Articles from this Category
18 January 2011
Above: Token photo from our accommodation in Sur, since photos weren’t allowed with the turtles. Teaming up Ammi kindly dropped me off to the bus station this morning for my 7:30 am bus to Sur. Sur is a seaside town that’s often used for excursions to watch the leatherback turtles nesting. Unfortunately Sur is still a […]
17 January 2011
I had originally planned to Muscat today for the Wahiba Sands … large expanses of dunes. It’s stuff I had done before in Dubai and Morocco, so I opted to stay in Muscat today. These things have a certain romantic novelty value and are expensive … twice is enough. The day quickly disappeared … researching and […]
16 January 2011
The layout of Muscat is a little unusual. It’s like several towns that are not quite joined. I took the baisa-bus (shared minivan) to Mutrah this morning. This is the port-side part of the city. It’s quite pretty walking along the Corniche which links it to old Muscat or Muscat proper. While there wasn’t many […]
15 January 2011
Following my long but rewarding transit in Doha, I then continued my journey to Muscat where I was picked up by Ammi. He and his wife Salome (and their super intelligent cat Jackson Pollock) are hosting me in Muscat. We met in Syria last year. I was super-tired when I arrived.
15 January 2011
Long Day I woke at 0430 in Penang to begin a long day: 0h55 flight on Malaysia Airlines to KL at 0640 arriving at 0735 2h35 of self-connect transit time in KL 7h45 flight from KL to Doha at 1010 with Qatar Airways, scheduled to arrive at 1255 but delayed slightly due to headwind 7h15 […]
17 July 2010
Grotto Excursion and More This is my last day in Beirut before I fly out at 2045 tonight to Dubai then Colombo. There’s a whole day to fill. I invited Claire (also staying at the hostel) to join me in going to the Jeita Grottoes. We made a brief stop at Nahr al-Kalb (Dog River […]
16 July 2010
Thoughts on Leaving Syria Leaving Syria, I felt the country was more open than before. There were more international travellers, especially backpackers, but that’s perhaps I stayed in a dormitory. Also, the Syrian army wasn’t active in maintaining security in Lebanon. Things were looking brighter. [Edit: Little did I know that the Arab Spring would […]
15 July 2010
I had a whole day free so decided to head down close to the Jordanian border and visit Bosra. This is an old Roman theatre from the 2nd Century AD, but appended with an Arab citadel from the 1100s. All this was rather unusually built with black basalt rock, apart from some Roman columns (built […]
14 July 2010
Getting to Damascus My hotelier offered to give me a ride to the bus this morning (for a small fee of course). Strangely he didn’t take me to the bus station but to the various restaurants (rest stops) for various intercity buses. It would have been a couple of hours waiting at the first restaurant […]
13 July 2010
Sunrise at Palmyra We decided to wake before 0500 so we could catch sunrise at the ruins. The wind had built up over night … it wasn’t so pleasant having a mild sandblasting. In the cool of dawn, I better appreciated the beauty and magnificence of Palmyra. My first time had been as a day […]