Cyprus Leaking water pumps, motorbike crashes. hospitals and dental surgery behind me (I hope!), I finally set off from Nicosia on Sunday 22nd November for a short first leg over to Northern Cyprus, planning to stay with friends and try and chill out a bit before catching the ferry to Turkey on Monday morning. I wasn't only leaving all that negative, trip delaying crap behind either... 5 years of living in Cyprus has built up some fantastic friendships and it was all pretty emotional packing the last little bits on the bike and saying goodbyes. All I can say is I'll [View Full Entry]

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Qardaha es el pueblo de la familia del presidente, ahí están enterrados en un mausoleo Hafez el Assad que murió en el año 2000 y su hijo Basil fallecido seis años antes, así como el de la madre de Hafez el Assad en una mezquita aparte. Qardaha Hafez el Assad’in memleketidir, orada Hafez al Assad 200’de öldü ve oğlu, Basil altı sene önce, türbeleri yer alıyor. Hafez al Assad onun annesi için bir cami yaptırdı. Qardaha is the place where Hafez el Assad was born, he died in 2000 and has a mausoleum whith his son Basil who died six year [View Full Entry]

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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 [View Full Entry]

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There is this amazing city in the north-west of Syria: unspoiled beaches, a more liberal atmosphere and hardly any tourists, or so we were told by the Dutch institute. In retrospect, we should have been able to tell that this idyllic, calm and clean place cant really exist in Syria. What we couldn't have foretold is that it turned out to be a nightmare. After a bus trip and the most expensive / short minibus ride experienced so far, we arrived at the beach chalets. They were less chalet-like and beachy than expected (no beach in sight). This did not spoil [View Full Entry]

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We arrived into Beirut late because the UN Naval ship would not let us inside the 15mile exclusion zone at first, eventually we were at the wharf side but looked bit scary a tank, troop carrier and armed troops everywhere plus the naval ship with its helecopter sitting on the platform. Had a great tour of the town , beautiful beaches and coast line no wondr this was called the Paris of the middle east, some 150 banks set up here because of the privacy laws, then to the ld area ,ruins of roman bathes, many building have the marks of [View Full Entry]

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On Thursday morning, we got up early to head to Crac de Chavelliers, which is a really interesting site a couple of hours from Hama. We ate breakfast at the hotel, but should have known better, because Ibrahim stopped at this roadside stand with a circular pit oven, where two women were making extremely good breakfast sandwiches. We were stuffed, but have learned the hard way that syrians will not take no for an answer when it comes to offering food. And more food, and more food... reminds me a lot of my Italian relatives. :) We got to see how [View Full Entry]

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Dag 243 og 244. Tirsdagen hadde vi en rolig dag; vi gikk rundt i gatene og kikket, og var paa souqen. Vi har mulighet til aa lage mat paa hotellet paa formiddagene - et lite kjokken som de ansatte bruker. Selv om vi folte at vi trengte oss paa, laget vi lunsj der idag. Valget var spansk omelett (en av de ansatte saa med stor interesse paa den lille stekepannen vaar i teflon, og kjokkenkniven vaar). Paa ettermiddagen var vi nok en gang paa juicebaren. Da vi var der var strommen borte - hver dag stenges strommen i et par timer [View Full Entry]

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Dg 242. Siden vi skulle paa heldagstur idag, maatte vi opp forholdsvis tidlig. Vi skulle kjore kl. 08.30, saa vi spiste frokost paa hotellet. Istedenfor guidet tur hadde vi leid sjaafor med bil - i regi fra hotellet. Det var fast pris paa bilen pr. dag, alt etter hvor langt man skulle kjore. Det var 2 tyske jenter som skulle dele bil med oss, saa vi betalte 1 600 SP. Til forskjell fra turen vi hadde faatt pris paa i Aleppo (6 000 SP) var dette en ganske god pris - selv om vi naa reiste uten guide. Mange av stedene [View Full Entry]

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Ugarit (actual Ras Shamra رأس شمرة; en árabe) 35°36′06.60″N 35°47′07.58″E / 35.601833, 35.7854389 fue una antigua ciudad portuaria, situada en la costa mediterránea al norte de Siria a pocos kilómetros de la moderna ciudad de Latakia, en la región asiática conocida como Levante. Esta ciudad fue fundamental en la historia de las grandes civilizaciones del Cercano Oriente, especialmente durante el período de esplendor en el cual Egipto tuvo estados vasallos en el Levante, período que quedó registrado con precisión [View Full Entry]

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Dag 240 og 241. Vi bestilte frokost paa rommet, en veldig behagelig maate aa starte dagen paa. Vi tok drosje til bussterminalen og betalte betraktelig mindre enn det vi gjorde til hotellet (det er alltid saa vanskelig aa vite hva det koster naar man kommer paa nye steder, og drosjesjaaforene utnytter veldig ofte dette). Da vi kom til terminalen var det en kar som spurte hvor vi skulle, og henviste oss til rett busselskap da vi sa Hama. Vi skjonte ingenting av det som sto paa billetten, det eneste vi visste var at bussen skulle gaa kl. 12 og at det [View Full Entry]

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