24 Hours as a Tourist in Yemen (Extreme Travel)
Can you explain to me the effect of khat when you chew it? - We feel we are like kings. - So, it's a good high? This is world-class tourism, just not at all being used. The women wearing the straw hats with the burqas it's so unique, you know, it's like being on another planet almost.
As God made me here, I'm happy. We actually just went to, you won't believe this, but —— —— —— dad's house. For six years, Yemen has been stuck in a —— —— — between the SA-supported government forces and the Irn-backed ——. - How old are you? - Thirteen years old. You're 13 years old, and you want to fight? Yemen is in the midst of the world's worst —— ——.
The lack of fuel entering Yemen impacts everything. Clean water and electricity are hard to come by. Health facilities run on limited power. If the politicians reach an agreement, the —— will be over. The Arab world's poorest country.
— and economic ——. Why do you like dancing so much? I like dancing because I feel free. Understandable that people are scared to come here, I was, let's hope that changes in the future. Welcome back to Yemen. Here we are in this resort looking over this huge canyon, and there's an infinity pool here that we discovered this morning. Absolutely unexpected.
There's some beautiful 500-year-old sand buildings built on this cliff face just down the hill there, it's really stunning. So back on the road today we're heading to a city called Seiyun, it's a reasonable size city in the area, I think around 75.000, but along the way we're going to be stopping, and checking out local sites, and meeting people.
That's my favorite part of traveling here, so far at least, along with the landscapes is just the people are so keen to have a chat and share their feelings of the state of the country, and what's going on, and things good or bad. We might go back to a khat market. If you didn't see in the last video, khat is a local ——. It's in the region, it's around parts of east Africa, up here, it's huge in Yemen as well. It's totally legal here, I think it's illegal in Europe, but yeah, legal here. Of course, when you think of the country of Yemen, a country facing the world's worst —— ——, at ——, this isn't the first thing that comes to mind, and trust me, I'm as surprised as you are, seeing these scenes.
So, let's go explore the rest of Yemen together. So, we've just driven through the gorges there, you can see, unreal scenery. We've stopped at this little roadside shop here, and there's just kids working, selling, like you know, it's like a convenience store.
Salaam alaikum. - Good, how are you? - How are you? Good, good. Salaam.
Now they have break from school. - What's your name? - My name is Kais. - So, the children work here selling things? - No, they're buying from him.
- Oh, they're buying, but they're behind the counter. - Yes, he trusts them. He said he wanted to say something. He said the country is good. - Three kids. - Three kids.
And you're happy, and everything's fine living here? As God made me here, I'm happy. Shukran. Pretty hectic in there, but yeah, really nice to see all the kids smiling and laughing and the shop owners saying that everything is great here, so it must be at least a stable town. So, we just arrived at this incredible palace Kais, and what is this? The palace of Buqshan, one of the rich families in the south of Yemen, and they grant it to SA in the last century.
They have too many investments in the world. One of the local investments they have is this hotel. It was the family house, they made it a hotel, but with the —— which happened in Yemen and the —— attack on tourists which was sponsored by the neighbor country, they harmed the economy, and they harmed innocent people from the west and from Yemen. And so tourists stopped coming, and so the palace shut down, and it's still not operational today, so it's empty? - Then this is made out of mud? - Yes, it is all mud.
Amazing! Absolutely beautiful building, this palace, but sadly because of —— attacks on foreigners in the past, can't come to stay here, it's all closed. It's unbelievable, it's all made out of mud. I mean, look how high, and then looking out the valley that way. This is world-class tourism, just not at all being used.
- This was built 75 years ago, you said. - Yeah, exactly. So as you can see, the scenes along this valley that we've been driving along are very unique. The women wearing the straw hats with the burqas it's so unique, you know, it's like being on another planet almost, and you've seen the buildings it's absolutely beautiful. We actually just went to, you won't believe this, but —— —— —— dad's house. You can see the shot here.
So that's actually where —— —— —— family is from. He was born in SA, but his family is from here in Yemen. So much to see here, you know, the dark past and then, you know, the current difficulties mixed in with these amazing historical sites, and, you know, surreal nature. Such a privilege to be able to see this and, you know, like I say, there's nobody else here, no tourists. We're walking through villages and just before, and the people are just staring at us, they haven't seen foreigners in a very long time.
Kids laughing and things when they're seeing us, it's really beautiful, very welcoming people. We're going to drive further now. We've got more driving to do, we're going to go and meet some people soon. - So that's camel meat? - Yeah. How is the camel meat, Jordan? Super tasty, good balance of fats and meat, slightly crispy.
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- How much did the lunch cost? - Twenty-six thousand, twenty-six dollars. - Twenty-six dollars? - Yeah. How can everyday people afford to eat at these prices? Because that's quite high, right, for the locals. People are earning what, like a hundred dollars on average a month.
So, $26 dollars for five people for one meal, four people for one meal. Yeah, so this is what they earn like $100 dollars, but they earned from the other side. - The other side? - Bribes. Okay, but what about just people like working-class people. The only people who come here are travelers, drivers, truck drivers, teachers, only doctors could pass by and afford such things. So this isn't accessible for most of the Yemen people, right? - Most people can't eat like this. - Yeah.
So sometimes, people go months without receiving their paycheck? They really, they suffer, especially teachers. Doctors they don't because they have a private clinic. How much would a doctor earn here working in a hospital? At least $150, $200. Dollars a month for a fully qualified doctor? I mean, the dollar here, I mean, riyal currency here is dead. Well, in the north, it's low, the one which is under the siege under the —— with SA.
So, inflation in the south is much worse than in the north? Yes. So we're entering the khat market. Are you checking the quality? Yeah, yeah, please keep filming, it's okay, good.
The market is good he said. What's the price for one pack? They laugh when they speak about the price. Seven thousand they want. - Seven dollars? - Yes, exactly.
And how long will this last, how many hours? For you guys, one will be enough. For me, three. Okay, and can you explain the effect of it? Okay, the effect is... Okay, it's a social thing that we should get and also for a long travel, for people solving the problems, it's a social thing. - Do you think like most men in Yemen chew khat? - Yes, I think 70%. - Seventy percent of men? - Yeah. And the women chew? - Probably five percent or less. - Five percent of women, right.
How is life in Yemen for you? He said it's good. Safe, secure? Happy, yeah. This is good business? It's okay, sort of. It help with your family and everything? Thank god everything's good.
And can you explain to me the effect of khat when you chew it? It's enough that we feel we are like kings. Okay. So it's a good high? Yeah, it is. Okay, shukran. One thing very noticeable about Yemen is there's a lot of rubbish.
There's no rubbish collection really, especially out here, so you'll just see a lot of rubbish unfortunately, it's everywhere, but there's no rubbish collection, so, you know, it's natural, I guess. So we've driven another one to two hours, and we've arrived in this valley, and it's just filled with people playing football, and in the distance there you can see the mud buildings again and over here as well and that's Shibam it's called, and it's known as the Manhattan of Yemen, so it's pretty cool and it's all mud, but we're gonna go deeper in there in the next video, but yeah, it's just amazing to see at sunset all the guys playing football. Salam Alaikum.
Nice guys. Salam Alaikum. We are in Al Hawta Palace Hotel, one of the most beautiful hotels in south Yemen. See, everything is made natural, natural sources. What do you think? Absolutely beautiful. And so, before the ——, this was filled with tourists? Yeah.
- And now... - Only you guys. And so, how do these kind of big hotels stay functioning when there's not much money coming in? Because the owner of the house, of the hotel, has other companies, and he is backing up financially these places to keep it running and in the same time not let these workers lose their jobs. Right, so the company is running at a loss? This means that the owner has heart, a good heart.
It's perfect. So that's Yemen, you know, you've got these beautiful places mixed in with, again, as I've mentioned in past videos, here in Yemen there's lots of —— checkpoints here, I mean sorry, —— checkpoints, heaps and heaps of them and we're getting our passports checks constantly. We've got many documents, you know, showing that we're allowed to be here, and it's all above board, we have many, many permits for everywhere we're going, it's very controlled. There's lots of ——, and it's quite raw, and it is a —— zone.
This part of Yemen at least seems to have, you know, a reasonable amount of stability. I can't say the same for the north from what I've been told, it's a bit more rough in terms of ——, poverty is more extreme there. Obviously, there's poverty here. You've seen what people are living on today, and there's lots of beggars and things, but I hear it's a lot, lot worse up in the north, an interesting country, but definitely a lot more stable than I was expecting when coming here. Being the worst —— —— in the world, you know, it's at ——, I just thought it was going to be a lot more extreme than it is. Anyway, we're going to grab some dinner soon and then probably go to sleep, but I'll see you in the next video.
I'm going to explore a little bit more around this area, and then we're going to Seiyun, as I mentioned at the start of the video, we didn't quite make it today, but we're going to go there tomorrow and explore even further around outside the city and inside the city as well. So it should be an interesting day. As you can see, the people of Yemen have been very welcoming to me and Jordan, the guy I'm traveling with from America, no hostility towards us whatsoever, everybody has been very nice, and that's very important to keep in mind. There are countries like Yemen that have a bad reputation and are at ——, but that doesn't mean that the people living in them aren't some of the kindest people you'll meet in your life, and most hospitable people, and people that are just willing to do anything to make your stay in their country very comfortable even if they are facing the worst —— —— in the world and I think that speaks so much about the heart of the people here in Yemen. Thank you so much for watching, and in case I don't see you, good afternoon, good evening, and good night.
2021-11-02 00:57
