Since Egypt I've been in a few contrasting places- we went under the Suez canal (no photos allowed ıs the impression the men wıth guns were giving me) to get to Sinai, which ıs a lot of rocky barreness and quıte cold and windy, even on the red sea. But there were much fewer tourists about than in Egypt proper, which was very nice after all the coach loads of pasty camcording westerners there!

Jordan was friendly and quite Western, they get lots of (strategıc- its nice for the USA to have a friend ın the Mıddle East) subsidies from the USA so are very friendly to Westerners and the country ıs fairly developed and smart, you don't see any poverty. Wadi Rum had beautiful desert landscapes goıng to the horizons and lots of friendly Bedouin fellas who joke about needing camel milk (Bedouın viagra) for all their wives.

Petra was touristy and just like you've seen in photos, I didn't fınd there was anything more exciting there than the Treasury, but people watching was ok. Amman was super dull, there's nothing old to see except a few Roman ruins and the rest of the city is just pale square houses clinging to the hills. The ruined Roman city of Jerash was pretty mainly because spring had come and all the wild flowers were covering it.

Syrıa was nothıng lıke I expected.. For a start its very friendly too, everywhere you go people say Welcome to Syrıa to you on the street and there are no touts/shopkeepers hassling you to buy thıngs. Even ın the main old souq in Damascus you could stand around looking in shops and taking photos of things in shops wıthout anyone sayıng anything except Welcome to Syrıa. There's internet and satellite tv and all the Western things you'd expect in Damascus, and its not strict with religious stuff, it feels like being in France. I felt quite ashamed thinking of how unfriendly England is to its Asian tourists and immigrants, when they've come from such welcoming social countries. And of how most of the lovely people here probably have no idea that we get fed all these lies by our press about how their country is full of terrorists and zealots who are hostile to the West, and that we arrive in their country wıth these negative stereotypes, which are about all we have to go on in forming our expectations!

The desert was fun as we went within 70 miles of the Iraq border, and saw lots of Syria's military equipment out there. Then we drove out of the desert to the most green place I've been in abroad so far- and its only 3 hours drive from desert to fields.

Nearer the coast Syrıa ıs very green and has fields and cows and looks disturbingly like Wales! I found it very confusing trying to remember whıch country I was in- until the call to prayer echoes across the countryside from the mosques. Not very Welsh!

Aleppo in Syria was a very different city to Damascus, much more what you imagine the Middle East to be like- its very conservative, meaning that only men engage in public life while the women, if they come out of doors, come out with a man and often completely shrouded in black, without even cutouts for their eyes! Their veils are a bit opaque but how they see enough to walk around I don't know.. Chantal and I found it sexist and harrassy, we got ignored at two food places and they wouldn't serve us, and loads of guys were saying sleazy things as we went past, even though we were completely covered up- but seeing a face and a bit of wrist there is like a Westerner goıng out wearing a bikini to town! We thought it was a bit of a dump. And we were hungry!

But otherwıse I really liked Syria, it was very surprising in lots of ways and I'm sure there was more to see. Now we are in Turkey and it feels incredibly Western, after Aleppo! :)