Apamee Cham Palace Hamah

... Syria's Crusader sights so Cath, Reuben and I signed up for one the several day trips organized by the Riad. After a falafel breakfast and a fortuitous encounter with Matt, who was staying at the adjacent Cairo hotel, we headed off for our first sight, M(?). Initially a basic Roman fortification built on a hill that was expanded into a full-fledged fortification to (unsuccessfully) fend off the Crusaders, it was impressive both for its relative ...

... and not to cold natural air conditioning, the wind.
With a few other backpackers in tow we went off in search for a few drinks. When our waiter said "Beer with alcohol?" and the reply being "As much as we can get," we were slightly surprised when we received the non alcoholic beer with ice. With a little debate they suggested we leave it with them, so instead of non alcoholic beer with ice, we think we got non alcoholic beer with ice and maybe a ...

... out in the guide book. We tried a few hotels, including the Cairo Hotel, which to me felt like a hospital building. It had a very basic, tired room looking out to a concrete wall. I wasn't desperate enough to do it – James was indifferent so we continued to traipse through town with our backpacks on, hot, sweaty, dusty and dirty. As the evening Muslim call to prayer started moaning in the background, it felt like we were on our own pilgrimage as we searched for a decent hotel!
Hamah, Syria jimsim

... into the Roman empire. Apparently many famous historical figures took residence here for some time, including Cleopatra and Caracalla. The ruins here were absolutely massive and incredibly in-tact- do see pics. The museum had a splendid colletion of mosaics and I made friends with the museum keepers, who invited me to join them for lunch and gave me a motorbike ride up the hill.
As I went to catch a microbus to leave the city a few locals at a fruit stand hollered at me to say ...

... and it was our first really green castle, although I could not find the cave or club of Hercules. After a quick picnic lunch, supplied by the tour guide and the bus driver, we wormed our way down another series of switchbacks as hair raising as the ones in the vans. Olive, orange and apricot groves, perched on narrow terraces all the way down the hill. Of course, absolutely nothing was in season. This is what happens when you follow spring around ...

... Hama was a welcoming sight. Hama is "famous" for its norias (water wheels). However, the River Orentes has been dammed to irrigate other parts of the country and the water wheels lay motionless above a small trickle of river. We used Hama as a base for a trip to two castles: Musyaf and Crac des Chevaliers. The view from Musyaf Citadel was nice, there are a series of sharp, grey, spiked rocks that jut right out of the ground. Some are big enough that people ...

... asleep early last night as I was pretty tired from the day of traveling and sightseeing the day before. I managed to jump on a local bus to Homs which took about 2 hours through the desert. I was sitting in a nice seat by the window when the conductor told me to move to the rubbish seats at the back, I don't know why they do that they have done it to me before, maybe locals get prime seats who knows! When I arrived ...

... el riu sigui bastant dantesca. Sens dubte no es el que espera el turista a l'arribar a la ciutat. De totes maneres, Hama esta situada estrategicament i es un lloc ideal per passar-hi un parell o tres de dies i fer-lo servir com a centre d'operacions per a diverses excursions d'un dia: Crac des Chevaliers (una fortalesa de l'epoca de les creuades que es mante en un estat de conservacio mes que ...

... great, Syria is a hell of a lot greener than i expected it to be, fields and hills cover the journey to the coast and every now and then shepperds herdin there scappy sheep and goats walk along the side of the tracks. Its amazing to think that there ancestors have probably been doin the same job since before jesus was born etc, theyre probably wearin the same hand me down trainers to the scruffy sods. Lattakia wasnt all that great to be ...

... from Crac's we headed to Hama, the Noria town (water wheels). A really lovely little town we could see the old Noria's lit up on the river....I just felt sorry for the ducks that were standing in ice cold water.....brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr Wandered through the wet markets, watching fish being plucked from the tanks and chucked into a bag for weighing (no killing them, talk ...