Fancy a winter break?
How about a "Legends of the Middle East" tour?
Still sound good? Maybe include a visit to some old civil war battlefields?
Now what if I say the civil war battlefields are not in the US Deep South, but are in Syria, and the civil war battlefields are there, are your quite as keen? Probably not I would guess.
But, in what can only be described as a foolhardy, if not wholly premature move, two Russian holiday companies 'Miracle Tours,' and 'Kilimanjaro', have recently advertised Middle East tours. But both were to recent war zones. For example Kilimanjaro's "Legends of the Middle East" trip at $1,950 US dollars, which does not include plane tickets, visa fees or insurance ... this latter element should be fairly hefty I would suspect, with kidnap ransom coverage alone probably very high, is to Syria. But at least its visa free for Russians, who just pay US$35 on the border.
The eight-day tours start with a flight to Beirut in Lebanon, and includes a coach trip to the Syrian capital Damascus, the city of Aleppo, Maaloula (where the language of Jesus, Western Aramaic is still spoken), the City of Hama, the crusader fortress of Krak de Chevaliers, and "the bride of the desert" - Roman Palmyra. Apparently 50 hardy Russian tourists completed the tour without incident in 2019 ... the Russian Border Service told the Kommersant business daily that in all, 334 Russian tourists visited Syria, this year.
It has to be pointed out, that nearly all the cities on this list have been bombed and have extensive damage, often to the older, historic quarters, so what's there is to see is not much more than rubble. Even Roman Palmyra was badly destroyed by the iconoclastic ISIL scum.
However Syria is still listed as an active war zone, so even the Russian government is not keen. The Russian Federal Agency for Tourism issued a recommendation to all tour companies to stop offering trips to Syria, and advised Russian tourists to avoid trips to the country until "the normalisation of the situation".
But the Miracle tour operator's first planned trip to Syria on 14 March 2020 is still on, according to the company's website. But most Russians agree with the view that its way to dangerous, as being the sane one. One blogger Prof. Preobrazhensky explained somewhat ironically: "The cost is about 2,000 dollars. To take money from Russians in order to show them how the aid money was spent earlier is an interesting business idea." However Russian blogger, Ilya Varlamov, went, and then wrote posts on his happy trip.
However one glance at the pictures of a largely bomb blasted country, is sufficient to show that this is not a trip for the sun lover in shorts ... I guess it takes all sorts .... but I think I'll give it a miss. Syria is one part of the lonely planet that can stay lonely as far as I am concerned.
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| Winter Breaks In The Middle East ... Popular With Footballers. |
How about a "Legends of the Middle East" tour?
Still sound good? Maybe include a visit to some old civil war battlefields?
Now what if I say the civil war battlefields are not in the US Deep South, but are in Syria, and the civil war battlefields are there, are your quite as keen? Probably not I would guess.
But, in what can only be described as a foolhardy, if not wholly premature move, two Russian holiday companies 'Miracle Tours,' and 'Kilimanjaro', have recently advertised Middle East tours. But both were to recent war zones. For example Kilimanjaro's "Legends of the Middle East" trip at $1,950 US dollars, which does not include plane tickets, visa fees or insurance ... this latter element should be fairly hefty I would suspect, with kidnap ransom coverage alone probably very high, is to Syria. But at least its visa free for Russians, who just pay US$35 on the border.
 |
| Welcome to Syria ... For Some |
The eight-day tours start with a flight to Beirut in Lebanon, and includes a coach trip to the Syrian capital Damascus, the city of Aleppo, Maaloula (where the language of Jesus, Western Aramaic is still spoken), the City of Hama, the crusader fortress of Krak de Chevaliers, and "the bride of the desert" - Roman Palmyra. Apparently 50 hardy Russian tourists completed the tour without incident in 2019 ... the Russian Border Service told the Kommersant business daily that in all, 334 Russian tourists visited Syria, this year.
 |
| Aleppo's Great Umayyad Mosque Destroyed - Like Much That Tourists Used To Visit In Syria. |
It has to be pointed out, that nearly all the cities on this list have been bombed and have extensive damage, often to the older, historic quarters, so what's there is to see is not much more than rubble. Even Roman Palmyra was badly destroyed by the iconoclastic ISIL scum.
However Syria is still listed as an active war zone, so even the Russian government is not keen. The Russian Federal Agency for Tourism issued a recommendation to all tour companies to stop offering trips to Syria, and advised Russian tourists to avoid trips to the country until "the normalisation of the situation".
But the Miracle tour operator's first planned trip to Syria on 14 March 2020 is still on, according to the company's website. But most Russians agree with the view that its way to dangerous, as being the sane one. One blogger Prof. Preobrazhensky explained somewhat ironically: "The cost is about 2,000 dollars. To take money from Russians in order to show them how the aid money was spent earlier is an interesting business idea." However Russian blogger, Ilya Varlamov, went, and then wrote posts on his happy trip.
However one glance at the pictures of a largely bomb blasted country, is sufficient to show that this is not a trip for the sun lover in shorts ... I guess it takes all sorts .... but I think I'll give it a miss. Syria is one part of the lonely planet that can stay lonely as far as I am concerned.
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