Photo Journal
Creative pose, warring elephants
Asian youth pose creatively in front of a depiction of the Great Battle of Yuthahathi, with warriors riding elephants, in Muang Boran, Thailand.
About
Mira Baz is a Lebanese writer and traveler who lived in Yemen for over eight years between 2001 and 2011, teaching English, writing about various social and cultural topics, and photographing Yemenis in their daily lives. Being a woman and speaking Lebanese Arabic as her native language have helped her get to know the country, the people and the women’s segregated world in depth.
She has been published in GlobalPost, and her work appeared regularly in Lebanon’s The Daily Star and the Yemeni monthly magazineYemen Today.
Her blog The Bohemian and The Bulbul includes a series on her life in Yemen titled Yemen Journey: A personal narrative of my life in Yemen. New installments in the series are posted every Tuesday and Friday.
The blog also has her published articles on Yemen and a Photo Journal of her current travels.
She knew little about Yemen when she moved to this impoverished country in southern Arabia. She’d heard about it in the news and read an article in National Geographic on qat, the leaf with mildly intoxicating effects that is a social glue. The recurring question she has to answer about living in Yemen is “Why?” – the country is struggling with poverty and internal discord as well as terrorists adopting it as a safe haven. Because it’s mysterious, Yemen is sometimes misunderstood. Its troubles often overshadow its beauty, its architecture, its history, and its people’s hospitality and friendliness. The writer is still appreciating the many reasons to explore this little-known, complex, fascinating country – most more than meets the eye.
Yemen doesn’t give up its secrets easily, but the journey’s worth it.
Mira is currently discovering Southeast Asia. She lives in Thailand and has visited Cambodia and Malaysia. She can be contacted here. She is also on Twitter @mirabaz – join her for a chat!
All photos on the website are property of Mira Baz, unless otherwise noted.
Posted on January 22, 2012 - by mira
Chinese Year of the Dragon Celebrations, Bangkok (1)
Celebrating the Year of the Dragon (2012), Bangkok.
Posted on December 3, 2011 - by mira
The jinn doctor is in
The Arabic word for “crazy”, majnoon, has the word “jinn” as its root. In Islamic teachings, jinn are spirits that live in a parallel realm and can be good or evil. Therefore, perhaps a lost meaning of the Arabic word for insane is “with jinn”.
And it was spirits that we were seeking on the trip to Radaa, one of Yemen’s least safe places to be due to constant tribal battles.
Gunshots rang out in the distance. A wedding? It was an odd time for a wedding.
After lunch at a restaurant, where Yemeni men with wild Jimi Hendrix hair and bandanas casually kept their Kalashnikovs very close to them, it was time to go meet al-Obali, one of Yemen’s famed exorcists whose reputation had spread to other Arab countries.
He received “patients” at his Yemeni-style home.
Photo Journal
The Mon tribe dance, Thailand
Members of the Mon tribe are contracted from Burma to work in Thailand. The video shows clips of a Mon dance performance in Kanchanaburi, Thailand. This is the most interesting music I’ve heard in recent years! Look out for the little girl’s dance with lit candles in her hand, the drummer’s “flying” hair and the jester’s head movements. A must-see!
Photo Journal
… And we’re back: The famous bridge on the River Kwai
The bridge on the River Kwai in its modern restoration after it was bombed by the allies in World War II to cut off the supply lines of the Japanese army. Tens of thousands of Asian and ally prisoners of war died while building the Death Railway connecting Thailand and Burma as Japan captured Burma from the British. The bridge was the subject of a Hollywood movie, although a double for the bridge was used at the time in Sri Lanka.
Random photography
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Videos: Hip Hop in Yemen
