We re-arranged our bags a little bit, as we were going back to civilization for the rest of the trip, and so there were a fair number of things we wouldn’t need any more, such as lightweight sleeping bag liners (which we never actually used), headlamps, and more.  It was really hot, even at 06:15.  We gave Adham one of our headlamps, and we wished we would have brought the USB charger instead of just disposable lithium batteries, but we figured batteries were better for our specific purpose on this trip - we hadn’t considered we might give one of them away at the end of the trip.  Somehow the conversation morphed to the makeup of Socotri people, a mix of Arab, Indian, and African.  They also have their own language.  This may also explain their lack of ties to mainland Yemen.  We saw Isa, who asked if we were happy or sad to be leaving - we answered both.  We’d had a great time, but wanted to get back to electricity, running water, etc.

There was a slight delay in Adham and Abdullah getting everything packed up, so we just milled around trying to stay out of the way.  Eventually we got on our way, seeing a baby goat (with its umbilical cord still partially attached) right after departing.  Heading east towards Hadiboh we saw some water in a low spot in the road - it must have actually rained in the past 24 hours there.  We saw some camels just after descending from the hills to the coastline, and again around the road leading to Shu’ab village.  [Adham told us that there’s no way by road from Shu’ab village to Shu’ab beach, that the mountains are too daunting.]

It was busy in Hadiboh.  Surprisingly we saw multiple vehicles with stickers of Saddam Hussein - apparently many people in Socotra revere him, presumably his earlier tenure, but who knows.  Adham mentioned that at the moment, many people in Socotra have free air conditioning courtesy of the UAE, and that there are two gas stations, one Emirati and one Yemeni, but the Yemeni one is not working, so there are a bunch of money exchangers out in front of the Emirati gas station since prices are more favorable if paid in UAE dirhams rather than Yemeni rials.

It occurred to Justin that Socotra is like a sports “free agent” with multiple suitors, at least Yemen, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE.  At the moment, everyone is giving them attention and free stuff, and making grand promises.  We are very curious what it will be like, however, if/when they choose a “team.”  We made a brief stop at a nursery growing native plants, including dozens of Dragon’s Blood Trees.  Adham mentioned that as the trees get larger, they need to be taken away from Hadiboh to somewhere with a higher elevation, as they won’t ever get full-sized down by the sea.

We turned towards Dihamri at the village where Abdullah’s wife and child live.  Him dressing up this morning made more sense to us now.  Her house was a nice looking place, at least from what we could see from the outside.  Abdullah’s vehicle, which belonged to his family, was quite nice, and we wondered if they were higher up in Socotra’s class structure (to the extent there is one).

The snorkeling at Dihamri was awesome.  We walked into the bay on some small pebbles and sand, and we could snorkel basically from right there.  The bay seemed protected, at least with the prevailing winds today.  The coral and the fish, relative to the surface, were neither too deep nor too shallow.  There were tons of parrotfish, angelfish, wrasses (we think), and other colorful fish.  The coral wasn’t particularly interesting, but it looked healthy.  After we’d both swam around for a bit, we commiserated and shared notes, then Justin went back in for round two.  He wondered if he was setting himself up for disappointment, but then he saw a 1.5 meter eel that he followed for a bit.

Meanwhile, Crystal was fixated on these half fish half lizard type things that kind of hopped around near the shore.  [We later found out that these are rockskippers.]  Crystal also did her good deeds for the day by putting upright two tiny hermit crabs.  All told, this was one of the better snorkeling experiences that we’ve had, along with the drift snorkel in Palau, a drift snorkel on Taha’a where we found an octopus, and maybe 1-2 others.  There were some campsites at Dihamri, a bit like Detwah and Aomak, but not in as good shape. 

We had lunch around 12:30, yet another rice and chicken dish - but at least it was always tasty.  Adham mentioned this one had curry powder, tomato paste, chili pepper, garlic, onion, dried lemon, dried pepper, and cloves.  We said we were going to try to make it, but after a month or two, as we’ve had it multiple times this week.  Whilst having lunch, we took note of a couple goats up on their hind legs trying to get stuff off of the tailgate.  We hung out for a bit, then left around 13:40.  Before we forgot, we gave Abdullah the brand new USB car charger that we’d purchase to charge things in the car if we needed to (we thankfully hadn’t, as the USB brick charger had lasted the whole week).  He seemed to like it, and told us that 4 outlets is better than 2.  

The entire week the music in the vehicle was a source of entertainment for us.  Abdullah had some sort of a tablet that was integrated into the sound system, and there were USB cables that were winding through the dash and came out underneath the steering wheel.  Abdullah seemed to have a bunch of USB sticks that had music and/or videos on it, and he was constantly changing out what to listen to.  Each USB stick seemed to have a slightly different menu and interface, not to mention different kinds of music.  The interface today had the status bar going from right to left, as opposed to left to right, which we couldn’t recall having seen before.

From Dihamri we drove back to Hadiboh, and got to our hotel (Summerland Hotel) a little after 15:00.  Our room was tiny, but it had electricity, AC, and a shower.  The first thing we did was charge as many things as we could.  The internet was seemingly not working, but since we hadn’t expected there to be any internet anyway, this wasn’t a huge disappointment.  Crystal showered first, and used it as a hand shower since the rod holding it steady wouldn’t stay fixed higher up.  Justin wasn’t about to do this, and fiddled for quite a bit of time so it would work as something more than a hand shower.  As this went on, he became dangry - dirty angry.  He eventually routed the handle through the slats on the towel rack at the back of the shower, then used the telephone cord from the unused telephone to lash the handle at an appropriate angle.  It was quite hokey, but it worked.

Once we were both out of the shower, and had a mirror and lights, we realized we were redder than we thought, with a good chunk of it from the snorkeling today.  Crystal spent the afternoon reading, and Justin looked through our photos, trying to pick the top 10 photos for Instagram and Facebook.  After a while we both went downstairs, where the internet was theoretically better.  The owner had to reset the network router; after that it was about 500 kB per second - not great, but something.  We checked our emails and messages, and nobody had died, and everyone and everything was seemingly good.

The bad thing was that it was hot in the lobby, and we were getting sweaty all over again, which made both of us frustrated and irritable.  Crystal went upstairs at 18:15, and Justin was about to head up at 18:45 when Adham came in, 15 minutes early for dinner.  So Justin immediately grabbed Crystal and we immediately came back downstairs.  Once in the vehicle, we found out Abdullah had one more group starting tomorrow, and then he’d be done for the season.  On the drive, we saw the first and only car we’d seen on the island, a Toyota Camry.  Everything else was an SUV or truck, with a huge number of Toyota Land Cruisers, but also some smaller Suzukis and a handful of other items.

It was a good thing that we left before 19:00, because the restaurant was already full when we got there.  They took a table from inside and set it up outside for us.  The restaurant was, once again, a zoo, with tons of tourists and their guides, plus street traffic, all the employees hurrying around, and the occasional goat stopping by to see if there was anything to eat.  The US women were representing at the restaurant, with tourists being the only women, and US tourists being the majority, at least at the beginning.  Whilst we were waiting for the food, we saw an 11 or 12 year old show up in a brand new pickup.  Adham mentioned that there really aren’t any rules on the island, and society kind of just keeps tabs on itself, the social contract and whatnot.  And, at the moment, 11-12 year olds driving cars isn’t frowned upon.

Dinner was fried chicken, plus some spicy sauce that was very tasty.  We left the restaurant (we think the name is Shabwa international touring restaurant) around 20:00.  Back at the hotel, Crystal read upstairs, and Justin went downstairs to try his luck at posting photos.  It took literally 45 minutes to do what would normally take 45 seconds, but at least it (eventually) worked.  He came back upstairs shortly after 21:00 when a group of 6 Russian tourists started watching Al Jazeera and its news on the war in Ukraine - he didn’t want to potentially get involved in any geopolitical discussions at the end of a very successful trip.