Hearing about this town from two Polish tourists from my hostel, I decided to visit Ma’lula because it is one of a few towns which still predominantly speaks Aramaic – the…

Now in the historic city of Damascus, its old city is as impressive as UNESCO makes it out to be. The Umayyad Mosque is one of the most beautiful that…

In between Aleppo and Damascus, I stopped by Homs as a hub to get to Krak des Chevaliers. The Lonely Planet guide recommended I stay at An-Nasr al-Jedid Hotel with…

Taking a day trip out of Homs, Syria, I went to the famous Krak de Chevaliers, a prominent Crusader castle which overlooks the Homs Gap.   T. E. Lawrence, popularly known…

After an easy border crossing overland from Turkey into Syria in the far east town of Qamishli, I took a 6 hour bus to Aleppo (Halab). Immediately, I missed the…

The trip from Dohuk, Iraq to the Turkish border was a bit of an adventure. I had to negotiate a taxi to take me to the border, which wasn’t so…

Taking another shared taxi from Erbil and nearly missing going through dangerous Mosul, Dohuk was a pleasant little town in eastern Kurdish Iraq. I enjoyed my stay there before heading…

Breaking out of Sulaimaniyah, I took a shared taxi to go to Erbil, the capital of Kurdish Iraq. It has a citiadal laying claim as the oldest continuously inhabited city…

After a 24 hour delay in Istanbul due to a sand storm in Sulaimanyah, I was able to finally make it to this end of the world. The people I…

Because of a sandstorm in Sulaimaniyah, our plane was told it couldn’t take off from Istanbul, so we had to wait for 24 hours. Luckily, Paul from Exeter had allowed…