Turkey is a motorcyclist's dream. Excellent climate, few cars on the roads, and glorious coastal roads that wind their way along the mountains. Often the road is just a few feet from the Mediterranean providing ample opportunity to cool off in the middle of the day.
The Turkish people have made our stay particularly enjoyable with their gracious welcoming attitude. Never is there too insignificant an occasion to invite us in for a cup of chai (tea). Even when filling up with petrol we've ended up sitting with the attendant on the forecourt sipping a glass of piping hot tea. In short, Turkey has been as close to the comfort zone as we're likely to get.
On Tuesday we crossed in to Syria and were hit with a sharp contrast. At the border, things moved slowly, and we had to give a few backhanders to several officials to speed up the process. When we did eventually get across we were greeted by a 38 degree wave of heat, which for a pasty Englishman like myself is really quite warm.
Keen to get out of the sun we made our way to Aleppo in northern Syria. We parked our bikes in the centre of town and within a minute were surrounded by locals. They were all keen to shake our hand, find out where we were going, and help us on our way. This was to be a feature of all our time in Syria and a very effective way of getting directions. The locals pointed us down a small side street, which wouldn't have looked out of place in an Indiana Jones movie, and in the centre of the labyrinth of alleyways we found ourselves outside a very swanky hotel. Stone columns, a marble floored lobby and an ornate bedroom were just too much. And, without Ted around to keep us honest, we plumped for the ritzy venue, rode our bikes in to the lobby and found ourselves right back in the comfort zone.
That evening we wandered around the ancient city visiting the bazaars and souqs. In one we were invited in to a secluded alcove to listen to some locals play an Oud (a pear shaped guitar with a bent neck), share a drink, and watch them puff away on their hooka pipe.
The following day we made the most of our hotel and ended up leaving in the afternoon. It was warm again but more like 35 degrees and we seemed to be acclimatising. Making the most of it, we spent the day visiting ancient ruins. Our first stop was a 4000 year old archaeological dig, which required quite a bit of imagination to work out where the buildings were and what they would have looked like. Our second stop was the Byzantine ruins of Serjilla. These were much more intact, and provided ample opportunity for exploring and to ride the bikes around.
But the jewel in the crown was the ruins at Apamea. Situated majestically on top of a hill, we arrived just as the sun was setting. Riding my bike along the 2000 year old street surrounded by crumbling pillars was an experience I'll never forget. A fantastic day.
Yesterday we took in another famous historical site - the Crusader's Castle in Crac des Chevaliers. Not as impressive as Apamea but it was still fun, partly because there was an amusing camel sitting outside.
Last night we descended in to the scorching heat of Damascus. Using our trick of pulling over and waiting to be surrounded by locals, we soon had a couple of them on the back of our bikes directing us to a hotel. It being Thursday, things were winding down ahead of the weekend (which starts on Friday here), but we did our best to explore our surroundings and wandered around the old town until the early hours.
Syria has been one of the most interesting countries of the trip so far. As in Turkey, we've been warmly welcomed by the Syrian people - who are a little more boystrous than their Turkish counterparts. The scorching heat of the Syrian countryside has also given us a taste of what life outside the comfort zone will be like. I'm enjoying the transition.
This afternoon we'll cross in to Jordan - the fourteenth country on our trip and the final one on our Middle Eastern tour. After that's it's Africa and non-stop adventure.
A few pictures from the Middle Eastern leg are available here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tdsmith/sets/72157605843004857/
1 comment:
Interesting stuff, Tom! I'm looking forward to reading more, but one has to wonder about the difficulties of finding a connnection in Africa. Although, if you keep flying back and forth between UK and 'current destination', it might be easier, if dlightly more expensive.
I sure hope you are keeping a lot of notes to yourself, though :)
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