Hotel Dar al Kanadil Al Bab

... I first went to the local bus offices that I saw when I first came in to find out more about buses to Hama. Unfortunately I have to catch a bus in Garage Al Ramouseh, which is on the outskirts of town. Hopefully I dont have to book in advance and that there are many buses to go there tomorrow. <br><br>I walked around in the northern part of town which is mainly the Christian Quarter. I noticed alot of colonial buildings, which reminded me of Yangon when I was doing my poly ...

... s a very green desert north of Hail and a great new road which carries on and on and then "you turn left at the fruit bowl" a couple of Martin's work colleagues told him, so we did and on and on again (through an hour or so of heavy rain) until the border. Mmm, Exit Only papers and export plates are not the way to leave Saudi Arabia. But I had particularly enjoyed my hour of illicit driving!! We arrived at the ...

... on top of 2500 years of earlier castles. A manmade hill provides the base and this is completely covered in stone to stop bad guys tunnelling in under the gaze of the helpless defenders. Our guide told us the castle had never been conquered, but Wiki says it was ...

... but not nearly as good as what we had in Damascus. However we did enjoy the pizza and soups at a restaurant called Cantara. Excellent (semi)Italian food. We did enjoy catching up on our journals and planning our future itnerary (details in a moment) at some outdoor cafes by the Citadel in Aleppo. If we could avoid the large tour groups, the ...

Today was quite a chilled out day and I didn't do anything to hectic. I basically just strolled around Aleppo which is Syria's second city and a really nice place. I started by wondering through the old souqs of the city taking in all the sights and smells of the souqs. You defiantly see some interesting things just walking through them. I managed to try and few of the sweets that were on offer, they are so good! Once through the souqs I got to the Aleppo citadel which is pretty ...

... per passar la nit, amb la intencio de maxar al dia seguent al Tourist Hotel que te unes instal.lacions infinitament mes netes a uns preus inferiors. ('La, sukran')Malgrat el cansament del viatge en bus, al dia seguent a les 8:30 del mati ja estem explorant la ciutat. A Aleppo, s'ha de venir amb ganes de caminar i de perdre's, tant en l'espai (pels seus laberintics carrerons) com en el temps. La ciutat compte amb un zoco cobert amb mes de 10 km de recorregut. Cada ...

... From this bus station were expecting to be able to by an ongoing ticket to get to Aleppo. There's nothing there but a restaurant and some taxi drivers. One guy asked us if we were heading to Aleppo and said he'd take us from 20 lira. This sounded the right price for a bus there so we went with him. He put us on his minibus, took the money and our passports and took us to the bus station in town. Another guy comes up, takes my bag and the passports from the driver and takes us to his cab ...

... by about 40 kids all wanting their picture taken and the mob was growing alarmingly fast. I knew I had to make a break for it before I got trampled by a mob of Syrian school kids. I said goodbye and walked away but they followed me so I dashed across the street and almost got hit by one of the gazillion yellow taxicabs that make up the majority of the street traffic. I hope the Syrian children don't love me to death...literally! Take Care Teresa

Bon. Sans vouloir dramatiser le weekend, je passais mes derniers jours arabes (en tant que touriste) à Alep, concluant ainsi ce premier mois de baroudage intensif. Il n'était pas question de se louper après un tel plaisir dans l'est syrien, et j'avais bien l'intention de rester dans la même gamme d'émotions ici, revenu en ville. Mais enfin il y a toujours l'élan de d ...

... on towards Aleppo. By now I was in desperate need of a shower. 3 days and nights on the road and I think I am developing an outer crust. My contact lens solution is like oxtail soup and I need more storage space as some of my clothing is fermenting. We entered Aleppo with Eileen at the wheel. We fought our way through the psychopathic drivers with cars covered in bumps and grazes. Worrying times and great relief that it wasn't ...