Being the weekend, Kristina and I took a short trip to Bayt Baws, also spelled Bait Baus (and numerous other ways I guess).  We took a dabab (van) to Hadda and change to another to Bayt Baws and then another uphill to the old town. Once we were in the old town, it felt like […]

Above: In the school hostel hallway illuminated by light through the stained glass windows. Despite the title, this page is more about Arabic names that Malaysians (usually Malays) have.  I now know their meanings!  Here are the names of friends, bank tellers, flight attendants etc that I’ve met through the years.  Some are rather beautiful […]

Today my teacher, Ameen, took me to the fish market for lunch … instead of class.  I think he had to take Rebecca and Allan from the British Yemeni Society for some reason.  And I got invited too.  We headed to the fish souq in the Buleyli area. We bought the fish in one shop, […]

One of the joys of being in Old Sana’a is spending time on the rooftop.  The view of the old city in the evening is stunning. And the atmosphere at night is like nothing else, especially when we bring Arabic sweets and tea up on to the roof to share.  There is a certain magic […]

Few days ago I wrote about non-verbal French. Gestures. Like the French, the Yemenis have their gestures. Refer to the pictures below. But the first one “min hana” is worthy of elaboration. It literally means “from here” (being the nose) … my teacher tells me that when one lies down (or dies) the nose is […]

I’m starting to lose my French friends today, starting with Lou this morning (and Marie tomorrow). Today I decided to revisit the icon of Sana’a which is the old Imam’s Palace at Wadi Dhahr.  I was quite happy to play host and take Solveigh (from Norway) with me.   As with last time, we stopped at […]

Being Thursday, a weekend day here, I had time.  Lou and I went to Bab Al Yemen where we stood high on the wall to people-watch and capture Yemeni life in pictures. Text continues after this gallery.     On the way back, we stopped at a hole-in-the-wall place where a camel goes round and […]

Travelling with French people is interesting.   Firstly there’s the cute accent, then the scope for miscommunication. As an example of miscommunication, we were planning our meals when we decided we needed some cheese.  Then I heard in French English that we could use the epicure cheese.  I thought that was a rather sarcastic way of […]