Ride For Africa

According to Wikipedia Baksheesh is a term used to describe tipping,charitable giving and certain forms of political corruption and bribary in the Middle East and Asia.

And you are asked everywhere for it. It really can get annoying until your brain learns to blend this word out of your reception sense.There are moments you hate it, there are moments you love it. Again, we have stories to tell that will give both sides of this culture.

 

When we passed into Syria and passed through Latikka it was time for a quick lunch at a local stop beside the highway. Of course we got again to chat intensely with some people there, making photos of our bikes and asking what we are up to. We got a recommendation by a local to see the largest castle of Syria, Castelli Homs. So, after a short electric hick up with one bike on the highway and a quick repair we ended up on the top of a steep hill, just at the foot of some gigantic castle wall. Unbelievable. It was also used for many years by the crusaders as a safe haven. As the castle was just about to close we decided to stay close by and pay it a visit first thing next day. We found a cheap hotel with a brilliant view to the castle which made the couple of Dinar worth the choice.

Following day, after a 2 hour sightseeing tour (which was certainly not enough) we continued steadily as we wanted to see the infamous ancient trading city Palmyra. It was also the first time we got really into desert land, with just sand, rocks, mountains and lots of military. But the equipment quality of this military – unseen. They transporters and trucks are like 40 years old and held together with wire and dukt tape – not kidding. When we reached Palmyra we were just 120 KM West of Iraq, making us clear how far East we are by now. Palmyra has amazing lots to see and it must have been thousands of years ago a booming, rich city. Hard to imagine in the middle of the desert, but they had access to water as an oasis. It just underlines how this country ultimately depends on water.

 

After lots of sightseeing we decided to push the paddle and try to reach Damascus, the so called oldest city in the world. We reached it by dusk and traffic was mad again, but by now, the five riders were experts in this, so no problem in managing and finding a cheap hotel. Yes, the hotel was cheap, but we PAID for it. What a dump...guess that is adventure:-).

We did a walk through the old town of this huge city and you really felt like being put back 1000 years, all the little shops, how people are dressed, the buildings...just mystical.

The day after we had a visit of the famous blue mosque, which is considered number 1 in the Islamic world. Again, we benefited from being with our Turkish friends, as Muslims do not need to pay for entrance. Yes, we were now for 20 minutes Turkish.

We got our first unpleasant Arabian surprise at check out, when the hotel manager asked for more money as agreed upon, or at least understood by us. Even when we offered to share the difference he refused to give out passports. At the end we paid the 4 USD more and did not say good bye. When we got to the private parking where we had our bikes for the morning our bikes were completely blocked by the cars parked there. The parking systems works as follows: you have 3 parking guys who have keys for all cars and rearrange parking spots all day long, depending who comes and goes. It looks like chaos, is chaos but if you have time, works. Well, after waiting 10 minutes and not anything really moving we decided to push the bikes on the board walk and play pedestrian for 100 meters... Insha'Allah !!

We headed now to the Jordan boarder, which took us 2 hours to cross. That sounds bad, but we expect worse still to come. As soon as we got into Jordan the wind picked up and we got in a full on sand storm, giving us visibility of around 200 meters and sore eyes and trout. We passed through Amman to get close to the Dead Sea and famous Mt. Nebo. We realized two things in Jordan. Jordan is much richer than Syria – better cars, better roads, better standard of military and police (there are lots) and the other funny thing, no motorbikes. Not even like small bikes. Nothing on two wheels. We found out, that motorbikes are not allowed for Jordan people due to high accident rate, except for Police and Kings Family. As we are not Police I guess this makes us royal. Sure you get the attention driving through villages. You have to wave and wave and wave. Worse things can happen. We ended up in Mataba, in a nice, cheap hotel for the night, getting ready to swim the next day in the Dead Sea, the lowest spot of the Earth.

 

Before reaching the Dead Sea we stopped at Mt. Nebo, where Moses was shown by god the promised lands, just before he died. You had a view apparently over the whole area, seeing Jericho, Jerusalem etc. But not for us, misty weather spoiled us that view. We then descended from 800 meters above sea level down to -418 meters, where we took the first chance to have a swim in the Dead See. Correction, not a swim, a float in the Dead Sea. We were laughing the first minutes in the water as the feeling was so bizarre. Levent was unlucky and swallowed some water. Seeing the reaction of his face made you wonder if he will make it, it must have tasted really bad. But he survived.

It was very hot in the bowl of the Dead Sea making us to wish to move on, riding along the coast until we turned East again to hit the Kings Way. A renown road with spectacular views. And yes, views were spectacular. We had to stop every 10 km to take photos. Even though distances are not huge in these countries, it just takes time to move as there is lots to see. For lunch we just stopped in the middle of a village at a market and started trying anything they offered. Any western doctor said not do this or that. We did it all, for many days. We all said, it is part of getting to know the country. And yes, we had here and there stomach issues etc. But it was and is worth it. Especially because the local people appreciate your sincere interest in their food and if you compliment it, which we did.

Our next goal was to reach well the known city of Petra. An ancient King´s city with huge tombs carved in red stone. We reached it by 5:30 pm which was too late to enter. So, change of plan. We found a cheap place to stay and decided to be there again at 6 a.m. Next day. It was a good choice.

 

Surprisingly it was not busy (what I would have expected now from previous visits to Egypt) and we had lots of this spectacular area more or less for us. The place is breathtaking (also the entrance fee of 60 USD !) and we spent 3 hours there, which is too short if you really want to see it all. When we started walking out again, masses of people came towards us, proving that we have made the right choice of getting up so early. Our next highlight of the day was the visit of Wadi Rum, an amazing desert/mountain area. We rented a 4x4 as the sand was too soft to use our heavy motorbikes and did a 2 hour tour around the desert. Again, most jaw dropping. The color of the sand changes from yellow to red and the mountains go up to more then 800 meters and are just cliffs. Therefor it is also renown for rock climbing – but bet not in summer. Wadi Rum got also very popular through the movie Lawrence of Arabia, which is about a British Officer in the First World War who mobilized Arab tribes to make a surprise attack on Akabba, which at this time was occupied by the Turkish Army. However, just looking over this country site, when sun sets low is breathtaking and one of our highlights.

 

After it was not possible to ride with our heavy motorcycles in the soft sand of Wadi Rum to a empty spot for camping we decided to join our Turkish friends for the last night down to Akabba. If we believed that Wadi Rum was hot, we were wrong. Going down in elevation, towards the Red Sea the temperature rose by another 5 degrees, welcoming us with about 38 C degrees. With the help of a young local who was riding his scooter with the cigarette in his mouth and the cell phone in his hand, talking to friends, he guided us to an inexpensive hotel. We looked very much forward to the shower today, as you can imagine.

Next day our Turkish friends left back to Turkey and we took a day off, going for a swim and updating all our log entries. Akabba is a much smaller down then expected. Looking over to Elat, which is a Israeli city, just 4 km away, you see the huge economic difference between these countries. Israel only shares about 4 km coast line of the Red Sea before you already see Egypt, the next land we want to set foot on, sorry, rubber on.