http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Syria/East/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Middle East , Syria , East en-us Thu, 31 Dec 2009 08:16:52 +0000 Thu, 31 Dec 2009 08:16:52 +0000 Syria continuedRight so I left the last entry having just met a fellow biker and his girlfriend looking over my orange crush downstairs. Turns out they're backpacking it this time... but it's pretty obvious he has serious bike withdrawl and I can't blame him considering his pedigree Veteran of an 8 year round the world solo trip and seemingly countless other biking jaunts here and there. Wow. http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Syria/East/Palmyra/blog-457223.html Palmyra Time now for some Roman ruins and a history lesson. After leaving our desert camp in Wadi Rum we drove further North into Syria until we arrived at the ruins of Palmyra which is also the name of the adjacent town. Palmyra dates to before the 1st century BC with many of the ruins and monuments having been built during the reign of the Nabateans and eventually the Romans invaded and conquer http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Syria/East/Palmyra/blog-453449.html After living in Syria for over six weeks we finally got round to exploring some more of the country in our holidays last week when Becka Everitte and I set off all alone to travel to Palmyra and up the Euphrates to Aleppo. We had had rather a late night the evening before our departure due to meeting up with a couple of English guys we met in Lattakia who turned out to be great company and one o http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Syria/East/Palmyra/blog-448178.html What time is the bus...How much is pretty much what my life revolves around right now. I was thinking today as i was walking through the desert i have no clue whats being going on in the outside world All i care about is .... my next bus trip what time the bus is coming where im going to eat what am i going to eat do i have enough water for the day ahead maybe i should buy some more fru http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Syria/East/Palmyra/blog-443546.html DAY 47This morning is a free day in Damascus. We take our time and then head off for Francine to pay and collect her jewellery. Love it and bought another ring as a gift.We head off in taxis for the public intercity bus station. We have booked seats and are off to Palmyra in the northern desert. 3 hours later we arrive in the centre of the Syrian desert. We stay at a quaint hotel and would h http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Syria/East/Palmyra/blog-404347.html On Friday we headed to Palmyra passing up a tour offered by our hotel and taking a bus instead. As usual our tour book made it sound much more difficult to reach than it actually was we just walked about 20 minutes to a bus station and then grabbed the next bus leaving 15 minutes later directly to Palmyra for about 6 total. Our hotel in Hama was charging people about 100 for a day trip t http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Syria/East/Palmyra/blog-388173.html Dag 245. I dag skulle vi til Palmyra ca. 130 km ost for Hama. Vi spiste ikke frokost paa hotellet men kjopte med oss kjeks og vann som vi hadde underveis. Bytte av sjaafor og bil idag en forholdsvis ny Hundai. Vi var tilsammen 5 i bilen sjaaforen en koreaner husker ikke navn en australier Jamie og oss to.Forste stopp var Shamamisfortet. Fortet var bygd av en arabisk familie Shamis Gr http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Syria/East/Palmyra/blog-380226.html Day 25 Palmyra Ruins I took so many photos on Day 25 that the blog has had to be divided into two blogs.The photographs in this blog are solely about the ruins of Palmyra.I mentioned the history of these ruins in the previous blog.We have just come back from dinner in Palmyra. Guess what the power once again went out while we were in the middle of dinner and we couldnrsquot see a thing.It was http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Syria/East/Palmyra/blog-357027.html Day 25 We left Damascus at 8am for the desert town of Palmyra. The trip down was uneventful in that once we had left the smog of Damascus we drove into a rainy fog all the way to Palmyra.Yes this is the desert and it obviously does rain as we have the photos to prove it. It has also been perishingly cold so cold that I still canrsquot feel my feet as I write this blog.On the way out of Damascu http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Syria/East/Palmyra/blog-357022.html Day 3 of the trip was cool. Literally. It is freezing here. So unbelievably cold. I canrsquot believe how cold it has been here. Much colder than home in NZ. Day 3 saw us get up in Damascus bright and early. Mum and Dad were up at 630am for breakfast at the restaurant. I managed to get down there for 700am. Abdul picked us up at 800am and off we set for Palmyra. The first stop for the day was http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Syria/East/Palmyra/blog-356898.html Today was the tour of Syria's star attraction the desert city of Palmyra Tadmor which had a rather lengthy classical history and then faded away after the second century AD. Situated on an a water supply in eastern Syria the palm' bit of the modern name comes from the palm trees growing nearby. Original huhIt was fairly chilly when we started at 8am with a guided tour of the central areas http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Syria/East/Palmyra/blog-351315.html Woke up in the Citadel bright and early to escape the worse of the heat to visit Palmyra. Palmyra is one of the largest set of Roman ruins that are still standing well some of it is anyway. The city was a staging post for the caravans from Asia and Europe and as a result became very prosperous. The leader of the city died under mysterious circumstances and his wife took over Queen Zenobia.Q http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Syria/East/Palmyra/blog-325256.html Nach drei Tagen in und um Aleppo sollte es heute weiter Richtung AssadStausee und spaeter Palmyra gehen jedoch nicht ohne morgens noch die am Montag verpasste Zitadelle anzuschauen.. Den Weg aus der Stadt fanden wir problemlos und bald preschten wir auf einer autobahnaehnlichen Schnellstrasse gen Osten Irak Irak wir fahrn in den Irak D . Nach gut 2 Stunden waren wir am AssadStausee und du http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Syria/East/Dayr-az-Zawr/blog-319834.html Summer School 2 was over so we had the opportunity to get away for a few nights before Summer School 3 began. That meant a late evening bus from Damascus to the desert city of Palmyra. We arrived at 1130pm and were soon drinking refreshing tea in our hotel before settling down for a good nightrsquos sleep.The following morning we set out to climb up to the citadel in the morning sun before the http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Syria/East/Palmyra/blog-311278.html My entire trip to Palmyra cost me 26 USD. 2.5 hr bus Homs to Palmyra 150 SP taxi from Palmyra bus station to hostel 50 SP one night in Citadel Hotel double bed private ensuite 400 SP breakfast 100 SP entry to Palmyra ruins free entry to Temple of Bel 150 SP laundry 175 SP taxi from hotel to bus station 75 SP 3 hr bus Palmyra to Damascus 200 SPTotal 1300 SP 26 USD. And I w http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Syria/East/Palmyra/blog-286943.html So I left you about two weeks ago as having got to Jordan I discovered that the internet was pretty hopeless in fact I would go as far to say it was crap as none of my emails have sent and so onAnyhow following on from my last entry I went out for food and had a really chilled out evening at Casa Mia which is newly opened and despite it's name served typical touristic 'bedouin' food. I had some http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Syria/East/Palmyra/blog-286242.html Being that I've really grown fond of Lebanon and Syria it was dispiriting to leave Lebanon while at the same time exciting to head back to the wonderland of old city Damascus. On the morning of the 6th Chi and I woke up in Beirut toying with the thought of finding our way to a Palestinian camp in northern Lebanon. But after much contemplation regarding time we ended up walking to a bus station http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Syria/East/Palmyra/blog-282165.html 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 http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Syria/East/Palmyra/blog-281184.html So I got up at 530 so that I could be out the door to the bus station at 600 so I could make it for a 40 minute bus ride to the next city to get to a 730am bus to Palmyra. So I arrived in Palmyra at 930am and checked out the ruins before it got too hot out. Like all tourist sites I was getting harrassed to take tours motorcycle rides camel rides etc... But I had already decided to just d http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Syria/East/Palmyra/blog-277562.html We got on the road early decided to try and see some ruins near the north Lebanon border before driving out to Palmyra where we would stay for the night. Roads are poorly marked here and even though we now have a map in aerobic it is still very hard to navigate. We ask for directions frequently and many times since there are such a language barrier people are nice enough to jump in their car bike http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Syria/East/Palmyra/blog-276806.html