Dehradun, April 6 -- Obsessed with the exotic - A reason why some travel the world

Around the World with the Most Travelled Indian

Before reaching Salalah I had never heard of small towns and villages such as Sarfayt, Hawf, Dalkut, Al Mughsail, Mirbat and others. These were all along the far eastern extremity of the Gulf of Aden and well beyond the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait, which is the narrow waterway between Yemen, Djibouti and Somalia and is much in the news these days.

While Bab-el-Mandeb is certainly not as well-known as the Strait of Hormuz (which even the local tea seller has heard of), it is yet a crucial waterway for the trade of oil. This narrow passage is at the opposite end of the Red Sea from the Suez Canal and is a part of th...