Friday, March 30, 2007

A Journey Into The Odd & Wonderful World of an Ancient Place Called Yemen


Children
Originally uploaded by *A*L*I*.
It was the most unusually fascinating five days of my life. My trip to Yemen was for the memory. I can't believe that I even hesitated for a second about going!

I have never in my life seen and met and spoke with such people as the Yemeni people; they are accommodating, friendly, generous and welcoming, in the sense that you read in ancient stories of true Arab values, cultures and traditions.

In this sense, Yemen is a country of people and landscape, and the two cannot be separated. They are almost one and the same.

I had a wonderful chat with a farmer, who had a Kalashnikov slung over his shoulder, about his crops and listened as he told me a story of a German tourist who ran in fear as he saw men waving rifles and bazookas at a wedding celebration.

Children love to be photographed and as soon as they catch a glimpse of a camera they put on their vast smiles and repeatedly ask you to take "Soora! Soora!"

The mountains and the landscape were simply and truly breathtaking. Standing on top of a mountain playing football with a couple of guards and young boys over the helicopter platform – breathing in the intoxicating fresh air and surrounded by white fluffy clouds – was something I had never thought I'd do in my wildest dreams!

Someone said that visiting Yemen was like being in a time capsule, and I thought that was true. A strange and wonderful world enrichened by its people.

I took a little over 300 images with my beautiful new baby the Canon G7 (I'm in love with it!) – I've posted some on my flickr. These aren't the best of the bunch as those will be used in my Ohlala article next month, once that runs I'll post them there.

3 comments:

Cerebralwaste said...

Ali

Glad you had a GREAT time and the photos are stunning to say the least. I hope to get a first hand account from you one of these days!

iamnasra said...

Its been awhile ..How are you, so when are you coming to Oman ... Just seeing how things going on your side in Bahrain

Ali Al Saeed said...

Hope so too CW.

Thanks for stopping by Nasra. I actually visited, albiet very breifly, Oman a couple of years ago. I also had an amazing time there.