Amman - Damascus - Palmyra - Aleppo

  Aleppo, Syria
Thursday, December 6, 2007

Itinerary : Amman - Damascus - Palmyra - Aleppo
Dates : 5th December to 6th of December 2007
Mileage in Syria : 1260 km.
Mileage so far : 19230 km.

So we were back on the road and making our way back up to Syria.
This time we can smell the end of the adventure where we are heading in almost a straight line back to the old continent. If everything goes well, we will be crossing into Europe next Tuesday (I don't include Turkey as Europe).

We started the day by a difficult and tiring border crossing on the Syrian side. Well it's not really difficult but it's tiring because they bounce you all over the place to give money to everyone...Well I knew what to expect as I did the first border crossing on my own, but when Kevin decided to do this crossing together he went crazy with the authorities! He was fed up of being sent all over the place and paying everyone...And when the last guy we had to give a "tip" asked for 10 usd, Kevin turned purple and just replied "no sir"! I was curious to know the outcome of Kevin's challenge but when the guy made us understand that he wouldn't let us pass without paying this "fee", we finally gave the 10 usd each that he requested. He started to have a hot temper when we bought our visas and I only had to pay 12 usd and he had to pay 50! Merci Jacquot for your successful foreign policy...

Nothing much exciting riding to Palmyra where we decided to stay for the night and discover the ruins the next day. The only stop we did in that ride to Palmyra was for the Baghdad signboard...Won't get to see that signboard often so it was definitely worth a stop for a picture.

Baghdad or Palmyra? huh Palmyra please...

Baghdad cafe on route 66!

The next morning, we woke up not knowing what to expect as we arrived at night time the night before and didn't get to see anything...We have been riding a lot night time during this trip as the day falls as early as 4h30 pm! So we woke up the next day to finally get to discover the ruins of Palmyra. Was a fun and unusual sightseeing as we went in the sight with the bikes! Indeed, when we saw a few guys in moped riding around, we decided ourselves to ride around the ruins with the bikes as well! Great day and nice pictures with the bikes in the middle of the ruins.

I think this use to be the entrance...

With the kids in the ruins...

the city center behind me...

Trying to help renovate the ruins...

too heavy...

in the middle of the ruins with the bikes!

In the afternoon, headed for Aleppo which is our last stop before entering back into Turkey the next day. We decided to cut across the desert and use a road that was indicated as a track. The landscape had nothing special but it was quite an experience crossing in the desert and get to see how the people live. The towns look abandoned in this part of the country with very few cars...Kevin was not really keen on taking this road as his pessimistic mind was telling him that we would get stuck in a sand storm (and die)...There was a bit of clouds but nothing much...

Huh? sheepman?

I guess he's keeping himself warm with them...

petrol kiosk owner...proud of my scarf...

Kevin is not very keen on Turkey so we will try to cross as fast as possible...He has never been in Turkey before and we have only spent 3 days in eastern Turkey but for some reason he doesn't appreciate the Turk hospitality...Kevin, tell me what happened in Australia that made you feel uncomfortable with the Turks!