Days 15-20: Syria

Met Mike from airport late Friday night. Nothing pretty about Damascus Airport, in fact it was particularly unpleasant. As the great Douglas Adams noted, it can hardly be a coincidence that no language on Earth has ever produced the phrase, 'as pretty as an airport.' Airports are ugly. Some are very ugly. Some attain a degree of ugliness that can only be the result of a special effort. Damascus Airport fell into the latter category.

Day 15 (Saturday): Damascus

Visited Ummayad mosque in Damascus, putting on Islamic dress in the amusingly titled 'Putting on Funny Clothes Room'. Loved the long flowing skirt - it felt free and refreshing. Might have to buy myself one. Mosque is 8th century and contains an ornate open courtyard, a prayer hall and shrines to John the Baptist and to Saladin. JtB's shrine contains his head - he must have been a bicephalous baptist as he has another in Spain. Minaret at southeast corner of mosque is called Minaret of Jesus as Muslims believe that is where Jesus will appear at the end of the world. Whilst waiting for Jesus a pigeon shat in my hair. Mike laughed a lot.

Got bus to Palmyra in the afternoon. Desert made the Romanian steppe look like Vegas.

Day 16 (Sunday): Palmyra

Day of the trip so far. Spent 8 hours exploring Palmyra. Best classical site we've visited by a long way and we've been to a few. Site is vast, there are few tourists and you're free to explore as much as you want. All the usual Roman temples, theatres, colonnades etc, but with a local twist (Mike - feel free to comment on the differences between Palmyran and Roman architecture). Site also had vernacular burial chambers which allowed us to explore and pretend to be Henry Walton Jones (senior and junior). Climbed citadel in afternoon, took a well earned nap on top of castle and watched sunset.

In evening managed to get an underground disco going with the aid of some lovely australian ladies and some Croatian oil workers. Bar was a fake papier mache cave underneath a cheap restaurant, beer cost £1 a can and shishas were £2. We plugged an ipod in and mixed western music with syrian. Soon the waiters, manager and owner were dancing with us having a great time, though the less said about Syrian dancing the better. It involves holding your arms out crucifixion style, holding hands with another man and hopping from left foot to right and back. Terrible, shockingly bad, my 2 year old nephew could do better. Syrian men nearly had heart attacks when the lovely Australians started dancing - one waiter was noticeably excited.

Day 17 (Monday): Hama

Bus to Hama via Homs. Hospitality of Syrian people continued to amaze. Got chatting to a sweet 6 year old girl who shared all her food with us. Older Syrian men were communicating through her which resulted in lots of laughter. Showed photos of my nephews, two year old william and 11 month old t-pot (thomas), which went down very well. They didn't quite understand the word nephew so had to pretend my sister was my wife which was a bit weird. As little girl was jumping off bus she gave me her pink wristbands to remember her by.

Cannot believe that Bush labelled this place in the Axis of Evil. He was referring to the government, not to the people, but still, its a really shitty thing to do to a country. Syrians without a doubt the nicest people I've ever met. Ultra friendly, keen to chat and learn about your life, willing to go out of their way to welcome you and never asking for anything in return. In Hama we bought suncream in a pharmacy and asked the way to the bus station. Pharmacist shut up his shop and walked us the 20 minutes to the bus station. He asked for nothing in return. Its a wonderfully refreshing country and after the hassle of Istanbul (and the hassle that will follow in Egypt) it made me feel very positive about the world.

Hama is a pretty town full of 16th century norias (waterwheels). It was one of Syria's prime tourist attractions until the early 80s when it became a hotbed of extremism. In 1982 the Muslim Brotherhood took over the town and threw out the local government and police. Response of President Hafez al-Asaad was similar to the US action in Fallujah in 2004. He declared that anyone remaining in Hama was a terrorist and flattened the city. Much of the old city was destroyed and over 40,000 killed. Remnants of old city are still beautiful and are particularly atmospheric at night - norias are lit up and its easy to believe you're in the 16th century.

Days 18-19 (Tuesday- Wednesday) - Ill in Hama

Chronically ill so stayed for 3 nights, put guidebook down and did survey of Syrian sanitation. Toilets a mix of english and french style, hotel toilets were clean, well lit, bearable locations where it was easy to spend half a day writhing in agony. Restaurant toilets seriously grim. Slept on a roof for £3 per night each. Great roof with comfy beds and wide variety of smells from the street below - spices, freshly cooked kebabs, sewage and an occasional waft of toilet (though that may have been Mike).

Hotel was surrounded by mosques so woken abruptly at 5am every morning. Mosques to the north and south had quality muezzin with beautiful voices. Mosque to the west a loud, irate, out of tune, muezzin which we wasn't so much fun. The good muezzin would start first, gently waking you from the land of slumber. The bad muezzin would then join in, jolting you into the land of the living. Imagine being woken by Bach played very softly followed by Metallica at full volume.

Took enough immodium to make it to Krak de'Chevaliers on the Wednesday. Best castle I've ever been to, perched on huge hill overlooking modern Lebanon and the Med. Ran around a lot (it was good immodium), I was Richard the Lionheart (we share a name and birthday), Mike was Saladin (he is arabic in colouring). Beer, beautiful beer, in cafe at bottom of castle.

Day 20 (Thursday): Damascus

Got bus back down to Damascus and checked onto another roof as recommended by Guy. Made it past Ummayad mosque without being attacked by pigeons. Had Syrian bath/ scrub/ message in 12th century bath house. Felt cleaner than I'd felt in months though all hard work devoted to sun-tan was wasted.

Met Guy and a couple of Danish girls in the Christian Quarter in the evening and had a few beers. Danish girls had some trouble with Arab men so we chivalrously agreed to be their husbands for next few days. The Danes were also going to Jordan the next stay so we said our good-byes to Guy and escorted our new wives to the roof for an early night.

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