Krak des Chevaliers Castle – Syria/Lebanon

During our 2008 trip to the Middle East I was incredibly excited to visit the city of Beirut in Lebanon. Unfortunately a couple of weeks before we left the city was rocked by unrest (this happens a lot). This meant that Lindsay and I had a couple of extra days in Syria (not a bad problem to have). We decided to make a trek up to one of the most amazing castles in the world “Krak des Chevaliers” near the border of Syria/Lebanon. This castle was built during the crusades and is INCREDIBLY well preserved. Getting to the castle involved a number of different steps (and for us some luck). We took a taxi to a bus stop outside Damascus where we were able to find a bus to the city of Homs. Taking a bus in the middle east is quite fun as they generally have crazy decorations and a cheesy movie playing with the volume at full blast! Within a few hours we were at a major bust stop in Homs and found a very friendly taxi driver who agreed to take us out to the castle and then wait to take us back. The taxi drive was fantastic as we got to see the countryside of Syria. We passed numerous small villages, farms, families herding animals in the middle of the road, etc, etc. The road to the castle winds up a large mountain and eventually you end up at this incredible castle structure. We spent hours exploring the castle and particularly loved sitting on the very top looking down at the beautiful valleys/hills in the surrounding area. This was the closest we were going to get to Lebanon. The wind was incredibly strong and there were no railings at the edge of the castle (a very long fall) needless to say it was an exhilarating experience. We finally made our way down to our patient taxi driver who started to take us back to Homs to catch a bus back to Damascus. The entire way back he and I were negotiating whether he would take us all the way back to Damascus (I just couldn't bring myself to pay what he wanted). Lindsay and I were loving it because he didn’t speak much English, and we didn't speak any Arabic, but all three of us understood one word….DAMASCUS!! He would mumble a few words in Arabic/English and end every sentence with DAMASCUS!!!! It was hilarious. We barely made it on the bus back to Damascus and I remember thinking that I probably had just enough cash left to catch a cab from the bus stop in Damascus to our Hotel…I was wrong. We arrived at the Damascus bus stop in late evening and there were only a few cabs left. I offered them all the cash I had left and they refused to take us back to the city for such a small amount. Needless to say we were getting quite panicked as hitchhiking in Damascus was not a good alternative. Luckily we were saved by a very outgoing British kid who was living in Syria. He came up and negotiated with the taxi to take all 3 of us back to the city. It was hilarious watching this British kid negotiate with a Syrian taxi driver in Arabic. We had a great chat with him as we rode back to the city. Not only did he save our hide that night but just as we were leaving I asked him what bus station I needed to go to the next morning to catch a taxi to Jordan. He told me the correct station which was completely different then were I was planning on going…saved our hide again! It was a fun day full of castles, adventure and friendship…sounds like a typical day traveling in the Middle East.