Humdrum Hodeidah

The sad fact is not every place can be amazing. Not every city is going to blow your socks off. Some places are destined for simple mediocracy. The type of town where people take their kids to school, go to work from 9-5, go home, watch 3 hours of TV and go to bed. While many of as long for that simple life, as a traveller it's hardly a breathtaking situation to land into. One of the largest cities in Yemen is the coastal city of Hodeidah. But the only thing to see and do here is see a coastal city.

As i arrived into town, a feeling of underwhelming overwhelmed

me. The typical 2-3 storey white washed buildings, common in most of the region, were a dime a dozen. There were plenty of shoe shops and mobile shops and honey shops and every other shop one might need to cure a frenzied need to buy stuff. The streets were neither busy nor quiet, just ordinary with traffic going to usual places. It's wasn't stiflingly hot nor comfortably cool, simply sunny and warm. People were neither overly friendly nor antagonistic, they were plainly present. And so went the rest of my stay there.

But i guess you need to make do with what you got. Sure there

were no mountains with hidden forts and temples like in Aden. And obviously there was no impressive architecture like San'a old city. But, being a seaside town, there was a cornish. A strolling path along the shore where locals like to come, especially in the evenings, to whittle away the time. And the city is unusually green for Yemen with several small parks full of men with cheeks bulging with Qat. And there is a fish market, but it is really no different than those in any other seaside town. Even as a person who is usually snap-happy with the pics, i only managed to take a few photos. It's just that kind of place.

Hodeidah could be used as a based for further explorations. The island of Kamaran is nearby, with some decent Red Sea diving. the UNESCO heritage listed town of Zabid, isn't that far away. And the cool Friday market of Beit al Faqih is just down the street.

Hodeidah is well connected with the rest of the country. FelixAirways has flights to San'a for around $65. Direct buses go either to Aden via Taizz, or up to the capital. And dbobs (minibuses) go everywhere else.

It's not the Hodeidah is a bad place, it's just that it is a place, period. It is well situated for west coast explorations or for doing a loop from San'a to Aden via the mountains and back to San'a via the seaside. But it's is certainly not a destination all unto itself.