I was working in a hospital being constructed. It was in a very small remote village in Yemen, a few hours drive from Taiz. At luch I wnet to the roof to make pictures of what was around. Here is a flirt with what I guess is the woman nextdoor and her maid. Do I see the young woman wearing a white short skirt ? Never seen before in arabia. The lady in blue seems a house maid from the dress she wears. Is she sudanese ? It was rural area, very poor. I saw a farmer ploughing his land with his wife pulling the plough. No judgement, here in my country we did almost the same in history in poor times. The house seems very new and of relative high status. 1985 SLiDE(c) near Taiz, Yemen.
I had no transport myself. I arrived in Sanaa. I suggest to stay there a 3 or 4 days. Take a decent western hotel, Marriot or so. Then I went to Taiz at 250 km from Sanaa, Once by plane and one busride via the mountains. Taiz only had a local hotel .... My work was located a few hours drive from Taif, quite rural area. Yes we made a few daytrips inland. Really amazing.
If you wanna go there inland alone, prepare yourself:
- important arab words like hello, how are you, water, food, hospital, where, how much . learn counting and some writing
- inform via the embassy or so what the situation is, most have arms, robbers go around and you may be kidnapped for ransome
- know basics as hygene, diarea, sun, local animals ( hyenas ? ) , basic survival
- study the history, EXTREMELY interesting
So just a few words of preparation. Its not dangerous but different as china is . Just be informed and if you manage to travel really into the bush, you may run into the most wonderful views, people and villages/ruins. Its worth the effort.
Interesting historical image Wolf. Did you manage to visit the countryside of Yemen at all? I've seen some photos from that country that are amazing... would like to travel there myself sometime.
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