Moses' Hot Bedouin Carvings

2004-10-01, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Syria

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continuing north from egypt...

jordan

less sand more rocks. more westernised. less 'owstraaleeya' yelled at you as you walk down the street

desert jeep 'safari' (rally) thru wadi rum awesome. lawrence of arabia country. basically sand filled valleys with huge rock formations rising up all over the place. one of the highlights of the trip so far. sweet bedouin meal-basically like a nz hungi. chuck a 44gallon drum in the sand chuck some hot coals at the bottom chuck the food on these 3 big metal shelves and chuck em in and bury it. dig it up later and eat. v nice. awesome rock climbin here.

petra pretty nice. fair hike to get around the place as it is a good few kilometres in 40+ degree heat from the treasury to the monastery, but def worth it. constant smell of camels/donkeys and their unwanted parcels. awesome rock colours and mosaics. not bad carving either-basically the lazy beggars couldnt be bothered building stuff so they just carved it straight out of the rock.

moses' spring - fairly low key affair but stil livin history. mt nebo-where moses saw promised land from. really nice litl chapel with heaps of cool mosaics.

jerash old roman city really cool big ampitheatres

floating in the dead sea is like being on an invisible lilo, am told it is 30% solid. you can literally stand vertically without sinking, tis very cool. just gotta watch that water when it gets near orrifices cos you know about it! nose probably the most painful folllowed by eyes

syria

damascus v vibrant. more civilised. houses crawling up the surrounding hills like parasites. umayyad mosque huge awesome ppl everywhere children runnin around mobiles goin off no shoes families havin picnics and stil has a powerful peace about it. taxi drivers who get out of their vans and go and collar the traffic police about stuff knows wot. souqs-loud proud smells sights fun; got my pack patched up a bit but wil never be the same

palmyra is pretty cool with old ruins everywhere (and the citadelle from monty python's life of brian). sleeping on hotel roof. locals often too friendly especially to the girls when we were watching some festival in a 2000 year old ampitheatre, packed in with all the locals.

syria probably the dirtiest of the middle eastern countries (tight win from egypt) and also the least spectacular but still worth a look.

lebanon

first site was carnage all over the place from a 'demonstration about prices' earlier that morning; rubbish, huge rocks, washing machines lying all over the road for us to weave thru.

ballbek-biggest roman temple in the world would hav been awesome in its day stil a few 70 foot columns standing. well dressed middle aged man pissin on the side of the street

beirut vibrant modern city. amazin how u can turn from a bullet ridden street straight into a clean modern street bursting with influence from their former french occupiers.

very mountainous country. only country i know who can actually go skiin in the morning then go for a warm swim in the sun in the afternoon

not many ppl like the israelis.