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Wednesday, May 31, 2006
the drive up to tripoli was quite stunning - the sea was deep blue and the sky completely clear, not a cloud in the sky. the only thing bothering was the heat. i realize why I feel so much hotter here than in syria. humidity. beirut and tripoli are all coastal cities and thus the air is a lot wetter. I imagine when summer proper arrives, it will be akin to hong kong. its hard to believe in winter it snows here!
I spent the afternoon walking in and through various souks - the gold souk, soap souk, copper souk etc. there were two pieces I wanted to buy in the copper souk - a brass vase and a mini shisha (sooo cute, and is actually practical!), but the owner wouldnt reduce the price and i walked away....regretably! bummer.. annoying. i think my mum would have appreciatd the vase since she loves flowers.
other than standard kebabs, ive been indulging in smooth delicious hommus (sometimes with mince meat topping). ive always enjoyed lebanese food, but now having tasted it right from the native land, I am hooked. i like it because its such a varied cuisine. normally skeptical about foreign sweets (indian sweets for starters), I am a lot more liberal with middle eastern sweets - probably because they incorporate so much nuts in it - almonds, pistachios, hazelnuts etc. yum yum
I spent the afternoon walking in and through various souks - the gold souk, soap souk, copper souk etc. there were two pieces I wanted to buy in the copper souk - a brass vase and a mini shisha (sooo cute, and is actually practical!), but the owner wouldnt reduce the price and i walked away....regretably! bummer.. annoying. i think my mum would have appreciatd the vase since she loves flowers.
other than standard kebabs, ive been indulging in smooth delicious hommus (sometimes with mince meat topping). ive always enjoyed lebanese food, but now having tasted it right from the native land, I am hooked. i like it because its such a varied cuisine. normally skeptical about foreign sweets (indian sweets for starters), I am a lot more liberal with middle eastern sweets - probably because they incorporate so much nuts in it - almonds, pistachios, hazelnuts etc. yum yum
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
oh my, I dont think I have sweated so much merely just sitting down. the bus ride, albeit just 3-4 hours from damascus to beirut, was most stifling and stuffy. There werent any windows and the A/C was hardly blowing any air out. crossing the border was unexpectedly slow.
Im writing this from beirut, capital of Lebanon. I spent the past two hours walking from east to west, along the coast. compared to damascus, beirut can not be further removed. not only are some of the streets and architecture artifically european, gone are the head scarves and loose clothing. oh, and very obvious is how beuatiful the beirutians are.
After wandering around the city, Im not sure I want to stay in beirut tomorrow. I will probably make a day trip up to Tripoli, north of Beirut. its the second largest city in lebabnon and apparently famous for its souks and sweets. double nice.
byeee
-edit-
I feel a bit crap for writing such a short post.
last night, i was so mad. I was royally ripped off at this outdoor restaurant on Mt Kassion. I was having such a great time sitting outdoors with chai overlooking at the grand and dazzling lit city of damascus, until I asked for the bill. I swear ther owner plucked a number out of the air. i made a shocked face and but didnt make a fuss, merely handing the bills over. i regret that now. its not the amount im annoyed about, but the attitude some people have towards foreigners and their narrow minded thinking that all foreigners are rich. i should have argued the bill because now he probably thinks he can do this to all other tourists and thats not right. grr. i was so pissed off, i couldnt get to sleep. i regret also not taking down the name of the restaurant so I can write a letter to LP.
a random note. i brought a long-ish skirt earlier this evening. soo bad. need to stop these shopaholic tendancies.
Im writing this from beirut, capital of Lebanon. I spent the past two hours walking from east to west, along the coast. compared to damascus, beirut can not be further removed. not only are some of the streets and architecture artifically european, gone are the head scarves and loose clothing. oh, and very obvious is how beuatiful the beirutians are.
After wandering around the city, Im not sure I want to stay in beirut tomorrow. I will probably make a day trip up to Tripoli, north of Beirut. its the second largest city in lebabnon and apparently famous for its souks and sweets. double nice.
byeee
-edit-
I feel a bit crap for writing such a short post.
last night, i was so mad. I was royally ripped off at this outdoor restaurant on Mt Kassion. I was having such a great time sitting outdoors with chai overlooking at the grand and dazzling lit city of damascus, until I asked for the bill. I swear ther owner plucked a number out of the air. i made a shocked face and but didnt make a fuss, merely handing the bills over. i regret that now. its not the amount im annoyed about, but the attitude some people have towards foreigners and their narrow minded thinking that all foreigners are rich. i should have argued the bill because now he probably thinks he can do this to all other tourists and thats not right. grr. i was so pissed off, i couldnt get to sleep. i regret also not taking down the name of the restaurant so I can write a letter to LP.
a random note. i brought a long-ish skirt earlier this evening. soo bad. need to stop these shopaholic tendancies.
Monday, May 29, 2006
wheeee second day in damascus. i love the old city which is surrounded by a roman wall. Ive only started to properly dine out, since in aleppo I was having all my meals with the family, and OMG the food, well everything, is soo cheap in syria. for instance, my dinner last night - Shawarama chicken roll and fresh carrot juice came to the equivalent of 25p. A taxi ride is on average about 20p. I can go on, but a pound definitely goes a looooong way here.
- arabs love all things sweet, especially their tea. in a small glass they can put at least two heaped teaspoons. the amount they put in, you think it wouldn't dissolve, but astonishly it does.
- the family I stayed with insisted giving me this set of pyjamas as a souvenir they called it. what luck, because now I have PJs!
- yesterday, I visited this tea house where everyone sort of lounges around smoking shisha and drinking chai. there was this animated story teller telling a story in a very dramatic way. he was even dressed up in the role and had this metal rod as a prop. I had no idea what was going on in the story, told in arabic, and when he suddenly banged the rod against a metal stand, I literally jumped and screamed. the wholee audience looked at me and laughed. so embarassing. it happened a second time as well. goodness.
I can decide whether to stay in damascus or bus to lebanon a day earlier than scheduled to fit in a trip to the north to the city of Tripoli. ...decisions decisions.
laters!~
Saturday, May 27, 2006
whoa, a far cry from my last post. in happy spirits, in clean [new] clothes and feeling jovial in aleppo. i was wandering around yesterday, just after I last posted, and noticed some kids playing. I watched them quietly and they soon approached me exchanging names and other civilities as best as we can in sign language. a few minutes later, I got to experience syrian hospitality. i stayed there from 4pm till 10pm and went back the next day (today) for breakfast and went shopping in the souks (for pants and sandels) with Raji, Asraa, and Kada. im not sure about the syrian cuisine. the breakfast/lunch was a lot better than dinner. kibbe (ground meat inside this sort of wheat ball) is the national dish, which unfortunately, Im not so fond of. Nor of this dish we had which was meat with eggplant or squash in a very sour soup. I like the falafel though. Im due back for dinner later - I hope its something different!
the family is huge. the grandmother has 12 children. I met probably half the family tree: a dozen children and three generations. amazing. arabic names arent hard to learn- but the sheer number of names I need to remember is difficult. we have been communicating through an arabic - english dictionary. i have picked up a few words but no sentences save "ana habib...." which translates to "I like....".
gotta run, shall probably next post in Damascus - capital of Syria.
Friday, May 26, 2006
Rant session:
- left over half my clothes in istanbul. to cut the story short, I now have a pair of [ahem soiled] pants and two tops. no towel and no sleeping clothes. craaaap
- to make things worse, I arrived in Aleppo (Syria) this morning to find everything closed so I cant go and buy a towel etc. its friday and its the day for prayer and mosque
- zero hours of sleep. flew from istanbul to adana in the evening, caught a 11pm bus from adana to antakya, and waited at the bus station from 2am till dawn not being able to fall asleep because of two snoring men and turkish music
- still tired, want to lie down in hostel but room is not ready till two hours later
- money-strapped: not having used my aussie ATM card for a year now, I forgot the PIN number. double crap
- I realized I sent the shisha I brought without putting a fragile sticker on
Aleppo is dusty and I am tired. Im out.
Promise next post will be a happier one, because I have heard good things in Aleppo when things are actually open.
Wednesday, May 24, 2006
average 27 degrees. after a year in London, I describe the heat as sweltering.
shisha shisha shisha. i brought my very own hookah. yay. it was dear, but a worthy investment. I called my brother and he is as excited as me because apparently its becoming quite hip in Hong Kong. now we will be able to chill and smoke at home. i got one with an intricate gold blue glass vase with matching blue pipe. I got the mouthpieces, charcoal tongs and tobacco. Im set. the only downside ıs I am lugging a heavy badly packaged shisha, which doesnt even fit in my backpack..empty even. im going to find the post office after this. i just cross my fingers that the shippıng cost ıs astronomical. i remember i sent some plates and other sundries from morocco once. but it ended up breaking. dayam. i was being cheap and didnt want to pay for extra charges. this time, i cant afford the shishia to break.
ataturk airport is on fire. i didnt realize since i havent been reading the news. my dad SMS-ed telling me the news and I logged online to read bbc.com. its ridiculous how i seem to come to hear all major national news from my dad who is all the way in Australia. deja vu. a few hours after the tsunami in india, i remember receiving a msg from my dad asking if I was alright. twice lucky i guess. the fire at the international airport is not all that remote, considering i have a flight to Adana (south-east Turkey). I was originally going to bus it, but after findıng out the bus ride would be 16 hours and the air ticket only 15 pounds or more expensive, I decided to fly.
I think I am going to hit a hamman now and just chill. Im reading A Suitable Boy - this majorly thick trilogy. I need to finish it before I leave London because no way can I lug it back to Hong Kong. Laters
Tuesday, May 23, 2006
insane. its rare I havent blogged despite being well into my trip. Short recap: spent a couple of days in Berlin absorbing the history and landmarks, and chilling with my best two mates from London. I am writing at this present moment from Istanbul, which is not the capital of Turkey contrary to popular knowledge (its Akana). Im staying in Sultanamet, which is the old part of Turkey and where Blue Mosque, Topkapi Palace, Aya Sofya, Bascilia Cistern are situated. Its also the haven for backpackers.
its surprisingly expensive here. tourist entry fees are a hefty 10 euros for the standard places. So, I havent been venturing in. I guess there is also less of an incentive since I have visited them before. the weather is quite hot. not to the extent you want a shower every half hour, but hot enough to want to wear a tank top but not wanting to because of the added unwarranted male attention. I thought moroccan men were repressed, but turkish men arent any better. they want to talk to you at every opportunity possible. a common 'tactic' they like using is sort of slow down until you catch up to them and start intiating a convo - "where are you from". usually I counter this by slowing down even more to the point of nearly stopping and going into a shop or crossing the road and walking on the other side. other men are most persistent. Im just wondering if they are this extreme in istanbul (which I think is becoming increasingly europeanized), I dont want to think about the situation in syria. I made an effort on this trip to bring only long sleeve tops and long pants. by the end of the day, I am dying for a bath.
speaking of baths, I went to the best hamman so far. I think turkish baths are superior to arabic ones. well, at least the one I went to today was beautiful - marbled steam room, running hot and cold waters, and your own private room to lie down and store your stuff. it was luxurious. after my virgin hamman experience in morocco, I have become addicted to this way of bathing. sure, its a cultural clash seeing naked bodies moving around and lying down, but the experience is so cleansing and rejuvenating. I never feel as clean as I do about a few hours at a hamman - all that steaming and exfoliating. oh, I mentioned in my last london post about Porchester Baths - man they were amazing too - a rare gem in London indeed.
oh the food. how can I not have mentioned the food until now. turkey is the home of baklavas, donor kebabs, turkish coffee, apple tea, pide bread, kofte etc. yum, yum and more yum. I cant help but have multiple meals because there is always something I walk pass that I want to try.
in the one day, I experienced the vast range of transport in Turkey - the ferry, metro, bus, tram. I took the ferry early in the morning at 6.45am from Harem which is on the middle east side of istanbul (think instanbul as though it is cut in two, which it essentially is, separated by the Bosphorus river. the left side is connected to the european continent and the right side is connected to the middle east). anyways, my flight touched down in Sabiha airport, which is in the sticks, at 2am. my options were limited: camp out in the airport or venture out. i chose the latter after wandering around the departure hall and finding the seats had annoying arm rests which made it impossible to lie down. So, i caught a bus out to Harem which is a small port. However, the ferry doesnt run 24 hours, and I had to wait from 3.30am till 6.45 am. not the most pleasant part of my journey. the frustrating thing was I couldnt buy any food or drink because I had no local currency. there weren't any money exchangers in Harem, and for some odd reason, prehaps due to early hours, none at the airport.
I feel a post is not complete without a rant, so here it goes: lonely planet sucks. well at least my "Middle East" LP does. seriously deficient in all areas, and compromisingly shallow. it ridiculous. i end up having to ask or google most of the information. for instance, it didnt even mention the airport I flew into hence I had no idea about getting out of the airport. I can go on (which I have in my notepad) but I wont online. I better go. it late and I want to make an early start. vague plan for tomorrow is to hit up the grand bazaar, find this hookah place I have been recommended and by a shisha to ship home, eat more, visit Topkapi Palace and a boat ride along Bosphorus river.
leave you and love you!