Hi All.
Didn't go to Hama so didn't see the ancient waterwheels. We caught the train from Aleppo to Homs. Interesting exercise. Buy tickets then a minder takes you to the train police who says 'give me passport' then writes down the details then off to the personal ID office in the train station then onto the train. We had the choice of first class only - not that we had a choice. Train was actually really new. We were expecting rattly rustic but it was really good apart from lots of cracked windows. One problem was no luggage space for our packs so we shoved Vanessa's pack under the foot space and mine was wedged in the aisle. We were travelling with another Australian - Michael - from sydney who had unofficially been in israel working with palestinian street kids. He had to unpack his backpack to get it to fit on the luggage rack.
Didn't take long on the trip before a boy in a field threw a rock which hit the side of the train. No prizes for guessing about the window cracks. Trip was nice and there was a lot of agricultural land along the way and plenty of egg shaped mud domes in the villages along the way.
Got to Homs. Quite a yucky city. No taxis at the train but a friendly syrian woman helped and found a taxi for michael who was going directly to crac des chevaliers for 50 syrian pounds and then shared a cab into town with us and paid for it! She said that we were her guests in her country and refused to take money. We found an ATM then got mobbed by children so left in a hurry and jumped in a cab. Figured for 50 syrian pounds we might as well just go to crac des chevaliers. Only problem was the cab driver didn't know what it was in english. He took us to a castle about 10 minutes away but it was not the one we wanted. Looked through lonely planet and found the name in arabic finally. Cost was agreed at meter + 1/2 cost. Ended up being 900 syrian pounds when we got there about 65 km away. Quite cheap really.
Crac des chevaliers is a well preserved crusader castle sitting at 700m just on the edge of the syrian / lebanon border overlooking a gap in the anti-lebanese mountain range. Control of the pass meant the control of the flow of goods to syria from the coast so quite strategic. The good preservation was because of the humidity in the area.
Choice of two hostels at the castle. 3 star and no star. We chose to stay at the no star for 700 syrian pounds with breakfast. The room had a great view of the castle and the owner also provided the mega-bar heater (10 bars) and extra blankets for us. The bathroom was mouldy and the water heater looked like a keg of beer on it's side with an electric heater but it worked.
We couldn't find Michael. Figured that he got taken to the close castle and maybe had given up.
The hotel also had a restuarant and we lashed out and had some food. Cost us 600 syrian pounds but we couldn't finish so was worth it. Vanessa had chicken and I had shish kebabs which didn't look too good at all but tasted good. The owner turned on the diesel pot belly for us and we were the only guests with fantastic views of the castle. Lovely. Then the power went out. A daily event apparently. Power off for 1.5 hrs starting at 6pm but they were prepared with torches so no problem. We just went to bed and read our books.
Next day. To the castle. Someone says get out of my shot. I say get stuffed. It is Michael. He was taken to the castle got out and thought that it was pretty average and it was a mistake. Eventually he figured that it was the wrong castle and caught a mini bus to the correct castle. He paid 200 syrian pounds BUT stayed at the 3 star hotel paid 2000 syrian pounds and didn't get hot water. We enjoyed telling him about our hotel.
Castle was great to look around. The crusaders must have been nuts to think that they could really hold the islam army for long. Then the russian navy invaded the castle. It was like a mouse plague except with russians sailors. Hard to get a picture without one or more in the shot. Quite funny.
Parted ways with michael who headed for lebanon and then caught a mini bus back to homs. Cost us 400 syrian pounds. 100 for each of us and our big backpacks.
We got dropped at the bus station and we waited for two hours for the bus to palmyra. Same security checks and 'show me passport'.
Bye.
David & Vanessa
