Just had Christmas and New year travelling aorund Jordan and Syria. As it was also my honeymoon it was done in finest tourist style but we crammed a lot into 3 weeks . Arrived in Amman and spent a couple of days soaking up the city and then drove down the desert highway and accoss to the kings highway south into Petra. Spent a couple of days there before heading off into the desert at Wadi Rum where we froze our butts off spending a night with the bedouin. Then onto Aqaba for a night at the coast to warm up before spending Christmas at the Dead sea. It's a bit 'cheezy' there but fun to see. We visited Jesus' baptism site (or so they would have us believe) before heading north to mount Nebo (Moses was there...) then onto the northern town of Jerash where there are fantastic Roman ruins. In total 10 days in Jordan before hopping on a super cheap Royal Jordanian airways flight (very good) to Aleppo in northern Syria.
Aleppo is great - huge crusader castle in the town nice souk (which was closed because we forgot Friday is Sunday out there... !!) Headed out of Aleppo for a 3 day tour all over the country - Apamea , Salidin's castle, Marqab citadel, Tartus on the coast (not a pretty place) then Crak de chevalier, an amazing almost complete crusader castle dating from 1271 AD . From there east towards Iraq and a new years eve night and day in Palmyra where the Roman ruins are truely a site to behold. It pales anything else I saw into insignificance - Palmyra is just incredible. It is vast and you can spend days wandering the ruins. After we drove south to Damascus before stopping at the obligatory 'Bagdad cafe' on the crossroads where the sign points one way to Bagdad and Iraq and the other to Damascus. Nice fella there gave us a cup of tea and taught me how to tie a tea towel round my head
Damascus was our final stop where we chilled out for a few days and wandered all over the town before heading home.

Overall conclusion - very interesting - very friendly people - Syria cheaper than Jordan but both very cheap by western standards. Never once felt unsafe or threatened - very few traders hassling you to buy anything - unlike Egypt - masses of amazing archeaoligical sites to visit , most unprotected and largely unrestored. 3 weeks of fascination and fun - happy new year !
Anyone thinking about visiting , drop me a message. I have some useful GPS tracks and contacts for hotels and guides which I gathered along the way.

I used the Wanderlust GPS mapping on my Garmin 60c to get around. used in conjunction with a road map we only went wrong once and got around fine. The Wanderlust mapping isn't 100% accurate as you may be used to but it's pretty damn good to navigate you through the country where road signs are often only in Arabic and are easily missed.

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Good to hear all went well Gecko!

I'll back up your opinion about that region - very friendly people, very safe and cheap (mostly)!

Cheers, Margus

Happy New Year !

Sounds very nice Gecko,congratulation!
So as you saw,we plan to go there in september 2008,thats why we are very interested to share with you all the trucks that you recorded.

Best wishes for the 2008,and hope to see you on the road.

Cheers,
Simon

Gecko,
Were you travelling by car, or motorcycle?

Gecko,
Were you travelling by car, or motorcycle?

Hey Gecko

My bike is in Tel AViv at the moment after a cape to cairo run.

Im heading back there on the 20th and have three days work to do before I get back on and ride into Jordan for a few days.
I would love to have some of your GPS points adn any other info about Jordan.
I'll only have two days to spend there this time. main reason is to leave isreal and return with a fresh stamp so I can leave it there for another while before riding it home to Ireland

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Life is for Living - so Live

Gecko, Marc

Your trip sounds great, would love to meet up and hear more about it.... fancy a drink in Destelbergen my place / Gent or Sint Niklaas ?

Drop me a mail (matthew.mason@skynet.be) I think I have your mobile nos somewhere

Cheers
Matt

I going in april to Syria and Jordan and what price for insurance, and all fee for motorcycles in Syria, and Jordan?

Read this:
http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...o-please-30974


Best wishes,
Szabi

Do you so late to back from Jordan to Syria and pay again tax 92$:confused1: Or alwaus you must pay around 90$ when enter in Syria?

Yep, you'll have to pay around 80USD again. Only (20USD or so) insurance will be active (if you issue it long enough at the first place), but the "Temporary Import" (TIP, or "visit" as they call it) you have to pay EACH TIME YOU ENTER SYRIA.

Welcome to the world of arabian bureaucracy!

Ride safe, Margus

Yes!

First entering 99 USD for 2 person and 1 bike, the second entry 92 USD for the same. As I understood we paid 92 and not 99 again because the insurrance was valid. Don't ask how is possible. At first entering we paid 36 USD insurrance and 62 USD import so if the insurrance was valid we should pay less ....

Best wishes,
Szabi

First entering 99 USD for 2 person and 1 bike, the second entry 92 USD for the same. As I understood we paid 92 and not 99 again because the insurrance was valid. Don't ask how is possible. At first entering we paid 36 USD insurrance and 62 USD import so if the insurrance was valid we should pay less ....

Best wishes,
Szabi


Szabi, did you have a carnet out of interest ???

Kind regards
Matthew

We had neither Carnet nor IDP (International Drive Permit)


Best wishes,
Szabi