Sent on Sep. 22, 2004 from Amman, Jordan

Friends, I am on a 44-day tour of the Mideast (Jordan,
Syria, Lebanon, Turkey), from Sep. 16 to Oct. 28, 2004.  I
wanted to see Iran too, but the embassy insisted that I
arrange my tour to there thru a travel agency, probably
also for security. I had allocated 5 days to Iran, which
did not agree with any of the arranged packages, the
minimum of which is for 8 days and seemingly designed for
visitors on expense accounts, the packages starting from
USA.  So I dropped Iran from my list.  Syria will be the
100th country I visited, Lebanon 101.

The inducement to visit the Mideast came in part from a
travel column by Ellen Craeger titled Jordan, Syria, and
Lebanon in The Miami Herald Travel section dated March 28,
2004.  She did her visit by car, with hired drivers, and
recommends ($90 - $150 a night) 5-star hotels to stay.  I
dont quite agree with 5-star hotels.  On a previous visit
to Petra (Jordan), in a rental car by myself, I stayed at a
$10 per night joint and had more fun than I would have had
in the plush settings but dead ambiance of the 5-star
Movenpick Hotel nearby. The price included a delicious
chicken and rice dish on the roof-terrace overlooking the
village, in the company of the male members of the owner's
family and about 15 guests of both sexes from Europe. (In
Wadi Rum (Jordan), I downgraded to $3 a night Bedouin tent,
plus $8 for a delicious kebab dinner, again in the lively
company of young tourists.)

0. BASICS.  I got my visa to Syria in person from the
embassy (http://www.syrianembassy.us/eng-homepage1.html) on
Wyoming Ave, in DC for $100 for single or double-entry (I
have double-entry) visa; multiple--more than 2--entries are
granted for business.

In case you are interested, you also need a visa to Iran. 
The application costs $65 and the forms are sent to the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Tehran.  Apply via the Iran
Desk at the Embassy of Pakistan (get application Form 101
at
http://www.daftar.org/Eng/forms_eng.asp?formcat=visas&lang=Eng)
on Wisconsin Ave. in DC.  It takes about a month before you
are notified by the embassy. You then send your passport,
Form 104 (from the same link), and a fee of $15 for return
postage.

Americans can obtain visas to Turkey ($20 multiple-entry
visa over a 3-month period), Jordan (10 JD = $14.70, where
$ = .68 Jordanian Dinars), and Lebanon at the point of
entry.  For info on trains worldwide go to 
http://www.seat61.com/index.html. For trains operating in
Turkey and between Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, and Iran
(in Turkish) go to
http://www.tcdd.gov.tr/yolcu/uluslararasi/ortadogu.htm.

The following links may also be useful: 1) Lebanon:
http://www.destinationlebanon.com/, Syria:
http://www.syriatourism.org/new/index.html, Aleppo:
http://www.chamhotels.com/aleppo.html, Iran:
http://www.itto.org/index.asp

1. TOURS.  This time I planned a combined guided and
self-guided tours, starting with a 6-day organized tour for
190 JD or about $270, Sep. 24 to 30 from Amman to Syria,
staying at 4-star hotels in Damascus, Lattakia, and Homs,
Aleppo not included for some reason.  At the end of this
tour, which I am taking also as a way to acquaint myself
with Syria for later, when I will be there on my own, I
will stay at the hotel in Damascus (while the tour party
returns to Amman), and connect to a 149 JD 6-day organized
tour to Lebanon Oct. 1 to 6, that starts from Amman for 149
JD or about $195, Oct. 1 to 6. I should note that the tours
from Amman invariably depart at about 8 a.m. on Fridays.

2. SELF TOURS.  One problem with these organized tours is
that they skip some of the historical sites that foreign
visitors would want to see.  I was told that locals who can
afford these tours like comfort and relaxation in the
ambiance of hotels in cities and towns, that, in general,
they are not interested visiting historical places.  This
is a shame.  And so in both Syria and Lebanon I will have
to make extra time to visit some of these places of my own.
 The tour to Lebanon has a day free in Beirut.  So I am
planning to rent a car and visit BA'ALBECK and ANJAR (east,
on the mountains). In Syria, I allocated Oct. 7, the day
after the tour to Lebanon ends, to renting a car in HOMS
and driving northeast to PALMYRA then west to KRAK des
CHEVALIERS.

After I return the car, I plan to take the night train to
Aleppo, or wait till the next morning (Oct. 8) and take a
bus.  I want to stay in Aleppo from Oct. 8 to noon on Oct.
11. 

3. IRAN. Although I dropped Iran from my itinerary, here is
some useful info on that country and a brief outline of
what I had in mind.  One guide to world trains (link below)
mentions a weekly train from Aleppo to Tehran via Turkey. 
I will find out if this train is still in operation.  If
so, the trip supposedly lasts about 60 some hours, from
Oct.11/Mo to Oct.13/We in Tehran.  I know all of Turkey,
except the eastern and southeastern Anatolia.  So this will
be a also way to see some of these parts. I had 4 more days
devoted to this area after Iran, now it will be longer.

4. Turkey, EASTERN & SOUTHEASTERN ANATOLIA. This part of my
trip, about 17 days, is entirely open.  It will probably
involve trains, busses, and rental cars.

Sirman