Had a great day today the guy in the Internet Cafe had my photo software on his machine and he has burned me copy of all my photo's which I will airmail home in the next week. It is bloody hot here today and the place I plan to visit tommorrow registered 43 degrees. So I aint looking forward to the trip down there. I went to the souk which was easily the best yet, I found heaps of presents for Ruthy, I was so excited about the perfume bottles I rang her and in 16 minutes we were on the phone decided to go to New Zealand early next year so I am happy with that. Anyway getting back to the souk there was an excellent range of quality goods although they are more expensive ... read more

About 99% of the cars on Sana a's roads would be sitting in a wrecking yard at Wingfield, I can not believe the heap I was in made it to the airport, again it was a scary half hour. Flew to Dubai and sat in the Irish Village bar for three hours talking to an English bloke who told me about the local Chinese prostitutes, he was a nice enough bloke, who had just spent about 5 weeks in Oz and was on the way home, he shouted me a Guinness which was might pleasing considering they were going for $12 a pop. My first impressions of Doha was the heat (40 degrees) quickly followed by all the buildings going up, it looks like a pretty nice town, but more on that later. I found the ... read more

Left for the airport monday morning the flight was meant to leave at 8am ofcourse it didnt but the 5 hour delay was not so bad because I met Japanese lad named Taka who I have been travelling with since. The service on the plane consisted of a mint and two glasses of water (flash back to Kyrgiz Air in 2004), so I didnt end up eating for 11 hours, strangely the plane flew over Sayun went all the way to a place called Al Gayda near the Omani border (see map below) dropped half the people off then picked up more and then flew to Sayun (Sayoon). Ended up being a long annoying flight, however as soon as the plane decended over Wadi Hadramawt the incredible scenery blew away any annoyance in second. The wadi ... read more

Ear plugs work a charm slept like a log last night had a big breaky and wandered into the old town, taking alleyways randomly and just checking out the lives of the inhabitants. After a while I blundered into the Souk but this wasnt like the other day the shops spiralled out in every direction it was also market day so the streets were a buzz with people. Unlike the Khan al-Kalili in Cairo and the Covered Souk in Istanbul the number of tourists I encountered could be counted on one hand. Also there were no caps or tee-shirts on sale anywhere. I wandered for about 2 or 3 hours around the souk and the streets surrounding it finally wandering into a square that had a famous Hamman or Turkish Bathhouse, one of the locals invited ... read more

Man is the atmosphere of the Souk worth the noise? Not when you have to be up at 4am. I even dragged myself out of bed before the Muezzin after a restless night of constantly interupted sleep. My flight for Yemen leaves at 6.55am so I am showered, eaten, packed an in a cab by 5, the streets were quiet and the trip quick. Check in took forever, but then it was through customs and off for the long long walk to the departure gate. They have an Irish pub in the airport so I am going to have to pop in the next time through for a Guinness. The plane was late in taking off and only about half full, I had a great seat with a shit load of leg room and thought all ... read more