We were sad to leave San'a and Victor and his family. We were overwhelmed by their kindness and hospitality. It is a rare privilege to be invited to stay with a Yemeni family. The children were a delight and so eager to try to understand us and speak English with us.
We had to fly to the next leg of our travels over the desert area of Ma'rib where there is a lot of tribal tensions. Recently we saw riots on TV in the area. We could have taken the coastal road but would have had to have faced an 18 hour bus ride. The flight with Felix Air was pretty smooth and only took an hour but the captain had to have two goes at landing which was a bit nerve wracking.
Sayun is in the Hadramawt Valley and we could see the fertile oasis as we flew along the valley. There were rows and rows of date palms and fields of crops with many small towns rising up the sides of the valley.
The Sultan's Palace of mud-brick and painted white looms over the main square.It was built in the 19th century as a defensive fort and became the residence of Sultan Al Katheri in the 1920s.
It is now the base for the tourist police and a museum with stone and bronze age relics that were discovered in the valley. There were also photos of travellers who came to the area in the 1930s. Other than that there are not many sights in Sayun.
New Zealand apples arriving at the souq.
We managed to buy a small digital camera in a small dusty shop and found a couple of internet places to do some research and and catch up on emails. The locals are pretty friendly and generally leave you alone. There are hardly any tourists in town and some days we are the only ones.
We took a taxi to the nearby 2,500 year old town of Shibam.
It is thought to date from the 4th century but was built on an even older city.
The gate to the old city.
The walls of Shibam contain about 500 dwellings- seven and eight story tower blocks built of mud.
It has been a UNESCO site since 1982. Each tourist is charged $3 US towards the upkeep of the old houses. Several houses were being renovated and their old carved wooden doors were being replaced. The goats wandered in and out of open doorways looking for food and the sheep lay on the dusty narrow lanes panting in the shade while the chooks scavenged amongst the rubbish.
The houses have shafts on the outside walls running the the length of the buildings that are used as toilets.
Some children returning from school at lunchtime wanted their photos taken and displayed their Barbie exercise books.
The local taxi drivers wanted us to charter their whole taxi for an outrageous price so we ate ice cream and hung around until a shared taxi was full. We had to have 4 sitting in the middle seat with us while the passenger in front bought the space beside him so he would have somewhere to rest his sack of qat and his bottles of water.
Eating with Ivan from Moscow at our local restaurant in Sayun. We ate beans and eggs, vegetable stew and omelette. He tried the local dried and seared fish with rice.
We are having problems loading photos and our blog entries so will have to wait until Oman to load some photos and fix + hours!!!!!
