Seiyun and Tarim, Hadhramaut Valley, CENTRAL YEMEN

I arrived on Yemenia (Yemen Airways) in the town of Seiyun at 7am this morning from Sanaa (woke up at 3:30am!) Locally referred to as Wadi Hadhramaut, this is the Grand Canyon of Yemen which stretches from the far east of Yemen to the west. Flanked by a huge wall of mud-rocky mountains (quite amazing rock formations), I bet this entire Wadi (Valley) must have been a river - a few hundred years ago. Now its a rather dry valley with a couple of villages.I spent the morning climbing the nearest mountain (with tens of curious onlookers cheering - at first I was afraid I may be climbing a holy mountain which would get me in serious trouble). From close to the top of the mountain I had a spectacular view of the town. Built mainly from mud, hundreds of years ago, this is like stepping back into time...big time! However, the architecture here is very different from Sanaa. Men's clothing also differs from that in Sanaa. Men wear sarongs and no Jambiya (daggers worn in front of the body). The population skews more towards a mix of Indian, Arab and Ethiopians. Women wear the same...black abaya with only their eye balls visible.

Seiyun is also the place where the Queen of Sheba had a ...fling with King Solomon and soon after they became proud parents of a baby boy.

Honey seems to be the local currency. Rows of small shops sell "fresh" honey by the gallons! I came across a Tourist Police office which was firmly locked all day. I guess with so few tourists here, even the Tourist Police got bored! As I'm sure I'll witness across the Arab world, men walking hand-in-hand is very common, while those same men holding their wife's hand in public would be highly immoral! Go figure!I HAVE TO STOP WRITING NOW AS THE INTERNET CAFE IS CLOSING SO EVERYBODY CAN GO FOR THEIR SUNSET PRAYERS.

Ok, prayers done...now life can go on again. The Internet is extremely slow here. This is the 5th computer I am trying out at both Internet cafe's in this town of Seiyun.

East of Seiyun (30 min by taxi) I spent about 3 hours this afternoon exploring the village of Tarim. Climbed again the nearby mountain for a spectacular view of the town. These places are so ancient....its almost scary. Tarim is known for its Al Muhdhar Mosque sporting a 53m high minaret - apparently one of the tallest earth structures in the world. Tarim also has the impressive and huge Al-Kaff Palace.

Anyhow, I need to go now as I am really tired...and tired of struggling to just get into my blog account. I will write again tomorrow (at least I'll try to). Tomorrow early morning I am off the ancient town of Shibam - another UNESCO World Heritage site.