Saturday 19 February 2011

Day 154 Syria 19/2/2011, Wayz–Apamea–Hama. 41.72miles/67.11km, 3hr40minutes, Av 11.3mph.

Intead of sleeping in the guy's room with me last night, Debs slept with the girls. As it turned out this was a lucky break. While I was still chatting, drinking coffee, listening to Arabic pop music and being plied with vodka and Redbull, Debs was sleeping. Even when I turned in at midnight, at no point was the music turned off, or even down, the stove superheated everything and a light was on all night. I think I slept in brief periods of about 45 minutes. Sometime around 4am it sounded like somebody had put a 'call to prayer' best of album on and at 5am we had switched to a reporter who liked the sound of his own voice saying something about Egypt, or at least Mubarak was mentioned repeatedly. The world's loudest mobile phone going off, which of course was ignored, was the last straw. At 6am I gave up on sleep and laid there reading. Despite the noise, light, phone and temperature everyone else remained asleep, perhaps they are all used to it.

At about 8am Debs came through feeling refreshed and ready for the day. We took all our bags outside and then had to go in for breakfast. Once again we felt slightly bad about eating while the rest of the family watched on. We felt even worse about the fact that we really needed to be going if we were going to do everything we planned.

With the bikes loaded, it was time for a few more photos, a lot of handshakes and a sad farewell. We know that the family would have liked us to stay for longer, but we really needed to get going. Their hospitality has been amazing and once again we are truly humbled by the generosity of the people we meet. If we were to leave Syria today, we couldn't have asked for any better memories.

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Finally we were back on the road and into another beautiful day. We quickly covered the few kilometres to the turn off to Apamea and began a short but steep climb up to the site. While I waited for Debs at the top, I was being called over to a guys house. When she joined me we went over to investigate. Still feeling good from the previous day's experiences, we thought it would be rude not to accept another invitation to have tea. While still friendly, it became rapidly clear that the guy had the intentions of selling us something from his shop. In fact he was quite insistent that we a should go and see the ruins and then come back and stay with his family. Telling us that a Swiss man had stayed with him for two days and bought lots of antiques. After the genuine warmth and hospitality we had felt yesterday, this all bordered on being creepy. We drank our tea, said our goodbyes and left, unfortunately we would have to pass his house on the way back!

Apamea (Afamea in Syria) was founded in the 3rd century BC and soon became an important trading post. The site that you can visit today dates from around the second century AD and is most notable for its 2km long cardo (main street). Since the 1930s a Belgian team of archaeologists have embarked on a re-constructive program, Locating the main streets columns and returning them to their correct positions. What they have ended up with is extremely impressive. The original road along the street remains complete, in part, and you can walk along the wide avenue surrounded by towering, beautifully carved and preserved columns.

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Leaving the site behind we sped down the hill through the village and managed to avoid having to stop at the guy's shop. Back on the main road we began the ride towards the city of Hama (Syria's fourth largest). The friendly waves and shouts of hello continued, people rode along side on their mopeds to say hello and there were constant shouts from children. It was a job to keep both hands on the handlebars for any length of time, as we were continually called upon to wave.

We are aware that most people are just curious and trying to be friendly, but there comes a time with the moped riders that it gets annoying and occasionally dangerous. Neither of us mind when they ride up and acknowledge us, but in one case, two guys on a motorbike rode along beside and just stared. After they were still doing it a few kilometres down the road it gets a little unnerving. They then started slowing down so that we had to overtake and would then ride right close behind us, until they had had enough and would overtake once again. At one point they nearly managed to force us into each other coming through a town. What was the purpose of all of this attention? When I finally shouted at them to go away, I was shown that they were videoing us using there phones. Not once did they speak, smile or wave. They finally took the hint and went away, leaving us annoyed and drained from the whole experience.

The rest of today's journey became a bit of a chore, having left the main roads behind yesterday, being back on them today threw us right back into the constant barrage of traffic. The noise and occasional overattentive moped rider, mixed with the fact that there were people everywhere, became quite overwhelming. When Debs desperately needed the toilet, finding somewhere unpopulated to stop became a struggle. When a shop keeper refused to let her use the toilet, after his friend had told us that he had one, it became all a bit much. The heat, noise, constant attention and male dominated society has been taking its toll. Even when we found a secluded spot with nobody around, a van suddenly pulled up out of nowhere to ask if I had a cigarette lighter. When we stopped for lunch on a track beside a main road, a guy suddenly appeared and pretended to be doing some work, even though he had clearly come to see what we were up to. In fairness he did offer us a seat and some food round the corner, which we declined happy just to have a few minutes to ourselves.

Feeling better from some food we decided just to keep our heads down and press on towards the city. We managed to get about a kilometre before I noticed Debs rear tyre going down. For some reason most of our punctures seem to come after a break. Fortunately we weren't in the middle of a town, so I quickly repaired it and we got under way.

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As we rode along a van came alongside, with someone shouting hello from the window. It was the son from the family that we had stayed with last night! They pulled over just ahead and asked if we were ok and if we wanted to see the fish that he was taking to Damascus to sell. The back of the van was filled with a large tank, which when opened contained a huge amount of large slightly agitated fish.

Just seeing a familiar, smiling face had lifted our spirits and after another farewell, we carried on the short distance to Hama.

Arriving in the city we had to ask several people for directions. We knew we wanted to stay at the Cairo hotel, we were just not sure how to get there. The traffic was nothing like we had encountered in Aleppo, but navigating without a map Is always a challenge. Finally after a few wrong turns we arrived at the hotel. Ourselves, bikes and luggage, had to be carried up eight flights of stairs, but we have a lovely comfortable room and the bikes are secure.

Dinner consisted of a whole roast chicken, with dips, chips and flat bread, washed down with a litre each of soft drink for S£385 (about £5). To say we were full afterwards was a bit of an understatement. Sightseeing tomorrow.

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