I'm in the process of getting some things over to World Nomads, no in the meantime, for more photos, maps and older travel stories please visit my blog on http://www.lenbellemore.com
After a very short visit back to London after finished the Camino de Santiago (report to come) to swap our trekking
backpacks for our full-sized travel packs, we flew to Gaziantep in the
east of Turkey in order to make our way to Syria. Travel tip: It's
often cheaper to fly to an adjacent country and to make your way into
your destination country by land, rather than fly direct. Turkey has
tons of cheap flights from London, whereas Syria has none. We paid
about a quarter of the price to fly to Turkey than we would have flying
into Syria. We only stayed in Gaziantep long enough to sample the
delicious baklava and to enjoy a couple of fantastic Turkish meals
before we started the short trip to the Syrian border.
Borders are always confusing, chaotic places. Our taxi dropped us at
the gate where we had to get our Turkish exit stamps and then sped off,
leaving us wondering how we would make our way to the Syrian border, the
whereabouts of which were not exactly apparent. The Turkish border
guard flagged down a car, which we assumed was a taxi and we proceeded
to go through the Syrian formalities. Our driver happily waited for us
and then drove us the next 45km to the city of Aleppo, stopping off at a
random shop to ask for directions as he spoke no English and didn't
know exactly where we wanted to go. We were given coffee, the guys in
the shop googled our hotel, then directions in hand, one of the
shop-owners hopped in the car to help navigate the way to the hotel.
Once we arrived, we tried to offer our driver some money for the the
lift, but he just laughed at the suggestion, shook our hands and sped
off. What a welcome.
That is the first thing you will notice when you enter Syria. The
hospitality of the people. After our experience with the "taxi driver"
we've been bought an entire bag of mini street pizzas (everywhere in
Syria) so that we could try each and every one of them, offered
countless cups of tea and given food off of the plates of people in
restaurants. We've even hitched rides with truck drivers. No one wants
anything except to see you safely on your way, wishing you a warm
"Welcome to Syria." We have nothing but nice things to say about the
Syrian people.
We didn't really know what to expect of Syria. It's the only middle
eastern country after Egypt that we have visited. Would we find they
hated us western devils? Were the men all wearing fist-length beards?
Were the women earing burkas? As I said above, we've been made entirely
welcome, so nope, they don't seem to hate us. Most of the men wear
"normal" western-style clothes, except that the younger men have
seriously dodgy fashion sense (think flared acid washed jeans and big
collars) and the older gentlemen tend to dress quite smart, with suit
jacket and trousers - very few beards, let alone fist-length ones. Yes,
some women are covered in black from head to fingertip to toe - but
they seem to be the minority. Most women wear head scarves, with long
overcoats or robes to their feet, but their faces and hands are
uncovered. The Christian girls dress like any other woman you would
expect to see in our countries. It's very much a man's world, with men
working and the women staying at home, or shopping. Wow, do they ever
shop. Syrian woman have us western Capitalist consumers beaten hands
down. Alcohol is available if you look around a bit, although it's not
very common for people to drink, except in the Christian areas.
Overall, the people seem pretty normal. They like to have a laugh, drink
ridiculous amounts of tea and love to watch football. Maybe they're
English in disguise.
After we arrived to Aleppo we visited the souk (traditional covered
market) and wandered about the town, but we didn't really care for the
place that much. There's too much traffic and it's very noisy. We soon
went south to the smaller town of Hama, which we used as a base to visit
some of the surrounding sites. Taking local transport is so much more
fun than taking tours, not to mention it's a lot cheaper. It takes a bit
longer, but it's more rewarding. We are starting to get the hang of
using the fleets of micro-buses (kind of a hop on hop off van) that
criss cross the cities and connect the neighbouring towns. We used
these to visit the archaeological sites of Apamea and Krac des
Chevalliers.
Apamea is the site of a ruined Roman city, with a 2km long stretch of
tall columns lining the ancient "main street." The grooves left from
carts are still visible in the stones, and behind some of the columns
remain the facades of 2000 year old shops. There are also the ruins of
the public baths where water pipes still remain and toilets and sewage
pipes are visible.
We also visited the famous Crusader castle of Krac des Chevalliers.
Built about 800 years ago, the castle is the epitome of castle design.
It's massive, foreboding, perched high up on tall hill, with a nearly
360 degree view over miles of the surrounding area. It's guarded by a
great stone wall, inside of which is an interior mote and then the
castle proper. The walls are covered in arrow slits and there's a
hurling gallery where giant stones were thrown down upon attackers. You
wouldn't want to be the one attacking this place. And that is the real
reason that the castle is famous. It was never breached. It was finally
surrendered by the Crusader knights only after the rest of the holy
lands had fallen to the armies of Islam and there was no hope of
defeating the surrounding enemy. This is a real castle. A military
fortress and not a place where royalty would enjoy living a life of
luxury. If as a child you have ever dreamt of playing at knights, then
you will enjoy visit here.
In Hama we stayed in a decent hotel with a big, nice bed and a good
shower. After weeks of bunk beds on the Camino, we needed a little bit
of luxury. We stayed in at night, catching up on Lost episodes and
eating fried corn from the market. Almost like being in the cinema!
We then bussed it down to the capital, Damascus. It is one of the
longest continuously inhabited cities in the world, with evidence of
people inhabiting this site for the last 6000 years. Despite being
completely traffic choked, and victim of out of control building, the
old city is almost perfectly preserved and is the heart of the city.
The ancient city walls and the narrow tangled streets keep out most of
the cars, making it a very pleasant place to walk. We spent 4 or 5 days
s just wandering around the old city, visiting the souk and taking in
the sites of sounds of this hustling, bustling place. The souk is a
little different from others we've seen in that the main thoroughfares
are two stories high, and having the added decoration of having bullet
holes in the corrugated iron ceiling; a relic of the uprising during the
French occupation following the first World War.
The old city is a really wonderful place, it is home to thousands of
tiny market stalls selling spices, clothing (surprisingly for a country
where the women are covered head to toe, they sell a lot of trashy
lingerie,) perfumes, tourist goods and all the other things that we
would normally visit our supermarket for. There's also a large
Christian quarter with medieval churches and where the women don't cover
their heads, dressing more like western women than their Syrian Muslim
counterparts.
Inside the old city is the Umayyad mosque, which is one of Islam's
holiest sites. It is a truly beautiful building, cool, and calm
inside. A welcome hideaway from the souk. Husayn, a grandson of the
Prophet Mohamed is buried here, as is "allegedly" the head of the St
John the Baptist, whom the Muslims regard as a prophet, much like
Christians do. Muslims also see Jesus as a prophet, and a very
important one. They believe that it is he who will return on Judgement
day. They just don't see him as the son of God. There's probably more
similarities than differences between Christianity and Islam. It's a
pity we don't see them more often. Islam is obviously the majority here
in Syria, but Christians make up about 10% of the population. Relations
between the two religious groups are very good. We spoke to many
people of both faiths and they have always stressed that there are few
problems between the religions.
We visited a Syrian Catholic monastery a couple of hours from
Damascus, called Mar Musa. An Italian priest named Father Paolo
discovered the ruin of a 1000 year old monastery high on a mountainside
and set about restoring it in the early 1980's. Now the monastery is
completely rebuilt and sees guests from all over the world, wanting to
see this unique place. It's quite a bit out of the way, down a quiet
desert road and perched like an eagles nest way up on the mountain. You
have to climb a steep path to get to it, but the effort is worth it.
The views are spectacular. Anyone can go and stay, the only fee is by
donation or by the work you do in the kitchen or gardens. The church,
which you have to enter by ducking through a tiny carved doorway, has
wonderful frescoes on the walls, some of which date back to the early
11th century. It's a Catholic monastery, but Father Paolo, a Jesuit
priest, is quite different and makes the mass interactive and fun.
Before the mass begins, there is meditation time in the church, during
which the only light is by candle and everyone can meditate in their own
way. When the mass begins, everyone sits on the floor and is asked to
participate by saying their own personal prayers, or by reading. Most
of the mass was in Arabic or French, so we didn't understand much, but
it was interesting nonetheless. The hills behind the monastery are
dotted with caves where some of the monks spend time in silent retreats.
It's easy to imagine characters from Biblical times living in such a
place. We met some really great people up there, both Syrians and
western travellers. Syrian Christians tend to be a bit better educated
than the Muslims and their grasp of English obviously makes it easier
for us to interact. It's very peaceful up there on top of the world,
and I think it would be quite easy to get stuck out there for a while,
and many people do. We met some folks that had been there anything from a
few days to two years!
On the way back from the monastery we thought we would catch a ride 17km
back to the town of Nebek with a bus load of Lebanese Christian
tourists, from there we thought we could get a bus to return to
Damascus. Unfortunately, due to some miscommunication between the
tourists and their bus driver, they could only take us 3km back to the
road, and from there we tried to hitchhike our way out of the desert. A
passing gravel truck soon picked us up and took us to the project that
he was working at, an excavation site of some sort, where he flagged
down another big truck that turned out to be going all the back, the
hour trip to Damascus. What luck. Our driver, who spoke not a word of
English, stopped to buy us coffee and then of course refused to accept
any money from us as he dropped us just outside of the city. From there
we caught a micro-van then taxi and we were back "home."
From Damascus we visited the ruined city of Bosra, which used to be
the capital of the Roman province of Arabia. There's a perfectly
preserved amphitheatre, where we were treated to an impromptu dancing
and singing session by a group of Italian women. The city itself is
for the most part just ruined buildings, but many of them are still
inhabited by contemporary Syrians. It's quite fun to see the odd
painted door or tiny shop hidden amongst the ruins of ancient houses
where a Roman official might once have lived.
Public baths (Hammams) are still very much in use here in Syria. A
bit like spas back home, men and women (strictly segregated) often visit
the centuries old Hammams to enjoy a steam, scrub and massage, followed
by tea while wrapped head to toe in towels. I tried out the Hammam
Al-Malek Al-Zaher which dates from the 10th Century. The relaxation
area was very luxurious, with a fountain, soft seats and men seated
around drinking tea. The actual bath area was a lot more primitive,
with large stone slabs to sit on, a small steam room with boiling hot
steam, stone basins lining the walls from which you could douse yourself
in cold water. The only light in the place was from glass covered
holes in the arched ceiling. It felt a little like being in a warm,
damp cave. The men performing the massages and scrubs wore the same
attire as we did, which was a simple cotton towel around the waist. At
first I was left alone in the bathing area, after about half an hour of
steam, showers and wondering what exactly I was supposed to be doing,
the assistants finally showed up (I think it was lunch.) By now there
were a few other bathers and the assistants set about scrubbing us
down. Remember that this isn't exactly a European spa, and we were made
to sit on the floor while a man roughly scrubbed me down with a
scratchy mitt, making certain that any dead skin was forcibly removed.
After that I laid down on a table and another man gave me a fairly quick
and rough massage. I'm not sure if he was in a hurry because by now
there were a few of us waiting, but I felt a little disappointed with
the massage. Anyway, after that another man wrapped me head to foot in
about 8 towels, gave me tea and moved me back out to the relaxation area
to drink tea. I got the feeling that the entire process isn't much
changed for the last few hundred years, and despite the fact the rough
and tough nature of the place, I did feel very relaxed afterwards. Not
exactly the best spa treatment I've ever had, but a very interesting
experience nonetheless.
So far the best thing about Syria, other than the people, has been
Damascus. Normally when we travel, capital cities are horrible places.
But Damascus is great. The people are friendly, the old city is magical,
there's great food, street cafes, and best of all, a fantastic hotel.
We've been sleeping up on the roof of the Al Rabie hotel along with many
other travellers, relaxing in the cool, tree covered courtyard.
There's a constant stream of interesting people coming through here on
their way to or from different parts of the Middle East. It feels like
the days when diplomats or writers would get lost in exotic places like
Damascus and never want to come home again.
Tea in Damascus Old City
Finally, after not really wanting to leave, we ventured east to the
deserts of the Beduin people to visit Palmyra. Palmyra is meant to be
Syria's top tourist attraction. It's a huge ruined Roman city, with
temples, streets and more tall columns than you can shake a stick at.
It's all great to see of course, but we were feeling a little "ruined"
from all of the other ancient sites that we had visited in the preceding
days. The most interesting things at Palmyra were the tall "towers of
death" standing eerily on the surrounding hills. Apparently, the
Romans, and the Palmyrans before them, used to dry the bodies of the
dead in the hot desert sun, and then stacked the bodies, morgue-style in
two to four story towers. We climbed inside some of them, and were
able to see the places where slabs were slid into place, each with a
body, one on top of each other inside the towers. Who knows what
happened to the thousands of bodies that must have been there at one
time.
We were pleasantly surprised by Syria. The people are fantastic, the
sites are great. If you like history, there's no end to things that
will keep you busy. It's very easy to travel, the food is good, and
it's very cheap.
We had intended to travel directly north from Palmyra to see the East
of Turkey on our way to Iran, but after so many people told us to go to
Cappadocia, in the middle of Turkey, that's where we decided to go. We
said goodbye to Blake, our Aussie travelling companion of the last few
days, and next up it was a two day bus and taxi journey all the way back
the way we had came, first to Aleppo and then back into Turkey. And
that's where we leave you for today.
Average Costs to Travel in Syria:
private room with bathroom: 1300 SYL = £18 GBP
bed on the rooftop dorm: 300 SYL = £4.25 GBP
1.5L bottle of water: 25 SYL = £0.35 GBP
Falafel from street vendor: 25 SYL = £0.35 GBP
Dish with bread in a restaurant: 200 SYL = £2.83 GBP
One hour Bus Ride: 100 SYL = £1.42 GBP
one hour internet: 60 SYL = £0.85 GBP
Cup of coffee or tea: 35 SYL = £0.50 GBP or free from any number of
hospitable Syrians.
Average Cost per day in Syria: £27 GBP for two people.
For more photos, maps and older travel stories please visit my blog on
http://www.lenbellemore.com
