Yemen Yemen Trip 2025

Yemen – Logistics and Arrival

Planning

I had wanted to go to Yemen ever since I saw pictures of Sanaa and Shibam, but actually getting there seemed like an impossibility. For as long as I have been thinking of going to Yemen the only real way of visiting it seemed to be either to illegally cross the border from Oman and just see a very small part of the country, perhaps for the day, or to visit the island of Socotra. Socotra looked interesting, but I really wanted to see the mainland and had decided to hold out for that. Slowly, some people started to do organized tours into portions of the mainland, but it just seemed so prohibitively expensive for a solo traveler. And then I got a WhatsApp message.

One of the members of my social travel group in Vancouver (we get together periodically and swap travel stories and tips) posted into the group that he was thinking of going to Yemen with a friend of his from the US and he was looking for a third person to join the group. I was walking down the street in Buenos Aires when I got the message and I immediately said I would go. The tour company and the itinerary had already been picked, I just needed to opt in.

At this point in time, it was not possible to visit any part of Yemen without going on a tour. I’m not a tour person, apart from hiring a guide for a day trip and the prospect of joining a group tour never appealed to me, but the person who was going on this trip with someone that I had already gotten along with and I figured that was enough to vouch for his friend. Plus, a group of three seemed more palatable than a larger group of strangers.

The tour was arranged through a fellow named Kais Al Qalisi, who is a well known tour operator in the region It would be six days visiting Seiyun, Mukalla, Wadi Doa’n, Hawfah, Ribad, Al-Hajjarain, Sif, and Shibam with a guide (Radfan) and driver (Mohammed) and a series of armed guards, starting and ending in Seiyun. The itinerary is posted here. The price for each of the three of us was about $1,450 (each), which included all of our meals in our hotels, water, and visa assistance and we did not have to share rooms at any of the hotels. It did not include the flights from Cairo to Seiyun, which could only be done on Yemeni Airways at exorbitant price of 900 U.S. dollars round trip for the six-hour flight. Yemen is not a cheap trip.

We were connected with a woman on WhatsApp who worked at the airline in Cairo; we wired her the money for the trip and she arranged the tickets which we would pick up at the airport.

For the visa, we simply needed to send our guide copies of our passports and personal information as well as a letter from a doctor. This was the trickiest part. For visa to Yemen, at least at this time, you needed a letter from a doctor that confirmed that you had been tested for and were negative for all diseases. I went to the travel clinic, and they looked at me like I was crazy. How could they possibly issue a letter like that? Would it even be possible to test for all diseases? Most of the travelers I talked to said that they had just forged their own letters, which seemed like a reasonable proposition for some, but I’m a lawyer and I just didn’t feel good about that. What I did feel ok about was a doctor that I knew socially who shall remain nameless who wrote the letter for me. While this doctor didn’t use the language that I had been tested for all diseases, they did say that I did not have any communicable diseases, which seemed to satisfy the visa people, to the extent that they even read the letter which I doubt.

In some ways, arranging all of this seems like kind of a hassle. It’s not as easy as just booking a flight online and showing up at the airport, but it was far easier than some of the other difficult countries I’ve visited like the Congo or Sudan. If you have the money to pay and a person to arrange it for you, you can get the visa.

The Airport

I had flown from Vancouver to London to Cairo and I found myself at the airport in Cairo in a queue at the check in desk to collect my ticket to Yemen. I got to the airport a bit ahead of my two companions and so I stood by myself with about six people ahead of me and a few behind, all of whom had towers of luggage on carts. I had a small backpack. All of them looked at me with a great deal of curiosity. More than one person approached me and asked me if I knew that I was in a queue for a flight to Yemen and I responded with “Yes, I can’t wait to go!” and they thought that was amusing. They laughed and smiled and then seemed genuinely pleased that I was choosing to spend my vacation days in their country.

Finally, I saw a familiar face in the crowd and my friend from Vancouver had arrived with his friend from the United States and our little travel group was united. In the interest of not using their real names (I don’t know if they would object to me using their names but I’m just going to choose to preserve their anonymity), I shall refer to my Canadian friend as John (as in Rambo) and my new American friend as Doc. We picked up our tickets and went to a lounge in the airport, where you could smoke (!) and got to know each other a bit.

The flight from Cairo to Seiyun was unremarkable. It’s always exciting to fly a new airline, but I can’t say that there was anything super unusual about Yemeni Airways. It didn’t have an in-flight entertainment system or Wi-Fi, but it was a standard plane that we boarded from the tarmac and they served us a meal.

And just like that, we landed in Yemen.

Arrival and Shopping

At the airport, we were met by our guide, Radfan who walked us through the visa process, we went to a little room and quickly visa stickers were placed in our passports and without any real questions or fanfare we were led through the airport and to our driver, Mohammed.

We landed at 5:00 PM and by the time we got out of the airport it was probably closer to 6:00 PM and the city was dark but lively. The first order of business was getting appropriate attire. One cannot travel in Yemen, at least at this point, in your normal clothes. You need to wear Yemeni clothing. So we went first to a little shop that sold women’s clothes.

This is probably the number one question that I was asked when I told people that I was going to Yemen, which is what would I have to wear. The answer is you must wear a black abaya, so you are covered from your neck to your ankles and wrists, and you wear hijab to cover your head. The question of whether or not you must also wear a niqab to cover your face seems to be somewhat loose. Our guide did not make me wear the niqab at any point. We did however run into another group with women travelers who are required to wear the niqab at all times. I have absolutely no problem wearing the abaya or the hijab, but I was very thankful that I did not have to wear the niqab as I think I would have found it restrictive and it certainly would have impeded my cigar smoking. The men in the shop helped me pick out a suitable black abaya with some black embroidery around the cuffs. I thought it looks alright. I like wearing all black anyway. For any women who are reading this and are wondering what you wear under the abaya, you can probably wear anything you like but I thought it was most comfortable to wear leggings and a t-shirt. Basically, that is the outfit that I wore every day while I was out and about in Yemen. In the evenings when I was at the hotels I could dress in my own clothes, provided they were reasonably conservative. So, at the hotels, I would wear leggings and a knee-length dress or something similar.

After I was suitably attired, we went to a different store and the gentleman picked out their clothes which were much more interesting. They were these long, wrapped skirts out of patterned and colourful fabric called a futa, a plain colored, short-sleeved button up shirt, and a wrapped headdress called a shemagh.

The clothes were extremely affordable (my ensemble was $22 US) and were one of the only expenses that we had on the trip as everything else was included in the price of the tour.

From there we went to our hotel, the Hawta Palace Hotel in Seiyun. I didn’t know what to expect with regard to the accommodations, but this exceeded any expectations that I had. This place was awesome. It was a couple of two- or three-story buildings in gleaming white Yemeni architecture with the serene courtyard, green gardens, a swimming pool, and flowering trees. It was a bit away from the city and felt quiet and safe. My room was enormous and extremely comfortable if sparsely decorated. We arrived and got sorted and had dinner.

Most of the meals that we had in Yemen, including the one at this hotel, were extensive and quite tasty, if not particularly varied. As a vegetarian, most of my meals consisted of lentil soups and salads, hummus and bread, some fresh fruits and vegetables, yogurt and local honey. It got a bit repetitive, but everything was very tasty. There was also coffee, tea, and water. No alcohol of course. The rest of the group had various types of meat and fish as their main dishes.

We were given Wi-Fi codes at the hotel and technically there was Wi-Fi, but it worked inconsistently. I had been prepared to have no Wi-Fi whatsoever on the trip but most of the hotels had some connectivity in some places at sometimes. It’s not the sort of place that you can go and plan to get a lot of remote work done. In fact, it may be one of the few places in the world where you can still go and be kind of off the grid.

After dinner, everyone else went to bed and I sat up in the courtyard and had a cigar. This became a bit of a ritual on the trip; I would stay up a little later and get up a little earlier than everyone else so that I could enjoy smoking and some time to myself.

John and Doc proved to be excellent travel companions. We seem to be like-minded and share a similar sense of humour and I had an excellent time with them, that said, it was still a bit of a different experience for me to be around people for so much of the time and I needed to have a little time to myself.

Safety

A note about safety. This is probably the second most common question that I was asked about going to Yemen, which was is it safe? Yemen obviously has a bad reputation in terms of safety. They have a long-standing civil war and there were frequently bombings and violence. But as with most countries that face these problems, the war and violence is relegated to certain parts of the country or does not happen all the time. Yemen is large and different parts of the country are controlled by different groups (more on this later) and we would be visiting the parts of the country that were relatively stable, which are in the Hadramaut region or South Yemen. Confusingly, South Yemen is mostly the eastern half of the country in North Yemen is mostly the western part of the country, but it’s this South Yemen part that is relatively safe and the North Yemen part that has the majority of the conflict. The days that we spent in Yemen felt completely safe. I appreciate that that safety may have been created somewhat by the presence of a guide and a guard but there was nothing that we saw that gave me any inklings that our presence would be met with anything other than kindness and hospitality.

I’ve already said so much in this post about what it was like to prepare to go to Yemen and what it was like arriving, that I’ll talk about what we actually saw and did in the next posts. It’s difficult to be brief when talking about a place as unique and fascinating as Yemen.

Read on here.

United Kingdom Yemen Trip 2025

London Layover: The Canals

I landed in London at 8:40 AM after my incredibly short night in Cairo, concluding my journey to Yemen. I had only a five-and-a-half-hour layover before my flight home to Canada, but there was absolutely no way I was going to spend that time sitting inside the airport terminal. Within minutes of clearing customs, I was on the Heathrow Express heading straight for Paddington Station.

I stopped for a quick espresso and to take in a little public art.

I firmly maintain that for a layover of this length, taking a stroll along the canals near Paddington is an excellent option. I had visited the area once before, but only the sections directly adjacent to the station. This time, I ventured a little farther into the neighbourhood properly known as Little Venice. It was so much more beautiful than I had imagined.

There are countless reasons why London remains my favourite city in the world, but one of the main ones is its seemingly endless supply of charming neighbourhoods. Walking that morning past the clear, reflective canals—lined with beautiful historic buildings and flowering trees—I was in absolute heaven. It is entirely possible that it all felt especially lovely because I had just spent the better part of a week in Yemen. While Yemen is incredibly beautiful in its own right, it was also hot, punishing, and dusty.

I felt a wave of pure happiness that morning, enjoying the slightly cool weather, walking under a canopy of lush green trees, and looking out over the serene waters. Eventually, I made my way back toward Paddington Station and stopped for a coffee and some avocado toast at one of the charming little barge restaurants moored on the canal. It was an absolute delight.

It really is amazing how much you can accomplish during a short layover in London if you are willing to move. With that, I headed back to Heathrow Airport. My magical Yemen trip was officially over. My next adventure would keep me a little closer to home: a quick day trip to Calgary.

Egypt Yemen Trip 2025

Cairo Layover: The Interrogation

This was barely a layover, but because it involves a rather funny story, I thought it deserved its own post. My two travelling companions, John and Doc, and I had left Yemen, flying from Seiyun to Cairo. Our stopover was incredibly brief: we landed in Cairo at 9:45 PM, and my flight out was scheduled for 5:45 AM the next morning. Originally, I planned to just rough it and sleep at the airport terminal. However, realizing how crucial a good night’s rest would be, and seeing that airport hotels were reasonably priced, we each booked a room at Le Passage Cairo Hotel right next to the airport. I highly recommend it—even in the middle of the night, they have food and beverage options open, and the property itself is very nice. But first, I actually had to get there.

To leave the airport, we each had to go through immigration to get our passports stamped into Egypt. John and Doc passed through within seconds with absolutely no questions asked. When I stepped up to the counter, however, the officer looked at my passport and began typing furiously into her computer. She asked where I was coming from and where I was heading. I explained that I had just arrived from Yemen and was flying to London in the morning. She kept staring at her screen. Finally, she called over a colleague, who instructed me to follow them into a small side room. None of this particularly worried me, except for the fact that it was cutting into my precious sleeping time. I knew I hadn’t done anything wrong, so I wasn’t anxious.

The little room turned out to be an interrogation office, complete with a desk, filing cabinets, and a couple of chairs. A thin man wearing glasses, a white button-up shirt, and a tie was standing inside. He spoke flawless English and invited me to sit at the desk. He held my passport in his hand, and what followed was approximately five minutes of pure silence. Five minutes might not sound like a long time, but in a setting like that, it feels like an eternity.

The man pulled a pack of cigarettes from his pocket, unpeeled the cellophane slowly, selected a cigarette, and tapped it deliberately against the desk before lighting it. He then took off his glasses, cleaned them with a cloth, inspected the lenses in the light, and put them back on. Next, he stood up, adjusted a fan mounted near the ceiling, and switched it on. Finally, he sat down and began slowly flipping through my passport, the cigarette dangling casually from his lip.

At this point, the performance ended and the questioning began. He asked where I was coming from and exactly why I had gone to Yemen. I explained multiple times that I was simply on holiday and enjoyed visiting unique countries. He asked what I did for a living, and I told him I was a lawyer in Canada returning to my home and job the day after next. He also questioned me about the short layover I had in Cairo on my way to Yemen, noting it was suspicious that I had gone into the city for such a brief window. I countered, “Why would I miss an opportunity to go into one of the world’s greatest cities for breakfast?”

He repeated several of his questions, looking for cracks in my story. Finally, he stared directly at me and said, “I don’t believe a single thing you are telling me. But I cannot find a reason to keep you here, so I am going to let you go.”

He handed my passport back and sent me through immigration, where it was stamped and I was finally released. It was a bizarre interaction, and I have no idea what the fellow thought I was actually up to. Honestly, I am glad it happened because I thoroughly appreciated his weird, exaggerated mime theatrics. Perhaps I should have been nervous, but I was simply too exhausted to care.

When I finally checked into the hotel, I was still too wired to sleep. I sat outside in the courtyard having one final cigar before going to bed for a grand total of two hours. The next morning, I would be landing in London for one final day of vacation before heading home to Canada.

Yemen Yemen Trip 2025

Yemen – Shibam and Departures

We awoke on this, our last full day, at our beautiful hotel in the valley. The previous day had been our excellent visit to the villages of Wadi Doan. The routine was well established at this point: I woke up, had my cigar, and watched the sunrise, followed by breakfast with the group before we set off on our next excursion.

Today, we would be heading to Shibam. As I’ve said in earlier posts, this was the thing that I most wanted to see. This was the picture that I had seen on the internet years ago, making me think, “Someday, I must see this place.” And that day was today.

The Old Walled City of Shibam is one of the highlights of a trip to South Yemen. The town was founded in the 3rd century, but the buildings that you see today were built in the 1500s. The structures are made entirely of mud brick and stand between 5 and 11 stories tall. They are narrow and built close together. Apparently, this particular design was meant to protect them from Bedouin attacks, but whatever the reason, it looks unusual and beautiful. Amazingly, the buildings remain strong and resilient. While they need regular, fresh applications of mud to the exterior, they have lasted all these centuries. The tallest ones are just over 30 metres high. It is the look of these closely clustered tall buildings that has given Shibam nicknames like “The Manhattan of the Desert” and “the World’s First Skyscraper City.”

Seeing it from a distance the night before was magical, but walking amongst the buildings was equally special. People actually live and work here. We saw pharmacies and honey vendors, little shops selling antiquities, and, of course, men sitting around smoking and drinking coffee. Sometimes, seeing things that you’ve been dreaming of can be a disappointment. This was not one of those times.

From Shibam, we drove back to Seiyoun, where we had started our journey; however, we hadn’t seen much of the city at the beginning. This time, we visited a museum in the market. I was delighted to explore the marketplace, finally try some Yemeni coffee, and browse through the little shops. I picked up some small bottles of oud as a souvenir. We sat around a café with our guide and driver, and I thought again about how much I wished I could just explore a little bit on my own. I could have spent all day sitting at a café, smoking and watching the people go about their daily activities.

We went to a specific spot near the market where they made jambiyas. A jambiya is a large, curved dagger that Yemeni men wear as part of their traditional ensemble, tucked into a thick, embroidered belt and worn on top of their futa. John and Doc had not gotten their jambiyas when they first bought their Yemeni clothing, but now they would. The craftsmen at the shop picked out the right jambiya for each of them and hammered holes into custom-fitted belts so that John and Doc could wear them with pride — right up until they had to go through airport security, I guess.

I bided my time at one of the nearby gun shops. This is another moment where I must emphasize that my trip to Yemen felt completely safe, and that the people were extraordinarily nice and hospitable, but there is a tremendous amount of guns. This little shop, which was no bigger than a single parking stall, sold an astonishing assortment of handguns, machine guns, and rifles. They even let us handle and pose with them—without any ammunition, of course. I couldn’t resist posing for a few photos. I had mixed feelings about sharing these pictures online, but I think I’ve been clear that Yemen is not a scary or dangerous country. I just really like this picture of myself with the machine gun. I’m not someone who does online dating, but if I did, I think this would be a fun picture to use in my profile.

Next, we made a specific visit to the honey market, where rows and rows of small shops sold an incredible variety of locally produced honey. Yemenis are very proud of their honey, and we had been eating it every day, but I had no idea there was such a wide variety. We got to sample different types and were told about how different varieties of honey were good for various ailments. Each of the three of us picked up a tiny little bottle of the most expensive honey (sidr) to take home. It was thick, a dark amber colour, and very strong-tasting. I think it was about $5 USD.

But there was still more sightseeing to do. We drove to the nearby city of Tarim, walked the streets, and took in the Al-Mihdar Mosque and some Sufi shrines.

We returned to the Hawta Palace Hotel (the place where we had stayed on our first night in Yemen) for our final night. We were called to dinner and told there would be a special surprise. A group of men arrived and set up for us just before we ate. There were about 8 men dancing and another 10 men playing musical instruments and singing as they put on a performance. It was wonderful, although admittedly, I was trying to juggle a bit of remote work during the show. My companions, John and Doc, were called up to dance with the performers. John tried to call me up as well, but it was very quickly made apparent to me that this was a men-only situation. No problem. I sat outside with my cigar and just watched the show. It was a terrific end to an incredible trip.

The next day was the day of our departure. We got up, had a leisurely breakfast, and went into the city to walk around the market a bit more. We even went to a sort of Western-style coffee shop for iced mochas and lattes. These fancy coffees were not included in the trip budget, and I think this brought the total amount that I spent on the entire trip to about $30 USD—not including the tips that we gave to our guide and driver, of course. I had no idea how much spending money I would need and had brought a lot more with me; it is always better to be safe than sorry. If you are bringing money to Yemen (and you should) make sure that it is crisp, new US bills. They won’t accept anything with any imperfections.

At the airport, we said our goodbyes to our guide and driver and headed through security. There was little to no fanfare or hassle at immigration. Once we were through, we found a little seating area with a café, and we spent the last of our local money on snacks. I realized at this point that I was no longer really in the country and no longer had to wear my abaya. I had thought earlier in the trip that I might bring it home with me, but after six days of wearing it in the heat, it was crusted with sweat and dirt. I was completely sick of it, so I took it off and left it behind.

We boarded the plane and said goodbye to Yemen. It was an amazing trip. While I wouldn’t visit those same sites again (simply because I think we did them justice) I would be happy to go back to the country if the northern part ever reopens to tourism, as I would love to see the capital, Sana’a.

We shared a quick overnight layover in Cairo before John, Doc, and I went our separate ways. Next was a short layover in Cairo where we spent the night and I got interrogated at the airport.

A few more pictures from that final day in Yemen.

Wandering North

Yemen – Logistics and Arrival

Planning

The Airport

Arrival and Shopping

Safety

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Planning

The Airport

Arrival and Shopping

Safety

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