Dear all,
Quite some time has passsed since I send out my previous travellogue update, which pretty much means a lot of writing for me this time. To start out with the most important news, I can tell you all I have now arrived to Cairo, and I am waiting for my familly to arrive and spend New Year's with me. Christmas has been a strange experience; all over the streets of Cairo it's business as usual, but in the hostel we are still trying to celebrate our own little Christmas party, handing out oranges to eachother by means of presents, and ofcourse the consumption of generous amounts of alcoholic drinks.
WINTER IN TURKEY
It has been quite some time since I left the Turkish village of Goreme, the center of Cappadocia, and famous for its cave houses and bizzare rock formations, formed by a beautifull cooperation of soft vulcanic turf and the eroding powers of rain. The weather was extremely cold; with the temperatures close to freezing, I managed to ride my 5000th kilometer, and deeply enjoyed the snow-capped mountains around me, while silently fantasizing on making massive ski-tours. Sleeping in hotels; quite a contast to the usual routine of pitching my tent every night, and eating lunch in warm road-side restaurants, while grabbing on to a hot cup of tea and sitting as close to the fireplace as I possibly could.
STOMACH TROUBLES
After a couple of days of working myself though the mountains of winter, it was time to decend to low and warm places again. My new found habit of eating nice sheepbrain soups was a thing which my body couldn't really approve, so it punished me with several days of severe stomach aches in Gazi Antep. To soon I decided to be fit for cycling again, which resulted in severe cramps and feeling totaly sick upon arrival in Allepo, Syria. A couple of very neccassary days of relaxing together with Belgian cyclist Jacques and Jess and Lise, both of whom I already met in Goreme, made sure of my restore.
ANCIENT BRICKS
Syria is the country of Ancient Bricks. You can find them practically everywhere; a castle here, some Roman settlements over there, you name it, it's there. First goal was beautifull Apamea, in distant times a massive city which used to inhabit close to half a milion, now an impossing old stone road of several kilometers long, surrounded with impresive queues of unique candy-cane pilars. Helene and Romain (http://tandaventures.free.fr/), two french cyclists I met there the day before, happened to be the perfect guides with their impressive amount of history-teacher-knowledge.
The road continued down to the castle of castles, which is also know under the name of Crac des Chevaliers. A castle inside a castle inside a castle, stuffed with secret and hidden passages, high towers and beautifull far-views. Built once, fortified by the Crusaders after, to be finally walled yet another time by the Arabs. Beautifull.
SNOW
Brought into the mood after seeing all that wonderfull snow in Turkey, I felt it would be an interesting idea to run a couple of slopes in one of the many Lebanese ski-resorts, while enjoying a marvelous view on the Mediterean. However, fate decided otherwise, as I found out while exploring the area by bicycle; the amount of snow up in the mountains was in no way sufficient to get up there and enjoy a so much looked forward to skitrip.
SAFETY
And so the road continued to Beirut, of which the city center can be described as a massive miltary checkpoint, inbetween which the locals are having a good time at one of the many terasses. Eventhough the huge amount of armed forced make you feel a bit uncomfortable at first, it seems you forget about all it's pressence after cup of tea and a wonderfull ice-cream, and don't pay attention to it much further. The speed at which this happenes is so fast, that it should actually scare you.
BAALBEK
Up, climbing high through big clouds of smog, and heading for Baalbek. Not to long ago the dangerous base of Hezbollah, but nowadays safe to enter again for a visit to one of the best preserved temple complexes in the world. Where you would normally just see a simple maquette on what a Roman temple once should have looked like, down here, you'll find a real example the has passed the test of time on highest possible marks and is still pretty much looking the way it once did. Collonades, reliefs, paintings on the remains of a roof, plenty of small little details everywhere, just the way it used to be. Unfortunately my camera couldn't take the sight of all this splendour and decided to close it's eye, blaming it on a lack of battery power..
BACK TO SYRIA
After exploring Damascus for a day, time had come to head off for some old bricks once more. Taking in account the advice Jacques gave me I decided that a bus would take care of my transportation this time, and later that day I found myself in the deserts surrouning Palmyra. Where Apamea and Baalbek show you nicely detailed ruines in perfect shape, the palm-village is mainly impressive due the massive quantity of sight. Ruin after ruin, I felt like wandering around in my books for Latin I studied on secondary school.
ON TO JORDAN
To round of the circle, I decided to enjoy a nice plate of lambsbrain and fries just before I left Damascus, which ofcourse resulted into a nice diarea attack in the next morning. So I left the country, feeling sick and ill again, and spending a horrific night in a gross hotel. The neighbouring country fortunatly showed me that they did know what a good hotel should be managed like, but ofcourse this came at a price. For bonus I was given Beat (http://www.ontheroad.ch/), a Swiss cyclist, included in the room price, which made me decide to stay there anyway.
STONED
After the simple realisation that we where both heading into the same direction, the two of us drove along silent small roads crossing the Jordan mountains into the direction of the Dead Sea, Close to the village of Birma bad fate struck us though, when Beat's chain decided to take a break from the usual and thus derailing from it's normally dented path. Upon this the local schoolkids decided to give us a warm welcome by means of a nice stone's throw, which seemed to get worse when as they started realising that we didn't really appreciate their traditional welcome. So we went on, and headed of into the direction of the lowest depression on earth.
SHITHAPPENS
Once there, Beat's restless stomach, almost had us arranged to spend the night in the local Marriott hotel, but unfortunately our powers of convition, be them sufficient for the beautifull lady at Guest Relations, were not enough to have the General Manager choose our site as well. So, not too long after we were sleeping at the roadside under the glittering sky once more.
KING'S HIGHWAY
All depression are followed by a way up. So it was in our case. From a distant place, far down in the negative, we managed to head up for some 1600 meters, arriving to the famous King's Highway. Down here a lot of childeren up to the age of 25 that caused a lot of paranoid feelings again; the person that invited you for tea, could be the one that would throw a rock at you just seconds later. This, combined with a large amount of steep and nasty climbs, which at times were extremely long as well, caused us to ride a multitude of altimeters and a lot less distimeters than we were initially planning for.
PETRA
However, our efforts were rewarded; after a couple of days of heavy excersice we arrived in the town of Wadi Musa, base of the gigantic templecomplex of Petra, which most of you would most certainly recognise from movies like the Indiana Jones one. Unfortunately, our highly tensed expectations soon changed into deep deception, when we came to know the local people here. The combination of long blonde hairs and a white skin seemed to cause associations with limitless wealth, so we were expected to pay at least triple of what a normal peron would pay, which ended up in completely redicilous prices of close to 10 euro for a tube of toothpaste, and an admission fee of 30 euro including student's discount..
EGYPT
And then, exactly one-honderd-forty-two days after departure, I found myself in tax-free shoppingparadise Aqaba, and realised I rode my bicycle all the way from Amsterdam to the Red Sea. What a stange feeling that was. The surprised looks in the eyes of some Dutch people on the boat to Nuweiba and the hotel dude in Dahab that could not believe the fact that I could have done all that just by bicycle more than confirmed this. After arranging a stay for my lovely Vittorio, a bus took me to Cairo, where for one I applied for my Irani visum. Fingers crossed..
BEST WISHES!
Only thing to conclude with would be to wish you all the best both in retrospect to Christmas, as well as in prospect for the comming year, for you will all be able to fulfill your plans and wishes, like I was able to this year.
Love,
Eelco
