Mukalla

Mukalla \| Khailat Bugshan \| Wadi Doan \| SE Yemen images
We were forced to fly to Mukalla, due to the "security situation", and courtesy of the arbitrary Yemenia timetable, we arrived in Mukalla at around 07:00 without the benefit of a night's sleep. Our guide had driven through the night from Say'un to meet us, so we were all feeling really sparky and decided to spend the day slobbing by the pool of the Holiday Inn. Said hotel is rather tatty for a four star hotel, with flaking paintwork, rusting balustrades, unkempt gardens...but excellent security! It was hot and steamy, so quite pleasurable to admire the beautiful view with a cold (alcohol-free) beer in hand; it was Ramadan, but I don't know if it would have made a difference. A rather sad place, empty except for a Japanese tour group, a couple of US oil guys and...us. For some inexplicable reason Mukalla is often referred to (in guide books) as a "romantic" resort with whitewashed buildings and the boardwalk; the Mukalla corniche. It all sounds rather like the Cote d'Azur, but do not be fooled. Probably all Freya Stark's fault when she eulogised about spending her honeymoon here. It is all really tatty, and romantic only if your idea of a moonlit walk along the beach includes picking your way through garbage and rubble. A visit to the fish market the following day made me wonder how I had not died of food poisoning; quite disgusting. An interesting town, but not worth more than a half day. We had hoped to see the turtles coming ashore to lay their eggs further up the coast, but again ***** security would not allow us; maybe if we had persisted, but we were just too tired to argue. At least we got to see weird crabs and other sea creatures scurrying along the beach outside the hotel.