Baalbek, LEBANON

They say Baalbek is Lebanon's greatest Roman treasure and can be counted among the greatest wonders of the ancient world. It's the largest and most noble Roman temples ever built and are also among the best preserved. When walking around the ruins of Baalbek one can't help but to adore the skills of the ancient builders. Let your mind free fall into a fantasy trip about what life here must have been like in its heyday. It would have surpassed any luxury as we live it today.

Baalbek's history goes back to the third millennium B.C and much of the building was done between 64 B.C and 68 A.D.

Baalbek is the highlight of my travels through Lebanon. Tomorrow I'm going back to Damascus to resume my trip through Syria before going into Turkey about 8 days from today.

Saida and Tyre, southern LEBANON

The town of Saida (aka Sidon), one hour south of Beirut, is a living museum. The old part of town is an amazing labyrinth of tunnels filled with souks, living quarters, mosques, churches, cathedrals, nobleman houses, restaurants, and tea houses. Not touristy at all!

HISTORY LESSON:
Sidon (or Saida) was the third great Phoenician city-state, rivaling Byblos in the north and Tyre in the south as a naval power. There is evidence that Sidon was inhabited as long ago as 4000 B.C., and perhaps as early as Neolithic times (6000 - 4000 B.C.). In Darius' time, towards the end of the 6th century B.C., it was the capital of the fifth Persian satrapy and a showplace of buildings and gardens. The town was conquered by the Crusaders after a famous siege lasting 47 days, then retaken by Saladin 70 years later.

Tonight I'm splurging in a beautiful hotel overlooking the Mediterranean See in the town of Tyre (aka Sour). Tyre is only a 30 minute drive north of the Israeli border and has a history of incursions by the Israeli fighters. Last year (2006) , at least one village near Tyre was bombed by Israel, as well as several sites within the town, causing many civilian deaths, and adding to a food shortage problem in Tyre. Its a lovely town with a fragrant, cosy harbour filled with small fishing boats, seafood restaurants near the rocky shore....and I love my arguileh while sipping a tea and staring across the Med.

Byblos, LEBANON

I'm north of Beirut, along the coast, in the little ancient town of Byblos. The old part of town here dates back to 3000 B.C!!! Amazing!

Early tomorrow morning I am going to the far south of Lebanon, along the coast to the town of Saina and then further south to Tyre (aka Sour), just north of the Israel border.

Beirut, LEBANON

Beirut still shows enough scars from the civil war of the 80's to make you wonder how people coped and survived here amidst the violence. Here's army tanks and heavily armed soldiers in the city and you wonder if the war is still going on, or are they just waiting for the next war. The atmosphere is tense - no wonder the new downtown is empty of people, and full of soldiers and barb wire. These soldiers are among the most rude soldiers I have come across in any country. I have not found a single soldier who speaks English (not that I am looking for one), and somehow they think I'm a reporter - obviously reporters are not welcome here. Hezbollah (the terrorist branded group) and other opposition parties, are camping out in squatter tents around the new downtown. The brand new mosque won't open its doors until the killers of ex-prime minister Rafik Hariri has been brought to justice. This is a city with a volatile future. However, many major international hotels are going up like mushrooms along the beach front of downtown Beirut. Some people sure have faith in Beirut's future.

Regardless of being a war torn city - which is being renovated at a fast pace - Beirut is quite a nice city. Lovely setting between the rolling mountains inland and the Mediterranean sea. However, this city is between the good past (before the 80's civil war) and hopefully of a prosperous future. Right now there are too many tanks, rude soldiers, fenced off areas, and construction going on to recommend this place as a tourist destination. The National Museum does not allow photography, so I couldn't care less to go inside.

Over the next four days I'll explore Lebanon - Byblos to the north, Saide south of Beirut, Tyre to the very far south (close to the Israel border), and the famous Ancient Roman city of Baalbek...also referred to as the Roman Sun City in the north east, near the Syrian border.

After Lebanon I'll return to Damascus on the 28th to continue another 7 days around Syria before heading into Turkey.

Damascus, SYRIA

Arrived in Damascus this morning. Old City Damascus is a labyrinth of history!! An amazing place with tons of tales to tell. Probably the most authentic ancient market (souq) I have seen - no wait...except for Yemen.

I'll be in Damascus for just two nights, then over to Lebanon for four nights, and then back to Damascus and other parts of Syria for another week before moving north to Turkey.

Food is real good here. Had some succulent lamb's brain with condiments for lunch. Just loved it (if you have never tried it...then don't say a word).

Will write more later.

JORDAN in Review

Its time again to move on to the next country. I spent a wonderful 10 days in Jordan and these are my thoughts:
1. Wadi Rum - has to be at the top of my list. This must be the world's most amazing desert-scape. Red sand dunes, crunchy scrubby big rocks bopping out of the desert, camels on the horizon - and right in front of you too, Bedouin tents and Bedouin food and - Bedouin people. Awesome desert.
2. Petra - Man made combined with nature's secret creations! Wow, Petra is awesome indeed. Administrators are campaigning hard to get it into the Seven Wonders of the World.
3. The Dead Sea - Bizarre, bizarre, bizarre. I loved every moment as I plopped around like a cork! Or maybe I felt like a rubber duck! Its safe. Bring granny and the kids.
4. Bedouin - These Arab nomadic pastoralist groups, aka desert dwellers, have little but their black sheep's-hair tents, their sheep and goats, and most of all, warm smiles and a hospitality hard to match! I spent quality time with them in their tents and cave homes outside the borders of Petra, taking many photos, and returned the next day with their gifts - their photographs. A day with the Bedouin (as I also experienced in Iran), is a day never to forget.
5. History - You don't have to be a historian to fall for the great historic sites of Jordan. From biblical times to the crusaders and Islamic conquerors. Take a spot, stare over the ruins (some very well preserved / restored) and just try to imagine life way back then. You'll get lost in your mind.
6. Amman - with its rolling hills covered in small, yellow gray multi level flat roof homes - a picture paints an amazing story.
7. Mosques - with all respect to our Muslim brothers and sisters - I am tired of waking up at 04:38 (and again 20 minutes later) every morning (anywhere I sleep around the Middle East) with the loud-out crying of your "call for prayers". Should be called a "Scream for the top spot" as its seems to me the mosques are competing on creative screaming and yodeling! A big beef for not allowing non-Muslims in many of your mosques! A bigger beef for those of you who treat us non-Muslims as scum, not worthy entering your den of salvation. I am done with even trying to enter another mosque in my life!! You can keep it.....with all due respect my friends.
----I am out of here. Off to Syria

Amman, JORDAN

Amman, the modern yet ancient capital of Jordan, is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. The city's modern buildings blend well with the remnants of that of ancient civilizations who called this place home. Gleaming white houses on the hills, kebab stalls with roasting meat, and tiny cafes.....oh and many shoes stores with great bargains on very well designed footwear. Rich Arabian coffee, desserts made of a soft white cheese sandwiched between paper-thin pastry casings, smothered in a sweet clear syrup and topped with crumbled pistachios....oh those Arabian nights in Jordan.

You'll be surprised how developed this city is with a good part of the city being very developed, really nice houses, lots of expensive cars on the road, and yet a fair deal of ancient ruins and less ancient buildings still standing.

People are nice, stuff is cheap - great shoes for good bargain prices, and the normal wake up call from the mosque at 4:30am. I really like Amman!

Dead Sea, JORDAN

I've always wanted to try out the Dead Sea....at last I did it today!! What a bizarre experience! Totally impossible to drown in these waters. While the water looks and feels like your normal ocean water - though smooth and warm - its impossible to sink. Even when standing up in the deep water its hard to get in deeper than your neck. Try doing a breast stoke or butterfly stroke - hardly possible as you legs don't get deep enough. You end up flapping your legs in the air. Better opt for a backwards butterfly. If I had the time, and permission, I easily could have swam across the Dead Sea to Israel. However, with my wet passport containing my Iran visa, I certainly would have landed in an Israeli jail. If you don't wash off your body with fresh water and let the salt water dry on you, you'll end up looking like a white walking salt-man. You know Salt-Man? Come see.

Also visited the area around the Jordan river (these days just a small muddy stream) and the place where Jesus was reportedly baptised. Amazing Jordan.

Eilat, southern ISRAEL

From Wadi Rum I moved one hour south to the port / holiday town of Aqaba. This is where Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the Red Sea meet. As I was so close to Israel, I hopped over and spent today in the lovely Israeli town of Eilat. Real nice vacation town with good restaurants and upmarket stores. Was a nice change from the rural villages and deserts I have been through over the past few weeks.

LATER THIS AFTERNOON
I'm back in Aqaba, southern Jordan and will tomorrow start working my way up north, back to Amman, then the Dead Sea...and further north to Syria.

Salamat from southern Jordan.

Wadi Rum, Southern JORDAN

Wadi Rum is as close as you can get to....the heavenly desert and the silent majestic mountains! Some say A journey to Wadi Rum is a journey to another world and others describe it as A vast, silent place, timeless and starkly beautiful and even as the most stunning desertscape in the World.

Here, the red and yellow desert paints picturesque scenes against the towering coarse rock formations - a sight to see and appreciate and an experience to never forget. I had real close encounters with the raw desert and its inhabitants - mostly the camels and lizards. Explored by 4X4 and a lot of hiking up the mountains and up the towering sand dunes - the latter being a darn good workout. Spent the evening under the starry skies and slept inside a Bedouin tent and of course enjoyed wholesome Bedouin food.

I was so happy to at last spent time in what is probably the most stunning desertscape in the world!

Petra, Wadi Musa, Southern JORDAN

My flight from Bahrain to Sharjah (UAE) went smooth and after a 5 hour wait, I left Sharjah at 01:00 for a quick 2.5 hour flight on Air Arabia to Amman, Jordan.....well, that 2.5 hours ended up being 12 hours!!! We were 7 minutes from landing at Amman Airport at almost 3:30 am when the pilot told us we will abort landing (due to poor weather) and instead land 35 minutes north of Amman in Damascus, Syria. To make a very long story short...we spent 11 hours sitting around at the Damascus airport...with every move of all passengers going wrong....but eventually we landed at Amman at 2pm this afternoon. We were all very tired...but in the process made many new friends from around the world.

I went to downtown Amman and took the first minibus to Wadi Musa...the little town next to Petra. Petra is an archaeological site in a basin among the mountains which form the eastern flank of Wadi Araba, the large valley running from the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Aqaba. Petra is famous for having many stone structures carved into the rock. The long-hidden site was revealed to the Western world by a the Swiss explorer in 1812.

Tomorrow and the day after I will spend photographing this large and extraordinary archaeological site.

But first....I need to get sleeeeeppppp. I am dead dead tired. Nite.

The girl to the right is a Bedouin girl, nomadic, and currently living in a cave with her family.

Bahrain to UAE to Jordan - A tiring trip

I'm still in Bahrain and just uploaded a few pics (see below). I have now run out of time and wont be able to upload more or to do some writing. I gotto get back to my hotel to pick up my bag and head off to the airport. Flying down to Sharjah (UAE) from where I fly after midnight to Amman (Jordan). I'll arrive at 02:30 and later that morning will take a bus south to the famed ruins of Petra from where I'll attempt to update and expand the last few entries of my blog.

Manama, BAHRAIN

I arrived late this afternoon from Shiraz, IRAN, and I'm now in Manama, capital of The Kingdom of Bahrain. A tiny island in the Gulf, east of Saudi Arabia. Bahrain was not originally in my travel plans but what the heck - I was in the vicinity so I decided to drop by and check it out.
This was my first and hopefully my last visit to this tiny Kingdom. These Bahraini kings, who live in their majestic palaces around Bahrain, can have their little dusty island to themselves. I didn't travel around the island but explored the capital, Manama, in all directions. Other than a magnificent and friendly mosque, Bahrain has little to offer me. Of the two days I spent here, one day had fairly clear air while the second day was drenched in suffocating sand dust from the winds blowing across the Saudi desert. Glad I visited - just as happy to leave again. Adios Bahrain.

Shiraz, IRAN

A 6-hour journey bus journey safely brought me to the city of Shiraz - my base for the next three days. Among the amazing sights in the area is the magnificent Persepolis (70km north of Shiraz) which was constructed over many years starting about 518 B.C. In contemporary Iran the site is known as Takht-e Jamshid (Throne of Jamshid). To the ancient Persians, the city was known as Parsa, meaning the city of Persians, Persepolis being the Greek interpretation.

The Achaemenid Persians of central Iran ruled an empire which comprised of Iran, Mesopotamia, Syria, Egypt and even parts of Asia including India. Their ceremonial capital was Persepolis in southern Iran founded by King Darius the Great (522-486 B.C.). However, Persepolis was burned by Alexander the (NOT so) Great in 333 B.C. This was apparently in revenge for the burning of the Acropolis of Athens during the Second Greco-Persian War.

Only the columns, stairways, and door jambs of its great palaces survived the fire. The stairways, adorned with reliefs representing the king, his court, and delegates of his empire bringing gifts, demonstrate the might of the Persian monarch. What a sight to see!! You need at least one full day to explore these ruins with all its detailed inscriptions, carvings and statues.

UPDATE
Over the past few days I had some amazing experiences here in Shiraz. In particular with the amazing nomads (locally referred to as Qashqai or Ghashghai) who travel across the south of Iran with their sheep and goats. I spent a lot of time with them, took lots of great photos. The Qashqai are a Turkish-speaking tribe of pastoral nomads in southern Iran. They migrate between winter pastures near the Persian Gulf and summer pastures on the Iranian Plateau. They have shown greater cohesion than most Iranian tribes and number an estimated 790,000 back in 1997. They are dirt poor but make best with the little they have. Extremely reliant on their herd of goats and sheep - for wool (clothing and tents), milk (cheese and yogourt) and meat. They are such lovely people!!!

Gotto run now to the airport. Flying to Bahrain.

Garmeh Oasis, IRAN

I just returned from two days at the Garmeh oasis, in the desert 400 km north of Yazd. I stayed in a 260 year old mud house owned by a Tehran based artist - an elderly and very interesting man and his wife. The two grumpy camels outside the front door serve as watch "dogs". Only 230 inhabitants in the oasis village. As usual, I climbed the highest peak of the nearby mountains around sunrise. The surrounding landscapes of desert and majestic mountains made the long trip very memorable. Visited a salt lake 80 km north of the oasis and saw tens of wild camels roaming the salt flats and surrounding desert plains. Two very exciting days!!

I'm off Shiraz now - the birthplace of Shiraz wine. But no wine here - or anywhere in Iran - as this country is ruled by strict Islamic Clergymen.

I just want to say again - The Iranians are probably the nicest people I have met anywhere during my travels, and Iran is one of the safest countries I have ever visited! Such a wonderful experience to be here.

The photo to the right is the salt lake north of Garmeh oasis. The two dots in the distance is that of two dead and decomposing camels. Nothing as smelly as a dead camel!

Yazd, Central IRAN

I am in dead central Iran, in the ancient town of Yazd. A few hundred kilometers east is the Afghanistan and Pakistan borders. With its amazing badgirs (wind towers) and mud-brick old town, Yazd is (according to UNESCO) one of the oldest towns in the world. Almost all buildings in this old town is made of sun-dried mud bricks. A few hundred kilometers south is the town of Bam, also made of sun-dried mud bricks which four years ago was almost totally destroyed by a massive earthquake which killed 31,000 people.

Yesterday I did a day trip with a car and driver to the ancient village of Kharanaq and the Zoroastrian shrine of Chak Chak. Parts of the village of Kharanaq are believed to be more than 1000 years old - and it sure shows its age. I climbed to the top of the Qajar-era mosque with its 17th-century minaret which was a thrilling but very claustrophobic (in total darkness) experience. At the top, with its breathtaking views over the village, I was able to get a nice dance with the minaret - aka a "shaking minaret". The nearby caravanserai and ancient aqueduct offered great insight into the life of a bygone era. At Chak Chak with its Pir-e-Sabz fire temple, I climbed the nearby mountain - much more challenging than it looked - and was rewarded with some awesome views of the desert valleys and surrounding sharp edged mountains. Just outside Yazd I climbed to the top of the "Tower op Silence" - where for centuries sky burials were conducted. Deceased bodies were placed at the top of the tower and hungry vultures had to finish off the rest!

Food is great, people are truly friendly, the old part of town is a mud brick maze to get lost in, the market another lovely old maze of excitement - Yazd is a lovely town! A great base to explore the surrounding desert.