Moving Forward...

Due to internet filters, I’m not able to post photos on Flickr or access Facebook (but I can access email). I’ll post one-line updates in this post…

June 29: The holy city of Mashad.
June 27: Iranian telcoms threw me off their networks. Don’t expect me to receive sms.
June 24: Flying to Shiraz, where 40C is expected… Oh boy.
June 20: Esfahan. Feeling better – learning to cope a little with the pounding heat.
June 18: Iranian family invited me to sleep over. Interesting and confronting.
June 17: The heat is wearing me out.
June 16: The courtesy extended to ‘guests’ by Iranians is bordering the ridiculous.
June 15: Arrival in Tehran.

Watching soccer with an international crowd is fun… especially if the Dutch totally humiliate both the Italian and the French teams . Au revoir and arrivederci!

Birds over Amman.

No agenda, no phone, no internet, no people. Time and space are different here.

Made it!

The views are superb. There’s only the guide and me.

Sleeping outside under the stars – legendary.

Moon meets Wadi Rum, too!

Sunrise, alone.

The 1.2 kilomter Siq, leading up to Petra, with water systems on both sides.

This picture shows nicely how the Nabateans cut their tombs and monastery out of solid rock. Go figure!

Out of rock!

ROCK!

Moon meets Petra.

Bedouin girl.

More Petra pictures.

This site is vast. It takes at least 20 min walking from one end to the other.

And no, the Romans did not built the radio antenna…

More Palmyra pictures.

The finest Crusader castle in the world, and it’s quite a sight indeed. Evade the groups of tourists passing through, though :S.

The minibus-system: fast, rather cosy and dirt-cheap.

More Krak de Chevalier pictures.

Hama is famous for its old wooden watermills, Norias, used to elevate water to a higher level for irrigation and soforth. They’re much larger than I thought and make an eerie cracking sound, like a giant door is opening.

After some serious harrasment at the Lebanese-Syrian border, I’m rather happy to arrive after some 12 hours of travel in Aleppo, which battles with Damascus over which is the oldest continuously inhabited city of the world.

Best views in town. You take your chances with such a photograph .

Moon meets Citadel.

Aleppo’s Great Mosque is the younger brother of the Ummayad Mosque in Damascus.

Syrian quality construction welcomes you back.

Enjoy the silence – for now – in the souqs…

Al-Khiam Detention Center: Our guide was held and tortured here himself by the SLA (South Lebanese Army, allies of Israel) for over 4 years. He serves as a guide to the complex ever since. Now that I call strength.

Very much so.

Fatima Gate: the border between Israel and Lebanon. No pictures allowed…

Beaufort Castle.

Oregano sandwiches on the go. The old woman aged beautifully.

“To which massacre?”, the woman replies. We’re puzzled. They have two massacres in Qana. Again, a survivor shows us around and with him I flip through the most horrific set of photos ever: fathers holding up arms and heads of children, burned women. I buy his dvd to help support him, not to see more of it.

Beit ed Dine – President of Lebanon’s mansion in summer.

Awkward how the worst things can happen in the most beautiful places.