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After picking up our Mazda 3 at the Europcar rental office, we navigated out of Aleppo with the help of Michel, a distant relative of mine. He had kindly volunteered to help us find our way to the highway at which point he also agreed to have us dump him at the bus stop to find his way back. This gesture combined with the fact it was Friday morning (Fridays are like Sundays in Muslim countries) made our departure a breeze.
As we drove south past Hama and Homs, we were struck by the amount of garbage that was along the highway, a very sad thing indeed in a country that was basically the cradle of civilization. At Homs, we turned straight east for Palmyra, by now it was pretty clear that we were in the desert. The 2-lane highway shrunk to a single lane and the shoulder disappeared around the same time we started seeing signs announcing Baghdad.
The countryside was desolate, littered only by the occasional village or tents. No camel spottings yet though. Still, as it had been in rural Turkey, we spotted people in the middle of absolutely nowhere standing on the side of the
highway doing God knows what. About 50 km from Palmyra, we passed a rather ominous looking military outpost complete with cold war era Radars on a ridge of sand. 1960’s military truck completed the picture along with some soldiers standing by the roadside with their now familiar machine guns. Obviously they were all too hot to care about us in the least. The temperature in the dessert was about 40 and the Mazda's A/C was working overtime. We both had a moment of jubilation when we spotted a sign for a Petro Canada outpost only to realize that it likely did not have a Tim's.
Palmyra is an ancient city whose history spanned over 4,000 years. It is remarkably well preserved and quite stunning against the desert sand. The little town that has sprawled up next to it is a bit of an eyesore and very touristy, although it was very quiet at the time we were there. The hotel we stayed at was called the Ishtar Hotel, named for the goddess, not the flop 80's movie starring Chevy Chase and Dustin Hoffman. Nothing to write home about but relatively clean and had A/C.
As we walked about
in search of something to eat, I spotted a couple that I had also seen at our hotel and decided to ask them if they had a recommendation. Turns out they were from Belgium and were on week seven of their odyssey through North Africa and the Middle East; they had been to Algeria, Libya, Egypt, Jordan and now Syria. We would run into Anne and Laurent again later that day after our visit to the ancient city.
Palmyra is about 10 square km and is a stunning collection of incredibly well preserved temples, agoras, buildings and columns with a dramatic desert setting as a backdrop. We wandered for a couple of hours in the searing 40 degree sun, our visit interrupted every so often by vendors on motorcycles offering cold beverages or jewellery. We also chatted with a New Zealand family for about 20 minutes while inside the temple of Bel. They were on an odyssey of their own and their young son got out of a few weeks of school in the process, I would guess that he was probably learning more on the trip than he would have in school.
Afterwards, Erin retired to the
hotel while I found an Internet cafe.
In the evening, we decided to head to a buffet dinner at the Cham Palace Hotel, located inside the old city and paid just 400 pounds each. This is where we met our friends from Belgium again, and they invited us to sit with them. We chatted for a few hours, even after being forced to move due to a wind storm blowing through the dessert. We found out that they had similar travel plans to our own and offered them a ride in the rental car rather than having them take the bus. They accepted and we agreed to leave the next day (Saturday) at noon. We scheduled it for noon because we had one very important thing left to do in Palmyra before we left: ride a camel.
I had met Mohammed the day before after asking a restaurant owner about the rides. We negotiated for 2 camels, 1 ½ hours for 3,000 pounds.
We met Mohammed at 8:00 along with the 2 beasts. I watched Erin mount hers first. As you get on, they are lying down with all four legs folded neatly. As soon as it
realized Erin was getting on, her Camel let out a cry that I can only describe as sounding a lot like a Wookie from Star Wars.
Erin jolted backwards as the Camel rose onto its front legs, then the reverse operation as it stood on all four. I got onto mine (which didn't complain like Erin's) with some concern about it's well being, given that I am a larger man, Mohammed assured me that he had brought a strong camel for me. Indeed, it did look bigger than Erin's.
We wandered the ruins and surrounding desert for an hour and a half on what was a surprisingly comfortable ride. When we got close to tourist groups, the touts would follow alongside the camels trying to sell us whatever goods they were hawking. As it turns out, 90 minutes is just about the perfect amount of time to spend on a camel in the desert!
After showering to get the camel smell off, we met with Laurent and Anne and headed for Krak des Chevaliers, north of Damascus...
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