The Funny and Absurd of Yemen List

Please share your funny and absurd Yemen experiences. I am in need of a laugh!

1. Street vendor wearing a cardboard pizza box as a hat

2. Kid riding a goat to school

3. Something resembling dried mud all over people’s faces – I later learnt it was some kind of traditional sunscreen for the shepherds

4. Yemeni sidr honey cures EVERYTHING, seriously, I used it for every single medical issue and had success every time

5. A wedding for a sister where a large number the attendees chose to stay in full hijab.

6. Getting feeled up during a body search by a mean looking police woman in order to gain entry to a wedding party

7. Someone in need of a ride randomly jump onto the roof of a car while it was in traffic

8. Young boys selling locally grown fruit at the market like seasoned professionals

9. Man taking his goat on the bus and having it wee all over him

10. Wild and woolly looking Bedouin men with ak-47s all over the town to celebrate eid

11. Hilarious spelling mistakes in signs and billboard posters (Sorry I don’t have photos of them)

12. Village mud house toilets

13. Men chewing so much qat that they can’t keep it in their mouths as they speak and spit green foam all over the place

14. Giving an old woman money thinking she was begging when she was actually saying hello to us because she could see we were foreigners. (oops)

15. Going to buy some flour only to find that the smallest bag is 50kg

16. Babies chewing gum

17. Men holding hands as they walk along the street does not mean they are gay

18. Being bitten by a camel

19. Yemeni women carrying 100kg of stuff on their head and still walk with more grace and decorum than me

20. Kudam bread

21. Salta (traditional Yemeni dish also referred to as sludgy green stuff by sceptical foreigners)

22. 5 star hotels have more security guards than ‘enemy’ embassies.