hama, apamea, dead cities (syria)

From Palmyra we took a bus to Hama in the late evening and spent 2 days & nights there, visiting nearby historical sites.

View from the hotel room at Riad Hotel, located right next to the clock-tower in Hama.
The first day we took a trip to Apamea and two Dead Cities.

a mosaic museum housed in a 16th-century Turkish caravanserai in/near Apamea

the mosaics were beautiful, but in quite a sorry state.
In fact, while we were standing at one of the mosaics, this guy came up and took a mop lying in a bucket of water nearby and mopped the mosaic to rid the layer of dust settled on it! Some where beautiful ones were just stacked against the wall in the dark unpaved corners of the serai.

(we missed the main mosaic museum - Ma'arret Al Nouman - because it had closed by the time we got there in the evening, but looked like the mosaics were well-kept there)

It was a foggy morning and the fog didn't really lift while we were at Apamea
(an ancient city from the 3rd century BC).
Even the ticket booth looked beautiful in the fog.

I'm afraid I don't have much more to say about Apamea because
(i) I was less interested in the history than in the feel of the place, and
(ii) because it is 2:25 AM just now and I am too tired to google Apamea and find out more. In any case, now I am a little less interested in the historical sites I saw in Syria and more interested in contemporay Syrian politics - just read an interesting book last month called "Syria: Neither Bread Nor Freedom" - a history of its repressive state regime (esp. the police state under the previous president Hafeez al-Assad, but also the promises of more freedom that came when his son Basher al-Assad took over in 2000, most of which have remained unfulfilled) and its civil society movement. I knew very little of this history and politics during my travels in Syria, and now it seems strange to imagine the political realities I read about and I wonder how they affect the lives of the ordinary Syrians we had our little chats with.

Finally, a token photograph from Serjilla, one of the two "Dead Cities" we visited (below)

As far as I was concerned, the Dead Cities might have lent themselves to more interesting photos had the light been interesting that day. Anyhow, the history of these cities is quite fascinating - these are ruins of Byzantine cities that were abandoned for reasons not entirely known. Here is a really interesting article in The Guardian about them.

The second day Varun went to Krak des Chevaliers, a crusader castle, while I stayed in the hotel and worked on the edited book I'm doing with Romi! I did manage to step out to pick up a good lunch but unfortunately wasn't in the mood of carrying my camera so don't have anything of modern Hama (except the photo from the hotel room). Oh, and we had a fantastic dinner at (ok have to remember the name of the place) which goes down as one of the best dinners I had in Syria.

Next stop: Aleppo

The office of Al Kadmous (a private bus co.) at the Hama bus station, where we got into a chat with the guy who sold us our bus tickets (he wanted to know the size of India's population, among other things. And he also told us that he didn't like people from Aleppo - for the life of me I can't remember what reason he gave us, but he was very vehement about it - will have to ask V)

palmyra / tadmur (syria)

Well, at the rate I'm going (with not retrieving the Jordan & Damascus photos I deleted from my memory card by mistake) I'll never put up the rest of my photos from my x'mas trip. So let me skip that bit of the trip for now and move on to Palmyra, or Tadmur as the locals call it (Palmyra is the name of only the ancient city, though even that might be a corruption of the name Tadmur).

Palmyra's a World Heritage site and it is quite amazing - the ruins of an ancient city at the edge of an oasis in the vast flat expanse of the desert. And then there's Qalat Ibn Maan, a fort from the 16th century, which is perched on a hill at the edge of the ancient city. The views of the city and the desert from the fort are beautiful. We had traveled from Damascus to Palmyra by bus in the morning, and didn't stay the night in Palmyra, so it was a full afternoon of walking, including climbing up to the fort to see the sunset.

Temple of Ba'al, from the 1st century AD.

temple ruins

the monumental arch leading into the colonnaded street

from one side of the colonnaded street - with Qalat Ibn Maan on the hill in the distance,
to the right

from the other side of the arch

one of the friendly, charming guys who zoom about the site on their motorbikes selling trinkets and scarves to tourists - he charmed me into buying a tiny silver camel by telling me that Indians were just like Syrians (unlike the Germans and French to whom he claimed he would therefore have quoted a higher price). Not sure why he said that - I suspect it had something to do with evoking some kind of "Third World" solidarity. Just recently I was reading something about how "trust" and "familiarity" are created in particular ways through speech in bazaars in India. Anyway, whatever it was, it immediately made me feel a bit more at ease with him and we went on to have a bit of a rambling chat... And once it was clear to him I was going to buy the camel, he went on to cajole me into buying two more trinkets.

more of the biker dudes selling stuff

remains of the Temple of Nabu along the colonnaded street
(Nabu, according to wikipedia, is the Assyrian and Babylonian god of wisdom and writing, so given my state of mind these days, wouldn't mind some blessings from Nabu!)

we didn't make it to the tower tombs seen here in the distance - I anyway suspect that they probably looked more beautiful from a distance than from near.

Varun beginning the walk to Qalat Ibn Maan

steadily approaching the base of the hill

looking down from the fort - the new city of Tadmur to the left of centre, the ancient city to the extreme right (might be able to see it if you click on the photograph), with the greenery of the oasis spread out in the middle and around

trying to zoom into a football game and a basketball game

trying to zoom into a solitary man in the middle of the desert

the palmyra ruins and sand dunes in the evening light, just before sunset

resting my legs for a bit

sunset from the fort

recipe notes for myself (will be an ever expanding post)

Bulgar and Spinach Pilaf
Great recipe - loved the taste of the roasted plum tomatoes - the first time I made this I added double the tomatoes than were asked for in the recipe which is why I think it turned out particularly tasty. The labneh is easy to make and yummy!

Spinach and Ricotta Lasagne
Realized blue cheese wasn't my thing - at least not in too much quantity and not in my lasagne for sure. Otherwise a good recipe so won't use gorgonzola next time. I liked the pine nuts sprinkled on top.

Garlic and Herb Potato Wedges
To satisfy my potato cravings :)


Saffron Rice and Red Pepper Pilaf
No photo but a nice simple recipe that I think I can use as a base - can add other stuff into it, maybe nuts and raisins


Roasted Vegetable and Brown Rice Gratin (above roasting vegies, and below the final outcome)
Ate celeriac and swede for the first time in my life. Didn't like the former, the latter was okay. Didn't use carrots and parsnips since the quantities were too much anyway, so next time I should use these instead of the celeraic (and maybe even chuck the swede). Also next time will use lesser cheese on the top.


Parsnip Dark Spice Cake
Oh yum! Good as a tea-time cake.

Celery, potato & leek soup
Very nutritious and all that, but didn't like celery as the dominant ingredient in a soup.

Split Pea Soup
Lovely filling soup (spinach was added after i took the photo)
A variation recipe: Split Pea Soup

Broccoli soup
A good basic broccoli soup recipe

Asparagus soup
No photo but it was good!

More soup recipes to try out:

Carrot & coriander soup
Spiced carrot and lentil soup
Spiced roasted parsnip soup
Chunky minestrone soup
Roasted Asparagus soup with spring herb gremolata
Curried butternut squash soup

Salads and dressings:
Oriental zucchini and brown rice salad
Vinaigrette

Dals etc:
Masoor dal
Dal makhani
Kadhi
Chana masala

Other recipe notes:

Upma

Eggless Banana bread
When I don't have eggs in the house :)
Wholegrain banana bread
Wholewheat chocolate chip cookies

Pancakes
Basic pancake recipe

Conversion tables

the lives of safai karmacharis (sanitation workers)

Kachra Kondi (titled "The Garbage Trap" in the below English-subtitled version)
a documentary on the lives of sanitary workers in Pune,
directed by Atul Pethe,
produced by the Pune Municipal Corporation Workers' Union

Before giving you the video, here are two poems I've extracted from the documentary

1

The fragrance of a thousand rotten

ravishing corpses rushes out

as the lid of the manhole is lifted

The shit-pot, emptied by Savali’s mother

And far away, waking naked, heir to my generation

Is this the “reservation” for us?

(Poet: Jayanti Makwana, drainage worker)

(translated in the documentary from Marathi - or maybe Gujarati?)

2

With no inkling of the beginning and end

The living dead, me, was given birth

And so I was born

Had organs just like humans

And so identified as a human being

But human just for the sake of recognizing

You mash my whole life in your filth

Your shit

Don’t humans have the body parts?

Hands, feet, nose, throat, eyes, trunk

If that is so, then where are my body parts?

Who locked them?

In which cell of freedom?

Scrub me

It will only yield filth

Just filth

Trash, vermin and a breath of stink

Look at my lungs

Look at my heart

Look at my eyes

X-ray me

For the negative and positive results

Search for the complete human body with all its organs

Then you will see

How you have sucked life out of me

How you look down on me

Just to keep you clean

You force this work on me

That put humanity to shame and ruined me

I step fearlessly in your shit

Bare-bodied

Insects bit me

Nostrils flared by the filth

Sucked through breath, stomach, blood

Took the rod, pulled the wire, broke open the choke

Your blocked gutter gurgled

Oh people!

I suffocate in this living hell

Living through this death throes

I die in life

Living through this death throes

I die in life

I die in life

(Poet: Dhurandhar Mithbaonkar, former drainage worker)

(translated in the documentary from Marathi, though I suspect a better translation might be possible)