"Welcome to Syria"

Gaziantep (Turkey) --> Aleppo (and daytrip to Qala'at St Samaan) --> Lattakia (and daytrips to Qala'at Saladin and Ugarit) --> Hama (and daytrips to Qala'at Sheysar, Apamea, the "dead cities" of Serjila and Albara, Qala'at al-Masyaf, Monastery of St George and Qala'at al-Hosn / Crac des Chevaliers) --> Tripoli (Lebanon)

Like turning on a light the weather difference between southern Turkey and Syria is remarkable - so I thought - the first two days of my visit had me basking in the warm glow of a winter sun with nary a cloud in the sky. On the third day I woke up and - lo! - the sky was grey and overcast and stayed like that for another nine days (although often if cleared up a little during the middle of the day). I can strongly recommend not going to Syria to get a winter tan.

Syrians also happen to be very friendly souls (although their taxi drivers still try and rip off unsuspecting tourists) and often people passing on the street will stop to say hello, ask where you're from and then will invariably welcome you to Syria as if you've just stepped out of the arrivals hall at the airport. Still, it's charming and I'd have to put Syria second on Stephen's Friendliest People League Table, just behind Iran.

What to do? Well, aside from pottering around Aleppo's souk and citadel ... not much although these activities alone are absorbing. I added in a daytrip to St Samaan (St Simeon's Cathedral) which is built on the site where Simeon, presumably in a successful bid to be cannonised, spent the best part of two decades sitting on some pillars. For his efforts he became a saint and a cathedral was built on the site of the pillars. I guess David Blaine can expect a call from the Pope someday.

I headed to Lattakia (on the coast) next for a few more days - still cloudy - and found that it's a new, mildly funky town, not unlike a mini Marseilles but with no real history to go with it. The rail trip between Aleppo and Latakkia is highly recommended for the scenery but with the first train leaving at 0330 and the last at 0730 I decided to lie in instead and just catch a bus with everyone else. I squeezed a daytrip to Qala'at Saladin (Saladin Castle) into my empty schedule - Lawrence of Arabia waxed lyrical about it, says LP - and found that he wasn't wrong: it sits atop a large lump of rock jutting out into a tree-clad valley. I would have made for great photos but it was raining so I settled for good photos instead.

Next I went to the small town of Hama (thankfully I didn't go to Hamas as I told the bus driver - an easy mistake to make) which is famous for ... its waterwheels. There are a number of these huge wooden contraptions dotted around the city, first built to get water into the aquaducts, but they're turned off during winter. Hama also has the distinct advantage of being smack in the middle (geographically) of the tourist action. In addition to relaxing and running down my 15 day visa a little I did two daytrips taking in the main castles and ruins in the area. I can heartily recommend Crac des Chevaliers - a massive and very well preserved crusader castle sitting on the hillside above the small town of Hosn.

In order to break my trip I next headed to a small lump of land that used to be part of Syria ...