Monday, December 31, 2007

Lebanon

I had just recovered enough from my cold to head out to Lebanon on the day before New Year's Eve. We met a guy called Charlie in the bus station who was missing a leg. He used to work with U.S. Navy and has quite a penchant for using the f-word. He used in pretty much every sentence he spoke; 'Would like f*cking peanuts', 'Get in this fucking taxi', 'You look like a f*cking yankee' etc etc. Having said that he was very friendly and just there to help. We got in a shared taxi to Beirut. I still had a bit of a cold and a embarked on a very impressive coughing fit in the taxi that lasted for about 5 minutes. I think the guys in the back thought I had some sort of deadly contagious disease.

Immigration and customs were passed fairly smoothly and we took a taxi up to west Beirut. This is the mainly Muslim area and took the biggest pounding during the Israeli invasion of Lebanon back in the early '80s. We checked into a fairly grotty hotel and then headed out to check out the notorious nightlife Beirut is famed for. As we walked through town we were pretty surprised by the large military presence in the city. There were quite a few check points with tanks and a fair bit of barbed-wire and razor-wire about the place. However the guys on the checkpoints were all pretty friendly and waved up through. After a few days the military presence didn't really seem at all daunting - just a part of life here.

After a bit of wondering we found Monot Street - a street full of bars and night clubs. We hadn't really seen much nightlife while in the Middle East and we were like kids in a sweetshop. We visited a few bars and clubs checking out a few places for New Year's Eve. Strangely enough the next morning there were a load of photos on my camera that I don't remember taking.

Most of the next day was spent in bed recovering. Finally got up in the early evening and it was off to celebrate New Year's Eve. The Lebanese certainly know how to party. A lot of the bars and clubs were ticketed and sold out, but after a little wander around we found ourselves a pretty cool place and settled in for the evening. We had a pretty good night - the bar provided hats, masks, balloons, party poppers and all sorts and we partied long into the night and I did some very impressive dancing on my bar-stool.

We did manage to crawl out of bed the following day and see a bit of west Beirut heading out along the Corniche, a long stretch of pavement following the coast round. It was quite a nice way to spend the day slowly ambling along, watching life go by. It all seemed a lot more European here and we even saw a few people going out for a jog - something I don't think I've seen since leaving home. We stopped off in a pretty nice restaurant by the sea had a bite to eat.

The following day we finally made it out of bed before midday so we could check out and look for somewhere nicer to stay. We got a taxi over to east Beirut and checked into the Talal New Hotel. We were immediately much happier with our choice of accommodation. The place had a nice communal area and there were plenty of other backpackers hanging out round here. We headed out for a bite to eat in the evening and found Germayze Street. This was a really funky place with loads of cool bars and restaurants and would cause us to stay in Beirut much longer than we had expected. Our first night here however we couldn't get into any restaurant for food as everywhere was booked out with reservations. We had to make do with sitting in an Irish bar until midnight and then finally we were able to get into a restaurant.

Well for the next few days it pissed it down with rain, so our lives consisted of mooching round the hotel all day cursing our hangovers and the weather and going out on the lash evening to work on getting a new hangover. We met a few cool people in the hotel so we had plenty of drinking partners for the evening.

A few days later we finally managed to venture out of Beirut, only for a day trip mind you, to town of Baalbek. In more recent times Baalbek has become a headquarters for Hizbollah. On entering the city there are large pictures of the Ayatollah and a little further in town an Israeli tank that was captured during the civil war is proudly displayed atop a column. However Baalbek is also the location of one the most impressive and well preserved Roman temple ruins in the Middle East and this was our reason for coming here. The complex consists of three temples, the temples of Venus, Jupiter and Bacchus. Although the site itself isn't that big, you can walk around it an hour or so, it is the scale of the ruins that really impresses - they are huge - and I believe the temple of Bacchus is one the best preserved covered Roman temples in the world.

We were planning on leaving Beirut the following day but in typical fashion after a night out on Germayze street didn't make it up in time for checkout. Instead we embarked on another day trip to Byblos to see yet more Roman ruins. Not as impressive as Baalbek but certainly worth a look. And so finally the next day by some miracle we got our arses out of bed before midday and made it out of Beirut and headed up to Tripoli. We spent a late afternoon and evening here had a quick wander round thew souq that was closing up and had a bite to eat and an earlyish night - no funky nightlife in Tripoli I'm afraid.

The following morning we carried on to Bcharre in the mountains. It was pretty cold and snowy here being at an altitude of almost 2000m. We had a wander from here up the Cedars of Lebanon. The cedar tree is the national emblem of Lebanon and appears on the flag. Sadly there are not too many of these trees remaining today - some of which are reported to be over 1000 years old. The few that do survive are now protected and there is an active program to preserve and regenerate the forests. Although not overly spectacular, it was good to see a bit of Lebanese heritage and the walk up there in the snow was pleasant enough, apart from when a car decided to hurtle past me through a puddle and completely soak me.

We spent the night in Bcharre and were treated by our host Tony to wine and potatoes for dinner. I had grand ideas of some kind of wine-potato casserole, but no we had a bottle of wine and as many plain roasted potatoes as we could eat. The next morning we got up and did some hiking down the Kadisha valley. This is a beautiful place to hike and made for a great day. Rather unexpectedly we stumbled across the Elisha monastery and had a look round there. As the afternoon wore on the weather came in so we headed back into town in time to visit the museum of Khalil Gibran - a Lebanese artist, poet and philosopher. Rachel gave his most famous book 'The Prophet' for and Christmas and having hastily read it the bus up to Bcharre it was good to the see museum, which is also his final resting place.

After the museum visit we took the bus back to Beirut. We finally managed to catch up with Natalie when we got back and also got to see her new place before hopping on a bus and heading back to Damascus to renew our Lebanese visas. We spent a couple of nights back in Damascus and saw Rachel again, it was absolutely freezing. Me and Phil were sleeping in all our clothes including thermals, plus about 20 million blankets and were still cold so we were quite happy to go back to Beirut.

On returning to Beirut we stayed at Nat's place in Dowra. Leah was also staying in the flat as well. We arrived to discover a bomb had gone off in the area an hour or so before we got there. Leah was leaving the flat as it happened: apparently the whole place shook. Leah certainly looked a bit shook up. It made us all feel a little uneasy. But there's not much you can do - well actually we could have left the country - so we just carried on with things.

After a couple of days hanging out in Dowra - it's a really nice area Nat has found to live here, lots of cool shops and little cheap restaurants and the best chicken kebabs in the country - we went south for a few days. We headed right to very south first to Tyre. There are a few Roman ruins about the town and it's a pretty quiet laid back place, but not that much to do so the next day we went to Sidon.

We wanted to visit Beaufort castle, which occupied by Isreal during their invasion of the country. it's now back in Lebanese hands and appears to administered by Hizbollah. We had to get a pass to go to Beaufort castle which was obtained easily enough and we then took a taxi the castle. We got stuck on our way there as there was a big demonstration going on. We weren't sure what it was at first and I felt a little uneasy about it. After about fifteen minutes or so though the procession passed and we got on our way. It turns out it was all related to a Muslim festival - I forget the name of it - but basically people go around cutting their heads and drawing blood from themselves. There were lots of people walking around with what I assumed was red paint all over themselves. I'm fairly sure it was paint and not blood anyway. We got to the castle and had a good look around. There isn't that much left of the castle as it has been bombed quite a lot but it does afford great views over Lebanon and I can see why it would be a point of strategic advantage.

Hizbollah are very popular in the South of Lebanon and it's not that difficult to see why. They are regarded in the prominently shia south of the country as being the only force to defeat Israel and end their occupation of the south country. On top of that they are very well-funded and have used the money to rebuild roads and infrastructure in the south of the country as well as building schools and hospitals which the government are either unable or unwilling to do. On the other hand Hizbollah's critics in the country claim that it was Hizbollah's rocket attacks and kidnapping of Israeli soldiers that was the cause of Israel's bombing of the country in 2006 and that if they wish to be taken seriously as a political force they should disarm. There is currently a political impasse in Lebanon with Hizbollah and it's pro-Syrian and pro-Iranian supporters trying to gain more influence in the government. These moves are being opposed by Christian majority that tends to be pro-western. It is these tensions that could boil over into another civil.

We returned back to Beirut and to Nat's place and did a couple more day trips while based there. One to the teleforique which is a cable car up the mountain. It was a fairly nice trip up and gave good views out to the sea once up the top. We also went to the Jetta Grotto with Nat. This a couple of caves full of stalactites and stalagmites. We went up to the furthest cave and walked through. It looked fantastic. It's a huge place and it goes down really deep as well; you can only walk through a small part of it. We then carried on the lower cave which has a lot of water in it and took a short boat trip through the cave and back again. It really was an amazing place. Unfortunately no camera are allowed in the place so I don't have any pics to show you.

Whilst back in Beirut another bomb went off in the area. This one assassinated the police chief who was heading the inquiries into all the bombings in the country. Again the tension increased in the country. A few days later 8 Hizbollah supporters were shot dead when protesting about fuel and water supplies. It did start to feel like something could really kick off here soon. By this time Phil had already left Lebanon and gone onto Israel. My second visa here was coming to an end so I decided it was time to leave and get a flight out to the sunnier climes of India.

I did have a little spot of bother leaving though. I booked a flight from Amman as it was cheaper to fly from there than Beirut which meant I had to take a shared taxi over the mountain to Amman. On the day I left it was snowing in the mountains and the taxi was trying to charge me extra because he said he needed snow chains to get over the mountain. I thought it was all a load of bollocks and refused to pay any extra. When we actually got the mountain there was a checkpoint where the military were sending anyone back down who didn't have snow chains on. Well we had to stop and put ours on but they turned out to be completely crap and fell off after not very long at all. We struggled on up the mountain and it wasn't long until I and another passenger in the taxi had to get out and start pushing the taxi up the mountain in freezing blizzard conditions. That was lots of fun. After a while we decided enough was enough and turned round and headed back to Beirut. One of the women in the taxi was kind enough to invite us back to her place for a nice cup of tea.

All in all this meant I missed my flight out of Amman and the road over the mountain stayed closed for a few more days so I had to buy a new flight from Beirut. This little kerfuffle also meant I overstayed my visa. It didn't turn out to be too much of problem though - just had to pay a small fine and they let me go on my way. Of more interest at the airport seemed to be the contents of my backpack as it went through the x-ray machine. I had to open up my main backpack. The security guard was very suspicious of my universal plug adapter. Obviously seemed to think it was a bomb or something. He showed it to his mate who gave it the ok. I also had some incense sticks. He was suspicious of these as well. Now I was being suspected of drug trafficking rather than being a bomber. He showed these to his mate as well. He gave them a smell then turned round and looked at me, gave me the thumbs up and said 'Very good!'. He clearly approved and I was free to go and continue on to India.

Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Christmas in Damascus

We got back to Damascus a couple of days before Christmas and after a night staying in a hotel we moved to Rachel's rather swanky flat. Well it was pretty swanky compared to some of the places we've been staying in anyway. We soon discovered much to our surprise that Rachel had volunteered us to cook for twelve people on Christmas Day. Well that was a bit of a surprise. After picking ourselves up off the floor we spent most of Christmas Eve food shopping. Luckily we had done a cooking course in Petra a week or so before and decided to use some of the recipes we had learnt there.

In the evening we went for Christmas Eve drinks at Rachel's friend Darren's flat. There was quite a group of people there and it was a nice relaxed way to spend the evening. We went onto the roof of his apartment which is in the Christian area and Damascus and could see the whole place lit up as people here really got to town with their Christmas lights.

Christmas Day itself began with an early 6am start. I really didn't feel like getting out of bed but had to force myself to attend an 8am Christmas mass in the little village of Maalula. Maalula is about 40km north of Damascus and is a beautiful little village where Aramaic, the language of Jesus, is still spoken. The village is up in the mountains and much to our surprise there was snow on them so we had our first white Christmas in I can't remember how long. Christmas mass was given in a beautiful small church at the top of the hill. With the service being given in Aramaic we couldn't understand a word of it but that didn't take away from a wonderful morning. After the service we were given a guided tour of the church and then invited to drink some local wine courtesy of the priest himself. We spent another hour so walking through the village. There was a canyon back down to the bottom of the village.

We took the bus back to Damascus and after a quick call back home to wish the family a happy Christmas it was back to Rachel's to begin the task of cooking for everyone. I have to admit if I had given this task on my own I wouldn't have had a clue what to do or where to start. Luckily Phil took charge and the day seemed to go pretty smoothly. We made up a few salads and also served up hommos and mutabal (an aubergine dish) for starters. We then cooked a big chicken casserole and some stuffed aubergines for the mains. The food took a little while to come out but everyone seemed pretty happy with the fair and everyone was stuffed by the end of the day. As the evening went on everyone slowly made there way home, leaving myself Phil, Rachel, Natalie and Leah to have a relaxing evening in the flat. All in all I think the day went very well - it was certainly the best Christmas I've spent away from home.

The following day I came down with the flu. It totally knocked me out and I spent three days on the couch in Rachel's flat watching crap telly. It was nice to have a comfortable apartment to hang out in while I was feeling ill. A few days before new year I was feeling well enough to travel again so we took the bus over to Beirut in Lebanon to sample what is meant to be the best night-life in the Middle East...

Friday, December 07, 2007

Jordan

So after a couple weeks vegetating in Damascus it was about time to get off our lazy arses and head down Jordan. We took the bus to the capital Amman and got here without too many problems although when we got to Syrian departures there was an Azerbaijani in front of us in the queue with about fifty passports to get processed. We were stood around for a short while thinking we were going to be here all day, especially as there was one guy processing all the passports while loads of other officials sat round doing nothing but our bus driver came to rescue and pushed us into the front of the queue; from there on in it was a breeze.

Amman doesn't have the immediate charm of Damascus and as a tourist there isn't a great deal to do. We did spend a morning wandering round the citadel and that was about it for sights in Amman. From the citadel you get a great of the massive flag pole in Amman bearing the Jordanese flag. The flag pole stands at over 120 metres high and according the holy bible - the Lonely Plant Guide - is the tallest free standing flag pole in the world. Only the North Koreans have a taller one, but theirs is suspended by cables, the big cheaters. Amman is also quite a rich city, well in places anyway and we did a visit a couple of quite swanky restaurants whilst we were here.

We used Amman as a base to visit Jersah, the very well preserved ruins of a Roman city. They were very extensive and easily matched the ruins of Palmyra in Syria. We spent a good few hours walking round the ruins. Take a look at photos to get an idea of the scale of the place. The one difference between here and Syria was the number of visitors. There are many more tourists here than in Syria. But having said that the number weren't overwhelming as we're here in low season and it wasn't really a problem - wouldn't want to be in Jordan in high season though. While here we also saw a 'chariot race'. They have reconstructed a hippodrome here and first we saw a Roman legion march and do a few moves followed by some reconstructions of some gladiatorial fights and then finally the chariots came round and did a few laps although they weren't really racing. It was a bit of show for the tourists and a tad silly but enjoyable enough I suppose. We carried from Jerash to the Ar-Rabad castle. Another pretty impressive castle built by one of Saladin's generals when they were fighting the crusaders.

The one last thing we did in Amman before moving on was to visit the Turkish bath. This place is well worth a visit if you ever get over here. The architecture of the place is great. There's a sauna and jacuzzi and you get a good long massage. We also opted for the dead sea mud face pack. A very relaxing way to spend an evening.

So next it was onto Madaba. This is a small town that boasts some pretty well preserved mosaics and is also the launch pad for trips down to the dead sea. We stayed in a fairly basic cheap hotel, with rather eccentric staff. The guy who ran the place seemed to speak fairly good English when he was speaking to us but didn't understand a word we spoke back to him. He told us lots of interesting things such as we needed to get a taxi to the dead sea at midnight and he also seemed to think I had a bicycle with me. We had a quick wander round town in the afternoon and saw a few buildings containing the ancient mosaics.

The next day we hired a taxi through our hotel to take us to the dead sea. First stop before the Dead Sea was to mount Nebo where Moses once looked out across to the promised land. The view from out here across to the Dead Sean onto Israel was great. There is a church here with more mosaics and to my mind these were better than the mosaics in Madaba itself.

And then it was time for a good old dunk in the Dead Sea. Pretty much everything you've heard about the sea is true. It is impossible to sink. You walk out and the water gets to about waist height then you carry on walking and realise you are no longer touching the bottom any more. Trying to swim in the Dead Sea is a lot of fun. Your feet stick out the water and you can't go anywhere. One word of caution if you ever do take a dip here - don't get the water in your eyes. It absolutely kills. And once you get the water in your eyes you can't rub it out because your whole body is covered is salty water. Yes I really can recommend not getting the water in your eyes. After a brief swim and a little rest to let my eyes recover we got ourselves full body dead sea mud packs. Not sure it really did a lot for me other make me look completely ridiculous. From here we popped along to some thermal springs and spent the rest of the afternoon there. There's a big waterfall there with a mixture hot and cold water running off it. You can stand directly under the waterfall and get pummelled by lots of water falling very quickly onto you head. We then watched the sunset over Dead Sea before heading back to Madaba.

The next morning we decided to head off to Dana taking a taxi via Kerak castle. Our driver from the previous day had already left by thre time we got up and there were no other drivers from our hotel or so our mad owner told us. So I popped out and got ourselves a driver from elsewhere. When our hotel owner found this out he went a beserk and threatened to call the police. Quite what he was going to the police I'm not sure - that we were legally taking a taxi to Dana? Well apparently we are not ever welcome back at their hotel which is quite a shame.

We had a nice drive down through Wadi Mujib and a good stroll round yet another crusader castle - Kerak Castle - before arriving in Dana in the early evening. Dana is a small village and the hotel we stayed at is part of a community that helps put money back into the village and conserve the surrounding coiuntryside. We saw another great sunset here and the following morning did a hike down the valley to the next village. It was very pleasant sunny day and a great walk. Once at the bottom of the valley we hopped in a taxi and headed off to Petra.

Petra is the main draw in Jordan and I'm glad to say this place really does live up to the hype. We spent two days wandering round the rock hewn temples and astounding scenery. The place is huge and we could have easily spent a lot longer exploring the area. The first morning we walked through the Siq to enter Petra. This is a tall narrow canyon over a kilometre in length formed not by water but by tectonic plate movements ripping the rock apart. The Siq seems to wind on for ever but finally it opens onto the Treasury. The Treasury is the really famous structure that most people associate with Petra and also featured in the Indiana Jones film which gets played every night in the hotels here. We saw as the sun come over the cliff tops and shine down on the Treasury. We spent the rest of the day walking past the tombs onto the Roman city which looks strangely out of place and then onto the monastery which looks very similar to the Treasury but involves a long walk up a mountain to get there so it's a lot more peaceful there.

On the second day we took an alternative route into Petra via another canyon. We spent most of the day without seeing any other tourists and found ourselves a great vantage point from which to look out across the whole of Petra. You can check my pictures but I doubt they do the place justice. This really is an amazing place and I wholeheartedly recommend Petra to anyone - you won't be disappointed. While in Petra we also did a cooking course and learned how to make a few dishes including hummus and mutabal. Little did I realise at the time that this course would stand me in good stead for Christmas day.

So no rest for the wicked and the next day it was straight onto Wadi Rum - the desert towards the south of the country. We did a 4x4 tour on the first day seeing some pretty cool places but for some reason I just didn't seem that enthralled with the place, maybe because it seemed a bit rushed in the 4x4 or maybe because it just didn't compare to Petra. Anyhow after a night of drinking, music and dancing in a Bedouin tent we did a tour on camels the next day. This was a lot more fun especially as my camel upon whom I bestowed the name 'Bob' was a pretty angry camel and kept attacking the other two camels and Phil and Merryl much to my amusement but no one elses. Poor old Bob, everyone else hated him but I think he was just misunderstood.

So after the rushed exertions of the last week or so we got Aqaba and took it easy. I wasn't feeling that well here and spent a couple of days chilling in my hotel room and watching crap western films. We did make it to the beach on the afternoon of the second day but it was windy and freezing and not a very enjoyable experience.

We headed back up to Amman so that Merryl could get her flight home and also to do a bit of Christmas shopping. I also got a chance to meet with my mate Attila whom I met a couple of years ago in Egypt. He's living in Amman at the minute and was able to take me round a few good bars, getting me into places for free and getting free drinks as well, so it was well worth catching up.

And after what seemed like an action-packed non-stop couple of weeks in Jordan it was back to Damascus for Christmas...