Carlton Damascus

... 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 ...

... be used was "choke")

[NOTE: Syria is in fact the Home of the Golden Hamster. My Ponley Lanet is not currently with me and so it is in your hands to do further research should you feel so inclined, but basically every Golden Hamster in the world can trace its roots back to Apello, Syria where they were bred a long long time ago. For the life of me, I cannot understand why the Syrian ...

... of a town that looks like it was abandoned in a
hurry. Huge monuments like the fantastically intact Temple of Bel
and the central colonnade mean that it does not take much imagination
to envisage how the city would have looked 1,800 years ago.




Even the excavation of this place marks
an important point in history. After retaking Damascus during the
First World War, with the help and encouragement of Laurence of
Arabia, Prince ...

... experience. Tonight will be our last night in Syria and tomorrow we will take service taxis to Amman which is expected to take 6 hours or so (including the border crossing). We'll be having dinner in the old city tonight which Bashar and two of our group will be leaving us. Apparently we're picking up 8 more people in Amman though. ~Jonathan PS Turkey could learn a thing or two from the service that Syrian hotels provide!

... chamber which I just had to go and see, and after a few scrapes on the way down there we were, in this pitch black abyss surrounded the bones of Romans. Good job my torch didn't run out, or we'd been in deep trouble! True Indiana Jones material. What a feeling. On the long drive back from Palmyra to Damascus which was more or less exclusively desert, we had wild dogs run at the car and headbut the doors, saw donkey after donkey carrying what seemed physically impossible ...

... us, so I turned around and went back to speak with them. We soon have about 15 people around us. I talk about who we are and where we have been and answer their questions as we go along. I knew when we parted they were so happy to have had a chance to use and hear English. I am sure they didn't mind being late for their class. Back to the hotel, oh, we forgot when you pull the key from the holder the electricity goes off. Lost my free wi-fi. So it goes.

... can only fly to Beirut from Amman with Royal Jordanian. It took me a long time to understand this, since very few people spoke English. When I arrived at the Royal Jordanian office, it was closed. I was told that it would not open until 9pm. My watch was showing 3pm. Learned that there was a flight from Damascus to Amman, after midnight, for about $100. My other option for getting to Amman was hiring a taxi. I tried, but quickly changed my mind when they ...

... been closed by the Syrian gov**nment as an initial response step. Wanda emailed me and said that she was worried because "I was travelling in places wh**e they hate Am**icans." This belief couldn't have been more wrong. All the Syrians I met w**e welcoming and gracious. In fact, they w**e excited that an Am**ican had come to Syria as a tourist. They made clear to me that they und**stood the diff**ence between Am**ican ...

... passionate Syrians are when you get to have a chat to them.
We finally arrived for dinner and it was a nice setting and nice food but it was very slow service. Conner only got his meal after most of us were almost done. I was supposed to go to a club with some of the group that night but I still wasn't feeling well so I didn't bother in the end. I did end up buying an I heart Syria magnet though. Tomorrow we cross into Jordan so I think it will be a long day. Bye

Just following on from the last entry, I did steal myself a roll of toilet paper from the hotel! It was quite cunning and I was proud of myself! I also found some dinner last night while walking around the central area. Decent meal too. I tried calling the Bebers Hotel this morning to see if they had any availability, but the number was wrong so it made the decision about where to go next easy. I bypassed the Ka'laat and caught a $4 ride to Damascus by coach ...