Al Mukalla

al mukalla

In the Tihama it was still ok, but since Aden the heat became really unbearable. In order to survive the 7-hours-drive to Al Mukalla I took a modern bus with air conditioning to go there. There was also not much else to see on the way: Very few settlements, mainly sand dunes and black lava desert along the coast. I was also warned about tribal conflicts in that area, so I really didn't have the feeling to miss anything.

Al Mukalla is situated on a small strip between the coast and rocky cliffs. It is the capital of Hadramaut governorate, which is special because of it's historical trading relations with south-east asia, mainly Malaysia, that still hold on. That's also the region where the "mawas" once came from. In the shops, about half of the offered mawases are indonesian products (I've also bought one of them), the rest are yemeni. Also the architecture has some asian influences.

In the daytime the streets here are entirely empty. The sideroads of the old town closer to the rocks are populated by quite a lot of goats, while the people are defeated by the heat into their homes.

Odd monuments are usually a speciality of ex-soviet countries, but here I found one that honored one of my most important companions: the GPS! (even the same model)