Night out and a Day in Aden

Boy’s night out

We arrived in Aden’s Crater area after midnight.  To my shock, one of the boys threw all the empty water bottles from the taxi ride onto the street.  I know the streets get swept but it just seems wrong.  Yep, he’s the same one I saw spitting in the carpeted mafraj (living room) of the hostel after trying a miswak (teeth cleaning stick).

We checked into a hotel, into two rooms, with me sharing with Aaron and Tom.  The others wanted to go to Sailor’s Club, a place where we could eat and drink.

We got there about 0100.  I ordered spaghetti with spicy chicken (which had bones) and a beer.  Some of the others really got stuck into the beer as it was a rare commodity in Sana’a.

Entertainment here was in the form of belly dancing.  While one performer was quite serious and very good, the remaining were giggly and flirty.  I think the latter along with the women in full abayah that were smoking and dancing were “working” here.  I’ve been told of Somalian, Russian and other prostitutes working in Aden.

It wasn’t the kind of place I had been to before.  Belly dancers, dancers on table tops, men literally sprinkling coins and small notes on to the dancers … perhaps it isn’t acceptable to tuck them into the dancers’ costume here. Of course, at a place like this, daggers have to be left at the reception before entry is granted!

As we were preparing to leave around 0300, there was an issue with the bill.  Some hadn’t kept count of the beers they had consumed and there was a dispute.  I was clear on my share.  It got a bit heated.  It was a little “touch and go” I thought.

Our day in Aden

We settled into bed around 0400.  Some of the boys have been a bit deprived of female company and had enquired about sleeping with one of the belly dancers.  The price was rather high.  That left them disappointed and “frustrated”, I guess!

At around 0930, one of the mobile phones in the room rang.  We didn’t get to it in time.  Then there was knocking on the door.

It was the hotel receptionist along with last night’s taxi driver.  He claimed that we had paid him YER1000 less.  We got the others from the next room to have a discussion.  Like last night, it got a bit heated but Aaron sorted that out.  When he used the “wallah” to express his anger, and things kinda fizzled out after.

After checking out around 1100, we shared a yummy lunch of fish on rice.  We continued by taxi to Elephant Beach.  The water was calm and clear so we stayed from around 1300 to 1700.

Ching Sing Chinese restaurant came highly recommended with its 10 course seafood menu.  It wasn’t open yet so we went to the pharmacy to get something for Aaron as he had just injured his back more or less just walking.

The dinner was definitely worth the wait.  But soon it was time to make our way home.

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Journey back to Sana’a

We got to the long distance taxi stand around 2100.  It was the usual inflated price which we had to bargain down.

There were lots of chats on the journey back as well.  I found that not everyone in the group was well-adapted to life in Yemen.  The US Navy guy takes Imodium (anti-diarrhoeal) whenever he does day trips (or overnights) away from Sanaa … so he wouldn’t have to use the local loos.

My sleepy state must have induced motion sickness that I didn’t have on the outbound journey.  I had to throw up on the roadside.

The return journey, despite uphill, was faster and we were in Sana’a at 0300.  We had to change to another taxi to get us to our hostel.  I was in bed by 0330 after an interesting trip.  Not quite the same as the authentic Yemeni adventures of last week.

Thoughts about Aden

Aden is a bit of a dump. The unusual thing about it is that a lot of it is built in the crater of a volcano. Some of the jagged edges you see in the picture are part of the crater rim.

It doesn’t have any of the historic architectural charm of Sana’a.  It’s not the kind of place I’d return to specially.  But I was glad to have joined the boys to get to see another part of Yemen.