Explorer Mikael Strandberg

http://explorermikaelstrandberg.wordpress.com/

The blog mentioned above here, is the blog to keep track on until the end of September, when I will return back and fill it with all the exiting details of life and the upcoming Expedition!

I am in Yemen at the moment studying Arabic and I am also trying to understand Islam and the Arab world better, not only as preparation for life, but also for the preparation of the Big Expedition! It is slowly coming to life…..

A facade belong to Old Sanaa.....

“It´s is all haram (forbidden)!”, my new very good friend exclaimed with disappointment and threw out his hands, turned his new Mercedes Benz around and returned back to what was not long ago a foul-smelling sewer canal, which is called the silo in local tongue, but now turned into an exiting main road through the city and he continued: “Every good idea to turn things around for the better for everyone in this country is killed by the religious fanatics and called haram!”

Can the Silo be turned into a floursihing Yemeni variety of le Seine?

Let us call my very new good friend the Self-Made Man. A true description of this fighter in every sense turned into a powerful factor in this great, but complicated country. He was showing me one of his great visions to turn one part of the Old City of Sanaa into a great possibility to draw tourist from all over the world. Which is something the country desperately needs to have a chance to handle the future. My new friend is also a great visionary. He sees the silo, the main street, free of traffic, which is covered on both sides of the great buildings of Old Sanaa, turning into a Yemeni version of both sides of the river Seine in Paris, France. Cafés, an array of entertaining street artists, open door exhibitions, museums, open theaters for opera and local music. And, I fully believe, like him that it would be a great success!

Early start in Old Sanaa

It is early morning in Old Sanaa. Life is slowly starting up, I hear one noisy motor bike only, a car with a silent motor passing with blaring classical music, people walking past with tired steps on the stone layered street below my window, a dog barking in a distance, a neighbor having a shower and the call of the muezzin just finished. I haven´t slept many hours, because I enjoyed the meeting tremendously yesterday and this new friend of mine. Like me, he is a self made man and I do, naturally, prefer self made people far more than that other group of spoiled brats who have made their way up in life. I believe I have met another brother here in the Arab world, just like Talib in Oman. A soul mate. Ever since I had this vision to do this Expedition, the most amazing things have happened and I think this is part of the true Arabian Experience. Amazing things, almost un-explainable, does happen. Some of them almost like it would be a grace of God and like they would already be written in the stars. Another piece of the jigsaw of life falling into place. It happens all the time. My best friend here in Sanaa, Pam, is one of these almost un-explainable meetings. It was one of her friends in the US who knew The Self Made Man. She is also a self made person, a fighter of enormous strength. She has helped me with great energy with the planning of the Expedition.

Early morning, Old Sanaa waking up....

I feel extraordinary privileged to constantly running into people who understands my vision and want to help. Most of the time, it is pretty much the same type of people. People with a positive attitude who´s lives have been up and down, but everything handledwithout bitterness, hate or negativity. Very positive, energetic people who want to make a difference and understands that big visions makes a difference. Like the Self Made Man. He liked my vision and after having spent an evening together, meeting a lot of powerful Yemenis, we realized that we have the same instincts. And love for Yemen. My friend, The Self Made Man, who you will meet more, in shallah, in my dispatches from Yemen, has really, better than anybody sold me the overwhelmingly positive aspects of Yemen and I will finish this off with him recounting when he came back to the country from abroad a few days ago:

“I returned back in the middle of the night from abroad, not really knowing if it would be good or bad to come back to this disorganized, sometimes hopeless country, but I decided to drive through the Old City. I turned up the the Verdi opera on my CD-player, opened all the windows and slowly passed through the winding and narrow alleys and souks. Suddenly I felt something grip my soul, like a belonging, like a major part of me belonged here, and I realized how privileged I was to almost daily to encounter the spirit of the Old City of Sanaa.”

The Self Made Man could well be the solution to the Yemeni problem. Both to the country and mine. Future will tell.

Me and.....

I met these ladies on the way to the gym.....

The evening muezzin is calling for prayer over Old Sanaa, dogs are barking, kids are playing football on the street below my window, I can see straight in to the backyard of a neighbor, a covered woman washing clothes, cars are giving noise a new dimension and motorbikes seems to try to set world records in highest speed in most crowded environment. I am sitting in the dark, another electricity brake is hounding the city and I am eating laban, a kind of a salty, thin youghurt with a taste of smoked milk. It is one way to add protein to the body. But building muscle and power in Sanaa is no easy thing, basically due to that it is hard to find enough protein. I eat a lot of eggs, youghurt, milk, but it ain´t enough. I have in a mere three weeks lost so much power and at the gym today I had to fight with ridiculous weights. So I am not surprised that all the young men who train there don´t have neither muscle or strength. It isn´t easy in an adventurous city like Sanaa!

Everyone needs a gym card....here´s mine!

Just walking to the gym is kind of an adventure, mainly due to the traffic which is really a world of its own, but it is good for training as well, since you spend most of the time dodging buses and avoiding to get run over by a speeding motorbike occupied by at least three young men. But you also pass through some spectacular souks full of life and when you eventually arrive at the gym, having stopped, conversed in poor Arabic a few times, one is really tired….

The gym....

No women are allowed to train in the gym, only men dressed from toe to top. Most of them have no idea how to train and it makes me distressed to see them doing it all wrong. Too heavy weights and using the wrong muscles. It will take a life time, if ever, for most of them even getting close to the body builders, who´s posters dot the walls in the gym. The favorite is a Facebook friend of mine, The Lebanese Lion, Samir Bannout. The gym in itself is ok, barbells and dumbbells which is fine, but a bit disorganized. But, full of extremely friendly Yemenis which at times are so friendly I don´t even get a chance to do my reps properly.

Selling sweets...not good to eat after a workout...

I train for an hour and than I slowly cruise back home through the souk and once back home in my room, I am more tired than ever. Not through the traing session, but through the enormous input of fantastic images gathered in my head going back and forth to the gym!

To find out more, why a train in gyms in preparation for the Big Expedition, see http://preparingforthenextexpedition

A lad I met who wanted to have his photo taken....

.blogspot.com/2008/10/on-subject-of-physical-appereance.html

Next Expedition, see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3GI-YeZP5E

The seven o´clock muezzin just took tone and the prayers from the holy Koran spreads across the darkness which dominates the old city of Sanaa…it is the day before Sunday (Friday here) and I wouldn´t like to be in any other place at the moment….

The traditional jambiyya knife, can like the one you see on the photo be hundreds of yeras old and have a handle from the black rhinoceros.

On the other hand, some professional opinion makers think that Yemen is on the brink of war. That Yemen could turn into a new global tragedy like Somalia, a country dominated by violence between armed fractions belonging to different tribes and where a solution right now seems almost impossible. And there´s no doubt that the situation is dire. The local newspapers,Yemen Post, Yemen Observer and Yemen Times are full of bad news regarding the conflicts within the country and when you read the editorials, yes, it can well be said to be a slightly unstable and dangerous country. A country where kidnapping seems to be a national sport. According to the Yemen Observer there’s been more than 200 separate kidnapping incidents the last 15 years.

But if you, like me, an independent visitor walk the streets of the capital Sanaa, it is almost impossible to believe that the country is considered by many as one of the most dangerous countries in the world. If that means the traffic, yes, I would definitely agree, but just cruising the streets, it is hard to believe. I know that the conflict is in other areas of the country, but still, I see very few armed people….well, most Yemeni men in traditional dress wear the fearful jambiyya, but they feel just symbolic….and the people are so friendly and relaxed that it seems impossible. War planes pass my head a few times a day, just to remind me that there´s a conflict and people, everyone you meet, talks about the situation, but it is hard to spot with the bare eye. If you for example pass a government office or building, it is guarded, but the guards seem to spend more time chewing kat, than to be observant. They sleuth and chew and greet you with a big smile.

The souk of the Old City of Sanaa during another power break...

Nonetheless, I have before passed through areas on conflict in Baluchistan just below the Afghani border and Central America, well, I remember Nicaragua very well which I passed on a bicycle early 1987. At that time the country weren´t on the brink of war, they were fighting mercilessly from both sides, the Sandinistas against the contras. It was, I thought at that time, an exiting place to be. It was full of personalities in the shape of aid workers, nuns, mercenaries, travellers, adventurers, Russian and American soldiers and spooks and even though the military presence and the amount of security police was heavy, I managed to cycle across the country and loved that atmosphere that existed. That time I was too young to see all the overwhelmingly negative aspects of war, as violence, terror, evilness and suffering people. But I have a strong memory that local people were great but terrified.

A kat chewer taking life easy in the belt souk of the old city of Sanaa

Another two hour electricity break there…this does remind me of a war torn  Nicaragua. Really what I want to say about the situation is that I wouldn´t like to be in another place right now and I can honestly say I feel safer here than any other country I have visited. Including my native Sweden. And as everything else in life, life in Yemen presented through Western media, well in this case, global media, whom I know well, and reality is often very different. I have looked closer at these kidnappings that has happened to foreigners and if you look at it clearly, there´s only two kidnappings which has gone wrong. All other ones, the hostages have been released and spoken well about their captivators. The first time it was wrong, according to Yemen Observer, was in the south of Yemen 1999, where three Western tourists were killed in a shoot-out between kidnappers and government troops. The second time was just this past June, when two German nurses and a South-Korean teacher were found dead and six hostages are still not found. There´s a belief among many observers here that the culprits come from another country and belong to the infamous haters called al-Qaeda. It, if you look at history and have come across the Yemenis, it makes sense. For me.

And yes, there are areas which should be avoided, but some of the major tourist areas like The Old City of Sanaa and Hadramawt Wadi, Suqutra and the Haraz Mountains are still accessible.

So, I would definitely say to people who travel, Sanaa and Yemen is a paradise and has to be seen. Especially this amazing souk which has to be the most interesting place on earth. I will write more about this global giant soon!

Please visit my other blog for info about life before the old souk of Sanaa at http://preparingforthenextexpedition.blogspot.com/