Blogs from Krak des Chevaliers, West, Syria, Middle East

It's 2011! Happy New Year! Today we woke up early. I had arranged the day before for a taxi to take us to Krak des Chevaliers. Krak des Chevaliers is also known as Qala'at al-Hosn. The place is THE best Crusader castle still standing today. It is a seriously impressive place and need few hours to enjoy. Slight problem, it is 250km from Aleppo, or 220km for Damascus. We decided to hit the place from Aleppo and to finish our day 70km south of Aleppo visiting the Dead cities of Jerada and Nuweiha. If you have a lot of time in front of you, you can make it to the fortress by public transport, but time is not on our side on this 1st of January. The same night, we have our train back to Damascus...I ... read more

Krak des Chevaliers and out into the dessert, Palmyra From Aleppo were journeyed to the Crusader fort called Krak des Chevaliers. Like many old religious and fortified structures in the Middle East it represents a mixture of styles as each new conqueror arrived and put their mark on it. The fort is in a remarkable state given its age, dating from the 10th century. The French undertook some restoration work in the 1930’s but since then nothing has been done, the Syrian government preferring to leave it in its current state. After ‘attacking the castle’ as our guide refers to our explorations we were taken to a restaurant with a set menu. Now when your guide says you are going to this place, it’s going to cost you £300 and there is nothing else on offer ... read more

We left Syria and headed to Lebanon not knowing what to expect. From the level of anxiety evident on our driver Wael's face, we were concerned the crossing would be an ordeal...and we were not disappointed! We drove through some back roads, wandered around some small villages and passed through some military checkpoints before we found the border crossing. Of course, there were soldiers everywhere and very little English was spoken. We pulled up, parked the car and got out with many eyes fixed on us. We stood by the car for awhile as our driver worked on the paperwork for the rental car to leave the country. We noticed that no one else was attempting to cross the border from either side. We were the only show in town and it stayed that way for ... read more

Is that a camel's head for sale? The souks of Allepo Our first stop of the morning was a local juice bar - something that seems very popular in Syria. We walked as a group to the juice bar for our morning breakfast of juice and cheese bread before meeting our local tour guide named Ahmed. Ahmed was a little old man wearing a white hat and a tattered old blue suit. He had a very strong English accent and spoke in very clipped tones, enunciating every syllable as he spoke. He took us for a tour of the city showing us what he called the ‘New Town’ - but in actual fact - looked very old and weary to me. As we walked through the town, I wasn’t surprising to discover that we were the ... read more

Der Verkehrsminister der Syrisch-Arabischen Republik hat erlassen: Die Strassenverkehrsordnung in alphabetischer Reihenfolger A) Abkuerzungen ueber Baustellen, die Gegenfahrbahn, Feldwege o.ae. sind grundsaetzlich erlaubt und erwuenscht. Ampeln: Besitzen drei Farben und leuchten. Sie dienen der Behinderung des Verkehrs. Autos, welche direkt an oder hinter der Haltelinie stehen, die bei rot-gelbem Licht noch stehen, stellen ebenso eine -Behinderung dar. Autos, welche in der Reihe dahinter stehen, haben erstere gnadenlos auszuhupen Arabische Straكenbilder geben ein schoenes Muster ab. Achtung Kamele! Mit ebenjenen ist ueberall auf der Fahrbahn stets zu rechnen. Autobahnen sind grundsaetzlich dreispurig, die Spur ganz rechts ist das, was einige Laender „Standstreifen“ nennen. Er eignet sich fuer -Motorraeder ebens... read more