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Entry from: Bosra, Syria
Entry Title: "Lattakia, Bosra in Syria, then back to Jordan"
Entry:
"Diary 9 Lattakia and Bosra
Saturday 22 May 2010 Aleppo-Lattakia
We have a surprising amount of trouble up on the main street getting a taxi. There are plenty, but all are full, possibly with lunchtime travellers. Get one who knows the way, and retrace a lot of our morning walk to get to the station, where he only takes 50SYP, knocking back the 100 offered.
At the station entrance it looks for a while like one guard wants to search Murrays big bag, but he has a padlock on it, and before he can open it, the guard's mates advise him against it, and we go through to the waiting room, pushing past people to vacant chairs against the wall. Murray holds the fort while Dianne goes back into the commercial area for supplies, coming back with a good shwarma and chips. It is just as well, as the waiter service must be only on the later, express train.
With ten minutes to go we join the crush through the doors to the platform, looking lost, but are directed to the last carriage, number 1, the First class carriage, but a very scruffy and faded rusty red and cream effort. We find seats with 44 and 45 on the plates on the back of the seats ahead, and heave our bags up and settle in. before long there is a commotion behind us, as a man is telling two girls they have the wrong seat. It turns out the numbers are on the back of the seat, and we have to move forward. It takes a while to shuffle the bags forward, so a man grabs the big one and shifts it to the single seat side.
This move gives us only half a window to look through, and we fear we could be the half of the carriage sitting with backs to the engine, but we take off in the right direction, with an open door on the end of the train looking out onto the tracks, with only a knee-high steel plate across.
There is no-one in the single seat across the aisle, so Murray appropriates it. It still has only a limited view forward, but the window is clean, and Dianne has room to stretch out.
We start off heading east before swinging south and then west, getting good views through the gaps in buildings to the citadel. Later we came to market gardens right along the rim of the city, with a strongly running river or drain meandering through them. On the outskirts of the city there were massive concrete basins, which could have been waste water treatment plants. As the river in the town itself had almost no water, it is possible this strong flow was treated effluent. The colour was pretty brownish considering there had been no rain.
We followed the gardens for kilometers with the high rise city in the background, but further out, when we reached hilly country, the flow continued in spite of the scores of diesel pump sets drawing from it and supplying black poly pipes snaking up the hillsides. The country was excellent farming land, with standing grain, freshly harvested crops and bright green fields. Some of the harvested crops were wheat, and heaps of chaff were dotted across the fields, but another crop was cut ..."
Read and see more at: http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/diannemurray/2010/1275213885/tpo...
Photos from this trip:
1. ".Farming, Aleppo - Lattakia train, 4.15 PM, 22 M"
2. ".Limit of high rise, Aleppo from the train, 3.55"
3. ".Harvesting Chickpeas outside Aleppo, 4.07 PM,"
4. ".Traditional bee-hive buildings, Aleppo-Lattakia"
5. ". Farming, Aleppo - Lattakia, 4.36 PM, 22 May"
6. ".Highway, new housing, Aleppo - Lattakia, 6.24 P"
7. ".High level train bridge, Aleppo-Lattakia, 6.35P"
8. ".Waterfront suburb, Lattakia 7.28 PM, 22 May"
9. ".Meal at Mandaloun, Lattakia 9.16 PM, 22 May"
10. ".Beach suburbs, Lattakia 8.34 AM, 23 May"
11. ".Container port in rain, Lattakia 8.19AM, 23 May"
12. ".Qala'at Salah ad-Din, East of Lattakia, 11.12"
13. ".Traffic, Shia 14 Ramadan, Lattakia 9.30AM, 23M"
14. ".Man-made slot, Saladin's Castle, 11.21AM"
15. ".Drawbridge support, Saladin's Castle, 11.24 AM"
16. ".Saladin's Castle on man-made rock pedestal,"
17. ".Wild flowers, Saladin's Castle, 11.52AM, 23 May"
18. ".South from Saladin's Castle, 11.58 AM, 23 May"
19. ".Drawbridge support, Saladin's Castle, 12.00 PM"
20. ".The Keep, Saladin's Castle, 12.03 PM, 23 May"
21. ".Man-made moat, Saladin's Castle, 12.08 PM, 23 M"
22. ".Free standing pillar, Saladin's Castle, 12.08PM"
23. ".Drawbridge pillar, Saladin's Castle, 12.27PM"
24. ".Lower Courtyard, Saladin's Castle, 12.46PM, 23M"
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