Crac de Masyaf, Syria

We were taken to Crac de Masyaf on the day trip to Crac des Chevalier.
Had no idea what this was about but found some interesting history about this.

The word 'assassin' derived from the arabic word 'Hashshashin' which means the shia muslim people who throve here under Rashid al-Din Sinan ("the Old Man of the Mountain")'s control.

century, the Ismails 'Hashshashins' were believed to have had hashishi before going into wars so the word 'Hashshashin' means 'people who do hashishis'. They were muslims but sometimes fought for crusaders when it was suitable, so they became well known to the europeans then.

For more, go to http://rubykor.com/130049106523

http://www.mytripjournal.com/travel-66882-krak-des-chevaliers-crusader-castles-marqab-castle-masyaf-castle-crac-abdul
http://www.iis.ac.uk/view_article.asp?ContentID=106852
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hashshashin

Crac des Chevaliers, Syria

One of the reasons that we had to go to Syria this time... Crac des Chevaliers.
It's so impressive in size in the first glimpse, I can still feel it every time I look at the photos.
The little van on the road would help imagine how enormous the castle is.

We went with an organized tour from the Riad hotel we stayed ( 1500sp for 2 adluts and 2 children) and stopped two more place on the way here. Just after lunch we had at al-Qalaa which was amazingly delicious (will be another posting about it), we decided to walk down to the castle. Two beutiful looking cows were grazing on the grass.

As T.E.Lawrence said about this 'perhaps the best preserved and most wholly admirable castle in the world'. And this was truly beutiful and even romantic...

We walked along the walls and there was a gate looking rather back entrance so we stepped in. There were no tourist but only a couple of local boys coming through the gate. We saw a flight of stairs into the castle so we climbed into the castle. In the end, it turned out that we came through the back entrance and didn't have to pay the entrance fee!

wow, the vaulted ceiling was so high and impressive, it must've been really lavish building.

Because we came through the back door, there was no way we could hire a guide, so we went around by ourselves.
It didn't matter that we don't know the place in detail, it was so inspiring just to be there...

It was built by Syrians in the 11th Century but the crusaders took it soon after and expanded it in the 12th and the 13th century. It's size was so big that 2000 people could reside and they stored enough supply to last 5 years. It's not just a pretty face, is it?

Climbed up one of the towers and took a family photo. The look on the girls are hilarious.

It's nervewracking looking down from the tower, especially there was no guardrail at all. But imagination of all the things would've been happening here at that time can be distraction from the fear of falling off. There would've been peasants running around doing jobs and the sight of the lord or some high ranking people turning up with guards, or sometimes a cool looking knight with the costume would've been rushing in on the horse back shouting 'enemy is here!' and so on...

The width of the outer wall is so impressive that it would've been near impossible to take the castle. After the outer wall, there is a moat and the inner wall to get across to capture the castle...

The lonely planet says that this castle was never captured but Wikipedia says that Mameluke Sultan Baibars captured the castle in 1271. I wouldn't know the truth, but it's so obvious it would've been absolutely tough to penetrate the defense.

The kids don't care whether the stones they are playing on are nearly 1000 years old... it became mere toys for them...

Out of the frying pan into the fire... The left is the outer wall and the moat in the middle and the right is the inner wall..

Couldn't find a way out because we never came into the right entrance. we got lost and took a quite while to find our way out.


It was said that the Edward I of England who got to see this castle during the crusade felt in love with the castle, so he had his castles in England built in the similar style.

Something strange thing about this place was that we rarely met an arab person who knew this place. For Arabs, the castle is known as 'Al-Qalaat al Hosn', but few people knew even that name.
The crusades are portrayed as some kind of holy war to the western world but it was bloody and barbaric act of aggression to take control of rich trade routes. I guess it wouldn't be very pleasant for the arabs to be reminded of the terrible and cruel war they had to endure.
This month edition of the National Geographic had an article about the Arab christians. They've had a terrible time between Jews and Muslims in the troubled land in recent times, but they were killed by christians during the crusades as well. The crusaders killed muslims on the way to the Jerusalem(they even ate people in some places), but they also killed Arab christians.
This beutiful and romantic castle still stands strong and has been for the last 1000 years, but in the background it's not all happy story.
Even sadder fact is that the tragedy that happened 1000 years still exists in the same way on this region...

For more pictures about this posting, go to http://rubykor.com/130048969052

http://worldheritagesite.org/sites/crac.html
http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1229
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krak_des_Chevaliers
http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/richardcowley/2/1240249140/tpod.html

Umayyad Mosque, Damascus, Syria

Umayyad Mosque was originally built to worship gods even before the Roman time and it was the Temple of Jupiter during the Roman period. After christinity was accepted by the romans in the 4th Century AD, the church was built to in the name of St. John the Baptist whose head was believed to be found on this site.

When the Muslim arrived in Damascus in the 7th Century AD, the chritian and the muslim worshipped together here after building a wall for the muslim prayer. It's quite hard to imagine in the current climate, but they coexisted alongside each other then. When the Umayyad dynasty became powerful in islamic world, they wanted to show off with building this magnificant mosque. They bought the place from the christian promising not to destroy any other churches in the city and built another church in compensation.

I haven't had the faintest idea about this bit of history but it's something we all have to remember. All the religious conflicts happening thesedays, the leaders of the religions never learned anything from the history.

I can't help reflecting this on my own country, Korea, going through difficult times. Current government has suppressed the previous government so much, it alledegly killed the former president, My. Roh who devoted his life for democracy to settle in Korea. It was 1500 years ago when the muslim conqueror tolerated different religion of the conquered. How should I apply this to Darwins 'Natural selection'? It looks like the time goes absolutly backwards to barbarian times.

Is this Islamic land? This Roman ruin proudly stood in front of the Umayyad mosque. It must''ve been watching over the mosque over 2000 years. Temple of Jupiter during Roman time, Christian church in the 4th Century and Islamic mosque in from the 7th Century....
I imagine the spirits of people who built this during roman time would've been smiling watching over the people who live in harmony.

For more about this posting, go to http://rubykor.com/130048524192

Petra 2, The Monastery

Petra is believed to be the place where Moses struck a rock and got water from it, and where his brother Aaron was buried. The name of Wadi Musa which is nearby village bears his name Musa(Moses in Arabic) as well.

Would it have been human's touch or done by nature, it made a beutiful scenary, but a herd of goats caught my eyes.

Let alone all the beutiful sights in front of you, this rose-coloured rock was amazing enough to get my attention for a while.

Despite the mosquito bites that covered all over her face, her face was glowing over this unusual and beutiful scenary.

Roman amphitheatre. It might look pretty similar to all other roman ruins found all over the Europe and around the Mediterranean, but soon it reveals it's unique feature when looking at the seats. The seats are not constructed but carved into.

The kids we met in the siq earlier were resting there, so I went to sit with them. They were so curious about us so we got a group photo. It's so nice to be able to get to meet the locals when travelling.

The Monastery can be reached by climbing 800 steps, so donkey riders kept trying to get us on one from the Treasury all the way up to the Monastery.

But the girls behaved beutifully thanks to the promise I made earlier, 'only the ones who behave on the way up will get a donkey ride back!.

There was a cafe on the way where we sat to appreciate the view of the Urn Tomb in the front. It was also interesting looking at tourists from all over the world and their characteristics.

The sculpture on the cliff face is the Urn Tomb which was used as a church. The christianity here started in the 4th century AD as Roman empire accepted it then. Before christianity, the Nabateans belived in many gods and goddesses, so they had many temples in Petra to worship them.

El-Deir(the Monastery) is the biggest monument in Petra which was to worship the king Obodas 1 from the 1st century BC.Jebel Haroun where Aaron was buried is supposed to be out there somewhere. I felt as if I went back to the biblical times to be amongst them.

Ruby was finally giving in after all the climb she did, and she was clinging to Pete who was smiling all the way so impressed by the scenary.

While Ruby felt asleep at the cafe up in the Monastery, Pete and Ellie went further back with two other Korean backpackers we met earlier.

It looks so cool from behind where I didn't go as far.

Energizer Pete and Ellie.
Despite the long climb especially for the little legs she had, Ellie didn't hassle us to carry her at all. Absolutely amazing!

What a fabulous view!

For the full photos and posting, go to http://rubykor.com/130047979716

Petra 1, Treasury

Petra! We are here at last. Got tickets for a day(21 Dinar, 26Dinar for 2 days, 31 Dinar for 3 days) and followed others in one direction.

Though I was warned that Petra can be quite cold at times, I wasn't well geared for it after seeing lovely sunshine in the morning. It was very cold especially in the shade.

A tree made a good picture on the sky that it looked lonely as well as confident.

Soon the siq started and it was a kilometer long and 80 meter high. In inself, it felt like a secret path to a mysterious world.
I guess the geological location made Petra possible to flourish for a long time. Imagine having to attack the city through this narrow and steep gorge.

This was where the water was supplied through, all the way to the city.
It's admirable work considering the time frame which was in the 6th century BC. We often think that the western civilization of ancient Greco-Roman was the basis of the western-led modern culture. But there were people who were really advanced like here, and these people were nomadic middle eastern Nabateans.

I was told to come here early in the morning or late afternoon, and it was true that it would've been much nicer if there are not many people on the siq.

Imagine being here 2000 years ago looking at people like him securing the siq.

Wow, this is the treasury(Al-Kazneh) where the last scene of the 'Indiana Jones' movie was filmed.
I forgot all about the movie when we got there, but the sheer size and the impressive architecture of the Treasury was absolutely mind-blowing. It was wrongly named from the false belief that the egpytian pharaohs hid treasures here.

The girls looked so small right next to the enormous column, getting excited about the guy with traditional clothes.

This guy here wore real gun and knife, but it was free to take photo with him, unlike the guy with traditional clothes. There were so many people waiting to take photo with him behind us, so I couldn't talk to him much, which was a shame.
I reckon he might've been an army officer or a policeman.

Tired looking donkey, but he sat on the ground at least.

It was a long way for the kids to walk, to be honest, but it was going to be better if they walked on the way in rather than out. So I promised them the donkey ride on condition of good behaviour.

The sky can look quite nice with cliff of the rocks. It's nice to be able to look up sometimes.

Full photos and posting, go to http://rubykor.com/130047937047

We decided to take ferry across from Nuweiba, Egypt to Aqaba, Jordan because we couldn't risk getting an Israel stamp if we went overland from Taba, Egypt to Aqaba, Jordan via Eilat, Israel.
It's a lot more expensive and it takes a lot longer this way, but we had no choice.
The ferry ticket costs 80US$ and it dosn't have a fixed timetable, so it's likely to arrive in Aqaba in the evening and that's a bit annoying when you have to get to Petra on the same day.

Ticket Office. It's said that they only take US dollors and you can buy it on the morning of travel.

Goats everywhere. They eat ablsolutely anything but they have some special guts to digest it all.

We look more energized after 5 days of resting on the beach of Nuweiba.

We were locked up for 3 hours in this waiting room, and the boys found an empty bottle to play football.

The girls try it themselves.

Got held up in the kiosk while buying a bottle of water by these young men wanting to take photos of me and with me and so on..

I want to take photos of these guys with my camera as well, so i asked a guy to do that.
But he couldn't find the button on my dslr.
right there, yes that's right, press it, yes! lol


He was fine up to this point, but as there were too many men coming towards me to take photos, he, the shopkeeper kicked us out of there to protect his business.

Had been waiting for some time, and it was prayer time.

We hated waiting whatsoever, but the locals seemed to enjoy this. I guess it will happen in God's will, inshallah!

Well, you gotta stay positive．

Adam on the ferry.
His father was a palestinian so they were trying to get into Gaza, but the border had been closed for months and months.
Adam's family were living in Australia but came to visit the family here since the terrible conflicts happen in Gaza a while ago.
His mum, Julie who was an Austrailan-born Lebanese and a Muslim, was quite interesting person to talk to.


Inside the ferry. It's very comfortable and clean.

For full photos & posting , go to http://rubykor.com/130047793613

Accommodation in Nuweiba, Egypt. Softbeachcamp, Tarabin.

Nuweiba is on the red sea coast but many people only go there to catch the ferry to Aqaba, Jordan.
But I read the Lonely Planet describing a place 'the best camp in Sinai', so we decided to check it out.
Found the website http://www.softbeachcamp.com/ which looked attractive enough, especially because of many Egyptian tourists there.

the camp. small touch of cute painting on the door makes the whole atmosphere a lot more lively.

Hut number 12 where we first stayed. It looks as if we were in the middle of a remote village of Africa somewhere, but this facility was for 'tourists' which makes the place more unique.
It was so inconvenient though, because of dirt ground inside. Only a mat on the dirt and some matresses on top, that was it. it's not too bad for the first few hours but it soon became uncontrollable with full of dirt everywhere.

The next hut looked better with tiles on the floor so I asked to move, but it was already booked so he would look for something similar.

So we managed to move to the best hut in the camp. No. 4.
Spacious room with clean matresses and new blanket, moreover the view from the hut was wonderful.

It might look romantic but the reality was very different.
Taking the kids to the showers/toilets away from the hut was not easy sometimes,
and Khamsin-dusty wind blown from Sahara Desert, was so intense, we found our bags absolutely covered with sand the morning after. I had to use waterproof cover on my camera bag, otherwise it was going to cause some grief.

If I was asked whether I would go back there one day, I would certainly say 'yes!'.
The accommodation itself wasn't the most comfortable place in the world, but there was something more to it than just that. I think that it felt like heaven like written on the door because of tranquility we could have there. It felt like miles away from anywhere but at the same time, I felt so close to the mother nature.

The cost?

Triple hut was 100 LE including breakfast.

Full photos : http://rubykor.com/130047628357