wet hair

a modern syrian wisdom has it that women who appear in public with wet hair have just had sex. i learnt this after a week of leaving our hotels with freshly washed hair to keep cool in the heat.

oh the power of local knowledge.

now back in damascus, here's a quick rewind of places i have visited over the past 2 weeks: beirut - sidon - tyre - the chouf mountains, with emir fakhreddine's castle - byblos, great fish restaurants! - tripoli, with a sweet little souq that has excellent fresh falafel shawarmas - bcharre, maronite country full of idols, monasteries and hermits in the lebanon mountain range, but horribly slow internet - baalbek, hezbollah's souvenir shop - damascus, where part of my family is from - latakia, boring resort by the med sea - ugarit, where the first alphabet and more excitingly the first music score were found (who won the eurovision?) - aleppo, where i had my first hamam and shisha experiences - deir ezzom, near the iraqi border, but that stop is a bit of a blur - palmyra, hail zenobia, queen of the desert! - damascus, and i can now say that i have, for the first time, *returned* to a place in the middle east.