All hail, Queen of the smells!

I've had a total of two weeks to kill here in Aleppo and, though it is no Damascus, it is not without its own charms. Many of you might be wondering why, given the current political situation, I am still hanging around in Syria. It is certainly true that I could have completed all the sight seeing I wanted to do in less than half of the six weeks I have spent in this remarkable part of the world. My reasons for spending so long here are two-fold and both reflect key character traits/faults that I fear will be with me for life.

1. I am quite lazy.

Every day of full on sight seeing that I do is usually followed by a few days just wandering around absorbing the atmosphere and reading.

2. I'm a bit of a tightarse with my money.

Admittedly my skills in this area are nothing compared with my sister's natural flair for living off the smell of an oily rag - but I do like to stick to a budget. Syria is by far the cheapest country I will visit in the middle east and to leave it earlier than I had orginally planned would put a serious dent in my ability to purchase my own body weight in Harry Potter merchandise come July.

Apart from the stunning Citadel, the labyrinth of souqs in the old city (which cover more than 1.5 square kilometres) and the outstanding array of locally made soaps - the highlight of Aleppo for me has been the cheap glasses. Ever since another traveller I met in Damascus mentioned that Syria is cheaper than India for purchasing spectacles - I've had my eye out for any stores selling glasses. Imagine my delight when I discovered an entire street full of glasses stores here in Aleppo!

I know many of you are wondering how I can get so excited about getting a bit of a discount on some glasses. But I'm not just talking about a BIT of a discount. Picture this: designer frames, top of the line lenses with anti-reflective coating and the convenience of being able to walk away with your fabulous new glasses two hours after you first walked into the shop. How much would you expect to pay? Well in Aleppo you only pay........$50!!! I had planned to get some cheap glasses in India and would have been happy with anything under $300. But I never dreamed I'd be able to get them for $50 - so naturally I bought two pairs.

The last item I had to tıck off my Syria `must do´ list (not countıng a few places that are no longer polıtıcally stable enough to vısıt) was a vısıt out east to Dura Europos on the banks of the Euphrates. The Euphrates river features sıgnıfıcantly ın both the bıble and the Qu´ran. The Book of Revelatıon ın the New Testament predıcts Armageddon when the Euphrates runs dry and the Prophet Mohammed warned that the rıver wıll dry up, revealıng unknown treasures that wıll cause wıdespread war. Relıgıon asıde, the fact that the Euphrates provıdes water to the growıng populatıons of Turkey, Syrıa and Iraq means that ıts polıtıcal sıgnıfıcance wıll surely ıncrease as tıme marches on.

I was a bıt hesıstant about goıng due to the cost (the trıp ınvolved a prıcey hotel stay and hırıng a drıver for a day), a slıght unease about beıng more than one days travel away from a border should thıngs get stıcky and a fear that the Euphrates (lıke the Rıver Jordan) would be disappoıntıng when seen up close. Ultımately ıt was my desıre for a change of scene from Aleppo that decıded the ıssue and last week I headed east ınto the desert for a few days.

On my fırst full day ın the regıon, I set out early wıth my drıver ın an effort to beat the blısterıng heat. I was a bıt peeved that my $40 dıdn´t buy me passage ın an aır-condıtıoned vehıcle, but gıven my recent experıence ın Aleppo I was just relıeved that thıs drıver dıdn´t seem hell bent on kıllıng us both. By the tıme the drıver ındıcated that we were close to the sıte I had almost completely melted ınto the back seat vınyl and could no longer make out where the rocky desert ended and the sky began as we travelled on through a bıscuıt coloured haze.

When he poınted to a crumblıng wall and small tower barely discernable ın the dıstance and saıd ``Dura Eropos´´ I was not that ımpressed. I had blown my budget and travelled for 2 hours that day ın 38 degree heat for thıs? I started lookıng around wıthout much enthusıasm at the large sıte as the wall and gate were all I could see above ground. I took a half hearted look ınto a few of the large holes contaınıng the remaıns of temples before I caught a glımpse of aqua ın the dıstance.

Just a few hundred metres further along I spotted the ancient cıtadel and the ground dropped steeply away to reveal a gorgeous expanse of turquoise river and lush fields stretchıng out below me. The mıghty Euphrates did not disappoint.

After also visıtıng the 5000 year old archeologıcal sıte at Marı, my drıver and I headed back through the 40+ degree heat to Deır ez-Zur. I was completely knackered when I got back to the hotel ın the afternoon and decıded to have a quıck meal before I showered and collapsed. This was a decision I would soon come to regret. At the restaurant I was so engrossed ın the latest Thursday Next novel on my Kındle that ıt took her cough to alert me to the presence of a young woman at my table. She asked what I was readıng and as we chatted I notıced that her Englısh was very good and that her frıends at the nearby table were watchıng our ınteractıon wıth much ınterest. I apologısed for keepıng her from her frıends, but she ınsısted on brıngıng me back to theır table to meet them.

That was how I came to meet the lovely Noor, her sısters Alaa & Esraa and theır frıend (whose name I´ve unfortunately forgotten). It is really dıffıcult to have decent conversatıons wıth local women ın Syrıa, as they are not out and about ın publıc as much as the men are and they are less lıkely to know Englısh than theır male counterparts. Wıthout any male famıly members present at the restaurant, they were free to dıscuss a wıde range of topıcs, such as theır boyfrıends, polıtıcs, educatıon, famıly expectatıons and careers, wıth me. Just when I thought the day couldn´t get any better, Noor then insisted on brıngıng me back to their flat for a visit.

As we crammed ınto a taxı for the short rıde to theır home, I suddenly remembered what I had been doıng for most of the day and, consequently, what kınd of state I was ın. A quıck glımpse ın the rearvıew mırror confırmed my fears as I was coated ın a revoltıng mıxture of sweat, dust and sunscreen. Nothıng short of a long shower and a change of clothes was goıng to remedy the situation and I decıded that sınce the gırls had already seen me thıs way there was no poınt worryıng about ıt. I met theır brother Mohammed at the flat also and spent a most enjoyable afternoon beıng treated lıke a queen. They seemed almost as excıted to talk to me (and offer me tea, fruıt and sweets) as I was to talk to them and I soon realısed just what an honoured guest I was when other members of the famıly started droppıng round. It seemed that the sısters had been busıly callıng everyone they knew to let them know about theır new Australıan frıend.

Noor translated as an ever changıng array of cousıns, aunts and uncles asked me all about Australıa and my travels ın Syria. Just when I thought there could not possıbly be any more famıly members to meet, Mohammed got off the phone and saıd that another uncle had ınvıted us all around to hıs house for the evenıng. I trıed to back out - I really wasn´t dressed for goıng out - but once ıt was clear that my reluctance would cause more offense than my odour, I agreed and we set off ın another taxı. The doorway to the uncle´s lovely home was full of shoes and I was horrıfıed to realıse that I would have to remove mıne to enter. I apologısed profusely for the smell and hastily asked the way to the bathroom where I was able to at least rınse my feet under the shower.

The kındness and generousity shown to me by the entıre famıly was staggerıng. I was gıven gıfts, complımented continuously, fılled wıth delıcıous foods and made to feel ıncredıbly valued. We vısıted the homes of two more relatıves that evenıng and when I fınally returned to my hotel at 11pm I dıdn´t know which was more full: my stomach or my heart.

All in all, I couldn´t have asked for a lovelier end to my tıme ın Syrıa.

NB* Please excuse any strange letters or punctuatıon ın thıs post. I´m fınıshıng ıt ın an ınternet cafe ın Istanbul and the symbols on the keyboard bear lıttle resemblance to what comes up on the screen.

The world is Beiruting again!

Apologies for the long delay between my last post and this one, but internet cafes in Beirut were harder to find than a Lebanese person with nice things to say about Israel. I didn't expect there to be so much to see and explore in Lebanon and after only a few days I knew I would have to extend my stay to make the most of my visit. So now, 14 days later, I find myself back in Damascus trying to corral my many recollections into some kind of cohesive narrative...Here goes!

My first impressions of Lebanon were of  lovely cedar trees and the abundance of soldiers that I glimpsed through the mist and fog as my bus inched its way across the mountains and down towards Beirut. I found Beirut to be a fascinating city filled with many contradictions. There are the many Palestinian refugees living in poverty and there are the ridiculously over-groomed women with no eyebrows (it seems as though you are not fit to be seen in Beirut society unless you have had your natural eyebrows completely waxed off and replaced with thin penciled in lines) buying designer clothes. There is the soulless perfection of the sparkling new Beirut Souks shopping district downtown and there is the quiet dignity of the bullet hole riddled old houses that are still standing on the green line that used to separate East and West Beirut. There are the proud declarations made by many locals that the best thing about Lebanon is that people of so many different religions manage to live peacefully side by side - and there is the history of years of bloody civil war.

The country is very keen to put its violent troubles behind it and is happy to promote itself as the up and coming destination for the rich and famous. As you walk to the Corniche past several new building developments downtown, you are bombarded with large billboards declaring "Beirut is back on the map!" and, the sign that never failed to raise a giggle from the Australian travellers who saw it, "The world is Beiruting again!"

Lebanon is such a small country, and the public transport is so cheap, that the easiest way to see the country is to base yourself in Beirut and visit the many sights both north and south of the city via a series of day trips in the many mini buses that run as service taxis around the country. The minibus to the lovely seaside ruins at Byblos cost the same as the minibus to the northern city of Tripoli, 2000LL or $1.50. The sight at Byblos of the red poppies growing amongst the Roman columns, with the waves of the Mediterranean Sea crashing in the background, is one that will stay with me forever.

I was not overly impressed with Tripoli as a city and found 2 hours more than sufficient for me to take in all the sights. I may have been unfairly comparing Tripoli's old city and khans to the souqs of Damascus but I did really enjoy my visit to the Khan as-Saboun (the soap khan). The Lebanese use soaps as fragrant decorations, as well as necessary aides to personal hygiene, and I took great delight in observing the craftsmen and women as they fashioned prayer beads, high heels and bunches of grapes from soap. It was difficult to limit myself to only two soap purchases (out of the 400 varieties on offer) and as I paid for a bar of rosemary soap and lovely ball of sandalwood and amber soap I glanced around the room and saw that they even had a large open copy of the Quran carved out of soap!

Anticipating the higher costs that I would inevitably be faced with in Lebanon, compared to Syria, I elected to stay in a dorm at the New Talal Hotel in Beirut. The hotel had a dorm just for women and the owners took great pride in protecting our honour by locating the dorm at the top of five flights of stairs and vigilantly locking the door (which was a real pain in the backside as many of the dorm's occupants frequently forgot to take their keys with them when they headed out).

The social atmosphere of the dorm was a very good antidote to my normal hermit like tendencies when travelling and the real highlight of my time in Lebanon were the wonderful new friends I made there. The days I spent in the excellent company of Nina (American), Ruth (Belgian), and Clara (German) were filled with sight seeing, bad pop song sing-a-longs and much laughter. The glorious view of the clear aqua waters of the Mediterranean from the Sea Castle at Saida is forever linked in my memory with Nina's obsession with sampling every type of cookie on offer, Ruth's love of ice-cream and frequently shared comment that something was "too nice!" and my new friends' tolerance for my own Lebanese obsession as I dragged them through the souks in search of the soap museum.

Similarly I cannot recall our trip to the glorious Roman ruins at Baalbek without hearing Clara and Ruth singing songs by Technotronic in my head. Baalbek was far more impressive than I had imagined it would be and this was largely due to the fact that much of the site was still in excellent (almost original) condition. You were able to wander into temples and marvel at the engineering skills that allowed the romans to get a stone roof on top of columns that were five stories high. The six remaining columns of the Temple of Jupiter are the largest roman columns in the world. To give you an idea of the size, 4 of us with outstretched arms still did not quite encircle the girth of one column!

My hotel in Beirut was conveniently located close to both the Charles Helou bus station and the funky bars and restaurants in the Christian suburb of Gemmayzeh. The main street of Gemmayzeh had a bit of a Newtown vibe to it and by far my favourite restaurant there was Le Chef. It is a bit of a Beirut institution and serves a delicious array of traditional Lebanese "worker's food". Whenever you enter, or indeed walk past, Le Chef you are met with the deep booming voice of the owner as he bellows "Welcome, welcome" in a tone that makes his words seem ironic. The menu is hand written in French and changes each day. I had a delicious chicken and rice dish on my first visit there (the rice had minced lamb, walnuts, pistachios, almonds and assorted herbs in it) that was so good I literally dreamed about it afterwards. When I tried to order the same dish the next day the owner boomed "yesterday is yesterday, today is today. Today is different". Luckily my favourite starter of hummos with pine nuts was always available. I visited Le Chef a total of 5 times in my 12 days in Lebanon and on my last visit there the owner smiled at me and after hearing my new friend Hannah's order pointed to me and said "I know - hummos with pine nuts and chicken with rice" - my favourite dish was back on the menu that day!

The drinks in Beirut were expensive ($10 for any alcholoic beverage) so I budgeted for two huge nights out on the town - during each of which I enjoyed two drinks. The combination of excellent company - Nina, Ruth, Sandrine (French) and Craig (the aussie I had earlier met in Damascus) on the first night and Nina, Ruth & Clara on the second- and the DJ's preference for pop songs from the 80's and 90's made our nights out at the bar called Rehab loads of fun. Our unbridled enthusiasm at finding songs that had been crossover hits in Australia, America, France, Germany and Belgium resulted in much loud singing and some enthusiastic chair dancing. I think the locals found us quite entertaining and the bar's owner supplied us with a free round of shots and numerous bowls of salted corn kernels in an effort to get us to stay longer on each night. The waitress at rehab was also very striking and as we left I asked her if she had read the book "The girl with the dragon tatoo" as Nina & I both thought she was a dead ringer for the Lisbeth Salander character. She was thrilled with our inquiry as she had indeed read the books and in her words had "based her whole look on Lisbeth Salander".

The many day trips we took in Lebanon meant that we spent a lot of our time in minibuses. We started to amuse ourselves by taking bets on how much longer it would be before the minibus left (you had to sit in the minibus for anything up to 45 minutes, waiting for it to fill up, before it departed) and once we were on the road, what our estimated time of arrival would be.

The trip back from Sour with Ruth was particularly memorable as a few minutes after we got in the minibus the driver and his friend proposed marriage to Ruth and I. Given that they spoke no english and the driver's friend looked like he was at best 19 years old, I politely declined the offer... But Ruth took a good long look at the quite handsome driver and accepted. The driver was understandably VERY excited by this news and so began a hilarious courtship that involved every passenger on our bus. The driver would keep telling the other passengers in Arabic what he wanted to say and they would pool their collective broken english to try to translate for him. So the driver would call out something in Arabic, there would be a few minutes of muttering up the back of the bus before one of our elderly passengers shouted at Ruth "Your eyes. Pretty!" We narrowly avoided several accidents during the two hour trip as our driver kept electing to direct long lingering glances at his fiancee in the rearview mirror rather than keep his eyes on the road. But the news of Ruth's impending marriage was not kept just to our minibus - oh no. Every other minibus we came near on the highway was called closer by the honking and wild hand gestures of our driver. Then his friend would roll down the window and relay the news in Arabic of the engagement to the other driver. There would be much excitement, clapping and shouting and many more near accidents as the other minibuses would then nearly slam into us so that their driver could get a look at Ruth. Sadly the path of true love ultimately hit the language barrier. I think that Ruth would have been quite happy to meet her fiance for a drink that night but we could not communicate where we were staying or where they could meet. Somehow I suspect that Ruth may have got over the disappointment a bit faster than our minibus driver!

My last few days in Lebanon were spent enjoying the view from the ocean front Corniche in Beirut and fitting in a couple more daytrips to The Jeita Grotto in the north and The Beiteddine Palace in the Chouf Mountains south of Beirut. By the Monday of my last week Nina, Ruth, and Clara had all departed and I was anticipating spending my last few days in the country alone. Thankfully a wonderfully eccentric whirlwind of energy by the name of Hannah (from the UK) arrived and we explored the Jeita Grotto together.

From its cable cars which take you the ludicrously short distance up to the caves, to its toy train that you take back to the entrance, Jeita Grotto has plenty of kitch to keep you amused. However the spectacular sight of the stalactites and stalagmites that fill the upper cavern soon help you to forget the pain of parting with the 18,500LL ($15) entry fee to the site. Hannah thought the upper cavern looked like the setting for the final episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and certainly the strange formations and eerie orange lighting made it sometimes seem like you were looking down into the seventh circle of hell. After walking around the upper cavern we boarded a small boat to explore the partially flooded lower cavern of the grotto. Ultimately the immense size of the Jeita Grotto is very impressive. I can understand why the Lebanese are pushing so hard for it to be selected as one of the 7 natural wonders of the world, although I cannot whole heartedly suppport its nomination as it is up against the Great Barrier Reef, Uluru and Milford Sound.

My last day trip in Lebanon took me into the spectacular Chouf Mountains. The Beiteddine Palace was built over a thirty year period starting in 1788, and in 1943 Lebanon's first president after independence declared it his summer residence. Its location alone, sitting majestically atop a mountain surrounded by orchards and stunning terraced gardens, makes it worth the trip and on the day I visited at least five different school groups were there on excursion. As students of various ages ran squealing through the museum and staged large water fights in the ornamental fountain, it took all of my willpower to restrain myself from using my teacher's voice to get the more boisterous of the kids into line. Instead, I enjoyed taking in the sumptuous interior decorating on display in the rooms and helping some of the older students to practise their English by talking to them about my travels and where I am from.

My last night in Beirut was a true reflection of my time in Lebanon in that it involved great food and excellent company in in the form of Hannah, Rihah (Japanese) and the very well travelled Barbara. Indeed had I not had the charms of Damascus, not to mention the rest of Syria, to look forward to it would have been very difficult to leave.

On that note, Happy Easter everyone! I hope you are all enjoying the break - especially any hard working teachers who may be reading this :-)