Blue Tower Hotel Damascus

... to help me with my bag. Or so he said. When I went to pay him, he raised a huge scene in the street prompting a couple of other guys to come over and see what the fuss was about. The fare meter read 103 for the cab ride, but I noted that the meter already read 12 when I got into the cab. Beyond that, we went out of the way to drop off the other women before beginning the time waste of a hunt for a hostel he didn’t know existed. I had ...

... partially. As I try to squeeze by him thru that little space, he grabbed my ankles and I almost fall over. During my trip I've been hassled many times to buy or use some sort of service or another, but it had never gotten physical till now. When I regained my balance, I almost responded by kicking him as I was really furious. But I held back and walked away. Again he still followed me, and for quite a distance. He was still literally begging me, saying he had 3 kids to ...

... the warmest and most hospitable I have encountered in my travels. Actually, it is much like being in Jordan last year where everyone wanted to make sure I enjoyed my stay. I stopped to look at a takeout stand and everyone in line noticed me eyeing the falafel and kebab meat. They all pushed me to the head of the line and told me to eat. Would that happen in the US? Heck no. About thirty minutes later I was admiring a neat looking display of ...

Syria 2009: From Taurus to Aquarius: Home of the Golden Hamster: Leiko<br>[With theme song in the background, "Syria, f* yay! Comin' to save the mother f*ing day, yay!]<br><br>Starring: Adib, DeVan, Mohammed, and Tiffany (that's me!)<br>WSGs: Mankgue (aka Mango-San) and Omar<br>Also Starring: Die (Adib's ride) and random Syrian cats that may or may not have rabies<br><br>Dates of Production: Monday ...

... moved in. The other point of history that this classic<br>fortress represents is of course the Crusades. Protecting the Homs<br>gap, the quickest and easiest way into Syria from the sea, it was<br>initially built by the Emir of Homs in the 10th century<br>but taken and expanded by the crusaders in the 12th<br>century as they sought to reclaim Jerusalem from Islam. Whether it<br>is the scale of the storage rooms (Crusaders held out for a four year<br>siege before ...

... covered in a candy coating, a hard apricot candy, sweet sesame seed candy, turkish delight, dried fruits, dozens of different kinds of chocolate and if I still continued saying all the sweets you'll probably get bored so I'll stop. The next place we went to was the best ice cream shop in Syria. It was extremely busy, but we managed to find a table. We all ordered pistachio ice cream and it was very good. <br><br>After the ice cream we ...

The Road to Damascus began the evening before my scheduled departure when I decided to check whether flight BD497 was on time and still expected to depart London Heathrow on Saturday 18th April at 12pm. Bad news. It was cancelled! Cue a major 30 minute panic and several grey hairs before finding out that I had been transferred onto the rescheduled flight to Damascus, which was to leave later in the day at 4.15pm. Phew! Bloody hell! What a great start to my first world exploration ...

... yesterday to see the "Crac des Chevaliers", one of the best preserved Crusader castles. In the afternoon we went to see Palmyra, a sprawling set of ruins that was just beautiful at sunset. It made for a very long day since we didn't get back to the hotel at midnight but it was well worth it. Today I'm taking the train up to Aleppo, Syria's other main city, and will park myself there for a few days. More later!

... when I wasn't expecting it, and got the people in the café involved with chanting and making all manner of noises, it was wonderful! Aparently story telling in cafes is an old tradition that is dying out, the guy I saw is I think the last man in Syria who is still a satory teller.. talk about special J I was taken one evening to the house 'where all of the miracles happened'. At age 18, a woman had the virgin Mary appear to her and she started to ooze oil from ...

... renovated homes look very much like the Riads of Marrakech. The star attraction of the Old City is the Umayyad Mosque. This is one of the most famous mosques in Islam because of its unique engineering, architecture and decoration. The mosque, converted from a Byzantine cathedral in the 8th Century, is on the site of the Roman temple to Jupiter. So this has been a sacred site for well over 3000 years. The construction of ...