After Palmyra, we headed back westward to the town of Hama. Hama is known for its large norias or waterwheels. The norias were once used to raise water from the low-lying Orontes river into aqueducts that delivered the water to agricultural areas and gardens. The main attaction of Hama for us was as a jumping off point for sites in the region. We also enjoyed many cheap ($1) tasty chicken shwarmas. Krak des Chevaliers is a large castle that was once of great strategic importance. Whoever occupied this post overlooking the Homs Gap (break between the mountains to the north and the Lebanese mountains to the south) could more or less control the flow of goods between the coast and inland Syria. As you might imagine, the view from Krak is stunning. Approaching Krak from the ... read more

There are three ways to get from Egypt to Jordan. As the two countries are not actually adjacent, the traveller has to either make a short run across the southern tip of Israel, or take one of two overpriced ferry options. Though potentially the cheapest of the options, making the trip across Israel is not advised for anyone planning to travel on to Syria or Lebanon since neither of these countries will allow entry to a person with an Israeli entry or exit stamp in his passport. It's true you can get the Israeli authorities to stamp a piece of paper instead, however, the Egypt port of exit or Jordan port of entry stamp will give you away as having crossed the border anyhow. In the end we took the fast ferry from Taba to Aqaba. ... read more

Thankfully Egypt is blessed with a mild winter climate making it a welcome break after those chilly nights in Tunisia. And other than a small strip of land along the Mediterranean Sea, rain seems virtually un-heard of in this country. Amazingly, the population of Egypt is almost exclusively dependent on rains that fall thousands of kilometres and more than half a continent away for it's water supply. The Nile makes it all possible. The most remarkable memories of Cairo are probably the traffic and the hassels. It turns out that walking like an Egyptian in Cairo has little to do with awkward side profiles and stiff limbs stuck out at odd angles, but rather being able to alternately sprint, stop, sprint, stop, sprint while crossing the street in Cairo's mad traffic. Certainly talking on a mobile ... read more

Having failed to receive our Iranian visas and recognizing that it was winter in most of the Middle East, we did some serious re-thinking of where to go from Bahrain. Originally, we had planned to travel overland from Pakistan to Iran, Turkey and from there to Syria, Lebannon, Jordan, Egypt and across North Africa to Morocco. We also confirmed that overland travel in North Africa was going to be unlikely across the Egypt/Libya and Libya/Tunisia borders and impossible across the Tunisia/Algeria and Algeria/Morocco borders. Libya and Algeria also require that we book tours in advance in order to get visas. In a nutshell: visiting all of these countries would necessitate a whole series of flights and special (read: expensive) arrangements to make it happen. So, we decided to cut our losses and head for the warmest ... read more

feeling satisfied that yes, laura and i were not adequately informed archeological enthusiastes who would appreciate a pile of bricks for being more than just a pile of bricks, these two laypersons woke up with the sun and skipped out of town. with moenjodaro at our backs we head out to the road in the hopes of finding some kind of ride. it quickly became apperant that we were a little early for the cycle rickshaws and getting a ride could take a while so we decide to hump it up to the next intersection a couple of kilometers up the road that seems to have a little more action. but as it often is in life you start to think of something (a ride) and voila it falls into your lap, or in this case ... read more