Month: May 2007

Today was one of those days that I could have been in a really rotten mood, but because I’m off to China tomorrow, things didn’t faze me, much. I was running around doing things when I realized that I hadn’t eaten yet and that I wanted pizza. I hopped on a dabob, and 35 min later I was at Pizziaola, the best pizza in town. Of course I had neglected to look at the time, it was 5 O’clock. No problem, right? Wrong, nothing opens for dinner until 7pm. Grrrr… OK, back home many restaurants don’t start serving until later, but there are at least some that are open at 5pm. I was starving, but I decided not to take the dabob back and forth again. I hung around the far end of Hadda street looking around and killing some time at an internet cafe. I was there at 7pm sharp, dying of hunger. I had a salad (a so called Caesar.. It was pretty good, but it was no caesar salad), garlic bread, a pizza, and 2 pepsis. It’s the last thing that worries me, I wonder if I’ll sleep tonight? No biggie, I’ll pack and then hang out on the internet until I get tired. Well, I’m typing in the dark, we have just had our second power outage of the day. I’m hoping that it’ll come back on soon. My next post will probably be from Dubai, I’ve got about 13 hours to kill in the airport. Yeah free wireless!

Unesco is threatening to take the old city of Sana’a and Zabeed off of its list of world heritage sites. Unesco claims that neglect “by the government” and people’s modifying of their houses is changing the character of the cities. I understand that Unesco sends money to these places for being on the world heritage site, but this is a little weird to me. Paying the government to take care of people’s houses and to enforce restrictions on what they can do with their own property is odd. And that’s assuming a well functioning government was in charge. In addition to the ethical questions, Unesco sending money to maintain the status quo creates some really perverse incintives. First of all, people that have money move out of these places to houses that they can do what they like to them. People that stay have little to no incentive to take care of their properties since it is the government’s problem… If I were one of the officials that received this threat, I would respond like this:

To whom it may concern:

We received your letter stating your intention to remove both Sana’a and Zabeed from the world heritage sites list if the modification or deterioration of buildings in these cites does not stop. As you know, Yemen is considered a developing economy. We have made some significant advances and instituted structural changes that will allow us to grow. Our government services sector is stretched to the limit. As a matter of fact, many of our citizens are unable, due to a number of reasons, to avail themselves to the government services that are offered. As such, we have neither the time nor the money to police what people do with their own houses or maintain private property for them. If you are truly interested in preserving these buildings and in helping the Yemeni economy, we suggest that you buy, restore, and maintain the properties that meet your specifications. If you are unwilling or unable to do so, we respectfully ask that you get off our backs. Whatever agreement that had been reached before we will gladly repudiate in exchange for the freedom of our cities to grow and change as the residents desire. We realize that it will break your hearts to see residents of our city to live in newer buildings that fit their desires, but we feel that it is worth it.

With all of my constant carping, you might wonder why I also want people to come out and visit. Well first of all, I miss you guys! Secondly, this place is a pretty amazing place to visit. The general consensus among students here is that 2 weeks would be the optimal amount of time to spend here. It’s long enough to see the sights (and there are plenty) but not long enough for the “adventure” to turn into a pain in the ass.

First off, the sights. This place is truly beautiful and there is a wide range of geographic variety. The mountains, the sea (Arabian and Red), the plains, the city, etc. The old city of Sana’a is worth the trip alone. There is no other place like it on earth, it is a UN world heritage site, and it is old. It’s best to visit the plains (which hook around the west and souther parts of the country along the water) in the fall or winter, otherwise you’ll get a full dose of Saudi peninsula heat and humidity. The other parts of the country are at a fairly high elevation, so they can be comfortably visited any time of the year.

For you westerners out there, the culture here is definitely worth experiencing. It is completely different from America and that in itself makes it worth seeing. Different food, different customs, different clothes, you name it, it’s different here.

If you are interested in an education in arabic, this is also a great place. Everyone speaks Arabic, Yemeni dialect to be sure, but Arabic nonetheless. If you are a muslim, this place also has many religious schools that date back to the time of the prophet Mohammed (MPBUH). To say that this place has a long history of hadith study is an understatement…

And lastly, it’s a really cheap vacation. This place is pretty poor, there are some significant downsides to that. But like I said before, with only 2 weeks, it retains it’s “adventure” status. A really good meal, as good as you can get in a restaurant here will set you back about 10 bucks a person. Typical meals will cost between a buck (for street food) and 5 bucks. The best hotel in the old city runs 68 bucks a night. The regular ones are closer to 35 a night. Once you get outside Sana’a, you can expect the price (and quality) to drop. There are what are called 5 star hotels here, but most people I talk to say that they are really more like 3 to 4 star hotels. They are very expensive (100-150 a night) and are never near anything that is worth seeing. I would recommend skipping them.

But what about safety? Isn’t Yemen a lawless, American hating hot bed of muslim extremism? I have to admit, I was appalled when I read the latest bulletin from the state department. It made it sound like the place is a powder keg and they do nothing but hate Americans. I have never had anything but positive reactions to the news that I am an American. Even people that may not be crazy about me would be very upset if something bad happened to a “guest” in his country. Sana’a is the safest city I have ever been in crime-wise. I never hesitate to walk through the city late at night, crime like theft and robbery is almost unheard of, especially against foreigners. I have a feeling that the combination of lack of illegal drug use, conservative muslim upbringing, traditional respect for guests, and very harsh punishments account for this.

Having said that, it wouldn’t surprise me at all if areas further north were more anti-American/west. The areas around Saudi are the very definition of conservative and poor. This isn’t anything to worry about though there’s no reason to go up there. I relate it to American cities. Every city has an area that it is not wise to go into, especially at night alone. Once again, there really isn’t any reason to go into those parts of cities any way. The worst part of Sana’a is safer than the best part of DC or NYC crime-wise. Even if you did want to go up there, the police won’t let you… You don’t have to worry about people from up north coming down to cause trouble either. They, along with most Yemenis tend to stick close to their tribe and homes. There’s really not much of a reason for them to come down here.

So, in short, this place is a very interesting, beautiful, cheap, and SAFE place to visit. I really hope that some of my family gets the chance to come out here (Nathan, are you reading this?) but I encourage anyone that is thinking of doing it to just do it. You won’t regret it….