I travelled from Damascus to Palmyra yesterday by bus across the desert. It wasn't a very exciting journey as the landscape doesn't vary much, but it was interesting to see a few small settlements and roadside "restaurants" (one was called Bagdad Cafe 66!), and some Bedouin camps with sheep and goats (no camels - they get around in 4WDs these days).

Palmyra is a very small oasis town with the ruins of a big Roman city, which is the only reason people visit it. It's also a centre for date-growing and there are 2 date shops. When you walk by, someone pounces on you with a box of dates and insists that you try one, then go in and try the other types. I stuffed myself in the first shop, and told the young man (23 1/2 years old, he told me) I couldn't eat any more, but he asked me to go in and sit down beacause he likes to talk with English people. He has helped his father run the shop since he was 9, and eats a pound of dates every day. Not surprisingly, he has trouble with his teeth! His mother spends the winter making date "honey", a rich syrup that he says is delicious mixed with tahini for breakfast. I'll definitely be bringing some dates home with me (if I don't eat them first).

I took a ride out to the Valley of Tombs and went up a funerary tower (well, part way up, as I don't like stairs in towers) and down into a tomb. They were both packed with tourists as they only open for an hour 2 or 3 times a day, and they're surrounde with people trying to sell you necklaces, headscarves etc. The best bit for me was hearing and then seeing an owl sitting on one of the towers.

Later on I went with the same rip-off driver up to an Arab citadel overlooking the Roman ruins, to watch the sun set. Again, it was packed, and again I had a panic trying to get down a slippy stone bank that I was mad to go up. A young boy selling headscarves helped me down ("Slowly slowly, madame") and refused my proferred baksheesh. Instead he followed me around trying to get me to buy a scarf. He had a lift back to his house in my minibus and shook my hand with a cheeky grin when he got out. The views were beautiul, though it wasn't a red sunset.

This morning I set off at 5.45 to see the ruins in the early light and before it got too hot. The site is enormous and there's one particularly well-preserved temple. I'm glad I've seen it, but I actually had far more pleasure wandering round the palmery, which is divided into individual plots surrounded by mud walls, and with gates often cobbled together from old bits of metal including old cooking oil cans. As well as date palms there are olives and pomegranates (these are in flower at the moment, with developing fruits). I was very excited to see a hoopoe fly over - sadly, no photo. There were a couple of flocks of goats wandering with their goatherds and men beetling around on motorbikes.

Most of the traffic in Palmyra is motorbikes, and they often have a tasselled "saddlecloth". Last night I was watching the world go by from my bedroom window, and watched a family with 2 young children climb onto one. The mother was at the back, riding sidesaddle.

When I'd finished exploring this morning, I stopped at a posh hotel overlooking the ruins for a very belated breakfast of bread and olives and fresh mint infusion, siting under an olive tree admiring the view. When the bill came, the waiter told me the bread and olives were free - the best bargain I've had all week!

I've done everything there is to do in Palmyra now, but I booked 2 nights and arranged transport to Hama for tomorrow, so I'll find somewhere shady to sit and read. And I'm going back to the posh hotel for mezze this evening!