This morning started with my first language lesson. It ended an hour later with the teacher saying he could not teach me because I did not have good enough Arabic and he did not know English. Another teacher would be available in the afternoon allowing me to roam around the souq. I was glad to remember directions from my last visit and with it being Eid eve, the souq area was packed with people. It was a great day to roam.
Going to Bab Al Yemen gate.
This is the place to go if you are having a hard time finding the right knife for a certain outfit.
At the same shop, the shop worker demonstrated how to load an antique gun.
Now this is more like it, lots of pretty jewelry.
The Yemen gate. If you look real close, you will see a canon hole in the upper right corner of the door. Not sure what year that is from.
Lots of people coming and going.
Notice the three different style of hats of the men sitting by the door? A base ball cap, a local cone hat, and the knows-no-boundary umbrella hat.
The mound of power is henna.
There was not an inch to be had in this square. To add to all this excitement a fight broke deep inside the crowd involving a large group of men. The police came and it didn't look like they were getting anywhere among the shouts and tussles but they ended up hauling away a few men. Minutes later another fight happened in the same spot and this time a man came booking out of the crowd to be trailed by a group of vigilantes minus pitch forks and sledge hammers. The man in front ran into a warehouse with crowd in tow and I am sure it did not turn out pretty.
As you might have noticed the fashion for men is a dress and a suit jacket.
A favorite stop of mine.
The camel is used to turn the press. He is on his lunch break.
I like his thinking. I decided to go to the Burj Salam hotel and have my lunch on the top floor. It has an incredible view of Sana'a.