Sana'a

Central Mountains \| Sana'a \| Hadramawt \| South East
The old town is so stuffed full of fascinating buildings that it is difficult to know where to start; we took to wandering aimlessly around the Soukh and ordinary residential areas and never got bored. We went back at night to encounter something out of Ali Baba, with spices, sweets, food, assorted guns, knives (a four year old boy being fitted for his first lethal weapon), silverware, scarves...all to the accompaniment of stall holders and shopkeepers chewing steadily on the wad of Qat tucked unsubtly into their cheeks as they became increasingly mellow, or was it stoned? Unlike many other third world countries and capital cities everywhere, the people of Sana'a seem friendly and welcoming, do not hassle you to buy stuff, just seem genuinely curious and, most importantly, do not go ballistic when confronted with a camera. Sadly this was not always the case in other parts of Yemen. The 360 degree view from the roof of the Hotel Burj Al Salaam was fantastic and we spent hours just watching the changing sunlight play across the roofs of the city from sunrise to sunset. Being there during Ramadan was probably a mistake as not even the 5 star Mövenpick would serve alcohol and the populace were generally lethargic during the day, brainwashed on sleep-deprivation, hunger, thirst and a perpetual call to comatose prayer

Cityscapes	Cityscapes 2	Street scenes	Wadi Dhar

Soukh	Soukh 2	People	Buildings