Al-Mukalla
Pulling ourselves away from a desert mirage paradise at Haid Al-Jazil, we swapped our armed guard at another checkpoint during the 2 hour drive to Mukalla.
You point that thing away from me!
After a long wait at one of the checkpoints, we passed a few makeshift roadblocks (not an accident):
As we began to feel the humidity of ocean air, we knew we were getting close to Mukalla, where negotiations after the recent military takeover had taken place just yesterday between Saudi and Emirati diplomats.
At a tense moment of military escalation and repeated attacks around Hadhramaut’s eastern oil fields, the Hadhramaut Tribes Alliance (HTA) and the local authority announced the signing of a formal de-escalation agreement on 3 December in Mukalla. The deal came under the auspices of a senior Saudi delegation and a mediation committee of prominent sheikhs and local leaders.
The agreement calls for an immediate halt to all military, security, and media escalation, and stipulates the repositioning of tribal alliance forces one kilometer away from the state-owned Petro Masila oil company, while elite units withdraw three kilometers. It further mandates integrating the Hadhramaut Protection Forces with the Oil Companies Protection Force under a single command to secure installations and safeguard “national wealth.” The accord stresses the return of employees to their posts and the uninterrupted continuation of oil production.
The declaration followed a week of heavy tension across Seiyun, Gil Ben Yamin, and the surrounding plateau, where tribal fighters pushed back repeated attempts by the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) to impose control.
Despite the formal truce, the calm is brittle. Several armed formations – each tied to its own patrons and agendas – still operate across the province. The future of the plateau, and the oil beneath it, remains uncertain.
A military source in the HTA tells The Cradle that STC deputy chief Maj. Gen. Faraj al-Bahsani intends to undermine the agreement through new attacks on positions held by the Hadhramaut Protection Forces. Renewed fighting is expected, particularly around Al-Qabaa and the approaches to Wadi Mullin.
Allies at odds: Yemen’s Hadhramaut has become the latest front in the Saudi–Emirati struggle
While Mukalla had fared slightly better during Yemen’s ongoing civil war, it was held by Al-Qaeda between 2015-2016 until a Saudi-led force of Yemeni and Emirati troops retook the city 9 years ago.
Even today amidst all the recent escalation in fighting, Mukalla appears back open for tourism and is considered the safest compared to the rest of mainland Yemen’s cities.
We first came upon Fort Al-Ghwayzi, a building literally decided to be built on top of a floating rock formation:
Designed to protect the city from Bedouin attacks, this historic fortress dates back to 1716 when the sultans of the Emirate of Al-Kassad ruled the Hadhramaut area.
Old Mukalla
We then parked at the old town gate of Mukalla:
From there we took a stroll down the center:
Our armed guard is a native himself from Mukalla, so he insisted on showing us through the old historic city core and its many small alleyways.
Look up and you can see makeshift bridges families engineered between buildings, just like in Shibam, so they wouldn’t have to go back downstairs to get into someone else’s house.
You can also find Al-Rawdah Mosque in these alleyways:
We then came back out onto the seaside corniche of Mukalla, taking in the ocean breeze of the Gulf of Aden:
We strolled along the sea before hopping back into our car for the best meal of the trip so far. I’d been waiting for a lunch like this:
After the carnage… guess which one was mine:
The Markets
As we approached noon, we back drove over to walk through Mukalla’s fish markets.
… which is also attached to its fruit market:
When you only got markets left to see, that’s always a sign there’s not much else to do here. And with Abdul Kareem wanting to get back in time for sunset, we got back inside our car and drove the long 6 hours back towards Seiyun.
Golden Hour Over Shibam
As Bruce seems to have been passed out the whole time while I caught up on blogging, we endured all the series of checkpoints to return to Shibam by 5pm for our final evening in the Hadhramaut.
During the drive, poor Abdul Kareem was getting worried if he could get us up at a viewpoint west of the city in time for golden hour, the ideal time to photograph Shibam’s towers from afar.
We arrived nearly just in time. Once the car doors opened, we rushed out.
As we looked behind us as we began to climb up to the viewpoint, the scene looked simultaneously ancient and also oddly futuristic, ironic since this is a city that was designed for vertical living centuries before vertical living became global.
We ran up the countless steps that were crudely constructed into the hill trying to catch the light as dusk transitioned to evening, experiencing the city one final time. The experience felt cinematic; as we rucked up to catch the last of the day’s light, the call to prayer reverberated in the sky and between the towers. Life here continued on, with or without us. Maybe better with.
Back to Seiyun
After spending half an hour taking in the sunset in Shibam amidst the adhan, we climbed back down and returned on the 20 minute drive back to our first hotel back in Al-Hawtah, where we checked back into our rooms and had our laundry picked up for about $6/person. They would wash, dry, and return all our clothes back within 2 hours; talk about Hadhramawt efficiency!
As laundry was cooking in the background, we began an early dinner with Kais and all our guides, joined by a large group of Polish tourists that had flown in the day before. We all watched a local Yemeni dance and musical performance Kais and the hotel had hired to entertain us, which culminated in all of us dancing together with the performers. Yallah!
Kais also presented us gifts to take back home, which was truly special.
I’d definitely return back to Yemen just to spend time with Kais again. We then hugged and said our goodbyes and packed for an early rise.
Departure Day
After getting in a few hours of sleep, we both woke up to the Yemeni alarm bell of mosquito bites at 4am. That was our cue to go.
After loading the car it took us only 20 minutes to drive to Seiyun’s airport, which indeed, according to Abdul Kareem and Hossain, was guarded by a completely different team of troops than when we’d arrived only 5 days ago, a day before the STC takeover.
After saying or next goodbye to Hossain in the parking lot, Abdul Kareem assisted in expediting us to get through security at the front, and then check-in to get our tickets . . .
. . . stamp out at passport control . . .
. . . before saying goodbye to us as well. We hugged and promised to see him again at the World Cup in Saudi Arabia in 4 years.
We then went through another security screening to reach the airport’s only gate, where a group was doing a sunrise call to prayer at the front of the room.
We then waited about an hour at the gate, watching the sunrise again as Yemenia Airways’ 5am flight from Aden arrived 15 minutes early at 5:45am.
After waiting for the women to board first, we then finished our boarding by 6:35am for a 7am takeoff.
Just like how I remembered when we flew out of Socotra, Yemenia Airways does on-board food way better when flying out from Yemen:
Cairo: Full Circle
Bruce and I then landed in Cairo at 9:45am local time after 3 hours 45 minutes in the air (Cairo is 1 hour behind). Thankfully, we were swiftly guided through Terminal 1’s passport control with pre-paid visas arranged through another stay at Le Meridien Cairo Airport; a fast pass service where someone meets you at the gate with visas already acquired, then whisks you through passports into arrivals within minutes. He then took us onto a Le Meridien shuttle bus back to how and where we started. This is a travel hack I’m going to use from now on!
After checking in at Le Meridien, we dropped our bags in Bruce’s room and headed back out in an Uber for a 45 minute drive to the soft opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum.
A few weeks ago I had gotten tickets on their website as getting them beforehand allows you to skip all lines and queues. Because when you arrive there, they don’t specify which lines are for what, so it’s confusing where people assume they have to wait….Nope. Just dodge everyone until you find a turnstile to scan your QR code and you’re inside Egypt’s proudest, longest-delayed achievement since the pyramids.
The GEM has been under construction since 2002, with an original opening date of 2012 that was repeatedly delayed by political instability, questionable funding issues, and the sheer scale of the project. Located near the Giza Pyramids, it’s the largest archaeological museum in the world dedicated to a single civilization.
The soft opening 2 months ago allowed access to most galleries, with the full opening (including Tutankhamun’s complete collection still back at the original Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square) still pending.
At 500,000 square meters, it dwarfs the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square and represents Egypt’s attempt to modernize how it presents its ancient heritage.
And just to give this story the monsoon twist, not even within 30 minutes there I ran into none other than Keseena: a monsooner whom I last saw abroad in Mauritius. She famously came on my 2016 Central Europe trip before she even knew she would, and had just interviewed me 6 months ago when visiting NYC for her new podcast, the Heart Seat.
We caught up, and then she introduced me to her travel group who were just beginning their Egypt trip. I would unexpectedly have a chance to make new future friends before Bruce and I had to head back at 1pm; he for his residency interview, me for my 4:35pm flight to Vienna for the second part of my trip: my second attempt to visit Niger.
Full Circles
Getting back to Le Meridien at 2pm from a conveniently positioned Uber waiting for us outside the GEM, Bruce and I hugged goodbye. I wished him luck on his interview.
Things once again are coming full circle in nowhere else but Cairo: here was Bruce, once my pre-med college student medical scribe whom I met 5 years ago on the first day of my still-current job as an emergency physician, now living the same fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants travel lifestyle while as a full-time medical student at the very same medical school I went to, whose presence on this trip asks: “Am I aging?” His presence here with me in Cairo parallels to exactly how Monsoon Diaries started: myself as a pre-medical student in 2009, taking a spontaneous trip to Egypt, riding horses at sunset by the pyramids, then 10 years later heading to the White Desert with a guide named Badry. That experience launched everything that followed: the blog, the philosophy, the business, the 191 countries.
Bruce was doing the same thing; I’d arranged for him to do horseback riding at sunset by the pyramids tomorrow morning, then meet Badry (yes, the same Badry from 6 years ago) to head to my favorite place in Egypt: the White Desert. 16 years. Same trajectory. Different person.
In fact, the sheer amount hyperlinks I just had to figure out how to put in above goes to show how far we’ve come and stayed consistent. I could’ve hyperlinked this past entire section and you’d still get it.
Leaving his room so he could prepare for his residency interview on Zoom, I headed through the hotel’s convenient elevated walkway to Terminal 3.
I then went through security, got tickets at check-in, went through security again, and hung out at EgyptAir’s Almesian Lounge by the F gates before boarding my onward 3 hour flight to Vienna.
Vienna Layover
Once in Vienna, I stamped into the EU for the night to catch up on sleep at the airport Moxy Hotel, a 10 minute walk from arrivals.
Next: Niger, attempt number two.
- At time of posting in Al Khuraiba, it was 28 °C - Humidity: 45% | Wind Speed: 11km/hr | Cloud Cover: sunny
