Syria’s largest tourist attraction, is in the middle of the desert, literally, there is nothing around it for miles and miles, except a massive oasis. The road leading into Palmyra is newly laid, shiny black tarmac with street lights that would fit on to any western city road. Seems they are spending a lot of money building infrastructure to support mass numbers of tourists. There is one main tourist road lined with restaurants and gift shops all selling similar cotton scarfs, silver jewellery, postcards. We arrived in time to watch the sunset from the castle overlooking the entire site and town. The locals also seemed to come out in the evening, families having a picnic in open areas, friends riding motorcylces by the side of the camel racetrack, all very relaxed.
The streets are not over run with tourists, a few people here and there, leaving the area pretty much to yourself, although this does make the locals on the tourist street that much friendlier/eager to have you come into their shop or restaurant. We debated weather or not we should get up at 5am for the sunrise and am I glad we did as it’s the best time of day to walk around outside without sweating up a storm. The ruins are pretty impressive, and enormous, hard to imagine that people moved these massive chunks of rock out here to carve and assemble into these ancient ruins.
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| View from the top of the Castle |
Waiting for the Temple of Bel to open, we ending up talking with a couple of young boys who were selling postcards. Paul bought the postcards from them. Their English was better than any of the Japanese ten year olds I taught, and the subjects they wanted to talk about were much more mature. Paul’s car is a Nissan Explorer and they wanted to know how much it cost, why he didn’t get a camel, then how many camels you could get for a million dollars. They then moved on to exchange rates and he knew a place where they offer two hundred Syrian pounds flat rate commission of any amount. They gave the impression that they sell postcards as a summer job while school is out. We took out the Lonely Planet and both boys jumped on it saying they knew the camel on the front, reminding me that they are still young boys as their expression of recognition on their faces didn’t look like something they faked.
I took a photo of them when we left the temple, I offered them a tip, which they didn’t take at first. It was because they wanted a tip of each of them or one at least they could split equally, which I guess is fair enough, there were two of them in the photo. I didn’t have anymore small change and one of them came running up to accept the tip, I hope they at least spent it on something they could share.
By ten o’clock the desert was hot, we had wondered the length of the site and felt pretty ready to start the long drive back to Damascus. There are some weird things in the desert and you’re imagination can run wild. Random buildings with guarded entrances, neatly planted olive groves, hitch hikers, military training. You could probably do pretty much anything out there and no one would be the wiser.
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Along the road we had spotted a few places called ‘Bagdad Cafe’, assuming it was a coffee shop we stopped at one on the way back. A little random, the place has a fully stocked gift shop with dining space for about fifty people and the only people there were a husband and wife. We had coffee and biscuits in their living room, where the husband was watching an Australian show on tips for timid women on a first date. The wife showed me a swimming pool out the back filtered though a sack, I asked if she swam here and she does. Upstairs, are beds and a chill out area all ready to go for passing travelers who need a place to sleep. The whole place is ready and waiting for people to come and use it.
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| A Bagdad Cafe |
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| Syria |
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