with ancient forts on their hightest points.
We met with an uncle who showed us around the newer parts of town and them we met with his wives and their children. Two days later , we went to stay with an aunt in a town called Radaa. The road to Radaa was through some very high mountains and they had no barriers on the edges of the roads. My sister was absolutely petrified, and spent nearly all the three hour drive, with her head down and her eyes firmly shut.
Radaa is a small town, very old , with an ancient mosque and school, and an even more ancient fort on its highest mountain. The main industry in Radaa is silk weaving, and everything is done by hand, in a traditional way no using any modern tecnology or machinery. The women wear long dress usually black and the men wear silk or cotton fabrics wrapped around their waists and held in place with a belt and dagger. The daggers and belts are very ornate with beautiful designs. Mum bought me a silk wrap and a dagger, with made me fit in with everyones dress style. The men and older boys also carry pistols and AK 47 rifles, but Mum drew the line with the dagger.
My greatuncle took us to see an active volcano in another town called Damt. We had to climb up its very steep side for about thirty five minutes and it was a rocky path worn smooth by rain and well trodden by people, and very slippery. At the top the cator was surrounded by a flimsy rail. It was very deep and at the bottom, there was a big pool of bright green water, and a strong smell of sulpher wafting up. What caught my attention most was the bright blue lizards the lived around the top of the volcano. My sister, who was wearing flipflops, nearly slipped on the way down and had to be held by greatuncle, who moved more like a mountain goat than an old man.
Our next stop, in Damt, was to a volanic water spa. Greatuncle got us a room that had a large bathlike tub, that could fit six people easily, and was filled with very hot volcanic water from a massive tap. It was too hot for me, Mum and my sister only manage to put their feet in. My cousin dived in when I dared him to. He went in head and all, Mum was not too impress with me for daring him and as he went red all over, she had to find cool water to pour all over him.
We spent two more days in Radaa, then went to visit my uncle in a mountain village called Gharafa. My Dad’s family come from there and everyone in the village is related by blood or marriage. I saw my first camel close up. It was a bull, huge and very muscular, I never imagined they could by that big. My cousins problably seeing the shack in my face , started chucking pebbles at him to get a reaction from him. He started grumbling and pulling at his restaints, lucky he was restained or he would of had us all in one blow. While walking around, my sister, who was still in flipflops, saw something amost the stones on the ground and went to pock it up thinking it was a small lizard. One of the tens of cousins stopped her because it was a scorpion and not a lizard. She jumped back in fright, and landed on a very thick, long thorn, which ofcourse went right through her flipflops and stung her instead of the scorpion.
At my uncle’s house, I went out with my cousins to play. In the village everyone has their livestock and grow their own food. My cousins took me to show me their herds of cows, goats and sheep. They then took me to the chicen coop and got a chickenout for me. I had never been so close to these types of animals. I have seen them at city farms but never so close and it was quite uncomfortable for me, as i did not know what to expect from the animals. I did not want to handle the chicken so my cousin flicked it up in the air, and the chicken decided it want to land on me. I bolted in fright, and stumble on some logs, fell getting grazes on my legs and a cut to my neck. I was screaming and crying , my cousins must have thought me a big woos. To this day I don’t like being close to chickens.
Aden is has a big harbour and is the second biggest town in Yemen, and that was our next place to visit. We stayed in a hotel that had a private beach and all the rooms were chalets. It was wonderful. I made friends with the workers and they would take me out on their jet skis and their boats with the tourists. In the evening we would play football, volleyball and I taught them cricket. One of the guys, went snorkelling every morning and he took me with him. I caught a squid one time and he took it home and got his wife to make it into calimari and brought it back to me still hot at lunch time. My sister, flipflop, thought there were sharks waiting to eat her, and every time we went into the sea, she would get to about mid thigh deep and then climb onto Mums shoulders. I really enjoyed this holiday, met tons of family, saw many new and different things and except for the chicken business, would love to go again.
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