Along the highways are asphalt speed bumps covering water pipes that cross the road or just heaps of earth piled up to slow traffic. This is where veiled women in black sit begging, children try to peddle tiny apricot or peaches, and boys shake their plastic bags of bundled up qat for sale at the vehicle drivers.
We passed several police checkpoints, and had to hand over our travel permits. We got the permits from the tourist police in San'a for no charge and had to have several copies made to hand out at each checkpoint. The permits listed the days we would travel and our destinations.
At the first checkpoint, the police asked where we were from and where we were staying, they next asked for a pen. Victor told them we were staying with him. When he told them his name was Victor they didn't believe he was Yemeni as Victor is not a Yemeni nor a Muslim name. We had to pull over at every checkpoint as they phoned the station and checked his ID. They were not interested in us at all. Victor's dad studied in Germany and named Victor after a good German friend. Victor is the only Yemeni called Victor and get hassled often about his name.
Some of the villages we passed through were called souqs and they were a few steel buildings selling all the same things. There were small pick-ups parked in the narrow streets from the back of which men sold their bags of qat. They outnumbered the shops. The dusty streets were ankle deep in plastic bags and rubbish. There doesn't seem to be any system in place to get rid of waste, so it blows every where sticking to trees and clogging the irrigation channels.
Manakhan is a area for trekking where guides take walkers from village to village through the mountains. We didn't have time for that.
We drove to an area where there is a tomb, Al Khutayb, it is a place for pilgrims of a particular Muslim sect.
We met many pilgrims from Saudi, France, Madagascar and Pakistan.
An old man showed us the way to the mosque at the top of the hill and then posed for a photo with his prayer beads and Koran, he also wanted a tip.
Victor has no head for heights so he stayed below but the pilgrims invited us into their tiny mosque. As Victor and Hussein are not of the same sect they were not allowed into the mosque. The area is well looked after with well watered lawns of green grass and gardens of oleander flowers. The houses nearby are well made of cement and the roads are newly sealed. The money from the pilgrims goes to keep the area in good condition.
After our trip we went to a neighbourhood restaurant for lunch and then Victor went off to meet his friends for some qat chewing and gossip.
