Ok... sorta kidding about the danger.

The original plan was Egypt to Yemen then into East Africa. Yemen's been on every country's "do not travel to" list, but 2mos ago it got crazy dangerous... & I got scared. Decided better to head to Morocco & go around Africa the other way. Maybe Yemen would calm down when I got back around.

But I've been in a stalemate... uninterested in getting my ticket out of Egypt. Yemen's calling... & calling me now.

The problem? Well, Yemen's gotta bunch! Going on simultaneously.

For centuries tribesmen been kidnapping tourists as bargaining tools. 40 people a year average. But only 2 have died - both from botched rescue attempts. The majority go home well fed & with armfuls of gifts. Yemenis joke their country is so friendly that hostages only complain of being forced to drink too much tea. One German made friends with his captors & later went back to visit them! An Italian former hostage said "Too bad it's not possible to organize holidays like this because it was fantastic!" Obviously, this isn't what scares me.

Yemen is the 2nd most heavily armed country in the world. 60% of the people carry guns. (And all the men wear daggers like a fashion accessory!) But you know which country is #1, my own, the US. So again, this isn't what scares me.

Then there are the bombings. Yemen is the birthplace of Bin Laden & where the USS Cole was bombed just before 9/11. This year Al-Qaida's already bombed the US Embassy, Italian Embassy, an apartment building where Western's live (all in the capital) & an oil refinery on the coast. But they've got terrible aim & only killed locals in the general vicinity. This does scare me some... but the answer's simple... stay away from obvious targets & also everything near them.

What does scare me? Al-Qaida's attempts to kill tourist. Last month one top guy reiterated all tourists are fair game. But in the last year, they've only managed to kill 10. That's still a low number.

I'm a numbers person... I did the math & using the most conservative numbers, I have a:

• 0.03% chance of being kidnapped by tribesmen (which strangely sounds appealing...)
  
• 0.0001% chance of being within a mile of a bomb (but 33% chance of being in Yemen when a bomb goes off somewhere in the country the size of California & Pennsylvania combined.)
• 0.01% chance of being killed by Al-Qaida

Looking at these numbers, makes me even more determined to go... there to the land founded by Noah's son... home of the Queen of Sheba... the world heritage city of Sana'a... villages nestled high in lush green mountains... waves of sand dunes along the ancient incense highway... not to mention one of the only Arab cultures untouched by oil wealth. Soooo excited!!!!