Syrian flag
Despite the general consensus that I would have trouble getting a visa to Syria as an American, we decided to give it a go. Kyle suddenly felt hopeful after meeting a Canadian/American couple at an internet cafe in Dahab that had crossed the border with no problems. OK, we'll try.
We booked a bus ticket from Amman to Damascus, Syria for the next day. All seemed to go well at first, but with this type of thing, it's hard to predict how it will turn out. As expected, it wasn't quite as easy for the American to get across the border as it was for the Aussie... Kyle had his visa processed immediately.
Mine was a bit more complicated. All the pages of my passport had to be scanned then faxed to Damascus for approval. Of course, this also meant that our booked transportation would be leaving us behind at the border, 1 hour from Damascus. The bus driver assured us that it would only be 5 JD ($7) for a cab to Damascus. It sounded too cheap, but we took his word for it and didn't worry.
A short 2 1/2 hours later, we had my visa approval and had to jump through the next set of hoops - going through their completely unorganized and seemingly random progression of lines that you must pass through to actually get the stamp put in your passport. Not used to many visitors, I guess.
After feeling a bit triumphant for actually getting me a visa, we starting looking for a taxi. There were plenty around, but were appalled when they were charging 60 JD ($80) to Damascus. Haha. Piss off, I'd rather walk thank you very much. As I was walking back to the customs officials to verify a reasonable price to Damascus, Kyle managed to secure a much cheaper fare for only 4JD to Damascus, or so he thought. (I wasn't there to confirm this report, so I had to take his word for it.)
After an hour long drive with a very annoyingly chatty driver (who only spoke Arabic), we arrived to Damascus. Happy to be done with that mess, we hopped out and Kyle tried to paid him the agreed upon 4JD in Syrian pounds. We had an idea that it wasn't going to turn out quite right when he reached into Kyle's wallet and just started grabbing out money!!! I knew, just knew that something was wrong here. My first clue was his minimal English, further emphasized when he pointed at a road sign and said "5km to Damascus". Umm, no. That says "50 km to Damascus".... Fabulous. In the end, it turned out to be a $26 cab ride, not the $6 that we had thought/hoped. Yeah, wishful thinking. Welcome to Syria.
Hmm, we'll see...
Damascus
Damascus is the capital and biggest city in Syria and one of the oldest continually inhabited cities in the world. (Excavations indicate habitation from 5000-6000 BCE!!) At only 1 1/2 million, it is really quite small and charming.
The lovely train station in the Old City
Walking through the Market
Enjoying a pistachio covered ice cream from the famous Bakdash Ice Cream Parlor
The southern entrance to "Straight Street" which is the home of the covered market
Enjoying a pistachio covered ice cream from the famous Bakdash Ice Cream Parlor
The southern entrance to "Straight Street" which is the home of the covered market
Walking through the loveliest part of Damascus-- very green and with nice little shops.
Walking down one of the "main" streets bordering the old town and the Christian quarter. What a mess!! Considering that all the streets in the area are like walking through a rabbit warren, we got pretty lost when we had to leave the one straight road in the area.
The amazing, pistachio delights that were the complementary dessert with our rather reasonably priced upmarket meal. So tasty!!
One of the most important parts of our exploration of Damascus was walking along the old city walk that remains largely intact with seven city gates. The oldest gate dates back to the Roman period.
Walking through the one of the gates to the Old City
A lovely minaret on one of the mosques in the Old City
Bab al-Salam (the Gate of Peace) that we literally trekked all over the Old City to find as it's meant to be the oldest. Not the easiest to find either.
A beautiful doorway in the Old City
Umayyad Mosque
The most important religious structure in Syria & one of the largest mosques in the world, the Umayyad Mosque is second only behind the mosques of Mecca and Medina. The golden mosaics on the facades are unbelievable and a shrine in the mosque is said to contain John the Baptist's head.
Cloaked up in the daggy gray robe and ready to have a little look. (I don't look all that happy as it was about 40 degrees that day and 45 degrees with the robe on!)
The main prayer alcove in the "men's area" of the mosque. (Men and women must pray separately). I got some very strange looks walking with Kyle in the men's section to take a few pictures.
The main courtyard in the mosque
A very normal picture of the outskirts of the main courtyard in the mosque. People come to read, chat and even take naps while they escape the midday heat.
A look over to the area just across the main entrance with some of the most amazing golden mosaics
A closer look at the mosaics
In the north garden, built in 1193, is the modest Mausoleum of Saladin - one of the greatest heroes in Arab history.
Al Azem Palace
The Azem Palace was built in 1749 by As'ad Pasha al-Azem, the governor of Damascus at the time. It's typical of the style of the times in Damascus with striped stonework, made with alternating layers of black basalt and limestone.
The Azem Palace was built in 1749 by As'ad Pasha al-Azem, the governor of Damascus at the time. It's typical of the style of the times in Damascus with striped stonework, made with alternating layers of black basalt and limestone.
One of the main buildings in the courtyard
One of the lovely carvings in the living quarters
Hama
After experiencing a bit of the very non-touristy nature of Damascus (in fact, we sometimes felt like the only tourists there!), we headed on to Hama to see one of the most highly regarded sights in Syria, Krak des Chevaliers.
Hama itself is a fairly small town, a couple of hours drive from Damascus and is a good base to explore the ruins in the surrounding areas. It is a particularly charming town because of the Orontes River that flows through and the dozens of ancient water wheels.
Upon arriving and checking into our hotel in Hama, we had a chat with the nice and helpful manager of the hotel to discuss our travel plans. He suggested that based on our time, we should definitely get a private car for the afternoon to see the best sights in the area.
Within no time at all, we had grabbed some tasty falafel sandwiches, fresh banana shakes and were in a car headed out to the countryside.
Citadel
Our first stop was a citadel...unfortunately, that's all the information that I have. (We have already sent home our Jordan book, and neither of us can remember which town it was in.) You'll have to just enjoy the photos on their own. :)
A nice view of the town and the Citadel from the surrounding hills
Exploring the Citadel. The best part of it was that we were the only ones there. Fantastic!
The wildlife that our driver so kindly pointed out to me. I snapped the photo when this big, black and (likely) poisonous snake had slithered across the road and was already more than halfway in the grass. This snake was 3-4 meters long. Hmm, don't think I'll be getting out of the car again!!
Krak des Chevaliers (Qala'at al-Hosn)
A beautiful view of the amazing crusader castle
Author Paul Theroux described Krak des Chevaliers as epitomising the dream castle of childhood fantasies, while Lawrence of Arabia called it 'the finest castle in the world'. Trust them, this remarkably well-preserved Crusader castle looks almost exactly as it would have 800 years ago. (Wikipedia)
It was originally built in 1150 to guard the pass between Turkey and Lebanon. It held out again many attacks but eventually captured by Mamluk Sultan Beybar in 1271...well, it didn't actually fall - the Crusader knights manning the ramparts looked around at the surrounding Muslim armies, with no hope for relief and negotiated a surrender - giving up the castle and returning to their homes.
A layout of the castle
Our first glimpse of Krak from afar (not long after spotting the huge snake, so I wasn't so happy about getting out of the car to take a photo!)
The castle has two parts: an outside wall with 13 towers and an inside wall and keep. The two are separated by a moat which was used to fill the baths and give water to the horses.
Looking back on the moat and one of the defense towers
After walking through the entrance and through a 5m thick wall, we approached the towers that used to defend the castle.
The first tunnel leading from the main entrance
Entering the first courtyard and set of buildings from the entrance tunnel
A closer look at one of the towers
Wanting to check it out was one thing but actually venturing down into the pitch-black tunnels was another (we forgot our torches). Hmm, maybe we won't get to see the baths...
A chapel in the courtyard was converted to a mosque after Sultan Beybar took over, and you can still see its pulpit. (Wikipedia)
Outside the church
Some very typical details in the church along with a muslim pulpit. Interesting combination.
Walking along the top of the defense wall.
It was an amazing view of the valleys from the perch on the hilltop 1 km up.
Again, it sounded good to creep out along the secret exit, however since we forgot to bring along our torches, it wasn't going to happen. :(
Exploring lots of tunnels and passageways
The watch tower of the main keep
Another lovely view from the top of the tower into the upper courtyards
The UN has such a subtle presence in the Middle East....
And one last look.... What a fantastic sight!
After exploring the castles, we made our way back to the town of Hama and got a whirlwind tour of the famous water wheels. They were all very lovely, non of them currently in use (as we had been led to believe), but very lovely anyway.
Our favorite water wheels in Hama.
Originally, we also planned to head to Jerusalem for a little look-see, but we were beginning to think that it would be a logistically nightmare as well. While Jerusalem is only 1 1/2 hours from Amman, they don't offer direct buses. They just drop you off at the Israeli border. Hmm... ok?! I'm definitely getting the impression that other Middle Eastern countries don't want all that much to do with Israel. Maybe we'll skip it too, for now.
Dead Sea
Take this sign SERIOUSLY!
After arriving back from Syria, we decided that the side trips to Lebanon and Israel may not work out very well. So, once we weighed everything up, we came to the conclusion that we were ready to move on and out of the Middle East. But we couldn't leave without floating in the Dead Sea!
We hopped in a cab to the Royal Jordanian offices to try to move up our flight. We were thinking that in just a couple days we could wrap up everything else that we wanted to do. Unfortunately, there was very limited availability from Amman to Istanbul. Enough flights but they were all full! Our option was to stay with our original flight (a week away) or leave tomorrow... After having a quick think, we decided that it was time to go to Turkey so we booked it. However, this meant we had to very quickly organize a trip to the Dead Sea that afternoon
Marc had given us a contact who could take us out to the Dead Sea by private car (my biggest complaint about Jordan is that there is no public transportation - not great for travelers at all!). In order to get to the Dead Sea the cheap way, we would have to catch a bus to a nearby town then literally hitchhike for the last 5 km! Hmm, don't think so. So we ended up paying $60 for a private - the most expensive in all our travels, however with such limited time we bit the bullet and went with it.
We decided to go to the public beach, called "Amman Beach". Obviously it's not a place that many tourists go to as we were the only ones! And, at only 7 JD (about $10) pp entry fee, it was a bargain compared to a day pass to the beach at one of the resorts like the Marriott (an astronomical 35 JD pp (approx $50)!!!). In the end, we were going to be swimming in exactly the same water...
Amman Beach
We didn't waste any time doing what you come here to do... hop in and float!
At 420 meters below sea level, The Dead Sea is the lowest point on Earth. Bordering Jordan on the east and Israel and the West Bank on the right, it is a body of water that is completely devoid of life and unable to be sailed on. The Dead Sea has an incredible 30% salinity, 8.6 times saltier that the ocean (7% salinity), which causes the unusual buoyancy!
Kyle demonstrating how to relax in the Dead Sea (with Israel in the background)
Playing around... we found that not only is it impossible to fully submerse your shoulders, that it's unbelievably difficult to swim. It was easy to run in deep water... Strange, but true.
The salt buildup on the sharp, crusy shoreline
Amman Beach even had some of the luxuries that the big resorts offered -- namely mud treatments. Many believe that both the water and the mud have healing properties.
Enjoying a little mud therapy.
After rinsing ourselves off really, really well, we started back for Amman. Unfortunately, it was too late to go to see the baptismal sight of Jesus in the River Jordan. We were keen to go, but it goes quite close to the Israeli border so you have to go by special caravan. Ah well, next time.
Our last night in Amman was spent at a swish and very western restaurant called The Blue Fig. It's just a stone's throw form Marc's place so we had to try it out. It honestly felt like we had left the Middle East when we walked in. Maybe it was also a little more reinforcement for me that it was time to go back to a non-arab, more secular society.
The next morning we caught a cab to the airport. Again, it was really expensive, but we weren't convinced that there was a shuttle bus to the airport, despite the mention in Lonely Planet. We hadn't seen anything like it the entire time we were in Amman. As luck would have it, we got a flat on the way to the airport. Bugger. And when the driver was changing the tire, we saw the much cheaper shuttle bus pass us. Double bugger. Don't ever doubt the Lonely Planet, our Bible.
Also, we were in for a teensy bit more fun at the airport. As in all Arab countries, there are at least 2 security checkpoints inside, the first of which is before the check-in counters. They pulled Kyle up at the first security scan and went through his bag with a fine tooth comb. In the end, the guard didn't recognise his camera blower (to get dust off the sensor), so insisted that this "very dangerous" item be put into his hold luggage.
The next security point was much the same, except that this guy was astute enough to find a spent bullet casing in Kyle's change pouch (a souvenier from Kyle's visit to Marc's gun club). Haha. Nice one, Kyle.
After that last little bit of excitement, we were finally leaving the smoke-filled Queen Alia Intl. Airport in Amman for the sights and sounds of Istanbul, Turkey!
