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Syria First things first - we stopped at Duty Free - one bottle of the finest champagne at a ridiculously cheap price for a romantic venue to be determined. Lindt chocolate was also considered an essential purchase.
Truck is now full of booze - Frosty's occupants are all very happy.
Aleppo The perception you have on TV is not what you get when you are there in person. It's not as dangerous a place as you are led to think (if you exclude the occasional truck driving the wrong way down the motorway) but it is a bit of a tip.
No matter where you stand there are pictures of the president everywhere. It is a country with very little advertising so imagine replacing EVERY billboard, bus stop, shop window, fly poster and car windows with a picture of the president - not the same one there are variations on a theme but he is absolutely everywhere. Now add the fact that we arrived the week of the elections (which everyone felt was a forgone conclusion) then you have rallies, school children with banners etc - it's all very different.
From a travellers point
of view this place is so cheap - you get nearly 100 Syrian pounds to a GBP. This means you can eat out for less than 30p and in all the time we were in Syria we spent virtually nothing (if you ignore the champagne and chocolate).
As for Aleppo I (Andy) managed to lock ourselves inside our own hotel room - a feat I (Andy) repeated once again in Cairo with a bathroom door - the shouts of HELP, mingled with uncontrollable giggling fits and banging of the door being more than a little embarassing on both occasions....
The town itself we walked around, visited a Falafel shop (where the owner who was a very nice man would not less us go without viewing his entire premises and giving us free food), the Barron Hotel (where Lawrence of Arabia once stayed), the Citadel was shut (as was Damascus which we would get to later) and that was about that...
Hamas A town which was notable for it's waterwheels and the filthiest ladies loo we have seen so far. The End.
Krac Des Chevaliers The French translation being "Fort of Knights" where Richard the
Lionheart was said to converse with the Knights of the Round Table. Now it finds itself 12km from the Lebanon but we have really atmospheric photos of mist and a Castle on a hilltop etc... We had a hotel overlooking this location and enjoyed dinner watching the mist roll in.
Palmyra This was a Roman and Ionian ruin which was populated until 1930. We had not heard of the place before arriving and it made it all the more interesting and unexpected. The main building still standing contained the river of blood, a channel that collected the sacrificial blood and ran underneath the city. Only 30%!o(MISSING)f the site has been uncovered in 100 years so their is still some work to do. The site was 5km x 3km so it is just huge.
I (Carla) was amazed to find that I was still able to pick out my star sign from the painting in the roof of the temple.
After lunch we drove on towards Damascus passing signs for Iraq (152km) and Baghdad before visiting the Baghdad Cafe on Route 66. We were still in Syria before anyone asks!!!
Damascus In Damascus we
camped - on the only square piece of grass in an industrial estate. This was budget travel at it's cheapest. The first night we sweltered in the tent and the 2nd we slept under the stars, and woke up a little dewy. To top it all by this time virtually all of the bus including the guide and driver had come down with Delhi Belly.
Damascus was shut when we visited as it was Friday, the religious day. We entered a mosque looking like extras from Lord of the Rings and "7 Up" was renamed "Cheer Up". Those are our memories of Damascus.
From here we travelled to Jordan....
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Jon Yates
non-member comment
Hicks, mmmm the name rings a bell
I've seen filthier toilets than that in Swindon. Hell I've seen filthier toilets in the Zurich offices.