Roaming Reto

Conquering Apamea and the Dead Cities

roamingreto — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 18:56:34 +0000

This was now the fourth day in Hama. This city was the perfect base to explore Syria. By now, my driver knew the drill: Leaving early in the morning for day trips, returning late in the evening. Those were long shifts for him. However, he also knew that he had plenty of time by himself, once [...]

The superlatives of Aleppo

roamingreto — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 21:23:23 +0000

Syria is a country of many contrasts. Its countryside reminded me sometimes of being on a road-trip through Central Europe, where strategically placed castles overlooked green valleys filled with trees. However, here in Syria, landscape can changes completely after several turns on the road. Right after a green valleys can lie desert plains, where Bedouins are camping [...]

1001 nights at Hama and Palmyra

roamingreto — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 17:18:20 +0000

One of the more esoteric travel tips out there claims that swift border checks won’t happen with new passports. According to this myth, the reason is that customs agents are wary about being the first one’s to stamp a brand new passport, thus authenticating the document. So they will check twice, three times the passport [...]

Bad conscience in Tyre and Sidon

roamingreto — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 10:00:16 +0000

The South of the Lebanon is less traveled by tourists. Nevertheless, it features – among others – two historical sites worthwhile a visit: Tyre and Sidon (Saida). Again, I left early in the morning from Beirut, taking a minibus to the city of Tyre. The trip was about 80km long with a change of bus at Sidon. [...]

The melting pot of civilizations at Baalbek

roamingreto — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 19:44:17 +0000

The road to the town of Baalbek, situated in the Bekaa valley, is a scenic two hour bus drive from Beirut. There are many mini buses covering this route and therefore getting there was quite easy. Baalbek has a population of about 80’000 people. This place has been continuously been inhabited since the eight millennium BC. To see a [...]

Jet set in Beirut

roamingreto — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 21:53:08 +0000

It has now been almost a year since my round-the-world trip. It is definitely time for a new trip – on a much smaller scale – to explore some historic sites I am interested. The Middle Eastern countries contain some of these ancient sites. They did spur my imagination as a child, when I was [...]

Experiencing Africa from the hotel garden in Mombasa

roamingreto — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 21:08:24 +0000

After an eventful side-trip through Ethiopia, Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya, we felt we felt in need for a serious break. Evgeny, Tanya and myself were on a constant move from day one during this trip. We have slept on local buses in Uganda, searched for accommodation late at night downtown Rwanda and we slept in turns [...]

Nairobi and Masai Mara

roamingreto — Fri, 29 May 2009 18:32:29 +0000

Nairobi has become our major hub during the East-Africa trip. Since there are a number of budget carriers located in Kenya, getting around this part of the continent is quite affordable. For instance, we did manage to buy our tickets for the Entebbe to Nairobi flight during a transit stop on our previous flight going [...]

Sleeping policemen in Murchinson Falls National Park

roamingreto — Tue, 26 May 2009 19:26:09 +0000

Our land border crossing on the road from Kigali (Rwanda) to Kampala (Uganda) was easier than anticipated. The ceremony of getting processed at customs resembled some South American crossings during my recent trip there: Getting off the local bus, filling out immigration forms no one ever reads, queuing to get the exit stamp in the [...]

Smuggling plastic bags to Kigali

roamingreto — Sat, 23 May 2009 12:31:00 +0000

One of the surprises for this trip was presented to me by Evgeny just before we left Moscow: We would visit four instead of two countries in East Africa. So I came pretty unprepared to Rwanda. Evgeny’s Lonely Planet guidebook served me to have a quick glimpse at visa procedures which seemed to be no [...]