A couple of weekends ago we went to Ibb and it was heavenly. It was just stunningly beautiful and it refresh
ed me and soothed my soul. Now THAT’s what I thought I was moving to. Beautiful, and unique, and green. Rapturous!
Ben, Jared (A Tacoma, Washington fella currently on a three-month internship for Amideast in Sana’a. Small world, right?) and I got a tasria (necessary police statement of travel permission. Necessary for Americans at least) and then hopped on a bus toward Ibb. Ibb is located north of Aden approximately four hours. Immediately upon exiting the greater Aden area, the scenery started to change. First stunning dune covered deserts, then breathtaking expanses of nothing, broken only infrequently by a small smattering of shacks and beautifully up kept mosques. As we got further and further North the color changed to beautiful, healthy, vibrant green. I’m an Irish AND Pacific Northwestern gal, I NEED green in my life. I missed a lot of the breathtaking scenery initially because I spent much of the trip grading papers. I was under strict time constraints to get all my final exams, writings, and session-wide grades done- a feat that has never taken less than 10 hours to complete- and needed to utilize the bus time.
The elevation steadily increased as we progressed and soon we were making hairpin turns on mountain switchback roads with abrupt cliff faces rising on one side of the road and sheer drop-offs on the other.
Ibb was a fantastic little city. When I initially imagined moving to Yemen, Ibb is exactly the sort of place I thought I would be going; beautiful,
unique, lots of culture and history, zero tourists, and good food.
ed me and soothed my soul. Now THAT’s what I thought I was moving to. Beautiful, and unique, and green. Rapturous!Ben, Jared (A Tacoma, Washington fella currently on a three-month internship for Amideast in Sana’a. Small world, right?) and I got a tasria (necessary police statement of travel permission. Necessary for Americans at least) and then hopped on a bus toward Ibb. Ibb is located north of Aden approximately four hours. Immediately upon exiting the greater Aden area, the scenery started to change. First stunning dune covered deserts, then breathtaking expanses of nothing, broken only infrequently by a small smattering of shacks and beautifully up kept mosques. As we got further and further North the color changed to beautiful, healthy, vibrant green. I’m an Irish AND Pacific Northwestern gal, I NEED green in my life. I missed a lot of the breathtaking scenery initially because I spent much of the trip grading papers. I was under strict time constraints to get all my final exams, writings, and session-wide grades done- a feat that has never taken less than 10 hours to complete- and needed to utilize the bus time.
The elevation steadily increased as we progressed and soon we were making hairpin turns on mountain switchback roads with abrupt cliff faces rising on one side of the road and sheer drop-offs on the other.
Ibb was a fantastic little city. When I initially imagined moving to Yemen, Ibb is exactly the sort of place I thought I would be going; beautiful,
unique, lots of culture and history, zero tourists, and good food.
Shortly after we arrived we decided to go up the mountain to a hotel with a café and unparalleled views of the stunning vistas arrayed before us. Right as we were reaching the hotel, and with literally no forewarning, the heavens opened up and we found ourselves in the midst of a torrential downpour. It was POURING rain, the likes of which I’ve only ever seen during the rainy season in central America. Then it started HAILING and lightning and thunder! The ten foot scurry from taxi to café left us beyond drenched, and there we sat, sopping wet and grinning like idiots to be in the presence of rain again. The smell of it, oh how I miss the fresh, earthy smell of rain! We spent a relaxing night and then headed back to Aden in the morning- a whirlwind trip but well, well worth it. Parts of Ibb reminded me of Pennsylvania because of all the corn fields inappropriately growing in between office buildings and parking lots.
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