Day 5 & 6 - Syria (Palmyra) & Jordan (Travel)

May 20, 2007

Marhaba (Hello) from Ihrbid, Jordan. We crossed the border today into Jordan from Syria. I can hear an e-sigh all across the Internet from various family and friends who were not so certain about our group going to Syria in the first place. Well, as I said before, whatever the state of relations between our governments, the people of Syria are extremely welcoming to American tourists. Sometimes we were treated better than we ought to have been (but more on that later).

Today we traveled from Syria to Jordan and didn't do or see much. We did stop at the highway sign to Bagdad to take pictures (the picture at the right is especially taken for Jonathan's mom!). We were about 100 miles from Iraq. We also stopped at the Bagdad Cafe for the second time (we stopped there yesterday as well). It is a tourist trap run by Bedouins that we used as a bathroom stop. The bargaining inside was furious. As we came through Damascus, we went up the mountain (I can't remember the name right now) that overlooks Damascus because the first time we went up the mountain a couple of days ago it was raining. It was a great panoramic view of Damascus (and the smog!). Eventually we got to Jordan and made our way through effortlessly. As I said, today was not very exciting, but yesterday was one of the best...

May 19, 2007

Yesterday we experienced an amazing ancient Roman city called Palmyra (picture above right taken from the Arabic Castle). It is deep in the dessert on an oasis in Eastern Syria. The dry weather and difficult location have amazingly preserved the city. We began with a tour of the Temple of Bel (Baal). We then moved on to the colonnade which has two unusual bends in it of about 30 degrees. This is due to parts of the city being built before the temple and the colonnade. So the colonnade had to snake its way through the city dodging various buildings and eventually ending at the entrance to the Temple of Bel. Normally a colonnade would be straight and end at the temple.

After the colonnade we visited the theater. It is a very small theater for the size of the city, either due to the lack of patrons or a wooden upper deck that has subsequently deteriorated. Earlier in the day we had been invited to a festival at the theater later that night (more about that later).

After the theater we visited the Agropolis, a market place and auction block. We had a unique treat from a member of our group, Allen. Allen is a certified auctioneer. He stood on the old auction stump and auctioned off a rug. It was a great moment hearing him run up the numbers!

After the Agropolis, we visited the bath house (the water had since dried up). All of these places were along the colonnade. After seeing these places we got in the bus and headed down the street a ways to the tombs. The wealthy citizens of Palmyra had two kinds of tombs: expensive and more expensive. The first were underground and the later were above ground in towers. The were essentially mausoleums.

As I was going into one of the tombs a man was playing on an instrument and I asked him to play a bit more so I could record some audio. I tipped him for music. I apparently a large tip because when I came out he wanted to dress me up, play some more, and give me a photo op. Then he followed me all the way back to the bus trying to sell me the instrument!

After the tombs we drove up a hill to the Arabic Citadel. We took some time to worship together and then watched the sunset from this amazing vantage point.

After a quick trip back to the hotel for showers and a change, we went back to the colonnade for the festival. What we didn't know was that we were about to experience the grand finale of a culturally lavish celebration that had been taking place for a couple of weeks. It included dancing and music from many groups all over Syria. The pieces were both traditional and contemporary. I am generally not much of a high cultured kind of person but dance like this is a favorite of mine. I'd say that what we got was a Syrian version of River Dance. At the end of the evening an Arabic pop-singer came out and sang with all the dance groups behind him. The whole theater had been lit up with colored lights and movie cameras were all around to film the event. The local governor was there as well as many students from the local university. It was a stunning display of ancient and contemporary cultural Syrian creativity.

Being Americans, we often find that we are treated better than we feel we ought to be treated. An example of this took place at the theater. As we came into the theater the "ushers" ushered us in on the side by the stage down in the first few rows. It was a great seat (there was no bad seat in the place). But soon we were being asked to move. We weren't sure what was going on but came to realize that the ushers were moving people out of the middle so that we could have better seats. I suspect most of us would have been comfortable sitting where we were originally seated, but the producers would not have the Americans sitting in less than what they considered better seats. We felt a bit sheepish and guilty about this rearrangement, but there was little we could do. Despite this we had an unforgettable evening that took us all by surprise.

Peace and grace,

Tom

P.S. Cops is playing on the TV in the Internet cafe right now!

P.S.S. Check out another student who is blogging at: http://www.christiemiddleeast.blogspot.com