Ready For Action

The last few days have been pretty confusing but I think that I'm now ready to move on to Turkey and to new adventure. The plan when I last wrote (I think) was to return to Aleppo and then to head into Turkey. The next morning I arrived in Aleppo after a 3.5 hour bus ride and set to work checking into a cheap hotel and looking at cameras. While fruitlessly shopping I ran into a couple backpackers who just came from Turkey and they claimed that the duty free store had no electronics. That was disappointing but when I went to the bus station to see when they leave the next day I was more shocked when I was quoted $40 for the direct bus to Antakya Turkey. I remembered that it could be done for $3 from Lattakia where Jowen crossed and I immediately decided to take the bus back to where I started the day. What a pain.

When I got back to the hotel that I had checked into 3 hours earlier, the wrinkled old man at the front desk was not keen on the idea of letting me check out for free. He spoke no English but using the calculator on his desk, and the word police, he made it clear that he wanted the full $10 for the room and I charitably offered him $2. So began our 20 minute stand off. He stood between me and the door and every time that I put on my backpack he pushed me, so I pushed him several times too and we just scowled at each other. He was even better at staring contests than me and I thought I might break. Finally a 3rd party came in and talked him into accepting my offer of $2. You should have seen thew look on his face when I had him break my $20 bill!

When I returned to Lattakia that night I met up with my friend, David, who had spotted my uke at a hostel several days earlier. I checked into his hotel which was managed by an enthusiastic TinTin fan who had posters up everywhere. We tried to negotiate a lower price for putting me in their room, but he would not budge. I mentioned that I'd read several TinTin books, could name them, and he gave me a secret discount. The picture is of the Lattakian waterfront, as seen from the hotel room the next morning.

The next morning I could have set off for Turkey but instead I went to a nearby castle with David and our new friend from the hostel, a Swede named Matt. This castle is called Qala'at Saladin and it's not in as good repair as Crac des Chevaliers but it's got a lot more atmosphere and a lot fewer screaming schoolchildren. The author TE Lawrence write, "It was I think the most sensational thing in castle building I have seen". It was built by the crusaders on a heavily wooded and steep mountain ridge and it's defenses are rather unique. A great chasm was carved deep through the ridge to separate the castle from the rest of the mountain and a tall sliver of stone was left to support a drawbridge.

The rest of the castle is a mixture of crumbling walls overgrown with blackberry vine and wildflowers, and still standing stone towers with walls up to 15' thick. They've even got nameplates on several of the buildings identifying the 'Tower of Leadership' and the 'Tower of the Daughters'. Very romantic. All this was not enough to stop Saladin who took it after just 2 days by firing catapults from an adjacent ridge, breaching the lower walls, and storming the undermanned fortress. Being there it's possible to picture it exactly as it happened and that's what made the castle so memorable. We hitchhiked back to the nearby town, as we had done to reach the castle, and before we caught the bus to Lattakia we plundered an unwatched orange grove. Actually we got caught but the family seemed more amused than upset. I tore through 4 oranges and made a huge mess of myself.

Next morning I was prepared to go to Turkey but I found out that Damascus was just 4 hours away and I decided that because the castle pictures looked so terrible in pink that I would go and get a camera immediatly in a place that I knew would have a good selection. When I arrived in Damascus I checked into a hotel that was slightly cheaper than my old paradise but the new hotel sucked royally. After much searching, comparing, and haggling I bought a small Cannon camera (IXUS 100IS), almost the same as my broken one, but a couple model years newer. I'm pretty happy with it, but I can't see how it's any better than my old one, other than 12mp instead of 7mp.

Later that night I ran into my friend Matt, who was studying Arabic and staying at my old hostel. We used to see each other every day when I was staying in Damascus before and it was good to hear some updates. The party that Rafy was throwing, and I skipped town before, ended up not happening so I guess that I left at the right time after all. Next morning I got the waist belt of my backpack repaired where some of the stitching was coming loose, and I took the next bus back to Lattakia.

This is the third time that I've arrived in Lattakia and I'm sure that this must be the last. Next time I'll be writing from Turkey. My plan is to take a minibus to a town near the border, and walk 2km to the crossing. Then I'll wait there a few hours or until I run into a backpacker coming south out of Turkey so that I can buy their guidebook, or trade it for my own. After that it's a 1 hour bus ride to town. I've not much of a plan after that, but getting the guide book will surely help me to form one.