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Tuesday 2007-04-10 - Al Khuraybah, Yemen
They bite!
Where the lower part of Wadi Do’an is dry, the farther we go up it becomes more humid and green - now we see a string of palm groves again. We end up in Al Khuraybah where we are going to spend the night in Hotel Ribon — actually a funduq: simple lodging in people’s home.
To my surprise they have prepared a single room for our group: 12 mattresses neatly arranged on the floor; I had expected separate rooms for the men and the women. On each mattress is a pillow and a sheet; most of the windows can be opened and have a screen against mosquitoes; there are also two fans on the ceiling: we won’t be bothered much by insects here. In the hall are two bathrooms with shower and toilet. All in all, simple but functional and clean.
We put DEET on our small areas of bare skin (face, neck and hands) and head downstairs to the restaurant. We can sit inside or outside, it makes no difference: since there is more water here, there are mosquitoes everywhere — there’s no escaping them and they are especially nasty here: they simply avoid the little areas of skin covered in DEET and go for the rest, biting right through our clothes, even socks! Our bedroom may be mosquito-free (our hosts even sprayed it for us), but we already get an ample portion of bites before retiring for the night.
Omelet a la Khuraybah
Our host in the Al Khuraybah funduq serves us a nice dinner. For those of us who didn’t want chicken (including me), Marie Josee ordered an omelet. When our host serves me, he puts the plate down in front of me and says “Omelet!”. On my plate, next to the rice and vegetable stew, I find two hard-boiled eggs.
Wednesday 2007-04-11 - As Sirrayn, Yemen
Shared riches
According to my map (copyright 2003), the road into Wadi Do’an stops in Al Khuraybah but it doesn’t — not anymore: A nice asphalt road leads us up and out of the wadi and it looks brand new.
Every little village here belongs to one family and it’s visible people here are wealthier than in other areas: the houses are more richly decorated, and the decorations are more colorful. Of every family here, one or two members work in Saudi Arabia, where they earn well, and send money home. As our driver Hussein tells us, just like the rich Al Kaff family financed the road from Wadi Hadramawt to the coast (and much else) in the 1930s, one man named Abdullah Boshan who got extremely wealthy in Saudi Arabia finances a lot of development project in this area. The new road we’re now following, which ultimately connects to the main road from Sey’un to Al Mukalla, is just one example of those projects. He also finances schools, drink water supply, and things like all the food during the Eid ul-Fitr celebration at the end of the Ramadan month. Also, if a couple wants to marry but doesn’t have the money for the wedding, he pays it for them.
We make a short stop at the fork in the road from where we can look down on his village, As Sirrayn; his house clearly stands out: an enormous family house, whitewashed with parts of walls painted in various cheerful pastel colors. Below us the road continues along the Wadi Do’an river to the village, while we just to the left fork which takes us up and out of the wadi.
Once out, after a steep climb, we’re on the high plain of the desert, the jol. Suddenly the landscape is totally different: the jol is almost flat, arid, with only very sparse vegetation — the green and fertile wadis with their rich palm groves completely hidden from view. You can see gullies eroded by water (when it rains, a lot of water flows, and there can be dangerous flash floods), but nowhere is there a view straight down. Yet, if you’d follow such a gully down, eventually you’d end up in a green wadi. For the early travelers in this area, the difference must have been astounding. During a short stop I take a few pictures of typical plants found on the jol.
The first part of this road probably follows the track indicated on my map, but farther on we dive down another steep pass at a point where there is not even a track; a sign says we’re at Mount Aballa Arib. Many hairpins later, we end up on the wide plateau along the south coast. Now we’re going down slowly, and after a while we can see the Arabian Sea in the distance. Along the road we stop for tea in Ladouas, a small village not found on our maps. The we join the main road from Wadi Hadramawt to the coast, and later turn right to Al Mukalla.
