As I flew down the Red Sea high above its shimmering waters seen through the heat haze I looked across to Jeddah to my left and inland I thought I could just make out the mountain range of Taif. Saudi looked hot and uninviting but I wasn’t stopping there. I was heading further south almost to the tip of Arabia, to Sanna the capital of North Yemen. Sanna, at 2,300m is one of the highest capitols and one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. I was aboard a Yemenia flight out of Heathrow which was surprisingly good. I had heard many stories, all bad, about this airline but having flown on Iran Air, Iraqi Airways, Aeroflot and a few other third rate airlines I had no complaints.
Dave Stagg, Promotor’s director of exhibitions, had against all the odds, managed to pull together a small group of British companies who thought it worthwhile to participate in an all ‘British Trade Fair’ in North Yemen to be held in the Taj Sheba Hotel in central Sanna. Dave had flown out on a recce trip to this mountainous country the year before but now I was going in at the sharp end to set it up. After landing at Sanna International Airport I found a taxi and asked to be taken to the hotel not realising it was the main hotel in the city. The driver spoke some english and whisked me there in no time. I’m not too sure what I was expecting but the city looked just like any other middle eastern ‘crummy place’ that I had been to. However, I was glad Dave had managed to get some concessions from the hotel and that meant a free room as I didn’t like the look at some of the other ‘doss houses’ I saw on the way in from the airport. No, I thought, I’m going to enjoy myself here especially round the pool.
One of my first tasks at the hotel was to make myself known to my contact who turned out to be an Indian lady. Of course as the hotel was run by the Taj Group this should’nt have been surprising. We had two areas for our use, both on the first floor. A banqueting hall and an area outside on the terrace. We had contracted George Stavaros from Cyprus to build the stands. George had built stands in a couple of places for us in the past few years so it was a no brainer that he should build these, but as it was only a small exhibition he sent just two men to Sanna. These two men were booked into a small hotel up the road, just glad we had a free room in the Taj Sheba as they didn’t paint a rosy picture of their accommodation.
Although Dave had worked hard we only had twelve or thirteen exhibiting companies and their freight fitted in one twenty foot container. Of course when you organise an exhibition you don’t just make your money from shipping the exhibits. You sell the space, build the stands, book hotel rooms and flights and provide any other services to the exhibiting companies that are needed. George had also sent one twenty foot container of standfitting material from Cyprus and both containers were shipped in via Hodeidah, the main Red Sea port about a hundred and twenty km from Sanna.
We had an agent in Sanna who handled the customs and transport side and I visited his office on my second day there. It was late afternoon when I walked into their office and was taken aback by the sight of three men lazing around on broken down old settee’s with one bloated cheek each and all a bit spaced out. They were of course chewing qat, the plant grown by all the farmers as it was and is a more profitable crop than vegetables. Qat or khat is a mild narcotic used by almost 90% of the male population in the Yemen and 25% of the women. Perhaps the women were ■■■■■■ off with their men having badly discoloured teeth so decided to join them.
My contact in the agents office was a young guy and more with it than the other three. I will be posting a photo later of the two of us but I’m not 100% sure its of him. Well, it was a long time ago. I found out the two containers still weren’t available but were in the port of Hodeidah. I told the agent that we needed to go to the the port to get things moving. He readily agreed and early next morning we flew down to try and speed things along by whatever means necessary. Once we arrived we went to the agents port office and then visited the head of customs. In no time at all both containers were cleared and ready to be loaded onto the two lorries that were to take them up to Sanna and I was very surprised how little greasing of palms was required. We didn’t fly back to Sanna but drove. I don’t remember why. Perhaps the company had a car that was needed in the city office but I wasn’t worried. It was a most interesting drive back up the mountains and to the hotel where he dropped me off.
I had about eight days initially to set things up and once the containers had arrived we still had three days left. I contacted the embassy and spoke to the guy in the commercial office. Think he was glad to have something to do. George’s men had arrived and had the stands built in under two days. I and a couple of local labourers brought the exhibits in and put on the stands ready for the exhibitors arrival. The largest exhibits were a couple of Massey Ferguson tractors but they came from local stock and were parked outside the front of the hotel. There was no mad rush and I still managed some time by the pool. Dave arrived with the main group of exhibitors a day and a half before the event was due to open. I had done my job. Everything was ready for them.
I had very little to do whilst the exhibition took place so mainly lazed around the pool as did the two standfitters. One evening we and all the exhibitors involved in the event were invited to the embassy guys house where a boozy evening was enjoyed by all.
To obtain permission to hold the exhibition in Yemen we had to have a local sponsor and Dave was given details by the embassy of a local guy who may be prepared to help out. He was a businessman who, we were led to understand, had a factory in Southampton. He wouldn’t have to do anything accept write a letter officially sponsoring us and very little else. We hardly ever saw him but on the last day he came good and organised a couple of buses to take us out of town to the area containing the wonderful old houses built up on rocks that are part of the Yemen heritage. It was quite a wild rocky area which was just as well as he brought out a pistol and started firing off into the scrubb. He then let some of us have a go. I thought best to keep our heads down as bullits were ricocheting off the rocks everywhere.
The event was a success and everyone was happy. North Yemen was not a big market for British companies but maybe those that attended the exhibition were looking ahead as it wasn’t long after that that the North and South reunited. However, our sponsor, many months later, attempted to spoil the euphoria surrounding the exhibition by sending us an invoice for services rendered. It was huge, amounting to almost half the revenue generated by the event. Needless to say it didn’t get paid.
Unfortunately, for some strange reason, I have no decent photos of the exhibition once up and running. It may be that I only had one roll of film and was hanging on to it until something really interesting came along. I do remember, especially during my driving days, I seemed to have no film or sometimes even my camera when I needed it most.
