Jerash and southern Syria

Jerash is another wonderful Roman ruin with a twist - there is still chariot racing taking place and gladiator combat every day in the Hippodrome which we naturally went along to see. This was thoroughly enjoyable and obviously the gladiator contests were choreographed but looked vicious nonetheless but the racing seemed pretty genuine. We even got to watch a small section of a legion demonstrate marching and combat techniques. Excellent stuff, apart from at the end of the show we found ourselves trapped in the seats surrounded by an American student leadership trip with an evangelical organiser giving a pep talk to the students in true American style complete with numerous incorrect statements. I had to hold Linda back but in the end we could take no more and had to get people to move to let us out.

The ruins themselves are not in the league of Leptis but still fascinating with the enormous Hadrians Arch dominating the main road. The oval plaza surrounded by two curving colonnades that leads into the city proper is unique and also extremely impressive.

We spent the night camped outside the tourist police station with our very own English speaking policeman to look after us.

The next day we headed into Syria and were met by the most efficient and easy border crossing we've had all trip, which was a pleasant, though unexpected surprise. About 90 minutes after getting to the Jordan departure gate we were driving to Bosra. When we arrived we were collared by a guide, who despite us saying we didn't want a guide was kind enough to find us a place to park overnight and join us for a drink in Taffy. Bosra has what must be the best preserved Roman Amphitheater in the world. It is in almost perfect condition and we spent ages just sitting in the posh seats admiring it. The town itself is less interesting, though the ruins live side by side with hovels where people still live, and the Decumanus is still in use daily with children playing on it and locals cycling on it. It has recently been uncovered down to the Roman tiling complete with ruts from roman carts from its more modern height 2 meters above.

Naturally enough as we were sitting in the local cafe having a juice a British couple - Gary and Kim - turned up. They'd had a lousy few days in Syria including a terrifying incident having a yelling teenage guard point a machine gun at them.

When you've had a few bad days and you're surrounded by an alien environment like Syria you want to find something 'normal' to settle you down again and so we offered them the use of the shower and Linda cooked them supper and a cup of tea! We chatted until about midnight and the next morning Kim cut Linda's hair which was driving Linda mad.

Kim and Gary were driving to Australia and had originally planned to go through Iran, but after the recent diplomatic spat involving the Iranian President and the west visas were not being issued to Brits so they were hoping to go via Saudi!
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