An outing VIP-style

The weekend turned out to be more exciting than I'd anticipated.

On Thursday night, we had dinner at Felix Arabia in the Old City because Big Cheese from S' company were visiting. I noticed the waiters brought out wine ("grape juice") poured into discreet brown glasses but no wine bottles were to be seen.

Then on Friday, we managed to get invited to a VIP tour of Wadi Dhar (above), which is an old palace built on a rock, about 30 minutes from Sana'a. We were surprised it was actually a touristy place - thought it'd be in the middle of nowhere. Because it was Friday, there were a lot of people, foreign and local. There was also traditional Yemeni dancing - men only - in the palace courtyard (below). There was one old man in the group who lives in Sana'a but comes out to Wadi Dhar during the weekend to dance.

What was also interesting was that we had four armed security guards the whole time because of the VIPs. The real Men In Black - black suits, sunglasses, earpiece, the works! Nice guys but their Secret Service-style defensive driving made me carsick - and I wasn't even in their car! With our convoy of Toyota Prado's and a small army of MIB, we weren't exactly inconspicuous!

Afterwards, we had lunch at Shaibani - this time took a tour of the kitchen, which is one of the things to do. There was an industrial mixer the size of a jacuzzi and three clay ovens for the bread (mulawwah). One of the cooks demonstrated how the bread is kneaded (below) - looks a lot like Malaysian roticanai. The Secret Service ordered for us - there were a few good dishes we hadn't had before...I wonder if they tasted the food first.

Conclusion: Felix Arabia and Wadi Dhar added to the list

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Taiz

Image
Just got back from the historical city of Taiz - only a 30-minute flight from Sana'a on the new domestic airline, Felix Airways. We flew out on Thursday morning and back on Saturday morning... so we had almost two full days over the weekend. To drive down, it takes around 4.5 hours - but due to company-imposed security restrictions, we're only allowed to fly there. The roads are good apparently, except for one dangerous stretch called the Sumarra Pass. Our driver made his way to Taiz by car the day before our flight, and met us at Taiz airport. In case of a breakdown, he was accompanied by a second car (ironically it was the 'security' car that ended up with a flat tyre). Taiz is beautiful. Our first reaction was that it's very green ("very" being relative to Sana'a, not Southeast Asia!) and very hot (again, compared to Sana'a). Used to the cool highlands, the two drivers spent three hours driving around, looking for a hotel with air-conditioned r...
Read more

Postcard From Yemen

Postcard From Yemen February 7, 2010 By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN Sana, Yemen Yemen’s former prime minister, Abdul Karim al-Iryani, got right to the point when I arrived at his Sana home for dinner: “So, Thomas, did it take Abdulmutallab to finally get you here?” Yes, it is true, I admitted, because that young Nigerian, trained in Yemen by Al Qaeda, tried to blow up a Northwest jetliner on Christmas Day, I decided I had to see Yemen firsthand. I further confessed to Iryani: “I was a bit worried coming here. I half expected to be met at the bottom of the stairs from my Qatar Airways flight by Osama bin Laden himself.” Fortunately, though, I found that Sana is not Kabul, and Yemen is not Afghanistan — not yet. The Walled Old City of Sana, a U.N. World Heritage site with its mud-brick buildings adorned with geometric shapes, was bustling with coffee shops at night and vendors by day. Walking through its streets with a Yemeni friend, we came upon four bearded, elderly Yemeni men — traditional dag...
Read more

How to pack for overseas assignments

Taking a break from the packing. Thought I'd share some tips on how to prepare and pack for moves to difficult countries, based on my personal experiences of going to Angola and Yemen. Since I don't have children, I couldn't give you good advice on kid-related issues. A few months before the move, try to find out from friends/employees in the destination country: What is and isn't available, and what they recommend bringing. If the plugs/voltages mean that you can't bring your electronics (different voltages) or if you need to buy plug adaptors (just different plugs). If the voltages are different from your base country, I wouldn't advise getting voltage adaptors because apparently these "die" after a period of use and you may still risk damaging your equipment. If there are daily/regular power cuts, in which case it is recommended that you get a UPS (uninterrupted power supply) for your computer equipment and high-end electronics (TV, stereo system, e...
Read more