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.

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...

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...

Damascus

Well I've spent nearly two weeks in Damascus. Much more time than I was planning to but it has been really nice to kick back relax for a few days and not have to worry about repacking my back pack and heading off to new place. So what have been up to in Damascus? Answer: not that much. Drinking fantastic fruit juices, eating shawermas, dining in great restaurants, smoking nargiles (the water pipes), and wandering the souq but not really buying anything.

OK well I have actually done a few things other than just being a lazy git. On our second night here, we went to see a story teller who sits in a coffee shop and talks away for an hour or so each evening to a rapt crowd. The story is in Arabic so I didn't understand a word he was saying but it's still a great spectacle. He has a sword which he brandishes around every now then and whacks down on the table much to everyone's delight.

We also made a trip out to Quneitra, which is an abandoned town just on the edge of Golan Heights. The Golan Heights were seized from Syria by Israel during the six day war in 1967. They made a partial withdrawal from the area and most of it is now a demilitarised zone administered by the UN. Before heading off to Quneitra we first visited the October War Panorama in Damascus, which gives a rather skewed version of the 1973 war with Israel. We watched a short film about the war in Arabic with English subtitles. It refers to Israelis as Zionists and is basically an anti-Israeli propaganda film. Upstairs is the war Panorama - a huge painting depicting the battle around Quneitra. The Syrians are all depicted as big strong soldiers, the Israelis look small, weak and weasel-eyed. As we watched the panorama a loudspeaker was describing the scene in Arabic so we couldn't understand but I have a fairly good idea they didn't have anything good to say about Israel. The sad thing about it is that there were a group of young school children there at same as us basically being taught to hate Israel. Now I know the Arab world has good reason to hate Israel and I don't particularly sympathise with the Israelis, but it was very depressing to these school kids here and it's very difficult to see the problems of the Middle East being resolved anytime soon, when a new generation is being taught to hate.

So anyway after the panorama we headed up to Quneitra itself. On arrival we were given a guide (member of the secret police) to show us around. Most of the place is rubble, what buildings remain were completely gutted by the Israelis before they withdrew. Anything that could conceivably be of use was taken including the windows frames. So only the concrete shells of the buildings remain. I thought the town was no longer populated, although we were told there are five people still living here, and the place has been pretty left as it was to serve as some kind of memorial. It's a really eerie place to walk around, I've never really been anywhere quite like it. All in all it was fairly sombre experience.

On a slightly lighter note we also took a day trip to Bosra to visit - you've guessed it - yet more ruins. Bosra is home to Roman Amphitheatre. It's actually really well preserved and one the largest amphitheatres that isn't built into the side of a hill. Interestingly enough at a later date a castle was built around the theatre. It was pretty cool to see the theatre contained inside the castle. There are also more ruins outside of the castle of the old city. These are scattered amongst the new buildings of the modern town of Bosra. Bosra made a nice day trip out of Damascus.

Other than that we've just been hanging out in Damascus. We caught up with Rachel, whom we met on our way to Aleppo. So we've spent a bit of time with her and met some her UN work colleagues. They've have some Iraqi friends - there are a lot of Iraqi refugees in Damascus - and they put a contemporary dance display. I've not seen any contemporary dance before and wasn't really sure what to expect, but it was very good and very moving considering the circumstances they have come from.

On the topic of Iraqis, we met a guy called Amar who is from Baghdad. He has seen people killed and lost five of his friends since the war in Iraq began. He is educated as lawyer but now can't find any sort of work in Damascus. Meeting someone like this really does put a human face to the consequences of a completely pointless war.

Well sorry if a few parts of this entry haven't been so cheery, but I would to stress that I've a great time in Damascus and I'm really quite sad to leave for Jordan. The good news we have to come back to pick up our Indian visas so we'll probably be back here for Christmas. Looking forward to that and catching up with our friends we've made here. But for now Jordan beckons...

More Syria

From Aleppo we headed out east first to Raqqa. This town doesn't have much to recommend itself but it is a base to visit the ruins of the ancient walled city of Rasafa. We hired a taxi for the day and got driven down to these ruins. It was really nice here, made all the better by the fact there were very few other people around. Our taxi driver seemed to enjoy the place as much as we did and was out taking lots of snaps on his camera phone. There was an underground cavern which was huge, it really took my breath away. From there our taxi driver took us to ruins of another castle called Qala'at Jabar. We've been a bit spoiled for ruins and castles since being in Syria and I didn't find this one so impressive.

On returning to Raqqa we decided not to spend another night here and went straight on to Deir Ez-Zur. This was a really bustling little market town, and a bit off the beaten track. It was a nice place just hang out and watch everything go by. This was also a base to visit yet more ruins - those of Dura Europos and Mari. These sights are right in the east of the country and only about 15 miles from the Iraqi border. Our visit there seemed to raise a lot interest and after quite a long wait in the bus station in Deir, we're fairly sure we had some secret police following us for the day. Anyway we got the bus to Dura Europos and spent a good long while there. At first it doesn't look so impressive, but as you walk towards the back of the ruins it drops right down to the Euphrates and reveals the ruins of citadel on the banks of the river. From here we hitched a lift on an oil tanker to go a further 10 miles or so down the road to Mari. Our driver didn't speak much English but still had a bit of fun with us and joked he was going to take us into Iraq. We arrived at Mari just as the sun was setting so just a quick look round as dusk set in. We returned back to the highway to hitch a lift back Deir. The secret policemen who we had seen a few times in the day pulled up in their car got out and started flagged down all the minibuses heading back to Deir and ushered onto the first one with space on it despite the fact two old ladies who had been waiting much longer than us for a minibus. The women weren't very happy about that and we didn't feel too good about it either, but you can't really argue with secret police.

After Deir it was onto Palmyra. Probably the most famous set of ruins in Syria, it is an ancient Roman city although a temple of some sort existed there 2000 years before the Romans got there. We spent a few days wandering rounds the ruins and I've taken absolutely loads of photos to bore you with. We also met a nice group of other travelers here so hung out with them and a had few drinks in the evenings. I also got a bit of a dicky tummy here that knocked me out for a day or so. I got a few drugs from the pharmacy in town and that seemed to sort me out. On our last day in Palmyra we headed out to the citadel atop a hill which gave fantastic views across the ruins.

From here we headed up to Hama with a German girl Katie whom we met in Palmyra. We did a tour out to Krak de Chevalliers described by TE Lawrance as 'the finest castle in the world' and it's hard to disagree with him. The castle is huge and very well preserved. We spent the best part of a day wandering round it. I can't say much more about it other take a look at the photos to see for yourself.

Although there wasn't that much to do in the town of Hama itself, it was a pretty nice place and we spent a few days chilling out here before heading onto Latakia minus Katie who instead went to Aleppo. On our way to Latakia we stopped at yet another castle. This one was called Qualat Salahdin. While not quite as impressive as Krak de Chevalliers it has a much more impressive setting and it was a beautiful sunny day. In the distance you could see out to the Mediterranean.

Latakia is a small town on the coast. It is a lot more liberal here than other places seen in Syria. Most girls don't wear head scarves and some even have the temerity to walk round in skirts! Latakia was another nice place but we were a bit short on time so just spent one night here and then had a brief visit to Tartus before making our way to Damascus.

We've met up with Phil's girlfriend Merryl here and the three of us will be traveling round for the next three weeks or so. I am really loving Damascus. We've been here for eight days now and plan to spend a few here more before heading onto to Jordan. I'll write more about Damascus a little later. As for now hope anyone reading this is enjoying my blog and that you are well and enjoying life wherever you may be. I am certainly enjoying life at the minute.

Oh yeah one last thing, Merryl has bought a new lead for my camera so I can finally upload photos again - hurrah! So loads more photos of the same thing from about twenty different angles to bore you with! They're all on smugmug under a new Syria category that I've created.

Aleppo, Syria

I've been in Syria for a couple weeks now and I've been having a great time. Despite what some people may believe about this country it is actually a very safe and friendly place to travel through.

We first arrived Aleppo in the north of the country after a bit of an epic 21 hour bus journey from Turkey which involved lots unscheduled stops, me losing my wallet and getting it back minus 50 lira and finally being dumped by the side of the road because our bus was going to Damascus not Aleppo and having to get a minibus for the final 20 miles of the trip. On the plus side we met an Australian called Rachel on the bus who is working the UN Damascus so we were able to get a bit of local information from her.

Aleppo lays claim along with Damascus to oldest continuously inhabited city in the world. It's a really chilled out relaxing place despite its size and I immediately liked the place. Syria feels a lot different to Turkey and it's a lot more like traveling now rather than just being on holiday which is what Turkey felt like.

The immediate joys of Aleppo are the juice bars; they have all sorts of fruits and will whack whatever you like in a blender and make you a massive smoothie - all for just 50p. Coming in a close second was the 15p falafels, served by a friendly bunch of people who kept giving us a complementary falafel on arrival, as if they weren't cheap enough already.

In terms of sights the main attractions are massive souq (market) and the citadel. The souq is a really amazing place. It's a labyrinth of narrow streets, selling pretty much everything you could imagine from sweets and jewelery to bits of string (which I bought four metres of - you can never have enough string I always say) to sheep's intestines (which I didn't buy any of). There are a few guys round here searching out the tourists and luring them into their jewelery shops. We got lured in, and the guy was pretty charming and did a pretty good job almost managing to sell us some, but we were strong and resisted.

The citadel is a very impressive sight. It's built on a hill and is clearly visible from quite a distance away. It's situation atop the hill makes it very difficult to imagine anyone ever being able to successfully lay siege to the place. As you walk up the main bridge there are many holes over head where you can have burning oil spilt on your head. There is also a keep to the left of the bridge for archers to fire on any would be attackers. The main gate is set off to the right when you get to the end on the bridge, placed so to cunningly avoid attack by battering ram. On top of this once through the gate there are a series of right angle turns and about more three more gates to negotiate making attack very difficult indeed. From atop the citadel there are great views across the city.

We used Aleppo as base to do a few tours to some surrounding ruins. We visited the cathedral of San Simeon. This is a guy who lived his on top of an 18 meter high pillar. He had a chain round his neck to stop himself falling off and spent his time giving out advice to the many people that came to visit him. He wouldn't however speak to women, and that included his own mother. He died in 459 AD and was apparently one of the most famous people in the world at the time of his death. The column he lived upon no longer survives but the rest of the cathedral was definitely worth a wonder round.

We also did a tour out to the Dead Cities. I can't actually remember the name of the cities we visited but we spent a fairly pleasant morning wondering round the ruins and then carried onto Apamea. I didn't actually know anything about this place until we turned up there. I was really blown away by the place. It is 2 kilometer stretch of parallel colonnades, stretching as far away as the eye can see. The sun was setting as we walked along it making the scene even more awesome. Far off to one side is huge citadel, and there are ruins of theaters and baths along the way. I've seen a fair few ruins in my time but this was one of the best, made all the better because no one else was there.

From Aleppo we headed out east along the Euphrates to visit some more ruins, which I'll write about in my next post...

Cappadocia Pics

Just a quick post to let you know I've managed to upload some of my Cappdocia pictures from my time in Turkey. You can check them out here.

The internet has been really slow here and the Syrian government has a habit of blocking useful sights like blogger and facebook from time to time so I haven't been able to do much on the internet. I should be getting a new lead for my camera shortly so more photos to be posted shortly, and I'll do a post on Syria soon as well I promise.

Well I have to admit I've been a bit slack on the old blogging front and have now gotten a bit behind. I'm actually now in Syria, just arrived last night in Aleppo. It's a large city but very chilled and I really like it here. Anyway more about Aleppo later; I've done a fair old bit in Turkey since my last post so I'll quickly run through it now.

After Selcuk we headed on to Pamukkale. We met a great couple on the bus Thorsen from Germany and Fatma, living in Germany but actually Turkish, who became our travel companions for the next few weeks. On our first day in Pamukkale we made a trip out to an underground hot spring. It took a little while to get there and wasn't particularly impressive once we got there. The trip was more memorable for the walk back when Fatma discovered a plant with a bud on it that exploded when you touched it. That gave everyone quite a shock. In the evening we had a few beers and bumped into a danish couple Brian and Jette who we first met in Selcuk. Many beers did flow that night and when we finally stumbled home we found we were locked out of our hotel. After a few attempts at climbing the wall our drunk shenanigans finally woke the staff up and we got let in.

The main reason for visiting the Pamukkale is to see the travertines, a bunch of calcium shelves containing pools that cover a ridge at the back of the town. The travertines are also know as the 'Cotton Castle'. I walked up these with a stinking hangover and wasn't enjoying myself very much at all. Luckily however there was a natural hot spring at the top and we spent the rest day soaking in them until my hangover had passed.

We headed onto Fethiye with Thorsen and Fatma, and thanks to their advice we did some trekking on the Lycian Way. This was a mostly peaceful two days trekking in the hills above the coastline of south Turkey. At the end of the first day we descended down the beach and had a very relaxing swim and then stayed in a wonderful pension overlooking the sea. The next day we were up early and carried on trekking. There were lots of beehives all along the way as we trekked which was of great interest to Thorsen who does bee keeping as a hobby. We passed one place where they were collecting the honey and Thorsen marched towards them to see them at work. Despite the bee keepers telling us avidly to stay away we stupidly followed him in. Well the bees didn't like our presence very much and soon myself Fatma and Phil were running away with bees in pursuit. Fatma and Phil both got bees stuck in there hair and I was madly trying to fend a bee off with my walking stick. The strange thing about it is not much fun when the bee is attacking you but as soon as it attacks someone else it suddenly comes completely hilarious. Throughout the attack Thorsen had been inside a tent watching bee keepers collect the honey. We thought he escaped scot-free until we saw come out of the tent running as fast as he could. We eventually got enough distance between ourselves and the bees and they left alone. Thorsen was the only one to actually sustain any stings. He got stung twice but seemed unfazed by it all.

After that little incident we continued our peaceful trek. Towards the end of the day we watched as paragliders flew over the mountains and landed on the beach below and then as light began to fail we made it to the town of Ovicek to get the dolmus back to Fethiye. I was expecting Ovicek to be a little quiet town as everywhere we had trekked for the last two days had seemed so remote and tranquil. In fact Ovicek turned out to be a big British package holiday destination with lots of bright flashing lights and pubs called things 'St George' and 'Harry's Pub'. Quite a shock and a stark contrast from the Lycian way.

We had one more day in Fethiye and used it to make a trip to a local canyon. We made our way up the canyon. The water was pretty cold. After a bit of a walk and climbing over a couple of waterfalls, we made it further than most tourists get. From here on in the water got pretty deep - we walking through it with our day packs held over our heads freezing our bollocks off. It was pretty good fun despite the cold and felt really adventurous.

The next four days were spent taking a boat from Fethiye to Olympus. This was basically a chilled out four days that consisted of lying in the sun on deck, swimming in the sea every now and then and drinking beer. Oh the hardships of traveling. On the last night of the trip we went to ashore to a bar called Smuggler's Inn. This is basically a bar in the middle of nowhere that only exists because people on boat trips stop off here. It was a good blast and surprisingly busy given that it is the end of the season in Turkey now.

After the boat trip we made it to Olympos and stayed in a treetop hostel, although none of the rooms are really in treetops now since it burnt down a few years ago. It was pretty quiet here since it was end of season. We spent a nice afternoon wandering round some ruins by the beach and then doing a spot of sunbathing. We also said goodbye to Fatma and Thorsen here as they headed off to Cappadocia and we stayed in Olympos to do a spot of rock climbing.

The rock climbing was pretty cool. I've done a bit climbing on a wall before but never on a proper rock face. We did a couple of warm up climbs which myself and Phil both did in a doddle. I guess our instructor overestimated our abilities after that and took us onto a much harder climb. I did not make it very far up the climb at all and was soon completely knackered and had no strength left in my arms at all. Phil made a much better crack at it and got farther up. After that our instructor took us to any easier climb but by then we were spent forces and really struggled with it. Despite that it was a lot of fun and something I'd like to try again and get better at.

After the rock climbing the weather turned worse so we headed up to Goreme in Cappadocia land of the lunar landscapes and fairy chimneys. We took the night bus here and arrived early in the morning and checked the Flinstones hotel. We were surprised and pleased to see Brian and Jette here who we had last seen in Pamukkale. The weather wasn't so great here either but I still managed to spend a few days walking around the area taking in the amazing landscape. There really isn't anywhere like this on earth. Tragically I left my lead for my camera in Olympos so you won't be able to see the photos until I manage to get myself a replacement. After a couple days the weather picked up and we were able to do a hot air balloon trip over trip over the area. We got our wake up call to do the balloon trip at 5:30am. This made us very happy as we'd been up drinking late the night before. After the initial shock of being woken up we dragged ourselves out of bed and it was well worth it. The view from the balloon was amazing. A bit of a shame I can't show you my photos right now. The balloon trip will always be remembered however for the landing. For whatever reason our balloon driver (or whatever it is you call a person who is charge of a balloon) decided it would be a good idea to land in a tree. It was very funny and certainly added a little extra to trip that I will never forget. We found time to do a bit more walking round the valleys here also did a spot of mountain biking.

And so after a month in Turkey which has been fantastic, if a little expensive, we decided to head over Syria. It was gruelling 21 hour bus trip to get here, involving lots of long stop overs in bus stations. But it was well worth the journey. I'll write more about Syria in my next post. As for now just know that I'm still having a wonderful time and hope you are all well.

Check my photos on the following links:

• Pamukkale
• Fethiye, Lycian Way, Canyon
• Boat Trip
• Rock Climbing

Gallipoli and Selcuk

First stop after Istanbul was Canakkale. We had a bit of fun getting there after expecting to get a midday ferry across the Sea of Mananma. There was no midday ferry so we had to wait until 6pm to get a ferry. The ferry took us to Bandirma where we a short stop for dinner before getting a bus onto Canakkale. The staff in the restaurant we ate at were very happy to have us there, and the chef sent us complimentary cups of tea. When we finished then the waiter decided he wanted to treat us both to cup of tea as well. All well and good except we had a bus to catch so had to leave rather abruptly.

Canakalle is the stop off point to do a tour of the Gallipoli battle field. I have to say I knew next to nothing about this battle other than it took place at some point in World War I. Ask an Aussie or Kiwi though and they will tell you all about it. The first allied landing took place April 25th 1915. This is an ANZAC day and a national holiday in both Austraslia and New Zealand. It was a pretty humbling experience walking through the war fields and learning about the thousands who lost their lives. It seemed really paradoxical to me that on the one hand the soldiers actions on both sides were heroic and inspiring, but at same time the whole exercise they were involved was completely foolish and a complete waste of life to acheive nothing.

Well after that sobering experience we headed onto Selcuk, the stopping off point to visit the ruins of Ephesus. We checked into a hostel with a rather eccentric set of staff, including an owner who couldn't decide if he was Australian or Turkish, a woman who only ever said "Tomorrow", whcih we eventually discovered meant she wanted to clean our room, the cook Simon who only ever blurted out one word answers to our questions and did his best to be as unhelpful as possible, and most disconcerting of all a little boy who ran around all day barking like a dog. We spent a couple of days hanging about in town eating Kofte kebabs, getting drunk in the evening and generally doing very little. Finally on the third day we got off our lazy arses and went to visit Ephesus with stinking hangovers. Ephesus is the ruins of an old Roman town and amazing amount is still intact so you get a really good idea of how the place was laid out. There's a huge amphitheatre there, and some roman baths. The only problem with the place, apart from the guys outside selling 'genuine fake watches' is the fact that there were just too many other goddamn tourists there, but again of course I was one the goddamn tourists making it so busy there. I've managed to my photos loaded onto smugmug so you can check them out there.

After wandering round the sites we headed back into town and got a bus to Pamukkale. More about that in my next post...

Istanbul

And so I am off on my travels again. My journey actually began in the wonderful town of Luton. Myself and Phil, my travel companion for this journey, decided to spend a night here since our flight was at 6am next day. I can't say much for Luton other than I was glad I only had to spend no more than 8 hours there. After a very early start and an uneventful flight we made it to Istanbul. What should have been a quick 50 minute bus ride into town from the airport turned into about 2 hours when we got stuck in traffic waiting to cross the Bosphorus to get to the European side of Istanbul. When we finally did make it over the bridge it was a pretty impressive sight. The Bosphorus is a wide strait connecting the Black Sea to the north with the Sea of Marmara to the south. As you cross, on what I'm told is the fourth largest suspension bridge in the world, you can see huge mosques and minarets on both banks of the strait. We arrived in Taksim square and after unsuccessfully attempting to get a bus down Sultanahmet, where we are staying, jumped in a cab and took the easy option.

We've spent about a week here and just been doing the tourist things. The highlights would have to be Haga Sophia a huge building that started life as a church, later on becoming a mosque and is now open the public. The building is immense, it's hard to explain how impressive it is. It is quite strange though to see stone glass windows depicting Mary and Jesus alongside Islamic symbols. The Basilica Cistern was also great to see. Anyone who has played tombraider will enjoy this place - an underground cavern with tall columns all very moodily lit.

I was persuaded, by Phil, to go to a Turkish bath and get a massage. This involved getting covered in loads of soap and then being contorted and pushed around by a big fat Turkish man - lots of fun I can tell you.

We've also done a few boat trips, the first southwards to Princes Islands. These are some islands where a Sultan exiled all but one of his sons, so that they would not kill the son he had chosen to succeed him. Although they were exiled they still lived in large palaces and has a pretty good life. We stopped at one of the islands and hired bikes there, spending the afternoon cycling round the island. The other tour we did was up the Bosphorus to the mouth of the Black Sea. It took a couple of hours to get there, we stopped at small village called Anadalou Kavagi and walked up quite a steep hill to some castle ruins. We then had a seafood lunch at the top of the hill overlooking the Bosphorus. The food was great but we got attacked a by a loads of wasps and the largest hornet I have ever seen in my life. The two boat trips we did really gave us an impression of how big Istanbul is, it seems to stretch out endlessly in all directions.

Well Istanbul has been great if a little expensive; the weather hasn't been too great - it's rained a bit which has made Phil really happy - so we're now heading south along Aegean coast in the hope of chasing the better weather.

I am uploading photos as I go along. I'm just been posting on facebook at the moment as smugmug has been too slow to upload to, but don't worry you don't need a facebook account to see them. Below are the links to the Istanbul galleries - sorry I've been too lazy caption to them. I may get round to it due course...

• Istanbul Gallery 1
• Istanbul Gallery 2