Monthly Archives: May 2009

Trying To Ride Through Yemen And Failing

By Tom | Published: May 21, 2009
Aden turned out to be an inter­est­ing place to spend a few days. What the city lacked in archi­tec­tural grace it made up for with its laid-back, low-key atmo­sphere and friendly people. In fact, it felt more like a col­lec­tion of quaint sea­side towns strung around a small vol­canic island than a former national capital. [...]
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Southern Arabia And The Troubles Of Yemen

By Tom | Published: May 16, 2009
Until a few months ago, the Repub­lic of Yemen fell into that embar­rass­ingly large cat­egory of nations that I would struggle to point out on an unla­belled map. (Try it now. Yemen. Where is it?) Occupy­ing the south-west corner of the Ara­bian Pen­in­su­lar, this former Brit­ish colony nowadays makes the head­lines only for its con­tinu­ing run [...]
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One Man, One Bike, And Six Hundred Cows In A Boat

By Tom | Published: May 12, 2009
At seven o’clock one May morn­ing, as the sun was just begin­ning to make felt its long ascent into the heav­ens, a wooden Ara­bian cargo ves­sel set sail from the Port of Dji­bouti for the dis­tant shores of Yemen. On board were an eclectic and rowdy Arab crew, a hand­ful of Somali pas­sen­gers, six hun­dred [...]
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Notes From Afar, The Hottest Place On Earth

By Tom | Published: May 6, 2009
I gazed out across the plains from my vant­age point by a mil­it­ary watch-tower at the east­ern edge of the Ethiopian high­lands. I was about to leave the famil­iar crazi­ness of Amhara and to cross the Afar desert, the site of the hot­test air tem­per­at­ure ever recor­ded, and the home of the nomadic Afar tribes. [...]
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