Recently Dr. B and I flew to Port Sudan to hop on a liveaboard boat to dive the south Sudan region of the Red Sea. There will be a separate post about our dive trip which was wonderful. Here are some images from the city of Port Sudan.
After 7 days at sea, we returned to port in the afternoon to spend the night before flying out the next day. We were able to leave the boat for a few hours and explore this interesting and exotic port city. After covering myself up properly, our crew took us to shore in the zodiac and let us loose.
Our dive guide Mimo explained to us how lovely the people were in the city and we found that to be true in our short visit. Lots of people smiled at us. The women were gorgeously attired and most had astonishingly beautiful faces.
These photos were taken with my iphone. Since were were the only two foreigners walking the streets (our small group of 9 people had split up after the ice cream shop) it was hard to take a large amount of photos without fearing annoying people. We were already attracting a fair amount of attention. So I was trying my best to be low key and respectful, whicle secretly kicking myself I didn’t bring my good camera.
Our first stop was the bustling and very popular ice cream shop. Mimo insisted on buying ice cream for Dr. B and myself.
The place was situated next to one that sold baked goods and sweets and it contained a juice bar.
We both received a sampling of several flavors which were extremely sweet but a welcomed and refreshing diversion from the 110-degree temperature. Yes, you read that right, 110 degrees.
After we devoured our ice cream, we walked about 15 minutes to the main market or souk section of the town, passing what looks to be a Pizza Hut on our way.
What looked like the tuk tuks you see in Southeast Asia were every where and most were extremely tricked out or customized.
Water stations along the streets.
On the way, to the main market section of town, we encountered banks, butchers and bakeries.
A pharmacy and a hotel.
After arriving at the souk, there was so much to look at and explore, I was already regretting our time constraints as soon as I arrived.
No one spoke any language other than Arabic. I have negotiated sales at souks all over Egypt, Morroco, Dubai and Turkey and have never experienced not being able to negotiate in either English or German. My few words of Arabic I know were only useful when it came to manners “Please” Thank you” “No Problem” “Whatever”.
It was fun actually. We all laughed a lot and there was a female customer in one of the shops who did speak a few words of English who stayed behind after she had made her own purchases to help me. In my short experience I found the markets to be reasonable. Unlike the vendors in Egypt, Dubai and other places the haggling is low key, swift and fair.
A lot of the merchandise is from Pakistan and India but there were some items that were made right in the market as well.
It seemed like I was just starting to explore when we had to return to the boat.
We walked back along the promenade beside the water. It’s a popular place for the locals to hang out, eat snacks, drink tea, smoke shisha and play pool.
This was not our ship, btw.
2 comments
Thank you for posting this impression about home country Sudan.
Thank you for sharing your impressions of Port Sudan. This is a great look into a place many of us may never have seen.