"Welcome back to Syria"

Beirut (Lebanon) --> Damascus (and daytrips to Bosra and Ma'aloula) --> Mar Mousa --> Palmyra --> Dier ez-Zur (and daytrips to Mari and Doura Europa) --> Damascus --> Amman (Jordan)

Time now to see the big city! Damascus is, unfortunately, mostly that although it has an excellent old town with a monsterous souk and some fine mosques and a palace all tucked in there. I did all these, of course, and met a very pleasant Swedish chap who was traveling the other way (heading north from Egypt) and got some good travel tips from him. And smoked some nargile with him too - it's a group activity.

I added in a daytrip to the highly recommended (by LP) Bosra with its Roman city (made of granite) and which includes a giant free-standing theatre (most theatres are built into the side of hills). Likewise the wee town of Ma'aloula was in my sights for the next day - it has several monasteries as well was the usual mosques all wedged into a little valley. Whilst there I bought some Ma'aloula wine (made by the kiosk owner) which wasn't far removed from vinegar, and some members of the Finnish diplomatic mission who were doing their own daytrip there.

There was one place I was very interested in seeing - recommended by LP and fellow travelers - the monastery at Mar Mousa. Basically you just turn up and they let you stay there for free, feed you and in return ask for your help doing the chores. I ate like a king but had to peel a lot of potatoes spend some hours washing up. Quid pro quo. It turned out to be a fascinating place partly because it was a fully functioning monastery (mass in Arabic twice a day with time for meditation) but also because Father Paolo, the Italian who runs the monsatery, had been to New Zealand for a world development conference. He had been a guest speaker and so traveled all that way for two days in Auckland and (perhaps to gratify me) said that he really liked it.

Desperate to see more ruins (I kid you) I headed to Palmyra - a tiny little town but beside an extensive Roman ruin site. I spent a day wandering around there before heading way out east to the desert town of Deir ez-Zur (which may be called Deir Ezzor on maps). What's there? It's a pleasing little agricultural town sitting on the Euphrates, not far from Iraq, and with some decent daytripping to do. I spent one day heading to Mari - a work still in progress as far as archaeologists are concerned but still something one is charged full price for - and the much more interesting Roman town of Doura Europa sitting atop a hill overlooking the Euphrates and the small farming town stretched out on the plain beside the river.

Unless I fancied hanging out in the desert and seeing more ruins then the only thing left to do was head to Jordan ... so I did.

"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 ...