Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Palmyra to Krac des Chevaliers
140 k
Krac des Chevaliers to Tartous
50 k
Total
190 k
Saving a total of
200 k
Day Five: Sunday 10
th
July 2005
Tartus to Damascus
“Fever.”
(
Al Boustan Hotel, Damascus)
Plan for Day 5:
•
Tartus
•
Homs
•
Maalula
•
Damascus
This was a complete washout of a day for me and for Peter also.
I had been looking forward to visiting Maalula for several reasons. It was a quaint town in
a lovely location. It was one of the few places on earth, where Aramaic, the language of
Jesus, was still spoken, and it had a strong and long-established, ancient, Christian commu-
nity. In addition to that, we would have a chance to see some active places of worship, as
this was a Sunday, and it was excellent timing for such an experience.
However, back in my “brutalist”, soviet, hotel block, all was not well. Overnight, I had de-
veloped a very strong fever. It had all started on the Saturday evening in Tartus, when I
began to feel out of sorts, and that developed into a severe headache. I then had the start
of the fever that would stay with me and overwhelm me for the next 24 hours along with
severe stomach cramps and the rest of the package. My body was apparently getting rid of
some toxins. It may have been food poisoning from salad or pastries or, maybe, it was from
those delicious cherries that I had bought from a roadside vendor. It was not from the water
or ice cream, as I was more careful about those more obvious dangers. I am also not sure
whether the overall gloom of the place and my idiot guide's presence were also contribut-
ing factors, but I had brought a few medicines with me and made use of what I thought I
needed at the time. This included Immodium, which achieved its objective, but I did not
sleep well and we had a relatively long journey to look forward to the next day.
