Al-Mukalla

The port city on Yemen’s southern coast, and the destination of the road trip that started at Seiyun. It is known for trade and for fishing.

The port is owned by the United Arab Emirates, which Harry offers as the clearest single illustration of how fragmented the country has become.

The fish market

The main thing to do here, and the place he goes to see what ordinary life looks like. He arrives earlier than usual, so the boats are still landing the catch.

• Around 6,000 per kilogram (from video – unverified) — his conversion is about $6 for one of the big fish, which he calls very reasonable.
• A lot of the workers are Somali. Somalia is directly across the water, and the men working the market tell him the Somalis earn more than Yemenis because they are paid in dollars. Harry spends a while unable to tell who is from which country and asking.

Saddam Hussein on the cars

Portraits of Saddam Hussein are stuck in car windows all over the city. Jamal explains it: since his death he is regarded as a martyr and a hero here — for never betraying Muslims, and for going against the United States, which Harry is told not many people do.

Sesame oil

A traditional press that has been worked the same way for thousands of years and needs no electricity: a camel walks in a circle turning a stone grinder that crushes the sesame into oil. The camel is blindfolded so it doesn’t get dizzy and believes it is walking in a straight line.

It has no name, so Harry is invited to give it one and calls it Bing Bong.

Electricity

The shortage is the same as everywhere else in the country — three hours on, three off — but here he sees the workaround: diesel generators, which the richer households run to have power around the clock. He recognises them immediately from Lebanon, where the wealthy do the same. They run on fossil fuel and he notes that the environment is not the priority anyone here has room for.

People

• A woman named Huda talks to him about the “worst place in the world to be a woman” ranking. On whether she can drive, the answer comes back that if she had the means and the money, she would. Her hands are covered in henna, which she shows the camera.
• Boys who ride up on bikes the moment they see a camera, stop whatever they were doing, and ask what his favourite football team is. Harry says there are few places where people are this confident approaching a stranger — India is the comparison, and even there people tend to be shy.
• A man who invites him for tea at the end of the trip and tells him firmly that this is not Yemen, it is South Arabia — a separate country until sixty years ago and British before that, a point he makes by listing British cars.

Harry’s tips

• Go to the fish market and go early. It’s the main thing to do and the boats are still coming in.
• Ask who is actually working the market. The dollar wages, and who gets them, are the most revealing fact in the city.

Source

• Inside Yemen: A Country in Freefall 🇾🇪 — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sy2AGeH8u3c