Ended up staying three days in Palmyra, the desert town, instead of one, and half promised to some friends there to cancel half of my stay in Aleppo and come back there instead. Tonight they are having a big party for Eit al Fitr there. The muezzeen went on for an hour this morning after sunrise, with a whole chorus of people shouting "Allah akbar", "God is great", again and again. The end of Ramadan.
Later went with another bedouin friend into the desert on his motorbike, we climbed up to the top niche of a tomb with a great desert view, and danced in there together to bedouin music from his mobile phone. I almost shouted with delight, so much fun. Then he took me to his father's garden and picked me a few pomegranates and dates and gave me an olive twig for farewell presents. Then Baasil called me on my mobile because he knew I was leaving an hour later, and came to my hotel to say goodbye. When I arrived in the hotel lobby, he stood there, no longer in desert coloured jeans and tight shirt and green kefiyeh, but dressed up in an immaculate gleaming white dishdasha, with a cleanly wrapped shiny white kefiyeh, smiling his silent smile." Wow!" I said:"I tried to take your picture, but my camera broke, you are too beautiful for my camera!" It took me ten minutes to get it to work again, with new batteries from the store across the street, lots of fiddling with a pair of tweezers, plying the jammed lid for the battery case, but finally....
https://picasaweb.google.com/113264861998536374583/Palmyra?authkey=Gv1sRgCNbe_LyG8f2_9QE#
In Aleppo now, feeling like someone who ended up alone at Christmas, as everyone is celebrating Eit al Fitr with their families, even all the hotel staff is gone back to their villages, except one at the reception.
Later went with another bedouin friend into the desert on his motorbike, we climbed up to the top niche of a tomb with a great desert view, and danced in there together to bedouin music from his mobile phone. I almost shouted with delight, so much fun. Then he took me to his father's garden and picked me a few pomegranates and dates and gave me an olive twig for farewell presents. Then Baasil called me on my mobile because he knew I was leaving an hour later, and came to my hotel to say goodbye. When I arrived in the hotel lobby, he stood there, no longer in desert coloured jeans and tight shirt and green kefiyeh, but dressed up in an immaculate gleaming white dishdasha, with a cleanly wrapped shiny white kefiyeh, smiling his silent smile." Wow!" I said:"I tried to take your picture, but my camera broke, you are too beautiful for my camera!" It took me ten minutes to get it to work again, with new batteries from the store across the street, lots of fiddling with a pair of tweezers, plying the jammed lid for the battery case, but finally....
https://picasaweb.google.com/113264861998536374583/Palmyra?authkey=Gv1sRgCNbe_LyG8f2_9QE#
In Aleppo now, feeling like someone who ended up alone at Christmas, as everyone is celebrating Eit al Fitr with their families, even all the hotel staff is gone back to their villages, except one at the reception.
Fri, September 10, 2010 - 1:11 PM
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