Favourite bit
Palmyra (of course)
Decent Cups of Coffee
0 - zip - none - nada
Good food experiences
Only one springs to mind - a decent chicken rice and yoghurt dish in Palmyra was the highlight.
Bad food experiences
Diseased chicken kebab in Aleppo. Tasted good but a day later I realised I had got a bug travelling with me and that it wasn't going to leave of it's own accord. Killed the bug in Malatya with some super Turkish antibiotics (yah for Turkish chemists!).
Most memorable day
Dier-Ez Zur (for all the wrong reasons).
It was destined to be "one of those days" from the moment I tried to leave Palmyra.
Firstly the bus that I was supposed to catch at 8am didn't exist - it had never existed. And the sign up in the town put up by the bus company saying that the bus left at 8 was just wrong - I pointed this out to the guy at the bus station but he just shrugged his shoulders and said "ah well, maybe there will be a bus at 8 one day". So a 3 hour wait for the bus that did exist was the order of the morning. The bus that turned up was fine, but it was full. I was told to wait for the next bus, "when was that going to be" I asked, "oh, maybe at 3pm, Inshallah (god willing)" said the little bus man. Since they had sold me a ticket and people who bought tickets after me had got a seat I kicked up a fuss and a couple of Syrian men in their 50's took my side in the argument and we won.
At least this meant I had some new friends on the bus - which was to prove useful later on.
The bus trip was fine, I ended up having to hold a baby for a while - this proved greatly entertaining to the other passengers. I had to then have my photo taken with the baby by about 10 people on the bus and then was duly fed the usual Syrian biscuits, cola and chocolate that one is always fed by passengers on buses.
I should have mentioned that Dier-Ez Zur is close to Iraq and the area has had a couple of notable security "incidents" in recent times.
- Israeli bombing of suspected nuclear wepons factory in the desert north of Dier - http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/15/world/middleeast/15mideast.html and http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/02/11/080211fa_fact_hersh
- US attack on Syrian border town http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7692153.stm
So given this I was not suprised to be hauled off the bus by the police before we got to Dier.
The conversation went something like this:
Policeman (PM) [chubby faced young man who was trying to affect the Hugh Grant foppish look but it just wasn't working] - Hello, how are you, where you from? oh Passport please.
Me: Very good, Australia and here is my passport.
PM: Why are you here?
Me: to see Dara Europus
PM: shakes his head. But why?
Me: Because it is interesting. Good History.
PM: It is very old and there is not much left, just some stones.
Me: Yes - that is why I want to see it.
PM: shakes his head OK. Where is your husband?
Me: No husband, just travelling by myself
PM: Hmmmff. What is your hotel?
Me: Rakshied
PM: NO. NO. NO. Rakshied. You stay at Ziad.
Me: But I don't want to stay there. It is very expensive.
PM: Rakshied bad, very bad. Mimes a thief - then gets my bit of paper with the Rakshied written on it and scribbles it out and writes Ziad. Then registers me at Ziad to my protest.
Me: Ok, I guess then I will stay at Ziad.
PM: very cheerfully. Yes Miss, that is a very good choice, enjoy your stay.
OK well then I thought - I guess I am staying at the Ziad. As I left the police station and made my way into town I ran into one of my friends from the bus. He, very helpfully, found me a taxi for the next couple of days for a good price. Taxi driver spoke no english so lots of pointing at maps, counting on fingers and working out times by pointing at watches ensued - and apart from the fact that Syrian drivers are mad, the roads are bad and it was raining, all went quite smoothly. Except for the Ziad Hotel.
The Lonely Planet (2008 ed) writes about the Ziad that it is a friendly, helpful, clean and comfortable hotel for $25 per night with an excellent management that can assist with travel requirements. I would say that it is unfriendly, unhelpful, clean and uncomfortable for $35 a night with the rudest and most surly staff this side of the worst Intourist Hotel in Russia. I'll put up with a lot but not being allowed to have the heater on (it was freezing and they wouldn't let guests have the remote control for the brand new split-cycle heaters in the room), no hot water (after being told that the water was hot - they refused to admit that the freezing water coming out of the tap was actually cold - instead the guy just shrugged his shoulders and said rather huffily, "we have hot water" and a refusal to change any US$ into Syrian pounds (unheard of for this to happen anywhere else in Syria) so I could buy some food. Consequently I spent a cold, muddy and hungry night at the Ziad - after being forced to stay there by the police - who I suspect get a kickback from the Ziad. In the morning I attempted to pay for the one bottle of water I bought with a 1USD note - the guy actually had the hide to say i owed them 3 cents (slight diff b'tw the usd and syrian pound). I left in a huff. Shame the yanks didn't bomb the Ziad on their earlier raid.
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