Palmyra and I'm still alive!

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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 on!

Anyhow 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 zucchini stuffed with rice and lamb pretty yummy really!

Woke up early as I was meeting my French tour group to go to the tombs. Went and bought my tickets for the tombs and hoped that I hadn't missed the group just as I was beginning to despair the car turned up and in I hopped!

The tombs were pretty cool but kind of spooky. The first tomb was a bit like multi storey car park except that instead of cars being parked it was dead bodies! There were 3/4 floors and each one had around 8 body areas in it containing 5 bodies heaped one on top of the other! There was some decoration in it but the majority of it has been removed to various museums in Syria which is a pity as seeing things in situ is much cooler than going to umpteen different museum.

The second tomb was underground and part of it was specifically for one family the rest of the tomb was comprised of random people who had decided to buy a plot for themselves. This was much more interesting with some stunning designs and so on - unfortunately photography was not allowed in here as appears to be the case in Syria whenever there is something spectacular to see/photo!

From here I got dropped of at the start of the ruins and walked right to the end. En route I attracted the attention of a 'bedouin' who I assume wanted to try his luck poor sod got dragged around Palymra for miles and went home empty handed!!! But I saw most of the site before it got to hot. Having been walking solidly all morning I decided to go back to town to get some lunch and then went to escape the heat before going back to the site in the late afternoon. Watched the sunset sitting amongst the ruins with a couple of camels who were eating and their bedouin owner who knows Diana! He was related to the earlier bedouin and I was invited back to their restaurant/campsite. So on to the camel I got which was named Cassanova and off we trundled to the restaurant. The food was okay and it was a reasonably fun evening though the amourous advances were not particularly welcome and were firmly rebuffed sorry parentals you havent got me married of yet though I have had several marriage proposals!

Anyhoo following on from this I merrily went back to Casa Mia to pay for the previous nights meal as having been talking to the owner etc. we had said goodbye without thinking about the bill!

The following day I set my alarm for 4 am but when it went off I decided bed was much more sensible especially as I was liable to be the only one crazy enough to be awake at that time beside the bedouins and who knows how sensible that would of been! So bed won over and a few hours later I woke up and walked back out to the site to see the temple of baal and the museum. Both were incredible and what staggered me was that in the temple of baal there were remains of some of the zodiac - I hadnt realised how old 'horoscopes' etc. were.

That afternoon I returned to Damascus and went online during which M and D called me to tell me about Melody so a very sad Camilla had a quiet last few days in Syria.

Anyhow I have to dash and am off to Egypt tomorrow so my Jordan adventures will be up soon

xoxox

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