I went to the Russian club on Halloween night. This is the infamous club located in “tourist city”, a walled compound that caters to expats. The Russian club offers alcohol, dancing, the occasional BLT (not last night though), and there are even prostitutes there. There are other prostitutes in other parts of the city as well, but these didn’t wear full nikab (hijab over the hair, veil, balto)… We got there a little early and the place was pretty empty. I felt like I was an off duty Soviet officer stationed in Estonia in 1983. I could almost imagine that Andropov was still in power and Reagan was saber rattling across the Atlantic. That impression left pretty quickly once the place started to fill up with Europeans and Americans. From then on out it was just another bar…
I don’t really like those types of places, there’s lots of drinking and smoking and deafening music. I was convinced to go by Tami. SIGH, I’ve been in Yemen so long that my resistance to women asking me to do something has really been worn down. This was the first time that I had ever been in a place and didn’t recognize the majority of the music. They were playing stuff that was aimed at the 20 something, nostalgic dance music from their adolescence, I felt a little old. Still, it was interesting to see the most haraam place in Sana’a, it was worth going to once.