Travel Tips

MP3 sondtrack: 'Riders On The Storm' by The Doors

I had been looking forward to reaching the Red Sea coast in East Yemen, but my first encounter with, the albeit friendly city of Al-Hudaydah was a big disappointment.

Having rushed down to 'be beside the seaside' I was almost blown off my feet by the wind sweeping onto the Tihama coastal plain.

The promenade had been developed in the late 1990s and was already looking tired and ignored. I walked for miles and miles, first northward then southward, thinking my idyllic image of beachfront cafes and stretch of soft sand must be somewhere.

But there were no strolling couples, no cappuccinos, no glistening white beach. There were shacks of driftwood and canvas built on the breakwater, probably by Somali refugees. There were a couple of small, seemingly abandoned fairgrounds with their ghostly rides rocking gently in the salty wind as they rust to dust. And little else.

Many of the buildings that fronted the city were crumbling ruins and the rest probably needed pulling down.

But their was one redeeming feature of Al-Hudaydah. My room had a huge satellite TV. At least there was a form of night life!

(.. continue)