Oct 6 Shihara continued

Friday, October 6. So they woke us all up at just about 4am to go join them for breakfast... Again I didn't get much sleep though, because me pillow was rock hard, and the blanket they provided was quite large enough. We had some new food to me, they were these little fried balls of dough, I guess, and this kind of hard flat beard, which you would dip either of into the bowl of honey. It was really good, especially the little balls of dough. Markus says they are something which is typically served at African churches. We also had some tea to go along with it. After that we returned to our room for a good two hour nap, before our scheduled departure time of 7am. So again it was the same thing, except going down, clinging for life to the back of the old Toyota pick up truck. It was amazing that this thing was even able to climb this mountain, and the other kept commenting on how amazing they now believed Toyota's were, and we decided that the next commercial Toyota films should be here in Yemen, for a truly amazing look at its capabilities! Markus decided to sit for the first portion of the trip, like I had made the mistake of doing at the end of the ascent yesterday. After maybe 15 minutes he joined us standing, and we somewhat arranged ourselves so that we all could stand. I forgot to mention that anytime any children saw us yesterday they come running up yelling "Galam, galam, galam, galam!" (Pen, pen pen pen!)... Even if they were 100s of feet away you could here them yelling for pens... It was really strange. Why they want pens so bad, I have no idea. My theory is it has become slang for Hello, hah, although that's most likely not true. We stopped a couple of times for more photo opportunities, and again it took just about an hour to descend from the city to the bottom. But then, at the bottom of the mountain the truck died (this had happened a couple times during on the way up and down, but it always started right back up after a short struggle). This time though, it wasn't doing anything... The driver said he needed some gas, and ran off to a few buildings near by and came back carrying a big container full. They pumped it into the truck and tried to start it again, with no luck... He persisted and after maybe the third or fourth time, it started back up amazingly. And here I was thinking it was doing the same thing my Toyota did just a few nights before I was supposed to leave, and had to get it towed back to a garage, although this time I didn't imagine any tow trucks or workshops nearby whatsoever. And it turns out we were literally just down the road from the hotel, about 1 minute away. We pulled back up, and the soldiers started preping the military vehicle and we met our first driver again. We asked if it was possible to pose for a photo on top their truck, but they said no, I guess you can create some big problems for photographing anything military without permission. Markus was telling us of this time in another city two years ago which he took a photo of a military vehicle and they tried to take his digital camera away from him, he was with his teacher who eventually settled the problem, but only after talking with them for half an hour. We all crowded back into what was now dubbed the Pleasure Cruiser, when compared to the back of that pick up truck. The dirt road trip back from here seemed much more comfortable when compared to climbing that mountain by truck, although it wasn't possible for me to sleep, I still tried. Wrapping my head warp over my eyes because of the sun. But it was hot, bumpy and uncomfortable. After an hour or so we made it back to the paved roads, which now seemed like heaven after everything else, and I was actually able to drift in and out sleep throughout the trip back, surprising when compared with yesterday and how horribly bumpy I initially thought the paved roads were... A woke up here and there, but basically slept the whole way back to Wadi Dhahr, which is where the palace of the former Imam is located. It is one of the other really famous sights of Yemen, it is a palace (Dar al-Hajar) perched atop a strange rock formation. So it is built nicely up into the air. Markus and Sandra had been before, but it was new to me and Matt so we all stopped to go there. The driver parked their and he also headed off to mosque since it was Friday the holy day. We paid our 500 riyals to get in ($2.50), I guess it is about 30 riyals for Yemenis! And sat around inside the palace area, with a whole bunch of strange cats that walked in a herd and kept rubbing up against each other. The were super friendly between each other, but I kept chasing them around to pet them but the wouldn't let me. They were the first thing I started taking pictures of, funnily enough, shows how much I miss having pets around. The place was absolutely dead, we were nearly the only ones there. Last time Markus was here he said it was completely packed, but we there aren't a whole lot of tourists during Ramadan, so we got lucky. They said the same thing in Shihara, normally it is really busy, but we were the only guests there because of Ramadan. We then explored the inside of the palace, which was some of the rooms still the way the Imam left them, but with plexiglas covering the entryways. The palace was built sometime around 1918, I think, and expanded in 1930, then he (or maybe his son) was eventually thrown out in 1962 by a coup, in which the republic was then formed, instead of the religious Imamate. It was pretty fascinating, and suprisingly large, most of the photos just show a shot of the one portion of the palace located highest upon the rock, which really doesn't look that big. You find many nice sitting rooms, even those for different seasons of the year. Also you find pre-historic locations carved into the rock long before the Imam, such as pre-historic burial chambers, and etc. Very interesting. We then drove the 20 minutes or so back to the heart of Sana'a, it isn't very far at all, and apparently you can get there quite easy using public transportation. He dropped us off just outside Maydan Tahrir, and we headed back to the house. This time I was eagerly awaiting the return home. Stopped to by some water jugs at the store nearby the house, and Matt and I both elected to break the drinking fast, because we were both really really thirsty. I chugged about a half a bottle of water back in my room and then just sleeped for 3 hours until it was time to eat. Matt woke me up and we headed to the Salta restaurant that he showed us from a few weeks ago. This time the restaurant was packed, and they were all very happy to see that we had returned. We had chicken and rice, which was delicious as always, and then returned home. I was planning to do some homework, but I was totally exhausted from a lack of sleep and all this travel and just passed out still in my clothes, with the lights on and door open... Slept for over twelve hours!