I did it!!! I went on a hot air balloon ride over Cappadocia in Turkey and loved every minute of it - even if i was feeling very ordinary since I had gone to sleep at 2 the night before with a few glasses of red under my belt then had to get up at 5. Definitely a once in a lifetime experience from my perspective. Got some great pictures as well.

After we got back from the hot air balloon ride we had some brekkie then headed off to the bus to take us down to Atakya near the Syrian border. We were told that it was going to take 4-5 hours but our guide Mustafa lied to us and it took nearly six. i was sitting next to Hae Won the whole time and while she can sleep on the bus i can't and she was subsequently all over me. As I was feeling v.v.v. tired and hung over and irriated that i couldn't sleep by the time we got to Alexandreta (just outside of Atakya) I was nearly beside myself because I wanted my personal space something awful. Once we arrived in Alexandreta we wandered around the city but there wasn't much to see so we headed back to the hotel then went out for dinner. This was by far the biggest farce of a dinner I think we had the entire turkey leg. They gave us a menu then when we would pick something out they would tell us that wasn't available - basically they wanted us to have a set menu and we wouldn't agree with them. Lots of frustration on both sides.

The next morning we got up early and went to Atakya to see the museum which contains the best Roman mosaics in Turkey. they were OK but I had seen just as good in Naples and other places around Italy. After this we went to the bus station to seperate us out i.e. those going to Syria and those who had to take a 17 hour bus ride back to Istanbul - the idea of it freaks me out. So we sadly said good bye to Steve, Anita, Cath, Gabrielle, Catherine and Hae Won and of course our tour leader Mustafa and bus driver Gengis.

After we finally got underway in a BIG tour coach - it was soooo good after the Genga bus since we actually had leg room we eventually got to the Syrian border. All of us were a bit apprenhensive about the whole thing since we weren't sure what to expect since we had passed about 3km of trucks lined up back to back waiting to cross the border. Mind you border control on the Turkey side looked more like a broken down shack but thats neither here nor there. Once we got across the border into Syria we were directed to passport control. Amanda and Jancis stood in line for 5 minutes and were not even acknowledged but when Dan went to the front we were given notice straight away. The consensus was we should have picked up a penis at the duty free shop before passport control.

Due to confusion and the language barrier it took us nearly 2 hours to go from Turkey to Syria. The other big barrier for us was that we had two Americans in our group and they needed to be asked particular questions i.e. are you going to spy on us? During the whole time I was badly in need of a toilet but wasn't game to leave the group. Finally after alot of help from a local who interpreted for us we got through Syrian passport control and we were on our way to meet our new Syrian tour leader Bashar. Straight away we found him very different to Mustafa as you could tell he had been doing this for some time and had the routine down pat. After a quick loo break (our first Syrian adventure that I will not describe because some things should just be left unsaid) we headed off to Aleppo.

On arriving in Aleppo we had our next adventure - the hotel. To say it was a dive is an insult to all the decent dives around the world. To give you an idea I opened the night table drawer in my room and found 4 old apple cores that stunk to high heaven. The shower smelled funky and the people who ran the place were so gay that one of the guys had had either breast implants or was taking female hormones - ADVENTURE PLUS all round!! Not only that but they managed to lose Mythili's laundry leaving her with PJs and the clothes she was wearing. needless to say that hotel did not get a good rating when i filled in the feedback form for Syria.

Anyway enough about the hotel once we got over the trauma we went walking downtown so people could get some money out of the ATMs and we could grab a falafel each - I should mention here that everything is very cheap in Syria i.e. the falafel cost me 15 Syrian pounds and to give you an idea on the exchange rate its 1 Aussie dollar gets me 40 Syrian pounds. After feeding our faces we went for a walk to the souk (bazaar). Its here that some people found their true god through haggling. I bought 2 scarves and left it at that but they only cost me $2.50 aussie each and they are gorgeous. I could literally go nuts but chose not to do so. We wandered as a group around the souk for a couple of hours and found it fascinating - you can buy a sheeps head, material for sewing, jewellery and the kitchen sink all under one roof. We had a ball wandering around and even had an offer of 5 camels for Amanda but we are holding out for at least 10 - we figured Damascus can would give us a better deal but unfortunately we couldn't find any takers. We would have settled for 3.

once we got back to the hotel we met the new people who were coming onto the tour. They are:

• Ann-Marie from Sydney. Ann-Marie is actually of Egyptian decent but was born and bred in Oz.
• John and Tracey from England. Jancis and Amanda are sure that they are someone famous from Britain and have gone to great lengths to find out but John says he is a driving instructor and Tracey works in finance. ONly time will tell who is telling the truth.
• Merna and Peter from Sth Africa - they are nice but quiet so I haven't been able to talk to them much.

We all went out for dinner from there and tried traditional Syrian food. I was really hoping that it would be just as interesting as Turkish food and in some respects it is but all up I have not found Syrian food all that exciting.

The next day we took a tour up to San Simeon where a catholic saint would sit on top of a pole and was said to perform miracles. Once I heard the story he sounded more like a complete nutter than anything else but who knows..... The remains of the church that they built around the post he would sit on made for interesting viewing though.

After this we headed back into Aleppo (the 2nd oldest city in the world but is apparently is in the running for Damascus which claims this - big point of friendly contention between the two cities). We stopped along the way to see some bee hive houses - had to throw that one in. Once back in Aleppo we were taken to the Citadel which sits on top of the hill overlooking Aleppo. It is huge and great to walk around and see the sights. After this we headed off to the main mosque in Aleppo - when we got there all the girls had to don these robes that made us look like Jedi knights. In this particular mosque you can see the room that houses Zacariah's head (John the Baptists father). Men and women each have their side of a screen to view it with but its believed that if pregnant women pray in front of it they will have a boy. Needless to say the female side of the petition is more crowded than the male.

After this we headed off to the old mental hospital (it has no patients) and wandered around there. It was OK but not something i would necessarily recommend as a must see. After this we had a free afternoon and Suzy, Mythili and I decided to attack the souk again and see what bargains we could get. I bought a few pressies and got one guy down from $25US to $5US for one lot of pressies that I bought up big on while Suzy went a bit nuts and bought the traditional mens head dress. Suzy really needs to learn to walk away from the retailers since she was willing to pay their price - luckily Mythili and I stopped her and kept her in line.

Next day we headed down to see Krak de Chavelier (doubt I have spelt this right). this castle was the last castle to be lost by the crusaders to the moslems and was never actually defeated but was instead surrendered by the crusaders in exchange for safe passage. The movie Kingdom of Heaven with Orlando Bloom is based on this seige. It was stunning and once you realised that it was still inhabited until early last century you realise how much it was built to last. From there we went and had some lunch at a restaurant that overlooks the castle. I would have to say it was the best meal I had in Syria. Since I spent a full week there that gives you an idea of the food.

After the meal we headed off to Hama but the driver got lost so it took us an extra hour to get there. Once there we wandered around the town but there really isn't that much there to do. The good part about this is that we interacted with the locals. Before arriving we were told that this particular area of Syria is by far the strictest in its practice of Islam so we should expect to see women fully covered and dressed in black. We did see this but the people were so warm and friendly that you couldn't help but like them. In fact I might say here that I have never been in a country where I found the people so friendly. I thought Thailand was good but Syria beats them hands down since they will literally invite you in and give you tea and food and talk to you for hours.

After Hama the next day we took off to Palmyra at 7am (to give you a reference on dates this was Anzac Day so with a 5.30 wake up call I observed the dawn service). Palmyra is a desert oasis that is contains some very old roman ruins with a hill overlooking it having a citadel. On the first night there we walked up to the citadel and watched the sun set over the desert and Dan whistled the last post (he is ex Army reserve). It was nice but with the Spanish tourists yabbering on in the background it made it very hard to appreciate the moment.

The next day Syrian food decided to bite back and while I was fine for the most part I had to go back to the hotel early in our tour through the roman ruins since the food was biting hard. Bit sorry I missed it because the ruins are very well preserved since they are in the desert and everyone who went said it was a highlight.

the next day we headed down to Damascus. I was expecting Damascus to be alot like Aleppo but it is and it isn't - there is a huge souk but it doesn't have the garbage everywhere like Aleppo does and the people are a bit different.

Since the day we arrived there was a Friday and Friday is a holy day in Islam nothing was open (Friday and Saturday are the weekend in most middle east countries). What we did though was go to an Islamic school where we sat down with many people of the Islamic faith and they encouraged us to ask everything from the most basic to critical questions about Islam and they would do their best to answer this. This was a real eye opener for us since we had never really had the opportunity to do so we did - they even gave us copies of the Qur'an and other materials for us to read. After thsi initial get together we were then separated into genders and ate with our own gender. In the womens group there were about 30 Syrian women and they were all willing to answer questions but they also asked us questions eg one woman was astounded that my sister was not married and had two children outside of wedlock and my brother in law was allowed to be put on the birth certificate. It was very foreign to her way of thinking.

i do have more to add but will post this for the time being (currently in Jordan but have to go and see some ruins now).

Bye for now.

Toni