Video Highlights from Week 7-8 & Thank Yous

Better late than never, here is the highlight video from the last couple weeks of the tour!

Planes, Trains, and almost no sleep

Three days worth of solid travel going 1100 (ish) kilometers from Damascus Syria, and I am now back in Istanbul. I haven’t gotten much sleep yet, but that’s alright. I’m only really in the city for about 24 hours before I have to jump back on a plane and head home, so I figured I’d try and destroy any sort of sleep patterns I might have in order to make my transition to the wet coast easier. If only I could sleep well in transit this sort of cross continental blitz traveling might be a little more fun.

There is something to be said for taking the train. After having traveled via bike, foot, car, bus, motorcycle, and boat already this trip I figured that I should finish off with the last major type of mass transportation. Now, let me be the first to say that I haven’t been on many trains in my life (unless you count the skytrain in Vancouver). I feel like in North America the train is a dying beat and for the life of me I can’t figure out why. The train is a lovely way to travel. Yes, it is a little slower than a plane, and doesn’t always go exactly where you want it to go like a bus or car but it is an extremely relaxing way to travel. You actually get space for your legs, the ability to move around, a dining car, and some wonderful scenery that you would be very hard pressed to otherwise see. Plus, if you are willing to pay for it you can even have a bed and be gently rocked to sleep by the sound of the rails. I’d love to have more chances to take trains.

Now I’m gearing up for my long plane ride home. I love traveling, but there is always something very exciting about getting to go home and see everyone you’ve been wishing were with you on your trip. I'm also very much looking forward to the prospect of my own bed, cheese, perogies, clean air, and even rain again. It really is amazing all of the little things that are part of your daily routine that you don't even think about.

I'll see everyone once I touch down in Vancouver again!

Cultural sensitivity and misgivings

(This blog is being posted by Lauren for Chris as blogger is blocked in Syria):

I’m not sure if it is just to mess with tourists and to get more money but I’ve noticed that there tends to be different bus stations in different parts of town depending on where you want to go. Now I know this probably makes a ton of logistical sense but they always seem to be on the exact opposite side of the city (meaning you can’t just walk there) and not easily serviced by public transit. Trying to get from one town to another is always a bit of adventure as you are never entirely sure that the bus you are getting on is going where you think, and having to change bus stations mid-route can make it downright stressful. You get dropped into a city you don’t know and have to try and navigate to the other side, most of the time without the use of a map because you don’t know where you were to begin with.

One of the upsides to this is it does mean that you talk to a lot of local people and when they can speak a little English you can wind up in some wonderful conversations. I think my most memorable one of this trip was with a young gay Syrian filmmaker. It was a very unique opportunity to speak with a very oppressed minority and to hear him express just how much he loves Syria but how he has to find a way to leave because of his sexual orientation. It was very moving. He cared very deeply about progressive politics but had seen too many friends go to prison and was scared of the same thing. It is not a conversation I will soon forget.

That same day I visited Palmyra, home of Syria’s largest ruins, some of which date back to 17 AD. Palmyra is located pretty much smack in the middle of the country at a desert oasis and the heat was just scorching when I arrived in the afternoon. Not to be denied seeing the ruins however I set out into the sun with lots of water and camera in tow. Upon reaching the ruins I was offered the chance to see them from atop a camel. Seeing that I’d never ridden a camel before, and it seemed liked a decent alternative to walking in the heat I set off into the mid-afternoon sun. I also had the very odd experience that night of sleep on the roof of my hotel in my tent.

Yesterday provided a new type of adventure, a rather hellish bus ride. Most of the bus rides I’ve taken so far have ranged from decent to tolerable, so I suppose it was time I got one that tested my resolve. The main problem was that the bus was full (which means some people were standing) and that the chair in front of me was broken so that whenever the person in front of me leaned back they basically wound up in my lap. Despite the best efforts of the guy in front on a 3-hour trip with a bus that full there was little he could do but sit like I was going to give him a scalp massage. This in and of itself wouldn’t have been the end of the world, but this particular bus seemed to take a page out of my South East Asia memories. Now, I have a lot of cultural sensitivity and am willing to be good spirited about a lot of things, but something that I just have not been able to understand is why on earth people would want to watch music videos on a bus for several hours at ear piercingly loud levels. Even with my hands plugging my ears I could make out every note being hit. It felt as if the music was entering my skull with a pitchfork and then trying to exit via my eyes.

After a very restful sleep and with the memory of the musical bludgeoning fading I set out this morning to visit the Krak des Chevaliers, what TE Lawrence called the ‘finest castles in the world’. Built around the 11^th century it served as a major castle stronghold during The Crusades. I really enjoyed walking around the castle and to be able to stroll down darkened passages without running into another tourist provided a sense of wonderment for the imagination. It was one of the few times on this trip that I could almost feel myself being transported back to another era and it was an excellent afternoon.

Day Tripper

The last few days have been a Damascus-and-surroundings pictorial blur. Starting with the Umayyad Mosque and then spilling out into the tight streets of the old city wandering happily between a wash of colours and smells, Damascus is a city to get blissfully lost in.

Not to be outdone however, there are also wonderful day trips to be had. A short bus ride south took me to the city of Bosra where I recited the opening monologue of Romeo and Juliet from centre stage of a theatre built in the 2^nd century AD. The theatre was pristinely maintained (they even still do shows there) and can accommodate 9000 people. A short stone's throw from the theatre, you can stroll down the remains of an ancient Roman street right up to a mosque built in 636 AD.

Today I took a trip up to Mar Musa and the ancient Monastery of Mar Musa. Legend has it that the Monastery was founded in the 6^th century AD by Moses. The Monastery is literally in the middle of nowhere on a hillside facing out into the Syrian desert. You have to do a solid hike to get up to it but it has some lovely views and tranquil setting for a relaxed afternoon.

The only problem with the monastery is that as I mentioned it is in the middle of nowhere and it was a 20km hike back through the desert to get to the main highway. I managed to get a ride out to it but I had no idea how I was going to get back. Oddly enough however, upon my descent from the mountain I came across some other tourists who were wearing MEC gear. I quickly struck up a conversation with them as they were clearly Canadian. It turns out that they worked for the Canadian Embassy in Syria and very kindly asked me to join them for a picnic. I actually don’t know that calling this a picnic does it justice, there were lovely egg sandwiches, nuts, apricots, salad, and of course wine. It also turned out that they had a car and were heading back to Damascus via another convent a short distance away. So the five of us squished into the car and we chatted away the rest of the afternoon while getting an excellent tour of the surrounding area by air-conditioned car.

This is my last night in Damascus, and while I’m sorry to be leaving it will be nice to move on again. Tomorrow I am heading up to Palmyra to see more ancient ruins and then I continue my trek north as I slowly make my way back to Turkey.

Generational Tourism

(This blog is being posted by Lauren for Chris as blogger is blocked in Syria):

Last night I was awakened from a dead sleep at 3am by an explosion. Another quickly followed this, and in my semi conscious state my mind began to try and work out the possible cause. As much as I am ashamed to admit it one of my first lines of thought was, are we being bombed? After another one further away and with my brain now speeding up to full power I quickly dismissed this idea, as it didn’t actually hold much weight. It was far more likely that it had to do with Ramadan celebrations and as it turns out this was the case. It was the morning wake up for everyone so they could eat before call to prayer.

As I awoke this morning I actually felt quite foolish, and had it not been for the concerned looks exchanged with another road weary traveler during the night I likely would have felt downright embarrassed. Why is it that the instant something goes wrong we also assume the worst? What is mass media doing to our collective psyche?

Now, it is very easy to simply blatantly write off mass media as a force for evil without a second thought the same way it is to write off governments for all being the same. The truth is a much murkier subject, but in a lot of ways I feel like we also have ourselves to blame. The news may exist on the mantra of, “if it bleeds it leads”, and we have come to accept and expect this, but why is this the case? As a society we do not demand any better of the news so why would they go out of their way to provide it? In many ways we get the news we ask for and deserve.

Totally switching gears but at least staying in the same type of car another idea that has been floating around in the ether of people I have encountered on this trip is the idea of disaster tourism. In the past this term was reserved mostly for people who would travel to monuments of horrific events of the not so forgotten past. Going to a concentration camp in Germany, the Killing Fields in Cambodia, and even now New York to stare at the remains of the World Trade Center. On a whole this phenomena makes sense, these events were so horrific, so unthinkable, so un-human that people need to travel to them to try and understand how they could happen. We are opening the door to the worst humanity has done in order to try and take some good from it, to learn some lesson in hopes of never repeating it again. This idea starts to become a very gray area in my mind however when the monuments start charging admission and turns the area into an amusement park were people take funny pictures of themselves. I understand the need for people to get closure and move on, and see that by demystifying the past it loses its power, but I am beginning to question some of the motives behind it. I loathe the day where people will show up to a Holocaust museum and get their picture taken as Hitler kicking a Jewish person. If acceptance is the last stage of grieving however maybe that is how we will know we have truly moved on in our perverse world.

There is a new, possibly disturbing trend of disaster tourism emerging however, and I will admit that I am currently right in the thick of it. It seems like the new ‘in’ thing to do is to try and be a tourist in a war zone. Clearly at its best this idea can expose what is actually going on to the whole world and provide some much needed perspective. Still, I can’t shake the feeling that part of the reason some people do it is for the adrenaline kick and because it will make a great story when they get back home. It is easy to point fingers at video games and the news and say that we have all become desensitized to any real sort of violence and we feel invincible, but I think that is the easy answer.

Maybe this is the current generation's quest for a deeper meaning. The mysticism of the east has been explored and debunked and so we are turning to a new frontier to try and find ourselves in order to understand our place in the world.

I would like to think it is because we care, because we need to get beyond what we are being told by the mass media. We need to create our global community not just online but in person as well, and our global community really does include everyone. We need to try and touch the far corners of the globe not to steal mysticism or knowledge, or even to impose our own culture on others, but instead to connect with a living breathing human and their emotions. We not only want to talk of a better, united, global tomorrow, but to go out with action and seek it.

If this is the case then our Facebook friends become digital doorways into a massive commonwealth of the ideas and feelings of people all striving to make the world better in their own ways. We are willing to have conversations about taboo ideas and explore and explode their deeper meanings. We want nothing more than friendship as friendship is created out of understanding and trust.

I truly hope this is our reasoning behind our new form of exploration: war zone travel. There is nothing wrong with wanting to seek out new adventures and experiences, as long the reason isn’t entirely simply that of a self-serving adrenaline junkie looking for the next cool fix.

Ending on a positive note, at least for the large majority people I have met this is not the case. People traveling around are engaged and open and culturally sensitive. They want to observe, love, and help whenever they can. Still, it is important to reflect once in a while to make sure we don’t go too far off track. There is too much at stake to continue to make the mistakes of the past.

Blogspot is blocked in Syria so my girlfriend is posting this for me

It's official, I'm now in my 14th country of this trip: Syria. The border cross was surprisingly fast and easy for a crossing that on paper is supposed to be impossible and I am now sitting happily in a cafe in Damascus. Traveling around Turkey, Lebanon, and now Syria during Ramadan has been both a blessing and a curse. On one hand it has been a wonderfully eye opening experience to be in Muslim countries during their holy month. I'm sure I have learned much more about their cultures as a result of this and certainly have a new found respect for them. Fasting is not an easy feat and it shows a very impressive dedication to their faith. It has also had some very interesting side effects however, for example, I also wind up fasting for far larger parts of the day than I would ordinarily. Because so many people are fasting a good deal of the shops, especially food stalls, are closed, and this makes it quite hard to find food during the day. While this is a little easier on my budget, my body, having gotten used to eating big meals after biking large distances, is protesting to the stark change in diet. It also has the effect of turning what are supposed to be very busy Souqs into almost ghost towns during the day so part of me feels like I'm missing out on an experience. Still, I'm sure it is offset by the privilege of getting to observe all of the Ramadan festivities.

Yesterday I was in Baalbeck, Lebanon and for those of you who were like me prior to this trip, Baalbeck is home to huge set of Roman ruins, arguably the most important in the Middle East. Now I've never been to Athens or really seen other Roman or Greek temples so I don't have anything else to compare with but the ruins were incredible. The two major areas are the Temple of Jupiter and the Temple of Baachus. The Temple of Jupiter is over 90m long and its 6 remaining columns, reaching 22.9m high with a girth of 2.2m, are the largest in the world. Archeologists are still not entirely sure how they moved them into position. The Temple of Baachus was completed around 150AD and is extremely well preserved. It is referred to as the smaller of the two temples but in actuality it is larger than the Parthenon in Athens. The sheer scope of the temple is mind blowing and it is hard to believe that it sits as intact as it still is today. Clearly this is an indication of how well it was built almost two thousand years ago. Another more peculiar site in Baalbeck is a huge stone that is located in what once was the city's dump. Measuring 21.5m by 4m by 4.5m, it is the world's largest cut stone and was rescued from the sands of time by a retired army Sargent who cleaned up the area and convinced the government to make it a historical site.

That's all I have for now, tomorrow begins the full scale exploration of all that Damascus has to offer!