Markets

One of my favorite things to do when I travel--and wherever I travel--is visit local markets. Some are beautiful, and others downright disgusting, but common across all of them is the art of the dramatic haggle. Improbably, every vendor who can speak English seems to have a brother in America, three kids to put through school, and a special discount for lucky American tourists like me.

Clockwise from top left: Istanbul's Grand Bazaar, Hijab shop in Sana'a (Would you like black or black? Large or large?), Birqash Camel Market in Cairo, Lalibela's weekly market

East African Safari Shots

Sana'a

I loved Sana'a from the moment they searched my 9" bag for an illegal television larger than 14". It just didn't quite make sense. It didn't make sense that the locals on the very street where the British ambassador was targeted with a car bomb just days before would be so helpful and generous to me, or that the State Department would offer its employees there 30% extra pay to account for local anti-Americanism (versus 35% extra in Baghdad or Kabul) when it was the easiest capital to visit in my nine country tour.

Most of the threat in Sana'a is directed against Western governments, not the West in general. The city and the area around it remain extremely welcoming of tourists and students, and extremely comfortable for those who dare to go (ok, maybe just comfortable compared to Africa). The terrorism stuff really only becomes a danger when you're there as a government representative--which I might later be--or when the religious or tribal nuts take things too far--which, it seems, they're starting to do outside of the capital.




The only slightly creepy thing about Sana'a was its posthumous affinity for Saddam...I guess he and Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh were longstanding presidential buddies with some common enemies.

Yemeni kids: Soura! Soura!

Throughout Yemen, kids would see my camera--or sometimes just me with no camera--and pose for a photo, yelling "Soura!" (Arabic for photo). Super cute.




Boys aged 8-12 really run the show in Yemen after noon each day, when their fathers retire from the family business to chew qat. I arranged a taxi tour for the next day with a kid who couldn't yet reach the pedals of any car, and bought a painting from one who needed a stool to get it down from my eye level.

Socotra

Socotra is a Yemeni archipelago famous for its biodiversity: a full third of the 800 plant species on the islands is endemic. It's about 150 miles off the horn of Africa, and can be reached by a three week boat ride or one of the almost-daily flights by Yemenia or Felix Airways.

Many ancient legends (some more dubious than others) reference Socotra:

• An ancient Egyptian tale dated to 2200 BC describes a shipwreck on an island believed to be Socotra, where a 30 cubit talking snake welcomes the lone survivor to the "isle of the blest"
  
• Socotrans in the first millennium claimed that their ancestors were baptized by St. Thomas the Apostle while he was shipwrecked on Socotra in the first century AD. His wrecked ship was used to build a long-gone church
• Marco Polo wrote of his visit to Socotra, accusing the locals of using witchcraft to control the winds against him
• In The Arabian Nights, Sinbad the Sailor landed on Socotra, where his ship was attacked by giant boulder-dropping birds-of-prey
• The Phoenicians believed that their phoenix nested on Socotra
• Aristotle allegedly advised Alexander the Great to colonize Socotra to secure its aloe supply
  

Over recorded history, Socotra was controlled by Greece, Egypt, the Mahra Sultanate, Portugul, Britain, South Yemen and [Unified] Yemen. Most historical accounts of the islands describe Socotra as a paradise on earth; its name is believed to be derived from the Sanskrit for "isle of bliss." However storied its past, though, Socotra at present is really only a paradise if you don't care much for electricity, edible food or temperatures below 110 degrees.


I stayed in Dihamri, at the lovely hotel pictured at right. I received many wonderful four-legged and winged guests each night. While it wasn't very cool to wake up to a goat eating your blanket, I loved being able to walk out of bed into one of the most amazing reefs I've seen. Underwater photos to come soon!

The diving and snorkeling in Socotra was great. Sharks thrive in the warm water, but they're sharks of the awesome variety, not the eat-you kinds you see further south.

The mountains on the biggest island are full of really cool caves to spelunk, and covered with the famous Dragon's Blood trees. Down by the water, there are entirely surfable waves and several sea turtle nesting sites to the west and good fishing spots to the east. All of this recreational stuff will draw very curious looks from the locals.

Somaliland

Somaliland is a de facto state north of Somalia, and the most bizarre place I've ever been. It is preoccupied with a resolute quest for international recognition, and governs the most democratic Islamic state in the world from the safest capital in Africa as part of a campaign to prove to other nations that it deserves statehood. Most of the West, meanwhile, is reluctant to establish diplomatic ties with Somaliland because doing so would recognize the failure of their aid and effort in South Central Somalia, enrage Egypt by ostensibly supporting Ethiopia, and possibly encourage other secessions.

Hargeisa's most famous monument displays scenes of destruction from the 1991 Somali Civil War, and is topped by a Russian MIG fighter used by Siad Barre's Somali forces to destroy the city. Other reminders of the war dot the length of the country's only paved road: in the States, we have signs that tell us which Lions or Kiwanis club picks up the trash on particular stretches of highway; in Somaliland, signs tell you which NGO cleared that particular minefield.

Today the antagonism between Somaliland and Somalia persists, albeit usually in a less violent fashion. However, Al Shabaab and even Somali TFG have allegedly threatened to disrupt Somaliland's June 26 elections, especially in disputed areas on the Puntland border. A fourth safe and democratic election in Somaliland's 20 year history would bring the breakaway state one step closer to the recognition it desires, which might help it draw aid flow, people and land from the Somalia.

The streets of the capital were very safe, even into the night, though one local did warn me that his friend's cousin had $5 stolen in the market in 2007. I steered clear of that dangerous area!

At right, Somaliland's only free pirate sells copies of Islamic tapes and videos. Unlike its southern neighbor, Somaliland has aggressively combated real piracy, sentencing over 70 pirates to imprisonment within its borders.

Moneychangers lined the street outside of my hotel, sitting behind stacks of notes that they wheelbarrow through the open street. A stack of notes equal to $20 is about three inches high, and prices are roughly equivalent to those in cheaper Western cities, so you need a backpack full of bills to pay for a night's hotel stay. The 5 shilling ($0.0007) coin shows the likeness of Richard Burton, an 19th century English explorer and academic in the region, marking probably the first and only time a man who wrote frequently about sex and disguised himself as a Muslim to sneak into both Mecca and Harar was given such an honor by an Islamic state.

My Special Protection Unit (SPU) guard poses for a photo. The SPU was created in 2003 to provide a real income for government employees supported by meager state salaries--er--to protect foreign visitors from threats within the country. Somaliland's government expenditure is about $9 per person, and that is expected to cover spending for military, health care, education, and all those other things governments do. SPU guards receive about $20/day in supplemental income directly from the foreigners they protect, and they have actually saved several of their charges from kidnapping and other threats.

At left, a government official shows me one of the 8000 year-old petroglyphs at Las Geel. The site, reached by a nondescript turnoff between two buildings, consists of hundreds of the best-preserved cave paintings I've ever seen. It's littered with arrowheads, stone shavers and other ancient artifacts that belong in museums, but which are instead offered to tourists (and hopefully rejected) as "souvenirs." While I was visiting, the Minister of Tourism and Culture himself called to express his apologies that he couldn't accompany me on my visit, and to ask how I was enjoying the site. This was typical of Somaliland, as of other states I've seen that are seeking either political or economic recognition: visitors have incredible access to ministers and business leaders just for the asking. My friend Graeme wrote in The Atlantic of Abkhazia, another state in what he dubbed "limbo world" seeking political recognition:

"I had my leg propped up on a dark wooden desk and was wincing at the sting of a vigorous alcohol-swabbing by the health minister himself...Fake countries have to try harder, I thought, and wondered whether it would be pressing my luck to ask for the finance minister to personally refund my vat and for the transportation minister to confirm my bus ticket back to Georgia, which is to say, back to reality." (more here)

Obama Yes We Can

During the Bush years, many people abroad would respond to the revelation that you're an American with something to the effect of "Bush bad, America [and its tourist dollars] good." The immense enthusiasm about Obama is a welcome and widespread contrast. I've never see it stronger than in Ethiopia: public buses, restaurants, gas stations and of course children are named after him, and "Obama yes we can" is as ubiquitous as "Where are you from?"