Cairo Hotel Hamah

27 Oct
When I checked out of Al Gawaher at 8am, apparently the hotel didnt accept any credit card. And also when I gave them 2 1000 SYP notes for the 1500 bill they say they did not have any change! So I had to give them all of my loose change which coincidentally added up to 500. My next worry then was the fare for the taxi that I was going to take to the bus station as I only have my 1000 notes left.

Getting a taxi was easy but when I got to the station, unsurprisingly since it ...

Our last day in Aleppo was a true Syrian experience. We spent the last couple of hours drinking tea with a local shop keeper who spoke no English, before going down to the souq's were the previous day we had arranged to meet a tailor to enjoy some more chi and coffee. In the end both Dino and the tailor enjoyed it when Shona was forced unhappily into a traditional costume, which consisted of unbelievably puffy white trousers, even passer byes got there kicks out of it.

It didn't take ...

It is with a trembling, but recovering, hand that I put pen to paper this week. We are in Syria now. So my Turkish tea addiction is a thing of the past - relegated to a mere memory (like scraping our car windows after the first good frost on a cold Canadian autumn morning...). When we last blogged Kevin was in such a hurry to catch the tea guy at the train station that he couldn't finish writing his last thought...and, he said I have a problem?? We both enjoyed our Turkish tea right up to the...

God, this is a fantastic country! Syria is, I think, probably the standout highlight of my trip so far, and one of the best countries I have ever travelled. The ceaseless and all-encompassing friendliness of the Syrians is reason enough alone to come here. I have never felt so totally welcome in a country as I have this last week here. Nor have I had fewer people trying to rip me off. Generous, warm, and honest are the Syrians - truths totally at odds with the persona of this wonderful countr...

Yep, cruising along the moors of Syria, through abandoned 1500-year-old cities, in a 1951 Pontiac is definitely something I could get used to. Jon, Louisa, and I were on our way north to Aleppo, via a couple of the Dead Cities, again in a lovely vintage car courtesy of the Cairo Hotel in Hama. We explored the evocative windswept ruins of Sujeilla, lost on a high moor, and the churches and pyramid tombs of Al Bara, from where the Crusaders set out in the 11th century to commit one of their mos...

After parting with my crew in Aleppo I made my way to Hamah, Syria, on the banks of the Orantes. The city is famous for its ancient water wheels, which remarkably date back to 1100BC and provided water for irrigation. It is also known for a horrible massacre in 1982, when Rifaat al-Assad (the current Assad's far more brutal father) massacred an estimated 10,000-20,000 members of the Muslim Brotherhood and leveled the old city in the process.
I arrived in Hama on a Friday, so the majority...

Hama, home to the famous Norias (water wheels)and our base for visiting the number 2 must see site in Syria, Krak De Chevaliers. About Hama then. Hama in it's own right is quite a nice place and after Aleppo a welcome respite from 24 hour honking horns and pollution. We were camped in a great little hotel called 'The Cairo Hotel' which had a nice vibe about it. It was especially nice after staying in the Peep Palace in Aleppo with the creepy dudes. There are Noria's peppered around the town a...

syria