Taj Shamsan Hotel Taiz

... getting deeper and deeper into the sand. One of the guys climbed over the mountain to get some help. Pretty soon, three boats full of guys came to help out. Altogether, we heaved, hoed and bailed water with the guys yelling orders at everyone (in Arabic, so a lot of the time, we didn't know if we were supposed to be pushing or pulling). After several hours of hard muscle work, we finally ended up dismantling parts of the boat (the ...

... town called Jibla. The drive up was only about 3 hours and Mandy and I wore our nikabs because we have found that it's easier when the taxi gets stopped by the police on the way. We arrived in Ibb at about 11:00 and wandered around into shops and through the Old City. We kept the nikab on because we didn't see any women there who didn't have their faces covered. The weird thing was that we thought that we were being super-stealth, but ...

... before boarding the ship. At the time this sounded like a good idea but as I later found out we needn't hurry to get to the "fabulous" port of Mokha. When you here the name Mokha you probably think of a delicious cup coffee. In fact, this is where the name came from. This place used to be a major port for exporting coffee around the world. Today, after Qat has far surpassed Coffee as the drug of choice in Yemen, it is not even ...

... is used here to clean oneself after going to the bathroom (don't worry - ours is clean). Once you have loaded the washer with water and your clothes, you set the washer to "wash" After the first wash cycle is finished, you drain the water onto the bathroom floor. You try to aim the tube towards the bathroom drain ...

... in the States and one of my roommates doesn't even know the alphabet. So we definitely needed to be in different classes and our teacher didn't quite know what to do with us, so she took us into the library and loaded us down with books in English about Islam. <br><br>Pretty soon, another Indonesian student arrived. Her name is Zahra and she has been studying at the center for a while. She is very nice and speaks English. We exchanged some friendly getting-to-know-you ...

... The couples sat up on the stage, hand in hand looking like kings and queens. Well, actually only one of the couples looked like royalty because they were the ones smiling and looking happy. The other couple looked horribly awkward, stiff and miserable. The bride looked especially miserable. Since no one could dance with the men in the room, the younger sister of the brothers remained uncovered and she did a dance for everyone. However, she was not a ...

... up the plane), there was all sorts of confusion with the seats. I don't know what they had done to get me on the plane, but one guy and I had the same seat assignment, so he sat next to me in someone else's seat. So they sat next to him in another person's seat. Then the whole seating chart was all messed up. In the end, a couple had to be moved to the back of the plane and everyone was crowding me looking at my ticket saying "she is in transit". I had no idea what that ...

... explain the meaning of this nonsense at a later time. Tomorrow I move into my apartment furnished with the following amenities that make me feel all warm and fuzzy: hot water, western toilet, internet access, laundry facilities, and a proper kitchen! This means that Kim can finally have her morning coffee making everyone's life a wee bit easier. yay!

... avec eux par téléphone. Apparemment tout se passe bien, les bédouins ont tué le mouton, le chameau, leur font visiter l'arrière pays, des bassins pour se baigner....mais bon on sait jamais comment ça peut dégénérer. Apparemment le président du Yémen a dit qu'ils seraient après les invités privilégiés du Yémen pendant 1 mois... En parlant de chauffeur, j'ai du mal avec le mien, dés que j'essaye de le faire aller dans un endroit qu ...

... du cheikh. Hé!! Comme quoi je déconnais pas dans mon mail précédent!!! A ce propos, un des chauffeurs des Espagnols a un trou dans sa bagnole venant d'une balle lors de la tentative d'enlèvement. Je vais essayer de savoir comment ça s'est passé. J'ai dû rater quelque chose. J'ai quitté la zone à risques donc maintenant plus de risques en théorie et donc plus d'escorte de flics. Je suis passé par Aden, connu pour son port et où a vécu Rimbaud ...