Author archive
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 […]
6 July 2010
This morning I took the bus up into the hills and the Qadisha Valley, which is the stronghold of the Maronite Christians. The bus was meant to be a fraction the price of the shared taxi but as the driver was on the phone when I boarded, I couldn’t confirm the price … so he […]
5 July 2010
The other Tripoli This morning I moved up the coast from Beirut to the second largest city, Tripoli (Trablous) … which bears the same name as the one in Gaddafi-land (Libya). The coastline is very built up along most of the way with high-rise apartments, beach clubs, factories etc. One thing I’m certain of is […]
4 July 2010
This morning I took my third trip to Baalbek … yes, it is that good … it is the most impressive Roman ruins I’ve been to (not that I’ve been to that many). The Lonely Planet says it outshines any of the Temples built in Rome itself. This has always been a poor and conservative […]
3 July 2010
Early Start I woke at about 4:30am due to my body clock being on Colombo time (2.5 hours earlier). I messed around until about 7am and took a sustaining breakfast of fuul at a nearby cafe … the Lebanese version here is different from the Yemeni. For a start, the broadbeans are mixed with chickpeas […]
2 July 2010
Bad start in Colombo I woke nice and early and showered for my 2 flights, the first being Emirates at 1005 to Dubai and then connecting to Beirut. I couldn’t find a taxi to the airport so took a tuktuk … which took 1 hour. It wasn’t hot but it was the early morning traffic […]