Blogs from West, Syria, Middle East - page 2

Po herbatce u Beduina wyjechalismy w kierunku miasta Hama, taksowka, ktora Beduin nam zalatwil. Okazalo sie jednak, ze wszystkie drogi prowadza do Grubego, czyli kierowcy, z ktorym jechalismy poprzedniego dnia do hotelu. zauwazylismy zasade, zastosowana przynajmniej w naszym przypadku, ze jak kierowca raz dopadnie turyste, to potem pobiera procent od wszystkich uslug na jego rzecz swiadczonych. W ciagu dnia jezdzilismy z bratem Grubego, a sam Gruby odebral nas z hotelu, magicznie zmiescil nasze cztery wielkie torby do samochodu Kia Rio i podwiozl do jakiegos kuzyna, pobierajac od nas za to 500 lokalnych funtow ‘commission’, ze niby na paliwo, a de facto swoistego haraczu. Potem jego kuzyn raczyl nas beduinska muzyka, bez wykonawcy czy tytulu. Beduin music. Mijalismy na przemian znaki wskazujace, jak daleko do Iraku, bazy wojskowe, lotniska i ciezarowki wiozace czolgi. Do tego jeszcze zol ... read more

We set off after Palmyra for Crac Des Chevaliers, a well preserved crusader castle. The trip went well and after changing buses in Homs, we suddenly found ourselves surrounded by greenery we hadn't seen in Syria before. All of a sudden large sweeping valleys opened up full of crops, olive groves and little villages looking more like what we'd expect from the Greek or Italian countryside. It was a lovely change of scenery after three weeks in the desert. Crac Des Chevaliers (or 'The Crac' as it is otherwise known) is not hard to spot. Perched atop one of the highest points in the mountain range it looks over all the small villages and roads leading to the top. It is quite majestic and awe-inspiring. Our hotel had nothing going for it other than having stunning ... read more

To get to Saladins from Aleppo I tried following the road signs for a while, which went OK more or less. Then I found myself on a 'new' highway, which looked great to start with. But I started getting suspicious when I saw more and more traffic coming the other way on the same side of the highway, and these small hills of dirt started appearing across the road. I think that what happened is that they started to build a new highway, but never quite got round to finishing it (or they are just working extremely slow) as there are potholes all over the place before the road has even been officially opened. The sudden end of the road (a 20 metre drop straight down without warning signs) confimed my suspicions. Backtracked a bit, and ... read more

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 before, he also built another mosque where his mother is buried. ... read more

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 the women made the sandwiches in this circular stone oven, putting the dough right on the sides of the interior with a big splat. Then we headed up to Crac, which sits high on a ... read more