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11 July 2010
Today we explored two ruins (Mari and Dura Europos) near the Iraq border. If we were able to cross into Iraq we would probably find plenty more ruins … more contemporary ones caused by man-made situations. Sad but true. It was another 0700 start to avoid the heat of the day. Our driver Nader drove […]
10 July 2010
So, after talking to my hotelier Abdullah yesterday, I traded my trip to Lattakia and Aleppo for a town near the south-east border crossing into Iraq! He (along with other travellers) said that Lattakia wasn’t nice and I could instead have a cool dip in Lake Assad while having a view of an ancient citadel! […]
9 July 2010
I feel like I need a day off. I had the option of going to Apamea or Palmyra (for late morning departure in time for sunset). Both are fabulous Roman Ruins … both have columns standing on the side of the main street giving visitors a good feel for the scale of the place. I’ve […]
8 July 2010
Today is the reason I came back to Syria (apart from the fact that I had expiring Emirates Skywards miles to use up). I wanted to re-visit Crac de Chevalier, which is the most impressive crusader castle! The Riad Hotel organised a trip for SYP1100 (about EUR17) for nearly 11 hours (including waiting) use of a […]
7 July 2010
Tasty Start I started the day with breakfast in a hole-in-the-wall cafe … Turkish coffee, OJ squeezed in front of you and the most beautiful croissant. It was warm and not too buttery or flakey, with a cavity inside that had been filled with salted butter that’ been melted away. Being the pig that I […]
22 October 2004
Above: Making a stop near the border. Today, all of four of us will venture from Syria into a new country, Jordan. We took a taxi to Baramke station to try find a service taxi to Amman. But we didn’t get very far because, en route, the taxi driver found us a service taxi that […]
21 October 2004
Moving down to Damascus Today we head from Aleppo down to Damascus to join up with Pat and Fiona who should have arrived from Hama and Palmyra. We checked-out of Mandaloun Hotel after breakfast and took a taxi to the bus station. We were able to hop on a departing bus immediately after a […]
20 October 2004
Aleppo’s historic hotels We had the breakfast around 0800 at the same basement restaurant which we ate at last night. They seemed set up for the German market with a selection of cold cuts in addition to the usual Middle Eastern egg, cheese, breads and pastries (but no pickles). I ate carefully at breakfast because […]
19 October 2004
Getting ready I woke at 0500 and lay till 0630. We got packed up and headed out for a brief walk around the town of Hama before breakfast at 0715. I wanted to see what changes, if any, since our visit two years ago. Text continues after this gallery. Pat and Fiona joined […]
18 October 2004
Above: Temple of Bacchus. See the size of the man at the bottom? Roman Ruins of Baalbek Today is a big day. We plan to start from Beirut to Baalbek for sightseeing, then hopefully continue to Hama in Syria. I have concerns that the border in the north of Lebanon may not be open to […]