1 July 2006 - more Middle Eastern delights

After writing the last update, we set off to explore Aleppo, enjoying the relative calm on the streets due to it being Friday (the Muslim holy day and therefore the day of rest in Syria - unlike Turkey, which although predominantly Muslim is officially a secular state and therefore has its weekend on Saturday and Sunday as in Europe).  It was quite eerie looking down over the city from the Citadel and listening to prayers being sung from hundreds of minarets across the city at the same time (although not at all in synch!).  A few of the stalls in the souk were open, but there were no customers and the place felt like a ghost town.  Quite different from the hustle and bustle when we returned the following day.  The souk in Aleppo is definitely the best we have been to so far, partly because it is not aimed at tourists at all, so the stalls tend to sell goods that are much more interesting than the usual souvenirs.  The butchers' stalls with whole lamb carcasses hanging up for dissection in the course of the day and the spice stalls with their pyramids of multi-coloured spices were particularly eye-catching.  Another fantastic find in Aleppo was the juice stalls selling freshly squeezed juices, milkshakes and toasted cheese sandwiches - the perfect place for breakfast.  We particularly recommend the banana milkshakes!

From Aleppo, we drove south to Hama, famous for its enormous wooden water wheels which were constructed to scoop water from the river and deposit it into aqueducts.  We stopped to have a look at one of these and then drove east to investigate one of the villages where traditional beehive-shaped houses made of mud are still inhabited.  Up to this point the landscape we had driven through in Syria had consistently been arid desert, but as we headed south west from Hama towards Krak des Chevaliers the landscape changed completely to lush green hills.  The people in this area also seemed to be different - although it was very rural, few of the women wore headscarves and many wore short sleeves, indicating that this was a predominantly Christian area.  The crusader castle at Krak des Chevaliers, when it finally came into sight, did not disappoint.  Perched on a hilltop overlooking the valley below and the surrounding hills, it looked enormous even from a distance.  We camped for the night at a rather run-down hotel/restaurant next to the castle.  Next morning we were among the first to enter the castle and had the place almost to ourselves, although the number of tour guides offering their services and small boys hawking souvenirs in the car park suggested that it could get pretty busy later on.  The castle is really well-preserved and the views from the walls and the inner towers are stunning.  The enormous banquet hall (complete with original - and rather smelly - latrines) was particularly impressive.

Arriving in Damascus later that afternoon, we headed for Kaboun Camping, 4km out of town, which we'd heard about from other travellers.  It seemed to be a nice-enough campsite, but when we asked the price we were told it would be 600 Syrian pounds (about 6.50 UK pounds) a night.  This seemed quite a lot, as we would have to pay to get into and out of the city centre and our Lonely Planet suggested we'd be able to stay in the centre for about the same money.  This turned out to be quite true - we ended up staying at Al-Rabie Hotel, which was essentially a backpackers' hostel, and paying a little more (700 Syrian pounds) to have a double, though we could have slept in a dorm for 300 SP each (or on the roof for 150 SP each, though this didn't seem a very appealing option as everyone who slept there was woken at 7am by the baking hot sun).  The Al-Rabie was a friendly place with a cool shady central courtyard.  We had a bit of a struggle getting the Landy there through the tiny backstreets and one-way system, but in the end we managed to park right in front of the front door!  We met some nice people while staying there and had a couple of good nights out on the beers at Karnak (a somewhat dodgy drinking den on the Al-Merjeh square near our hotel).  We really liked the bustle of Damascus - arriving in Aleppo we had thought it was pretty busy but it was nothing compared to Damascus!  The Umayyad Mosque, in the old city, was particularly impressive.  The souk was much grander than the one in Aleppo, and a bit more touristy, but we still enjoyed having a wander around.  The Christian quarter was also quite interesting and we had a pleasant afternoon strolling round and peering down alleyways and into courtyards.  After our second (slightly less heavy, due to the residual effects of the first) night out on the town, we headed south towards Jordan.

Even at the border crossing, the atmosphere in Jordan was very different from Syria.  Everything seemed much more organised and Western in approach.  Everyone we spoke to welcomed us to Jordan.  The man at the immigration desk actually apologised for keeping us waiting when he went to deal with something else half way through checking our passports!  It was a long time since we'd been anywhere where such emphasis was placed on good manners and, though not unpleasant, it actually felt very strange!

Driving into Amman, we continually had the impression of being in a western country (although the landscape was just as arid as Syria and there was much evidence of poverty).  Amman itself seemed to be full of fast-food outlets and five-star hotels.  Not being inclined to stay in the city (we had only bought car insurance for a week at the border, as the alternative was to pay for a full month), we renewed our acquaintance with McDonalds (not sure when we'll see one of those again!), got some cash out and headed west to the Dead Sea.  It was strange watching the altitude on the GPS fall below sea level when we were still descending towards the shimmering blue Dead Sea - at 400m below sea level this is the lowest point on the planet.  Even more strange was the way the intensely salty water felt when we went in for a dip - it was like some kind of strange salty slick on your skin.  Even the tiniest drop in your mouth tasted disgusting and in your eyes was absolute agony.  It was quite fun to lie back and float on the surface of the water (though, again, very peculiar!) but we didn't linger long!  On arrival, we had spotted a Czech Land Rover in the car park and we got chatting to its owners, who turned out to be on their way to Africa.  They had managed to get a visa for Saudi Arabia, which is no mean feat as tourist visas are very rarely granted - they had only got one because they were lucky enough to know someone with connections in the Saudi embassy in the Czech Republic!  They had also had a stroke of luck in getting their carnet de passage for the Land Rover - in place of our 5000 euro deposit at the ADAC in Munchen (already a substantial improvement on the 50,000 the RAC in England wanted) they only had to leave a deposit of 200 euros with the Czech automobile association!  We know where to go next time we need a carnet...

We drove south towards Petra and bush-camped overlooking a beautiful valley in the middle of nowhere.  The scenery in western Jordan (driving down the King's Highway) was very beautiful and rugged, unlike anything we had seen in Syria.  Petra itself was very impressive (though at 21 Jordanian Dinars - about 16 UK pounds - per person we would have been pretty cross if it wasn't!).  We had heard from the Czechs that there was a stage being erected in front of the Treasury (the most famous building in Petra - see photo) which they felt spoiled the view completely and therefore spoiled the whole site.  Perhaps because we were expecting this and also probably because they were much keener photographers than we, we didn't feel the stage affected our experience.  It was also quite cool to know that the same evening we were there, there would be a special dinner for the Nobel Prize winners attended by the King of Jordan, Bill Clinton, Shimon Peres and numerous other bigwigs (the reason for the stage)!  We spent a couple of hours wandering round Petra admiring the buildings carved out of beautiful reddish marbled rock (and dodging the small boys pelting up and down on their donkeys shouting 'Ride donkey, 2 dollar!') and concluded that it was well worth the high entrance fee.

The security for the Nobel Prize event was understandably heavy, with an armed policemen / soldier on every street corner in the town - as we drove out of town we felt quite sorry for the ones given a less than shady spot as it was in the high 30s!  The temperature in (and out of) the car went steadily up as we drove south to Aquaba on the Red Sea.  After the final descent into Aquaba, it hit 42 degrees and was almost unbearably hot.  After a brief look at the public beach (where we admired the resilience of the women dressed from head to toe in black and huddled in the shade), we drove round the coast in the direction of a campsite on the beach that we had heard about.  This turned out to have been closed by the government (along with all other campsites on the beach, presumably as part of a clean-up), but we found a great place to camp near the beach at the Bedouin Garden Village, which had a swimming pool, a shady rest area and a great restaurant - perfect!

The next day we headed to the beach to explore the coral reef, which is just off the coast.  The corals were beautiful, with many brightly coloured fish, and perfect for snorkelling as they were just near the surface.  We met some nice people at the campsite/resort and had a pleasant lazy day - just as well as the temperature was over 40 again!  We managed to get used to the daytime temperature but struggled more to sleep in the tent at night as it didn't cool off much after dark.  The second night was better than the first, possibly because we were more tired due to lack of sleep!

Our next destination was Wadi Rum, a rocky desert landscape inhabited by Bedouin, where we had a chance to test the Landy's (and our) sand driving skills.  Despite our relative inexperience, this went pretty well - we let some air out of the tyres before heading onto the sand and we didn't get stuck once!  We camped in the shadow of some rocks, which we climbed to watch the (beautiful) sunset.  Later, as we were cooking dinner, a Bedouin guy in a Toyota 4x4 drove up to check we were OK - we got chatting and in the end we shared our dinner with him as we had made far too much!  It was much cooler at night in Wadi Rum and it was very pleasant to sleep there after the heat of Aquaba.  This was our last night in Jordan and next day we drove north (on the Desert Highway this time, which went through flat desert landscape - totally different from the King's Highway) to the Syrian border.

We crossed back into Syria at a smaller border, in the hope of avoiding paying the diesel tax again, and this ploy seemed to work as they didn't speak English and we just played dumb when they said 'Diesel? Benzin?'.  Even when we were asked to start the engine the man didn't seem to hear that it was a diesel and just waved us on.  So far so good, we thought - now we just have to get through the border on the way out!

We headed back to Damascus, planning to overnight there on our way to Palmyra.  As we would only be staying one night and had already seen the sights, we thought the campsite would be a good option and hoped there might be other overlanders there.  This hope turned out to be well-founded as when we arrived and looked round there was the Exodus overland truck and Andy, whom we'd met in Istanbul!  We had a pleasant evening catching up with his trip and meeting the other crew and travellers on the truck.  When we realised they were staying another night and there was an England World Cup match the next night, we decided to stay on and relax for an extra day.  We also needed to see about getting our camera fixed or buying a new one, as ours had suddenly stopped functioning earlier in the day and you can't really do a trip like this without a camera.  We managed to find a little camera repair shop and left it there for them to do their best - we didn't really hold out much hope as digital cameras are pretty complicated and it just seemed to have completely broken down.  In fact by the time we went back to see how they were getting on we had already picked out and priced up a great new camera, so we were almost disappointed to find that they had fixed up our old one good as new!

We returned to the campsite to meet the others as arranged and headed to the restaurant/nightclub next door where Andy had arranged for us all to watch the match.  As England beat Ecuador, we were all in a pretty good mood when we left and went back to the campsite for a couple of hours before returning to the same place to watch the Holland/Portugal match.  We had been told that there was a private party upstairs in the nightclub area (where we'd watched the England game) so we watched the second match from a table by the side of a swimming pool in quite a posh restaurant, which was a bit weird.  Even more weird was the match, which was pretty exciting, with copious yellow cards and later red cards.  Holland played really well but just didn't seem to be able to score - very frustrating!  After the match, we weren't feeling that cheery, but we'd said earlier that we'd go up to the club as they were happy for us to join the private party so a few of us headed up 'for one beer'...  We were totally unprepared for the scene that greeted us - the empty club where we'd watched the match had been transformed, most notably by the addition of a dozen couples on the dance floor gyrating to Latin American music!  After spending so much time in areas where women are almost always covered up from head to toe, it was so strange to see them wearing tight jeans and low-cut tops and dancing in such an overtly sexual way.  We were also very impressed by the fact that everyone seemed to know the steps and be a brilliant dancer!  We later learned that the party was being given by a Latin American dancing club!  Perhaps the most impressive moment of the evening was when the dancers were joined on the dance floor by waiters carrying an enormous cake covered in candles.  Standing at the bar, we began to feel slightly hot and, turning round, we discovered that there were flames running all down the bar!  It was all very exciting and wouldn't have been out of place in one of Europe's trendiest clubs - a very weird experience in the Middle East though!

Next day we said farewell to Andy (the rest of the crew and passengers had gone to Beirut for the day) and headed north to Palmyra.  The ruins there were really spectacular - so many of the columns were still standing that you could really get an impression of what the city must have been like.  We watched the sun go down over the ruins before heading out for a traditional Beduin meal of mensaf (chicken, rice and spices) and the local speciality of kawaj (a sort of meaty stew).  At dinner, we met a Dutch guy and a Canadian guy travelling on motorbikes and we spent a pleasant couple of hours chatting to them.

From Palmyra we drove north (across deserts to the lush valley of the Euphrates river) to the small border of Tall Abyad, just south of Sanliurfa.  Alas, our attempt not to pay the diesel tax failed - even though we claimed to have paid it on the way in they were quite insistent that if we didn't have any evidence of this we would have to pay it again!  Oh well, it's only money...  We crossed the border and were back in Turkey (see Turkey page for more...).