I'm sad to say that the crash of the Yemenia flight outside of Comoros doesn't really surprise me. I have heard various horror stories about how that airline is run and some of the things that have gone on from people on flights. Planes hitting things on the runway as they took off and passengers being seated in the cockpit being some of the more egregious examples. If this kind of thing goes on in sight of everyone, I can't imagine what goes on (or doesn't go on as the case may be) behind the scenes.

Bottom line? Don't fly Yemenia.

I get the occasional email asking me about studying in Yemen and it occurs to me that I have not put up a post with that info in one place, so here goes...

Yemen is a great place to study Arabic. Everyone speaks it (after a fashion), the people are really nice, and it is cheap. For us western types, it is also an amazing cultural immersion.

The majority of Arabic language schools are in Sana'a, that's where I stayed. I went to CALES in the old city. They are right in the center of the old city, so there is plenty of "atmosphere." I took private lessons because that is the best way to learn and being in Yemen, I could afford them. When I started out, I didn't know any Arabic at all. I was paired up with a teacher that knew English well enough to explain the basic stuff. Some people prefer having a teacher that speaks Arabic only. I dunno, I think I would have been too intimidated at first with all Arabic, but I do think it was useful later on. In any case, you can have it either way, you choose. All of my teachers were very good, but I had to keep some of them on point. I got the feeling that I was teaching him more about the US than I was learning Arabic, so I changed teachers. All of the teachers there were very knowledgeable about Arabic, I never felt that they didn't know what they were talking about. I think they all have degrees in the teaching of Arabic...

There are other schools there as well. I have heard good things about SIAL and a couple of the others, but I don't really know much about them. My gut feeling is that you can get good instruction in any of them. A lot of people also get private lessons (outside of an institute) once they make some contacts. That will cost less and be more flexible, but at the cost of not having any sort of document about your attainment level like CALES has...

Living in Yemen is part of the appeal of going there. All of the schools offer accommodations. If you're there for a short while, it's probably best to use them. CALES has two main buildings. The big one, and where most of the students live, is right next to the school right downtown. I lived in another building out towards the Sileah. EIther are fine...

If you're going to stay longer than a few months, it pays to find your own place. Often times, there will be other students looking for housemates, just ask around. Foreigners tend to pay more than the locals do for housing, but it is still a much better deal than living at the school. I was paying $200 a month at both the school and the apartment. Of course I got my own apartment for that as compared to a single (large) room and a shared bathroom and kitchen...

Living in the old city makes it easy to get to class, that's the main reason I lived there. I knew that if it was difficult to get to class, I wouldn't go sometimes. There are some big issues with living in the old city though... The buildings tend to be quite old, and things like plumbing, electrical stuff, etc. can be a bit hit or miss. There is also the noise. The school buildings tend to be quite noisy, there is a lot of noise coming off of the street. Buildings in the old city tend to be very close to one another with very narrow streets, so it can sound like people are in the room with you. The trick is to live a little higher, if you can get up three stories or more, the noise level drops off quite a bit. I got lucky with my apartment, it had a walled courtyard that separated me from a lot of the noise.

If I were to this again, I would probably live in the newer part of the city. No, it isn't as beautiful, but it is much easier to fine open restaurants, grocery stores, and anything else. If you want something to eat at 4 O'clock in the old city, all you're going to find is french fries for the most part. It'll take you upwards of half an hour to get to someplace that's open in the new city... The apartments in the new city tend to have better plumbing and easier access to "high speed" internet.

The other potential advantage to living in the newer part of the city is that if you work, it will be easier to get to your job. Most native English speakers can find a job teaching English. You should be able to find a place offering $10 an hour with a little looking around. That doesn't sound like much, but that's doing pretty well in Yemen...

Anyway, I encourage anyone that wants to learn Arabic to check out Yemen. It is cheaper than many other places, and the instruction is top notch. If you feel that it isn't right for you, it's really easy to hop a plane to Syria, Egypt, etc. Drop me a line if you have any other questions!

I just finished reading a book called "Three Cups of Tea." It's about an American man named Greg Mortenson and his mission to build schools in impoverished Pakistan and Afghanistan. He has quite a story to tell and his accomplishments are really something. I never encountered danger like he did, of course he jumped right into that trouble with both feet while I have been more circumspect. Mortenson sounds like the guy we wish we all were, helping other people, facing insurmountable odds and making things happen in places that really need help. His Central Asia Institute (click here to go to the site) is one of the best charities I can think of. They do things the right way. Instead of swooping in and handing things out like so many charities do, he goes in, asks if they want a school, makes the village contribute to it, and also makes them provide sweat equity. That way the locals are invested in the project and he can be sure that everyone is on board with the goals.

The book isn't great literature or anything, but it is a great story. I really identified with the urge to teach people in places like that a little about the world. He was dealing with much worse situations than I did, but the thought is the same... I also liked to see one of my theories in action, that is what we do makes a very large impression on people. Being in Yemen taught me a lot of things and I will always remember how grateful people were for me just being there. Having someone from the US actually come there and talk with them meant a lot to them and I like to think that their ideas about Americans moved in a more positive direction. They understood that Yemen was more than a little out of the way for us and they were very happy to share their culture with me.

It's a good read, you should pick it up!

Technorati Tags:
middle east, terrorism, travel, violence, yemen, Three cups of tea

"We're about to make our final descent into Doha, visibility is about 1000 meters with blowing sand. The temperature is 39 degrees (102 F!)." Smooth flight, no problems. I was expecting to be put up in the Merkur again, it's the hotel I had the last two times I went through here. It was fine, a lot like a Holiday Inn. Considering it was a throw-in by Qatar Airways I didn't complain despite the food being mediocre to poor.

Well, this time I was put up in the Movenpick. In Sana'a, the Movenpick is a really ritzy place, as good as it gets in Yemen at least. When I got to the area for the shuttle, they told me that there were two different Movenpicks, the Sultan tower and the hotel. There was no question which one I was going to get, but hey, they threw it in, so no complaints even if it is the Motel 6 of Doha.

As it turns out, it is quite a bit nicer than the last place, and the food is excellent. I had a nice salad, some sort of beef and veggies in a wine sauce, glazed carrots, and apple strudel and mousse for dessert. I really pigged out, it was the best meal I had had since... well, since I came to Yemen in January. And it's all included! I don't have to pay a thing! The downside? The internet is not free, it is shockingly expensive compared to the half a cent a minute I'm used to in Yemen. Still, it's a good trade off, I just won't use it very much tonight, I'll wait until I get to Rick's place to gorge myself on bandwidth...

I should get ready for my 5:30 AM wake-up call... See you soon!

Technorati Tags:
travel, movenpick, qatar airlines

I'm basically done packing. I'm leaving a lot of crap behind. That includes bottles of aspirin, worn out clothes, most of the books I brought, and other miscellaneous stuff. Part of it is that I just don't need it anymore, the bigger issue is the limited amount of space and weight I have to work with on the way home. My clothes have taken a beating, most of them are just plain worn out and most of them are just too big for me now.. Several pairs of jeans are now approaching perfection however. I'll need to go on a shopping spree when I get home. I think I have just enough space for a few more gifts for people, I'll try to get those today.

Don't really have much else planned for tonight. A bunch of the other guys are going to meet me at the Indian restaurant that I love so much for a going away dinner. I also need to square up with the landlord for water and electricity. Then all I have to do is get some sleep and go to the airport tomorrow. Part of me is saying that I can't believe that it's over, and the other part is saying thank God that it is over... See all of you soon!

I just bought my ticket so I can go home for my cousin's wedding in July. I'm flying Qatar airways again, I couldn't really complain about anything from last time, so they're getting my business again. I'll leave june the 17th and get leave the 29th of july. I had to fiddle around with the dates a little so that I could actually afford the ticket. Thank God for credit cards! Anyway, now I just have to keep working in order to pay this thing off, it'll be worth it. By that time, I'll need a break from here and besides, I wouldn't miss her wedding for the world!

Last weekend, Tami, Ryan, and I went on a little trip. Neither Tami nor myself had been outside of Sana'a for quite a while. Ryan had never been anywhere... We started early, the driver was told to meet us at 7:00. This being Yemen, he didn't actually show up until 8:00. We then hit the road and didn't really have any trouble after that.

Mahweet was our first stop. I had seen some pictures of the place and it looked quite nice. Mahweet is no little village, it is quite large, in Yemen you might even call it a small city. It took about three hours to get there. Ryan and I were beat, getting up that early is not part of our usual schedule. Tami exercised her remarkable ability to sleep in just about any situation. She's small enough that she was able to curl up in the back seat and use me as a pillow. I was more than a little jealous...

Anyway, we got there and the driver took us to the best scenic area in the town. It was pretty impressive, we could see several small villages up on outcrops of rock overlooking an impressive vista. Unfortunately, there was a fair amount of dust in the air so the far views were obscured. The guide motioned us to come along with him along the side of a cliff. We started to walk along it and quickly realized that we probably shouldn't do that. He wanted us to keep going, but what little footpath there was disappeared after 10 feet or so. It was a long ways down, so we decided to be smart and got down. Ryan scrambled up a little higher and snapped the picture I posted earlier.

We then went to the old part of the town and took a look at the architecture. There were a bunch of kids and some old buildings. I snapped some pictures and then we left. Shibam was our next stop. I had been there before and found it to be particularly dreary. We went to a restaurant/ hotel for lunch. Apparently there is a woman that owns it and runs it. She is quite the business woman, she owns several buildings and businesses. The food was really good, the star had to be the salta. We managed to request it without the fenugreek, and that made all the difference. Man, was it good. This was real salta with lots of lamb and veggies. Usually, whenever I get it in Sana'a, it's just lamb in some sauce with a huge dollop of fenugreek on it.

We then drove up to Kawkabahn. I had been there before on a much clearer day, so I didn't take many pictures of the impressive view. I tried to take more pictures of the town itself. It's an old place and looks quite run down. Still, it has a lot of character, and there are some nice, if pushy, souvenir sellers there. It was fun to talk to some of them even though they were lying through their teeth. They claimed to have all sorts of really old "artifacts" for sale, most of which I had seen in Sana'a as well.

Anyway, we climbed back into the car, Tami fell asleep again, and we went back home. I was totally wiped out, not only that day, but the next as well. None of us made it to class the next day. It was nice to get out of town for a little while, and the lunch was great. I hope to have some pictures up soon.

Well, I didn't think it would happen, but we managed to get everything together for a day trip out to Mahweet tomorrow. We'll leave around 6am (groan) and come back that night. It's supposed to be lovely up there, so I hope to have a bunch of pictures up afterwards.

The flight was fine, but there's a big difference between a 13 hour flight right after 8 hours of sleep and a 13 hour flight after you've been up for 12 hours... It wasn't crowded at all, I had my three seats all to myself. I'm still too big to sleep on there though, even with the armrests up, I couldn't find a position that didn't have nerve pinching results. So I was dead on my feet when I got here, but the sleep did me good. I'm hoping that staying up for 24+ hours and then the regular sleep cycle of going to bed at 10 and getting up at 6 will keep my jet lag adjustment down to a couple of days. The flight to Sana'a is in a coupe of hours, I hope to be back online in a couple of days.

Well, tonight I catch my flight back to Yemen. It'll be a long flight (14 hours) and I doubt i'll be in any sort of shape to go swimming at the pool in Doha. Still, I got a couple of books for Christmas, and they have plenty of music and movies for me to watch, so I think it'll be fine. My trip back this time was, if anything, a little more disorientating than last time. Everything reminds me of how rich we are, things here look almost perfect compared to Yemen. Now that I've been there for so long, that is what is normal to me. In truth of fact, a lot of the world is closer to being like Yemen than it is to being like the US. I'll post more once I'm back and I feel like my head has cleared a little. Thanks to everyone that I got to visit, come on over to Yemen, it's a worthwhile trip to make!

Granted, I've only been in my hotel and the airport here in Doha, but here are some of the differences that stick out. Just like in Sana'a, the people here in Doha are friendly. The difference is that they are friendly and efficient here. They do their jobs without prompting, it's really nice. A related point is that things here don't just look clean, they are actually clean. Everything in Sana'a is either dusty and/or loaded with bacteria. I've heard that the Movenpick in Sana'a is clean... for Sana'a. People who stay there tell me that it still isn't actually clean, but they do very well by Sana'a standards.

The most amazing thing here in Doha is the humidity. There is actual moisture in the air! My skin, eyes, mouth, lungs, and nose are absorbing every water molecule they can. I may have put on 3 pounds just breathing!:-) Seriously, it's really nice not waking up desiccated. Don't get me wrong, I think I would much rather have Sana'a's weather overall, but sitting in this air conditioned hotel room feels sooo good right now...

This time it's from Qatar, which is pronounced just like it's spelled incidentally. None of this "cutter" nonsense... Anyway, I am indeed in a hotel room that Qatar airways got for me due to the amazingly long layover. Everything has gone fine so far, I had no problems coming in, getting the voucher, or getting to the hotel. I gotta say, so far, this beats the hell out of hanging out in the Dubai airport for 12 hours... They gave me dinner and will also give me breakfast. There are three restaurants, but the voucher is only good at one of them. If I were coming from the US, the food would have to rate a solid c-, but because I am coming from 6 months in Sana'a, it felt much better. The sad thing is that, save for Tami's cooking, this is the best meal I've had in the last 6 months. The desserts were particularly good...

I'm a total idiot, I forgot to put my shorts in my carry one, that means no swimming for Isaac. I will def. remember for the way back though! From what I saw of Doha, it looks like a cleaned up Hadda street. In other words, no style, just storefront after storefront. They do seem to be bigger here, and it is certainly cleaner as well. The traffic was mercifully quiet, but our driver seemed as though he was imported from Yemen. He drove like a madman, a quite madman, but still...

So far, this beats the hell out of hanging out in the Dubai airport for 12 hours. The only thing I can really complain about is the spotty internet connection here at the hotel. In other words, I don't have much to complain about:-) The flight from Sana'a to Doha had decent food, but it did not have the fancy entertainment system that the Emirates flight does. We just had what looked to be an awful Cuba Gooding Jr. film, it had something to do with a kid's camp, I didn't plug my headphones in to pay more attention. Tomorrow (after sleeping for 8 hours) I will be shuttled back to the airport and get on the nonstop to DC, I like this new service!

With any luck, my next post will be from Doha. Qatar airways is putting me up in a place with a pool and is nearby the main souk. I'm hoping that I can see some of the city, have a swim, and eat at one of the restaurants in the hotel. Odds are that I won't have as much time as I think, but I'd like to do at least two of the three things:-) I'm assuming that they'll have internet there and I hope to be able to post some thoughts on Doha from there.

I've got most of my stuff moved over to the new place, I only have a few odds and ends left and I'll move them over tomorrow before I go. Then all I have to do is pack and I'm going home baby!

Qatar airways came through and got me a hotel room! Thank God, because with a 17 hour layover, I don't know what I would do without one... This should make the trip relatively enjoyable and hopefully I won't be totally wiped out when I get to DC. If this works out as well as I'm hoping, Qatar is my new airline!

Went and booked my flight today. I really, really wish that I had booked it a month ago. The delay cost me another $400 or so. I didn't want to put down the money until I knew I had a job and was coming back, SIGH. Anyway, I'll be leaving here on the 13th of Dec. and I will fly back on the 15th of Jan. I decided to go with Qatar airways instead of Emirates even though they ended up being slightly more expensive. I'll fly straight from Doha to DC. This allows me to avoid the hell that is JFK. If I flew into JFK, I would have to pick up my bags and recheck them and that has always been a circus. Plus, in order to recheck my bags, I had to go to another terminal which is a royal pain. The total time is about the same because I have a longer layover in Doha, but there is less airport weirdness.... Now I just have to remember to book my flight in July early to get a good price....

Score! Qatar airways now flies from Doha to DC direct. A Sana'a-Doha-DC trip sounds much more appealing than a Sana'a-Dubai-NYC-DC trip. Plus, it's about $600 cheaper round trip! Oh this is good news, think I'll go down to their office pretty soon...

I didn't really do much. The hotel I'm in is closer to the airport than the city. It's a nice enough hotel, but it makes getting into town a bit of a pain. The bus ride into downtown Athens is not only 45 minutes, but it costs the equivalent of 5 bucks each way. I went down there today with some specific goals. I wanted to eat at McDonald's, buy some books, and find some decent chocolate. Greek chocolate sucks, it's that simple. I was really happy to find a Nestle's crunch bar, and I don't consider that good chocolate at all. I wanted to eat at McDonald's because I have been craving a cheeseburger for a long time. I don't think that McDonald's is very good, but it was one of the better meals I've had here... I needed some books for not only my 8 hour layover in Istanbul, but for living in Yemen. There have been many times that I wished I had something to read other than the Arabic equivalent of "See Dick run." People have asked me if I want them to send me some books, but I always say no. Not because I don't want the books, but because it will be way too expensive to send them here. If books are sent through the regular mail (the only reasonable way to send anything to me), they have to go through the censor. And I do think that it is THE censor. It seems to be common knowledge that if books go to the censor, I'll never see them. If you send them through one of the courier companies (DHL, FedEx, UPS, etc.) they don't go through the censor, but they cost a million dollars to ship to Yemen. Anyway, for the first time in years, some fiction really appealed to me. I picked up "The Name of the Rose" by Eco, and "David Copperfield" and "Nicholas Nichalby" both by Dickens. All of them are books that I have meant to get to for a long time. I've always liked Dickens, the last book I read by him was "A Tale of Two Cities" back in my sophomore year of high school! Anyway, I hope that these will last me until I can get back to the states. Tomorrow I leave for Yemen. I'll be coming back in the middle of Ramadan, should be fun...

I've had fun in Greece, but I've learned a few things about traveling here as well. I missed a lot of the Athens trip, but everyone agreed that we probably should have only spent a couple of days in Athens. There really isn't all that much to do except shop if you're not really into ruins. To be fair, the shopping can be quite good, but it really isn't worth coming here just for that. Crete, on the other hand, had much more to offer. The scenery was beautiful, and the villages we went through were quite memorable. I don't know much about the mainland, but I think that the mainland would probably be much like Crete.

I was surprised at much I really didn't care about the ruins. The "good" ones are nothing more than stones outlining squares and rectangles on the ground, and the bad ones (like Knossos IMO) were filled with concrete reproductions, they didn't even have the stone squares there! I did think that the temple of Zeus was quite amazing, for about 10 minutes. It's amazing how quickly an ancient temple of magnificent proportions becomes a a handful of columns guarded by tired, overweight women selling tickets. I'm sure the Acropolis would have been more impressive, and for a little longer, but inevitably I would have the same reaction I'm sure.

And then there is the food. When we first got here, I emailed Tyler Cowen about eating in Athens. He's an economist, art collector, food critic, traveller, and blogger extraordinaire over at marginal revolution. His response was that he has never gotten a good meal in Athens. "OK then," I thought to myself, "that's what you get for asking a food critic.." I figured that he couldn't find any haute cuisine to his liking. Well, as it turns out, he meant that he couldn't find a good meal here. We were unimpressed, the best meals I had were a club sandwich (which wasn't all that good) and some chicken Madras at an Indian restaurant. We went there our last night together here because we really couldn't take it anymore. Tonight I tried some Greek fast food. There is only one restaurant near this hotel, it's a chain called "Goody's." I had what had to be the worst hamburger I've ever tasted, and that's saying something. The McDonald's I had for lunch was miles above it, I really wonder how they stay in business.

So what did I like? I really enjoyed hiking in Crete. The landscape is wonderful, and the terrain is not all that difficult. I loved going to the two monasteries that we went to. I'm bummed that we didn't get to see any churches. We were always wearing shorts, and Butler was usually in a tank top so when we did see a church, we weren't really appropriately dressed. If I came back here (and I might one day), I would seriously think about planning the trip around monasteries and churches. The icons here can be breathtaking. Butler (a lifelong Episcopal) went into this trip thinking that the Orthodox Church basically made things up, but she left saying, "I get it now." The icons can really have an effect on you. The icons in the monasteries (and I assume the churches) that is. There are plenty of junk icons around in the tourist areas, don't let them give you the wrong idea...

I really enjoyed the villages as well. They have a really nice vibe to them, very relaxed and very informal. The cities are a nightmare of noise and congestion. I really noticed the traffic in Crete. We drove through the countryside and there was hardly any traffic at all, but once you hit a city, it was congestion city. Both Herakian and Chania were nightmares to drive in, mostly because of the traffic. Athens is, of course, very hectic as well. If you come here, really try to get a hotel out of a major city. They may not be as fancy, but you will have a much nicer vacation.

I've had a great time here, and it was great seeing Dad and Butler, thanks guys! I'm back to Yemen tomorrow and this blog will get back on topic:-)

Today we went to the little village of Margarites and the city of Chania. Both are over on the western side of the island, so there was some driving involved. Butler wanted to hike a gorge over there, but it would take too long to drive there, hike it, and then come back. So they decided that we'd spend one night over in Chania. On the way there, we stopped in at a village called Margarites. I think the guide said that there are only 301 people living there, but they make a tremendous amount of ceramics there with a special kind of clay. The ceramics didn't do much for me, but Butler really enjoys that type of stuff. I occupied myself by wandering around and enjoying the place.

We eventually ended up in Chania, wow. We all agree that this is the place that we should have stayed, not Herakaion. This place is beautiful, and out hotel (the Amphora) is amazing. This is probably the nicest room I have ever stayed in from a "charm" point of view. I have a balcony that overlooks the old harbor, a loft, and a great view! Check out the pictures... Anyway, there are a gazillion shops and restaurants around here. I'll do some looking around tomorrow before we go and pick up Butler. Pictures should be up, but I don't have enough time left on the wireles to put tags on them, I'll do that later. Tomorrow will be our last day in Crete, and sadly it will be mostly in the car and in Herakaion. The day after we fly back to Athens. Dad and Butler leave that same day, I stick around for one more before I go. This trip has gone by too fast!

I knew that Greece was more "open" to things like nudity and sexuality than the US, and I knew that coming from Yemen, it might be a bit of a shock. I was not prepared for just how open they are. When I was in Athens, there were several "Greek Women" calendars that featured totally naked women on the covers. It wasn't bad, they weren't in any sort of sexual situation, just perfect bodies out at the beach. When we got to Crete, things were a bit different. There's a newsstand right in front of the hotel that sells magazines. In addition to the usual Playboy and Hustler (the European versions with lots O' nudity on the covers) there were a bunch of much "harder" magazines as well. We're talking full penetration, right on the cover, right out front.

I was shocked on several levels. There's the obvious, I find it odd that that kind of graphicness doesn't faze anyone. I'm also shocked that those sorts of magazines are still being made. I would have thought that the dirty magazine would have gone the way of the adult theater. The internet has made it incredibly easy to have access to pornography. That has obvious downsides, but a not so obvious upside is that it takes that material and puts it people's bedrooms directly without the need for a shop or newsstand. I wonder why people who want that sort of thing still buy magazines?

I remember a shop that I used to go to when I was in college. It was in Johnson city and I'd drive down from Ithaca on occasion to look for LPs and singles. All he sold was records (not cds, records) and old girly magazines. It was a great place to go to score quality jazz and classical LPs. His usual clientele seemed to be after "Frampton Comes Alive," Styx's "Paradise Theatre." anything by Rush, and maybe a couple old copies of Penthouse forum. I went back there a couple of years ago and sure enough, it was gone. He just couldn't compete with the internet...

We had been seeing many restaurants advertising "toast" on their boards outside. We thought that was a rather strange thing to advertise. Today I found out that it meant toasted sandwiches. That makes more sense...

There are innumerable roadside shrines here. They don't look like much, just a white box on a pole with a small cross on top. There is usually a door with a small window in it on there and through it you can see what is inside, usually an icon and some candles. I don't know what the significance of these things are, or who sets them up and maintains them. You can see many Orthodox priests around, all of them in long robes. I have yet to see one without a full beard.

Will add more as I think of stuff...

I've got new pictures up, you know the drill by now. Click the "recent" button on the right (under "My pictures") for the first 12 or so, click on "The rest of them" for, well, the rest of them. I'm going to try to take more pictures of this place, the last couple of days we have been in the car and there never seems to be a good place to stop...

Today was a really good day. Our first stop was Knossos, the site of the Minoan palace and supposedly where the minoutaur, Icarus, etc. took place. It is a place with amazing history and legends. My short version, don't bother going there. Damn near everything you can see is rebuilt, and everything that is taller than about 3 feet tall is rebuilt. Basically we, and several thousand of out closest friends, walked around a place filled with half walls made of concrete where the Minoan palace was. It's true that the palace had impressive dimensions, but that's about all you get from the current site. It is crawling with busloads of tourists, so unless you obsess over Mioan stuff, you can find better things to see on the island.

Zaros for example. Zaros is a tiny little village about midway north/south and south of Herakaion. We went there on a whim, were were going to try to find some more ruins (hopefully not so "restored" and crawling with tourists) but we got diverted to look for food. We ate at a little taverna in Zaros. The food was OK, the sights were amazing. First of all, there is just some great scenery there. Big (for Crete) mountains, lush valleys, etc. Butler took a look at her guide book and found out that there was a monastery nearby that was supposed to have some amazing stuff. We found a little pond up by one of the peaks, and there was a path along the back of it and then along the face of the mountain. The guidebook and the signs on the trail said that it was .9k to the monastery, but they lied. It was about .9 to a sign saying that the pond was .9 back down the trail... Just a little further we came to it. The monastery looks pretty new, we found this out from a trekker coming back down the trail, it seemed to put her off since she didn't even go look, her loss.

We were greeted at the main entrance by a large monk in a rather interesting robe. It was dirty, and had obviously been patched in many places. He didn't speak much English at all, when we asked about seeing the icons, he offered us some schnapps (no really, he did!). We thanked him but declined, we were really hot and dry, that alcohol would have hit us pretty hard... We eventually made it known that we wanted to see the icons, etc. and he went over to a box and pulled out 3 skirts for us. We were all wearing shorts, so we had to cover up before he would let us in. They were billowy white things, I bet that they were initiate's skirts...

He then pulled out a key and unlocked a door not in the monastery, but in the building next door. It housed the most beautiful icons have seen yet. They were haunting. In the best tradition of Byzantine icons, the halos gleamed and glowed in the dim light. It was quite an effect. The icons of Mary and Jesus were particularly moving, and the large one of St. George right by the door was also quite striking. While Butler and I were gazing at these icons, I noticed my father lighting a candle with the monk back in the entranceway. WTF? My dad is not particularly religious, and I'm certain that he hasn't the first clue about Eastern Orthodoxy. It made more sense later on... Butler and I came back up to the entranceway and figured that we were done. It was quite a show, but we wondered where the really early frescos and icons were that the guidebook talked about. As we were about to leave, the monk stopped us, pulled an enormous key out of his pocket, and unlocked another door just past the entryway. We hadn't even noticed it, we figured that it was probably a closet or something. Well, that's where the old stuff was. There were remnants of frescos from the 14th century(!) there along with some really old icons. The frescos were not in good shape, but it was still awe inspiring to see them at all, let alone so close.

After we had gotten our fill, we filed back out of the room. Butler and I immediately put some money into the collection box. The monk saw this and insisted that we take a beeswax candle, light it, and put it in a holder in front of the icon of St. George. Aha! So that's what dad was up to. Anyway, we thanked him, gave back our skirts, and hiked back down to the pond. There we sipped strawberry ice thingyies until we cooled down. The scenery was amazing on the way back, the villages were really cute, and we saw about 6 other tourists the entire time. A day to remember for sure. It makes me wonder how many other places there are like this on this island...

We arrived in Crete 2 days ago and were taken to our hotel in Herakaion. It's in the middle of the night life area and we were a bit worried about the bustle surrounding the place, but things have worked out. The first day here we mostly walked around the town and we saw the local archeology museum. Our second day consisted of renting a car and driving all over the west side of the island. We saw several nice beach cities along the Cretan sea, and not much of anything along the Libyan Sea. The highlight of the day had to be going to a monastery in the middle of nowhere. They had quite a nice museum, the icons were incredible. Some of them were also very old. If you walk around Greece enough, you'll see a bunch of tourist icons. You might even see "church stores" where you can buy actual, new icons. The ones in the museums and monasteries are really in a different class, seek them out.

We got a shock when we got back to the hotel, the whole city square (which our hotel is on) was going crazy. Flags waving, fireworks, air horns, news crews, and lots and lots of people. It turns out that they had a country wide election that day, and the headquarters of the party that came out ahead was right next to our hotel... Cars and motorcycles were driving all over the place with Greek flags fluttering and horns blowing, it was quite a scene. We eventually fell asleep, the festivities seemed to die out around midnight or so.

That second day was spent in the car mostly. We saw some really nice scenery, but there was never a good place to pull over. Besides, I still wasn't feeling 100%, the day is a big blur for me... I'm trying to put some pictures up..

Well, I'm still sick. The really weird thing is that I don't feel bad, I just... um, need to stay close to a bathroom. So I've been hanging out at the hotel while dad and Butler make the most of the trip. I feel bad for them spending all this money just so that I can hang out at the hotel... Looks like I'll miss the Parthanon, but we are going to Crete tomorrow. With any luck I'll recover by tomorrow and I can start to enjoy this place! My internet time is drawing to a close, so I'm not sure when I'll be posting and/or emailing again. Well, off to Crete, wish me luck!

So my stomach problem got worse the next couple of days. The second day, I didn't feel up to going to the Acropolis. I stayed in bed and took some Imodium. I felt well enough when they got back and we went out into the local neighborhood. It's really lovely here, the weather is perfect, there are tons of cafes and shops, and everyone seems really friendly. I scoped out some potential gifts for people, and then we came home.

Today was the worst. I stayed in my room until 6PM. I had my first food around 7PM. So far, so good, but I didn't get to do a damn thing! Tomorrow will be my last decent day to go see the Acropolis before we head to Crete. I am feeling better right now, so I'm hopeful that I'll be able to do everything I want tomorrow, wish me luck!

My flight didn't leave until 2AM, so I sent the day just hanging out and doing stuff. I went to Hamra resturant for dinner, turns out that was a bad idea. It's only 4 and 1/2 hours from Sana'a to Istanbul, but when you leave at 2AM, it's pretty rough. The flight wasn't crowded at all, I don't think that there was anyone within 2 rows of me on the plane. I tried to sleep, but I never can on the plane. I sat up and noticed some light outside. I moved over to the window seat and peeked out, what I saw was amazing.

The ground was almost pitch black, with only the occasional town illuminating it's streets and houses to mark where the ground was. As I looked up to the horizon, there was an intense band of orange, thin, but highly saturated. Above that there was a narrow band of almost pure cyan. That's a color that you rarely see, in nature or otherwise. It faded into a dark blue and then the pitch black of the night sky. There weren't any clouds anywhere near us and everything was crystal clear. There was one star that I could see, I assume that it was actually Venus, but it really set the mood. It was like what I imagine being in space is like. Seeing the night sky with a bright band of light low on the horizon was something special...

It turns out that the band of orange was a bank of clouds a long ways away. It was being lit by the sun from behind the curvature of the earth, I never actually saw the sun until we landed. As we got closer to Istanbul, you could see the lights of the city outlining the streets and bodies of water. The water had a slightly higher albedo than the ground, and it reflected a very slight, and very dark bluish color from the sky. I immediately knew where I was, the shape of the Bosporus gave it away, we were almost at the airport in Istanbul. The combination of the night sky, the intense colors along the horizon, the dark blue of the water, and the outlines of the streets combined for an astonishing view. It was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen, and that's saying something. There is no camera that has ever been made that could capture what I saw, the dynamic range was waaaay too large, plus I was shooting out of an airplane window...

The flight to Athens was easy enough, but I was really dragging at that point. Lack of sleep and a developing stomach/GI problem made me a bit cranky. After a 37 Euro(!) cab ride, I got to the hotel. The rooms are a bit on the small side, but the location is fantastic. We are almost directly under the Acropolis and right across the street from the Temple of Zeus. The view from our roof is spectacular...

I caught up with Butler and Dad and we went to the Temple of Zeus. It is impressive, and impressively old. What struck me was how haphazard and careless the Greeks have been. There are some ropes around, but anyone could, and did walk right into some of the ruins. The temple of Apollo was completely open. I think the problem is that everyone has always known where this stuff was, it has always been around. So people treat it carelessly. If this had been found in 1950, you can be sure that they would have done more to preserve it. Anyway, it was a good day, and I got to see some actual Greek ruins...

Just click on the "Recent Pictures" tab on the right side for the first 25. You can see the rest by clicking on "The rest of them." I'll post some more detailed info later. The short version is that I love Athens! More to come...

If all goes well, I'll be in Greece tomorrow morning. My flight leaves tomorrow morning at 1:45 AM, groan, that means a whole night without sleep. Oh well, at least the flights are pretty short. I'll still need a nap when I get to Athens though... I hope to post pictures as I take them, stay tuned!

Well, no trips for me. I had my grand trip to Tibet all worked out, but I miscalculated the miles necessary to get the free flight. My other options really didn't excite me enough to go through with them. So I'll just save my money and keep accumulating miles. I'm over half way towards a free trip back home! Now that I'm in the "silver" level of the frequent flyer program, I'll get quite a few bonus miles. Oh well, I'll go some other time...

OK, I've pretty much ruled out my Damascus trip. My rationale is that I can fly there from here cheaply whenever I want so why use up my sky miles on it, and I don't really want to be in an Arab country for Ramadan. Yes yes, I know, it's a unique experience etc etc. I will get a taste of it here, but honestly I really can't see myself getting into it. The upshot is that I want a taste of it, but at the same time keep my exposure to a minimum.

So, I looked at the possible destinations that Emirates is offering for half of the usual miles and I narrowed it down to a handful. The free flight is the key to this conundrum, without it, I don't do any of these things. The others were just too expensive and/or uninteresting. My first options are in India, all of them in the southern areas. That has a lot of appeal, but I was really hoping to see the northern parts first. It's also the start of the fall monsoon season. There should only be light rains, but there's something about the word monsoon that makes me think again. Still, it would be cheap, the areas along the Indian ocean look beautiful, and the food should be tasty (if a little dangerous, food poisoning isn't uncommon there).

I noticed that the Seychelles was offered as well. I'm not really a beach person, but that place looks stunning. It would be more expensive than India (what isn't) but still doable if I stayed in a flea bag hotel. The only real problem I have is that it seems like a place I should take someone to. Even if I had someone to take there, I couldn't afford right now...

The third one might be the most expensive, and it certainly involves the most time and travel. I could go back to Beijing for free. I wouldn't stay there though. i would go to the same hotel I stayed in last time, the one right around the corner from the railroad station. From there I would take a two day train ride up to Tibet! How amazing would that be? Of course it would be two days back, that makes 4 days total on the train, ugg. I guess I would see a lot of China that way... I could then take a tour once I got there. I don't have to say anything about the scenery, but I'd also love to see all the monasteries and whatnot as well.

The only potential problem is the money of course. I could do any of these things right now if I threw caution to the wind. I prefer to play it a little more conservative over here though. I have an interview at a school tomorrow. Here's what I'm thinking... If I get the job with as many hours as I want to get, I'm so doing the Tibet trip. If I get the job but with fewer hours, I may or may not do the India trip. If I don't get the job, I won't go on any trip at all... Anyone want to go to Tibet with me?

I found the Turkish airlines office and bought my tickets! I am now going to Greece dammit, nothing's stopping me now... The office is on sharia siteen. If you come down Bagdad street towards siteen, turn left onto siteen and go for about a mile. It's on the left.

OK, I now have a phone number and a general idea where the Turkish airlines office is. I don't think that they have an actual, official office here, but they do seem to have two official agents here. They don't take credit cards, so that means a trip to the ATM. I started out, but it started to rain. Of course it stopped as soon as I went inside. I think I'll give it an hour or so and try again...

Horay! I've made my ticket reservation for Greece. I was hoping to be able to pay online and get an eticket like Emirates does, but no luck. Turkish airlines doesn't offer that in Yemen. They do let you pick your seat online though, that's pretty cool. Emirates can let you do that if your a member of their frequent flyer club. Anyway, they say I have to pick up my ticket by Aug. 29th, but they don't tell me where. Not only that, but I can't find anything online telling me where I should go either. I tried filling out a contact form, but all I got was an error message in Turkish, so that didn't help. My strategy is this; I am going to the pizza place that is way way down Hadda street. If I see their office along the way, I'll get out and see them. If not, I'll have to start asking around at the various travel agents. Hmmm, I sure do hope they take credit cards!

Went down to the embassy at 12:00 and they said, no, I should come back at 12:30.... Grrr. I understand getting complicated things wrong sometimes, but the opening hour is pretty basic. Anyway, I went in and picked it up. Now I can travel again! Greece here I come!

The most "exciting" part of the trip was getting there. I asked a cabbie stopped in front of the nearby hotel if he would take me to the embassy. He said sure, but wait a sec. He took some glass bottles out of his trunk and filled up his gas tank. I had always wondered why many cabs smelled like gas, now I know... Then we had to push the car so he could pop it into gear and start the car. Sigh, I guess from now on I'll just wait for the newer, metered cabs to come by. Not only do they start on their own, but they have seat belts and I bet they don't store gasoline in their trunks...

Emirates is having a special on using frequent flyer miles from sept. 11 to Oct. 11 and I think I'll take advantage of it. They've cut the miles needed in half for that time, so I think I'll go to Damascus. I've wanted to go there for quite a while, and it's relatively affordable. Since the flight will be free, all I'l have to do is pay for the hotel and meals. I do have to check into the visa issue, and I'll also have to go down to the American embassy about my passport. I only have three more pages in it for visas. That's mostly because every entry and exit visa from Yemen takes up an entire page. I've got three entry visas and 3 exit visa. Add to that the entire page taken up by my Chinese visa (and they stamped a separate page too, grr...) and the other stamps from the US, Malta, and the UAE and I'm down to the last several pages. I'll need one to get out of Yemen, one to get back in, and I'll probably need one for Greece (when I travel with dad and Butler). Hmmm, I better get on that soon, don't want to be caught with a passport I can't use...

It became obvious at JFK that TSA (or other people) were paying special attention to me. The hoops I had to jump through and the number of people that handled and checked off on my boarding pass was impressive. I always expected something like this really, people are just too paranoid to expect anything else. I do wish that they'd use a little sense though. If I were a terrorist (and for any government types that might be reading this, I am most certainly not one) and wanted to do something on a plane, I wouldn't tell them that I was flying to Sana'a , I'd fly to Hackensack or something. Plus, why all the scrutiny on my way there? I would expect more on the way back. On my way back into the US, the immigration guy at JFK did ask me why I went to the places I did. He seemed happy with my answer (I'm a student) and didn't press further. IF there needs to be more scrutiny (and I don't think there needs to be in this case), why not have it when I'm coming back into the country? Anyway, this was the first time that I have seen any indication that my government is suspicious of me. Hopefully, some people that have some clout will read this blog and see where I stand so I don't have all of the hurdles to jump through next time....

Got to National with no problems, but the line at the Delta counter was enormous. It took almost an hour to get through that, but I finally got my boarding passes for my flight and my connecting one at JFK. Went to the security screening and I was "selected for additional screening." There were a couple of other people there too so I didn't feel too weird, I figured my number just came up. Delta was a mess, my flight was supposed to arrive at JFK at 7:20, we actually got there at 9:30. Luckily, I already had my boarding pass and my flight didn't leave until 11:00. It turns out that Delta had given me a piece of paper that said "boarding pass" on it but it was not, in fact a boarding pass. I had to go back up to the counter (luckily Eremites has a no checked baggage line that was really short) and then go back down to the security screening. I noticed that the agent at the counter had made some furious scribbles on my boarding pass, when I got to the person that checked the pass against the passport she said, "You have been selected for additional screening," and made some more scribbles on my pass. GROAN, went through the whole thing again, I'm sure it was random, right? Each person that handled my boarding pass highlighted something or scribbled something on it. I got through all that and stood in line at the gate. A woman was going along the line spot checking passes. I showed her mine, she said, "Isaac Crawford, right? I'll be right back." She took it to the guys at the counter and eventually brought it back without any explanation. What a hassle but it didn't matter, the flight left an hour late and then we sat on the tarmac for another 50 minutes.

I'm beginning to get the idea that JFK is the worst airport in the world, lots of delays all the time and the terminals are a total mess. When I got off of the Delta flight, there was no indication that there were other terminals let alone how to get to them. It involved a decent hike and the use of an elevator and a train to get over to the next terminal. I met a really cool woman named Kelly that I'll probably never see again (although she seemed to think otherwise for some reason, "That's the way things work," she said when I said goodbye) that I managed to mislead time and time again. There was no ulterior motive, it was pure incompetence. It got to the point that if I guessed which elevator would come up first, she would automatically move to the other one, and be correct... Anyway, she's a teacher at the American school in Bangladesh having transferred from Tanzania. Like I said, she's pretty cool and made the JFK and Dubai part of the trip bearable.

The flight was insane, there were approx. 10,000 little kids on the flight. To be honest, most of them were very good, I didn't even notice them until late in the flight. There were a couple of problem children of course, including one baby that was, as far as I could tell, pure evil. It screamed and screamed. Not in a "I'm in pain and I can't talk yet," kind of scream, but more of a "ME ME ME ME ME!!" scream. It spent most of its waking hours screaming at the top of its lungs, but if it got distracted, it would stop for 30 or 40 seconds and then start again. That tells me that it wasn't under any sort of terrible duress, it was just evil...

Needless to say, I didn't get any sleep on the flight, none to speak of at least. Between the screaming infant, the cramped seating (I think I have bruises on my knees for God's sake) and my general inability to sleep on planes, I was exhausted when I hit Dubai. I had to say goodbye to Kelly because I was falling asleep in my chair, I went to the "quiet lounge" and slept for about 4 and 1/2 hours, I couldn't believe it. I knew I'd sleep through her boarding time, so I just said "See Ya" before I passed out. Good thing I did, I was out cold...

I'm pretty excited about the milage I've accumulated, not only have I gotten more miles to spend, but after this trip is through, I will be bumped up to the next level of their frequent flyer program. That gives me a bonus on the miles I earn and I get to check in and board with the business class folks too. I'm most excited about the prospect of using the business class lounge in Dubai though. Hopefully this means no more sleeping on the floor! The first class lounge has a shower, that would be nice but I'll be happy with an overstuffed chair:-)

OK, so the trip was not so good. It turns out that it is not my jaw, but a bad tooth. It was killing me all through Dubai, the flight, and waiting in NYC. I called my dentist from NYC and arranged an appointment. I got off of the plane at national airport and went straight there. He looked around and sent me to another doctor, one that only does root canals. I went there the next day. With a little (painful) exploration, he narrowed it down to one tooth. It has a vertical crack in it and probably has an abscess forming there too. His opinion was that the crack was too severe to do a root canal, so he recommends extraction...

I have to go to my dentist on monday and get this thing out. I'm not sure what's going to happen. I've heard about implants and bridges, but I'm not sure how much they cost or how necessary they are. I'm also wondering if it is something I could have done back in Yemen. I really don't want anyone there doing any surgery on me, but they could probably do an implant or bridge, it's probably much cheaper there... Anyway, I'll talk to my dentist tomorrow about my options. In the meantime, I'm on some serious pain killers. They make me very sleepy and I can't think straight. With any luck I'll be off of these things in a couple of days.

With all due apologies to John Fogerty... Yup, I'm in my most frequent haunt and there really isn't much to do except take advantage of the free wi-fi. Here's some random observations:

Good God my computer is filthy! I'm using it in decent light for the first time in who knows when and I am appalled. I'm going to have to do some serious cleaning when I get back.

I saw a couple of Yemeni girls get on the plane that stood out a bit. They were both wearing hijabs and baltos, but one was sporting some Italian styled sunglasses (huge ones with sparkly things on the sides) and the other had "Dior" written in rhinestones on her hijab. I'm no fashion maven, but I'm pretty sue that Dior is not making hijabs, and I'm pretty damn sure that they would not use rhinestones if they did.

I thought I had a toothache, but now I think it's actually my jaw joint (TMJ) on my left side. I'm thinking this because the pain moves around a bit and it seems to subside if I keep my jaw in a certain position. That's good, I think. I really can't afford any actual dental work at this point, hopefully I've just tweaked the joint and it'll heal on it's own (can you sprain a TMJ?) The bad news is that the position that minimizes the pain leaves me with a slack jaw, so I sit around with my mouth slightly open looking like an idiot. Whatever, this thing hurts like hell sometimes, I'll look like an idiot if I can minimize that.

It's 102 degrees here in Dubai along with the usual humidity, Oi!

I continue to be amazed at the music offered on the Emirates in flight entertainment. I heard two (two!) Rolling Stones songs that I had never heard, one of which (We Love You) had both John Lennon and Paul Mcaurtney doing backing vocals. They also played "Death of a Clown" by Ray Davies (not with the Kinks as I had thought) and a Syd Barrett song that I can't remember the name of right this second. A really good mix... Those were all from the year 1967, when they went to 1977, you could really tell which was the better year. The late 70's had some of the most amazing rock and roll ever being made (Sex Pistols, Talking Heads, Ramones, the Clash, etc.) but the charts were dominated by the likes of Debbie Boone, Peter Frampton, and Olivia Newton-John. God was she terrible. I managed to miss her whole pre Grease, "Let's Get Physical" career. "I Honestly Love You," and "Sam" are all I ever need to hear to thank my lucky stars. At least they didn't play "Jazzman" by Carol King, that was another inexplicable hit in the late 70's. I'm chalking it up to the bad taste in general during that time. The clothes, the hair, the TV, etc.

I will never, ever fly without noise canceling headphones. Even if you're not listening to music, maybe especially if you're not listening to music, they are a godsend. It's alarming how loud the cabin of an airplane is, and it's even more alarming to hear how loud you usually play music to overcome it. I keep them on my head when I attempt to go to sleep. The really cool thing is that everything else, announcements, conversations, etc. are much easier to hear when you cut the ambient noise by 20db or so. Seriously, get some of these for your next trip, they're not that expensive, 40-50 bucks, but your ears and nerves will thank you. I use a lithium AA battery in mine and get 20-30 hours out of a single battery.

I'll probably post more as I get bored...

I'll catch my plane tomorrow at 10M. That means I should be there at 7, which means I'll have to get up at 5:30 GROAN... I always get thrown off by this, I look at my itinerary and think, "Hmm, 10AM flight to Dubai, 11:30PM flight to NYC, arrive at NYC at 7:30AM and fly out of there at 1PM, arrive at DC around 2ish." Not too bad until I realize that I'll most likely be awake for more than 20 hours during the next 24... I hope I can sleep this time. Now that I'm a member of their frequent flyer program, I can pick my seat if I do it early enough. I figure 12 hours is plenty of time... I hope to get a seat up close to the business class section (and near the emergency exit) so that I can have some actual leg room. The only potential drawback to that is that area is also where they put the babies... I'll take it, I then have at least a chance to get some sleep...

I have a carry on bag that works alright, it's the right size, and I like how the pockets work. The only thing I've never really liked is the fact that the handle for the rolling option is about 3 to 4 inches too short. I don't consider myself overly tall at 6 feet (that's 2 meters for you non US types), but you'd be surprised what that 3 inches does to your back and/or shoulder if you have to wheel it around for a while. Anyway, the top handle broke on my Malta trip and it has been the perfect excuse to go look for another. I managed to find one bag tonight that had a tall enough handle, but it was incredibly ugly. I'm not usually real finicky about how my luggage looks, but this thing was terrible. Plus, this thing felt like I could rip it apart, there's no way it could handle a full load without self-destructing. The guy kept telling me that it was "real leather" when it was obviously vinyl... I'll look when I'm back in the states, I'll deal with this bag for at least one more trip...

I have booked my flight home! I'll be leaving here on the 27th of june and will arrive back in Sana'a on the 1st of Aug. A nice break... I was having trouble with the online booking, so I went to my local ticket agent yesterday to inquire about a price. Emirates does not fly to DC, but they do contract with other airlines in the US. She was unable to figure out the connector from NYC to DC, so she told me to come back today. Most businesses here close for lunch, usually from 1 till 4. I waited and waited, but they didn't open up, so I walked down the street to another agent. Once I told him that I wanted to fly with Emirates (due to my frequent flyer miles, the good price, and the shortest trip) but all the way to DC, he balked. I explained to him that I know that they do not fly all the way to DC, but they have partners that they work with. He started to look, but then he stopped and told me to go to the Emirates office to do that. The office is way the hell on the other side of the city, if I had wanted to go there, I would have done it in the first place... I stormed home, grabbed my laptop, and tried using the site again. Pow! No problems to speak of today. So I bought the tickets online and even got bonus miles for doing it!

I'm really looking forward to this, I need to be recharged. I thought the Beijing trip would do it, but I need a longer detox period... Anyway, I hope to see a bunch of you guys soon!

I'm thinking of going back to the states for a month or so. I've been going back and forth due to the cost, but I'm this close to saying, "Screw it, I want to go back home for a while..." I still have to do some final number crunching, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to do it. My Uncle will be visiting my father early in July, I think I'll target my arrival for around that time. I hope to get around and see a bunch of you, let me know days and times that will be good for that!

... but I'll take it. I was watching a match while eating the only decent cheeseburger I've had since I left the States. The Dubai airport isn't so bad really, at least when it's not crowded and you know where the best locations are for stuff. i won't revealing all of my secrets, but knowing where the least crowded bathrooms, couches you can lie on, and places to plug your laptop into and have a chair are very worthwhile if you spend any time here at all. If any of you are looking at spending some time in Dubai's airport, drop me a line and I can make your stay a lot nicer:-)

So yeah, watching cricket while eating my BACON cheeseburger is pretty nice, almost as nice as listening to Pavement't first album during the call to prayer... I did nap a bit on the floor, I've been in more comfortable beds before, but I needed the sleep. The floor is your typical slab of concrete with a thin carpet over it. I was tired enough that the blindfold I got from Emirates was all I needed to doze for an hour and a half on the concrete. I can't seem to sleep on the flights, even when I have enough leg room. God it must be nice to be small on flights. Since the seats don't go back very far, my neck stiffens up and hurts like hell. I can either lol to the side or droop forward, both hurt. I can't get to my side which is my favorite sleeping position. My cousin beth gave me one of those neck cushions before I left. I think it saved my life on the way over here on that 13 hour flight. I figured I didn't need it for these short flights, but I neglected to take into account the hours were all during times that I'd normally be asleep. Plus it would have been a nice pillow when I was laying on the floor. Next time I'll know better...

I'll actually be buying some stuff at the duty free shop this time. Two liters of whiskey for a friend in Sana'a and I'm going to load up on chocolate. I'm buying a handful of big Lindt dark chocolate bars with almonds. All I can get in Yemen is milk chocolate, and rather sweet stuff at that. I'll also be getting some chocolate with liquor inside of it. It tastes amazing, they have jack Daniels, a couple of cognacs, grand marnier, and that orange liquor I can never remember the name of. I find them to be heavenly, much like that bourbon fudge I used to get. I hope that will keep my chocolate ravings under control for a while. They have quite a selection of alcohol here. It ranges from the cheap, regular stuff to thirty year old scotches and even Louis the 13th cognac at a cool $1300...

It's a bit of a cultural whiplash going from the cheap, haggle away Chinese markets to the real upscale, if you have to ask the price kind of place. They are raffling off a new Porche and a BMW 7 series car. There are only a 1000 tickets for each, but each ticket costs a little over $150. Definitely not your typical door prize. I briefly thought about getting a hotel room when I got here because of how tired I was. Well, since they seem to start at $160 a night, I decided the airport was fine:-) Dubai is pretty nice as long as you have some money to blow.

It's my last day in Beijing, my flight leaves at 11:55 tonight, so I have almost the entire day to myself. I just had a few things to do. I needed to send off the postcards and the quilt back to the US, and I wanted to get a lighter quilt to take to Yemen. Went to the post office, turns out that they are full service here. They wrap and package your packages as well as send them. There was only one guy working the package counter (post offices are the same everywhere it seems) so it took a while. I needed to get some cash so I started looking around for an ATM. Yemen has spoiled me when it comes to exchanging money. There, you walk up to the shop, hand them your money, and they give you riyals. I brought cash with me to China, what a pain. First they tell you not to take your passport with you when walking around due to pick pockets. Then when you need cash, they want to see your passport... The banks have an incredible amount of paperwork and they scrutinize the bills throughly. I tried to change $150 US into Yuan, it took me a half hour at the counter window. I had to fill out two forms, sign three, and the clerk used two different stamps on 6 different pieces of paper. In the end, they wouldn't take two of my 20's for some reason.

Anyway, I got to the post office and realized that I'd need more cash. I wasn't going to walk all the way back to the hotel room just so I could enjoy sitting at the bank counter again being treated like a criminal. I popped in my bank card and... nothing. It wouldn't accept it. I went outside and used another bank's machine, nothing again... I ended up using my Visa card, God oly knows what they're going to charge me for that connivence...

The stuff got mailed out alright. I sent the quilt with the proverbial slow boat from China, it'll take a couple of months for it show up in the states, but it was cheap. I then ate and got a taxi to a place that sells quilts. I wanted a lightweight on to take back to Yemen. Well, it turns out that they only make the light ones in single and double sizes. I had already bought a queen sized cover for it, so I didn't want to have to buy another cover... In the end I decided against getting the other quilt. I wandered around a little and found more markets with amazing assortments of cheap junk. It has become clear to me that despite the fact that some very nice things are made in China, not many of those things makes into the domestic market. Maybe if I went to Shanghai...

I scored some really decent incense when I went to the Lama temple. I do like burning incense, but the good stuff. Back home I had a selection of Japanese (the kings of good incense IMO) incenses, but I left them there for the trip with the idea that I'd buy some in Yemen. Well, that hasn't worked out so well. Yes, I can buy frankincense and myrrh, but they are very simple, one note scents. They are nice, but I get tired of them quickly. The other problem is that you need to put them over some coals to burn, there's no way I am going to have fire or coals in my room... I could buy some Indian incense in Sana'a, but I find the Indian stuff to be very heavy and thick smelling. Plus, it just isn't my kind of smell.

I was probably the only one who walked into the temple empty handed and left with a bunch of incense. Everyone else made offerings... I got three simple, but nice versions, and one that is a real heady, complex one. The simple ones cost a little more than 2 bucks for a whole box (probably closer to 15 in the US) and the complicated one cost me just under 8 bucks for a box (as opposed to the likely 40 bucks it would cost back home). There were some really lovely smelling sticks that I just couldn't bring back, they were huge! Some of the sticks looked like a type of firework they were so big and long, about 3 feet long! There were shops that sold nothing but incense, it was quite fun. Most of them leaned towards the earthy, pungent side, not my cup of tea. The Chinese and Tibetans ascribe a variety of health benefits to some of the blends. Sorry, I can't imagine that inhaling lots of smoke is anything but bad for you....

Today I went back to "silk street," one of the markets filled with crap that you can haggle over. I needed a cover for my comforter, but I didn't want to spring for a silk one. Cotton is just fine. The local mall had them for around 750 yuan, just under a hundred bucks, ouch! Looking online I could order one in the us for around 50 bucks, so I used that as my baseline. It was actually fun watching the girl trying her best to make me buy something. They really have the "no one walks" mentality. I told her that the prices she was quoting me were more than what I could get in the US. Of course I wasn't going to tell her that hers was a little nicer and I wasn't paying shipping or tax:-). She started out right where the mall was, right around 700 yuan. I stuck to my guns and got it for 300 yuan. It's quite nice. I went with a cream color as opposed to white. I know from experiance that white things become pretty dingy pretty quick in Sana'a's water. I'm going to get a lightweight comforter for Yemen tomorrow, I'll send the heavier one back home. The light silk quilts are only around 300 yuon, so why not?

I am impressed at how clean this place is. Apparently there is an army of street cleaners working all the time, it shows. Even the air has been very clear. I had heard that this place has terrible smog. Other than a sand/dust storm the first day I have not noticed any smog at all. I think that the dust really helped keep in the fumes...

There are a zillion little steps that are around 2 to 3 inches tall everywhere. I never expect them and I'm afraid that I'll really hurt myself before I leave. they're on the sidewalks, in my hotel rooms, in the tourist areas, etc. Not sure why they have so many of them, I wonder if it is just a "fudge factor" from sloppy construction.

They still really think highly of Mao despite the fact that prosperity has been gained by doing exactly the opposite of what he taught and did. Our first tour guide gave the impression that he thinks the world of Mao. I really don't understand. Clearly he led them down the wrong path, the trail of millions of bodies and unrelenting poverty should have been a tip off. How they can revere him and enjoy the current growth boggles my mind. Mao and Stalin are my two least favorite people of all time. Sure Hitler and Pol Pot are down there too, but these guys set the bar. Stalin probably had a higher deliberate body count, but the famines that Mao initiated are unforgivable. When are the Chinese going to realize that they could have had a "revolution" without so many deaths? When are they going to realize that Mao set them back a 100 years or more? When are they going to realize that if they did back then what they are doing now, they might be as wealthy as the US today? Like I said, I don't get it...

I expect that people will eventually stop eating entrails here as the wealth of the country goes up. I doubt that many Irish or Brits still eat sheep's heads or kidneys. As they got more wealthy, they stopped eating the slop and went to the good stuff. Maybe in 20 or 30 years you will no longer be able to order duck webbing, goose intestines, fish heads, or tripe from a decent restaurant here.

Most of the crafts here will be very successful with the domestic market, but demand from the west will lag behind unless they make stuff that is more to the liking of westerners. With the exceptions of the silk rugs and pearls, almost everything else is geared towards the Chinese. It will be interesting to see what happens as people's spending money goes up here. They will be able to buy the cloisonné that their parents only dreamed about owning. On the other hand, it will become more and more expensive to make this stuff as wages go up. It will be interesting to see what happens, but this may be the golden age for crafts such as silk rugs and cloisonné. It may just be too expensive to make here anymore in 20 years...

They are very proud of the fact that the olympics are going to be here in 2008. Our guide was quick to point out signs and the new stadiums. He even suggested that we pose in a certain place at the Great Wall in order to get in the "2008 summer olympics in Beijing!" sign in the background. He seemed a little annoyed/dismayed that we didn't react with glee when he took us to an official olympics souvenir stand. We couldn't think of a polite way to tell him that we really don't care...

I'm sure other things will pop into my head later, I'll add them later.

I've stopped doing tourist stuff here. I think I've hit all of the major sites, and I need to rest my feet. In order of must see to less so, I think the sights here have to go in this order:

Forbidden city
Great wall
Lama Temple
Temple of heaven
summer palace
Ming tombs

I feel like the Lama Temple in particular is underrated by many people, do try to go see it if you can. If authenticity is important to you, I would place this above the Great Wall since the Lama temple is the actual thing and the wall that you'll see is mostly a reproduction. Ideally, you'll get to see all of these things, but if you have to prioritize, that's how I'd do it.

In addition to the sights, make sure you get to go to some of the state run stores/factories that sell silk, silk carpets, pearls, jade, and cloisonné. Even if you don't buy anything, it's interesting to see how the stuff is made and learn how to detect the real stuff from the fakes. Also make sure you go to a reflexology place, an even better idea is to get a full body massage. It's cheap and they know what they're doing.

I think I've stayed here in Beijing just the right amount of time, maybe even a little longer than necessary. If you're coming from a developed place like the US, a week would probably be all you would need. For people like myself coming from a third world country, 10 days is nice. I'll post about general thoughts about the place a little later.

I have always loved Chinese food, so I was really excited to get out of Yemen for a while to come here. I gotta say, the food experience has been a mixed one for me. Our first tour guide told us that the Chinese eat anything that flies in the sky except airplanes and anything that crawls on the ground except babies. He should have added anything that can be pulled out of the water... They eat snake, scorpions, jellyfish, insects, and anything else that was once alive. Two people asked if I could believe that the Japanese eat fish raw, they were horrified at the thought. Of course they wouldn't think twice about eating fish heads or chicken cartilage... It's a little challenging to find reasonable food for a westerner here.

I went to a restaurant today for lunch. Like the others I had been to, at least half of it was seafood. That narrowed it down for me considerably. I say this mostly in jest, but it seemed like they made many of their dishes by fishing through our dumpsters. All sorts of entrails, tripe, feet, and heads were featured. The really curious thing was that there wasn't any mention of the rest of the animal sometimes. One dish was mostly goose intestines, but there wasn't another goose dish on the menu, what happened to the rest of the goose? They listed chicken livers, hearts, intestines, and even cartilage, but I never once saw chicken breast listed. Hell, I'd be happy with the thighs! It's as if they prepare meat the opposite way we do, eating all of the stuff we throw away...

When we were on tours, they would always take us to restaurants that serve food for westerners. I'd say the quality overall was pretty low, I got much better food back home. I have had sweet and sour pork, chicken with cashews, spring rolls, and a number of other things that I would get back home, none of which was as good as I was hoping for. The best meals I have had here have been the Peking duck (you can't go wrong with that, and it's really cheap here) and my time at the cooking school. Of course I cooked some of the food there! That reminds me of a traveling hint that I had forgotten until jut now. Wherever you go, in the US or outside of it, and you want to eat well on a budget, look for the culinary schools. They always have a restaurant, and it will be pretty good and cheap. I'm going to have duck again tonight, and I may try to find a more western place tomorrow, my last day...

Shopping here is a bit of a mixed bag. There are 5 different "classic" Chinese crafts that the tours really push and that they really do well here. They are jade, cloisonné, pearls, silk, and silk rugs. You can get these things in both state run stores and the markets, the trick is that you really need to know what you are doing in the markets. Unlike Yemen, people here will cheat you in a heartbeat. In the markets, they will look you in the eye and lie through their teeth. Looking for suckers is what they do every day. I was looking for some fountain pens. I have bought some Chinese ones before. They are decent cheap pens (around 15 bucks with shipping from Honk Kong) and I was hoping to get one or two really cheap. I picked up one and asked if it was a "Hero" pen, that is an old and well known Chinese pen manufacturer. She said, "No, that is a Mount Blanc." I could tell right away that it wasn't one, the nib was clearly stamped and the fit and finish was not up to my Chinese pens, let alone a Mount Blanc. I decided to play along... "How much?'
"400 Yuan" Hmmm, let's see that's about 53 bucks, a far cry from the $400 Mt. Blanc, but also quite a bit more than the better built pens I had already gotten. It's one thing to put the marketing spin on it and say that it is as "good" as a Mt. Blanc. After all, they both write and they are both fountain pens, in some people's eyes that is just as good. Of course going the one step farther and saying it is a Mt. Blanc is an entirely different thing, and is clearly not true. If you go to the markets, be aware that anything you pick up (including the pearls) has a good chance of being fake. When it comes to electronics and clothes, you can bet that they are fakes. Of course if you know what you are doing, it is quite possible to get a good deal in the markets if you are a good haggler. Be aware that the vendors there are relentless, if you show any interest at all, they will work and work until they work out a price, they want to make every sale they can. If you even make eye contact, they are likely to grab you and literally pull you into their shop/kiosk to hawk their wares. Even if you don't acknowledge them, they constantly yell for your attention.

I don't find that to be a very pleasurable experience, some people do I guess. I much prefer the state run stores for the handicrafts. First of all, they are quiet and the sales people do not hound you. In addition, you can be sure that what you are buying is the real deal. All of the ones that I went to started out with an education about the craftwork. They are informative and they give you some pointers for picking out fakes. Be aware though, the information always turns into a sales pitch, and they do it very well. I bought a silk quilt (actually a comforter) and I had no intention of doing it when I went there. I have no regrets, but they did do an effective sales presentation. The other couple that was in our group ended up buying two silk rugs and my mother was teetering on the edge. If her husband hadn't been there to dissuade her, she would have gotten one. Brenda did get two really nice rugs, and at one hell of a good price, but I think that it was a bit unexpected. Anyway, you have been warned...

Surprisingly, I was least impressed with the jade. I've always liked stones, but this stuff left me cold. The Chinese ascribe all sorts of properties to the material that just sounds goofy to westerners. I was shocked at the prices, they were far higher than anything I had seen in the states. One part of me thinks that perhaps I had never seen "good" jade (jadeite actually) before and that is why the prices seemed higher. I think the more reasonable explanation is that the Chinese value it more. The jewelry was plain, but the jade carvings were downright ugly. That's not very PC I know, but please, those things were hideous. A lot of the subject matter had deep significance to a Chinese audience and bewildered westerners. Who wants a jade cabbage ($900), a pile of food being eaten by mice ($1200), or even a mystical frog with three legs ($1000)? I have pictures up if you don't believe the ugly factor. Even when the subject matter had the potential to be interesting, the carving quality was pretty poor. I saw two places that enormous eagles (wingspan must have been 5 feet or more) carved out of a solid piece of jade. Impressive, but crudely carved and a real waste of a nice rock...

The cloisonné is actually very impressive. In case you aren't aware, it looks a lot like porcelain or pottery, but it is actually hand enameled copper. That makes it not only more durable, but it also allows much more intricate designs. Like I said, it is impressive, but it is very... Chinese. Most of those objects are not things that you can just plop into any decor and have it work, they have a definite Asian/Chinese feel to them. Not something that I'd buy being a bachelor with much more subdued tastes.

If you like pearls, China has a lot of them, and at good prices. I'm not into them so much, but if you are thinking about getting "that" saltwater pearl necklace with the matching bracelet and earrings, you might want to come to China instead. You will probably save enough to pay for the airfare...

Silk is everywhere here. Once again, the ready made clothes are really Chinese for the most part, I couldn't find anything that I'd like to wear in the state shops. Buying material here is probably a seamstresses dream, there are a ton of options available and the price seems to be pretty good. The biggest surprise for me was the quilts. They are actually comforters, but they call them quilts. Silk makes a great comforter, it is breathable, hypoallergenic, durable, and it won't lose it's shape. The hotels I stayed in both used them and I really like them, so I got one. A queen sized one cost me 79 bucks. After you decide to get one, they put the hard sell on for you to buy a silk cover for it. There's no way in hell I am taking anything silk that will get dirty to Yemen, especially when they cost what they do. I am sure that they are good prices for them, but cotton will do just fine for me...

The most amazing thing I saw were the silk rugs. OMG they are beautiful, I never thought I would want a rug, but now I do. Silk is very durable, and get this, the carpets change as you look at them from different angles! The silk threads reflect light in such a way to make the rug look totally different when you view it from 180 degrees the opposite way. The detail, color, and designs are to die for. Of course there's the small matter of the price... Rugs that you would actually put on the floor ranged from 1500 to 50,000 dollars. There are smaller rugs, but that doesn't necessarily translate into lower prices. Many of the smaller rugs have higher knot counts and therefore greater detail, that makes the price go up considerably. The really large rugs took 4 people 2 years to make! I fell in love with a tiny carpet, maybe 2 ft by 1 ft. It was exquisite, incredible colors and an amazingly complex, detailed designed. I thought that maybe I would pop for one of these as a souvenir. Turns out that it was a special ones made for collectors, it ran a cool 3k. Apparently it took a "master" 8 months to do it! So no rugs for Isaac, but these were the things I drooled over the most here...

One last thing, the current exchange rate is 7.6 Yuan to the dollar. hardly a convenient figure. Everyone has calculators here, but it wouldn't hurt to bring your own so you can figure things on the fly...

Today I went to the Lama temple, it's the only Tibetan temple in Beijing. It was originally some sort of palace back in the 1600's, but then some emperor converted over to this type of Buddhism and he turned it into a temple. The place is large and is packed with interesting things to see. It's a wonder that none of it was destroyed in the various violent parts of Chinese history. It is still a functioning temple as well, many many people were there today making offerings and praying. Interestingly enough, I saw no Tibetans, at least I didn't see anyone that looked Tibetan to me. The temple houses many statues, including the largest Buddha in Beijing (in China?), it's 18 meters tall. The building it is in barely holds it, the head is touching the roof. Every building had something amazing in it, statues, paintings, relics, etc. Unfortunately you are not supposed to take any pictures in the buildings. I'm not sure if that is to protect the artifacts or just to keep some decorum in a place of worship. it didn't stop some French tourists from snapping away though, they were oohing and aahing over the people praying and offering incense as if they were doing it for the tourists. What a bunch of asses...

I never got into Tibetan Buddhism, it is far too complicated for my tastes. There are 4 different schools and seemingly endless practices spread across those four schools of thought. The Tibetans took very seriously the idea that there are an infinite number of ways to achieve Buddhahood, there are seemingly an infinite variety of practices in the Tibetan tradition. A reporter once incredulously asked the current Dali Lama if enlightenment could be found through drugs, the Dali Lama's response was, "I sure hope so!" The Tibetans recognize types of gods in their canon, but interestingly, they are subject to desires and disappointments just like humans. Some practices involve the building up of a certain god in the practitioners mind, what he looks like, his powers, etc. and then deconstructing him until there is nothing left. The process can take 10 years or more. Another school (one of the tantras?) makes initiates perform 100,000 prostrations to Buddha before they begin the religious training. And those are full prostrations, starting from a standing position and ending up prone with the forehead on the floor. it takes people 2 to 5 years to do this typically...

Suffice it to say I didn't really understand or appreciate everything I saw today, but i did see one thing that I enjoyed immensely. The ideas in Zen Buddhism have had a great impact on me. Off to one side, there was a shrine to Shakyamuni, that is what the Tibetans (and maybe the Chinese in general) call the historical Buddha (Siddhartha Gautama). Along side him were two followers, Ananda and someone else. Ananda is considered the first Zen patriarch and how he got that title is one of my favorite religious stories. The Buddha called all of his disciples together and announced that he had a teaching for them. He then took out a flower and held it in front of him, not saying a word. All of the disciples were confused and didn't know what to make of this, except Ananda, he just smiled. Ananda showed that he understood the true nature of existence and was not tied to language or thoughts to experience them. That is the essence of Zen...

I'm ranking this place right up there with the great wall and the Forbidden city as far as places to go in Beijing. I would definitely recommend this above the summer palace and the temple of heaven. Like the forbidden city, it is the original and unlike all of the other sites, it is still being used for it's original purpose, it is not just a tourist attraction. I get the feeling that most of the locals, and certainly the tour guides do not think of this place as central to their history or culture. maybe it isn't, but it sure is a great place to see and it is very interesting. I've put up the pictures, click on "The rest of them" in my pictures area to see them.

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