random thoughts of me

Too bad in all this mixture of tiredness and euphoria I accepted more than twice higher-than-regular price for the taxi to the hotel. The hotel was located in the old city and was famous for a nice terrace (not a unique, but still a nice place). After a sleepy & stupid check-in at 3 am, the first thing I’ve done is visited that terrace. That is where I’ve met Ali, a man behind the friendshiparabia.com for the first time and shared his silent awe of the night city, which probably looked almost the same as at the times when the world was flat. That, along with a started songs of tens of muezzins, made a perfect introduction to the long awaited sleep. As it used to happen with me lately, once I woke up in the morning after this crazy night, it took quite a few minutes until I again realized where I was. Oh my God… I think I love this weird feeling

Few minutes later, a man at the reception told that he can arrange whatever I’m gonna need. So I asked to help with the local mobile SIM-card. My first try was MTN, which unfortunately had problems with GPRS service (so later I switched to SabaFon). While walking to the souq (Arabic for ‘market’), man also offered me to get a qat for me and spend some time afternoon. That looked like an ok idea, since I had no plans for that day except buying air tickets and visiting tourist police (to get a mandatory permits, without which you won’t be allowed to leave Sana). Since it was a Friday and a holiday (1st of May), touristic police was about to open only afternoon. So, after a small wandering around I decided to find taxi to get to the Felix Airways office.

I don’t know how exactly things work there, but there were lots of taxis standing without drivers around and it took me some time to find one with a man. We drove to the Felix office, which was closed. But we’re in the east, right? Just for me (the one, who was desperately wanting to pay for tickets), the business center was opened. As I got upstairs, I’ve met Najat - a lady, whom I previously wrote an email to, and who has arranged a reservation for me. She recognized me too. Besides her and 2 other women, there was nobody in the building. What a nice and cozy airline I got back with the same taxi. Even though that driver knew almost no English and I knew no Arabic, we managed to know the names of each other (his name was Mohammed), negotiate a fare to the airport, and I've got his phone number. When we arrived he said that he don't need no money. Eeeh… I wish I knew what is the right thing to do in this situation. I mean you won't surely have such situations often in most of the places in the world. But Arab people are incredibly social. Seeing, talking, holding each other – that is what makes being. The whole society is functioning by the strings of friends and relative connections, so quite often, making a good contact, is much more important than making a short-time win. There are good and bad sides of this attitude (for the western need of personal liberty, this is not exactly an ideal environment). But in the beginning, when you don't see all the strings attached and everything looks idyllic, this just wins your heart. Especially when you are tired of somewhat 'chilly' western way of life. It might feel like a hot summer after a long cold winter. Be careful though not to get burned - once friends can easily become an enemy one day under this burning sun. Ahh... Where is the right balance?



So I walked around the city enjoying the fresh juices and people willingly posing for photo for quite some time to encounter a daytime namaz/salah. In something like 10 minutes, every shop was closed, as everybody was leaving to the mosque. After that, an everyday nationwide meditative qat chewing was about to begin. I had nothing left to do, but return back to hotel, where I asked the man from reception to arrange permits and tours for me (wasting precious time in touristic police was not exactly the purpose of my visit to this country). His price was relatively high (10%-50% higher than what can be found), but still acceptable given the time and amount-of-leisure constraints. Later we had some qat together and talked about the country. That's when I've met with Ali Mushaima again and I had now a great chance to push him with my numerous questions. What made me admire about that man, is the amount of ‘usefulness’ that he gives back to the world by writing a comprehensive travel guides and, what is even more important – the mission that he carries on. Narrowing the gap between European and Arabian worlds; spreading the friendship across the middle east; acting like an ambassador of good will for his country... That not just makes a great citizen, that makes a great man. And that is a mission I can only envy for now. Needless to say, that he came to all this not so long ago – he never was a journalist or writer, but one day he had just decided to do this.


Later that day there was nice politics chat with a cook on the roof during shisha/hookah. Of course, inevitably our discussion went to Israel, jews and problems of Middle Eastern countries. Quite remarkable, that he was pretty reserved about jews in Yemen. And this somewhat constructive attitude is quite spread in the country (not among religious criminals though). Tip: being a Christian is a next good thing to being a Muslim when discussing something with Muslim. Saying that you're atheistic would be a faux pa.


Only one day had passed, but things were about to become just even more interesting.