RANSVESTIA

We flew to Beirut and were put up in the Intercontinental Hotel which is pretty swank but was having some of its 1st floor public rooms redone as a result of a bomb placed there a couple of months earlier by the Palestine Liberation group trying to kill some big shot. We had a couple of trips in and around Beirut itself visiting Byblos which is a very old Phoenician settlement. Traffic to and from was very heavy and drivers were very independent and heavy on the horn. Next day we had an all day excursion to Baalbeck which was one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world. No wonder! It certainly was colossal in overall size as well as some of the columns and temples still partially standing. It is amazing how our ancient ancestors managed some of their engineering feats.

Next day we were off for a visit to Damascus, legendary city of old. We thought we would never make it because of the traffic jam at the border crossing. I'd thought relations between Lebanon and Syria were reason- ably good but they surely made a jam up at the border. It took the bus about 1 hour just to inch up to and finally thru the gate. Driving down into Damascus we were interested to note the ready tank barricades in the canyons, the gun emplacements on the hills and the prevalence of sol- diers. In Damascus itself we were impressed by the large number of men in camouflage uniforms and army vehicles on the streets. This was on Sept. 23- war broke out with Israel on Oct. 6, 2 weeks later. The most memorable thing about this city was the noise, the blue smoke from car exhausts and the eternal din of horns. Arabian drivers must have to prove their masculinity by the amount of noise they can make and they were hard at it. The cars were every imaginable kind and some of them went back 20 years at least. From the smoke pouring out of the exhaust you'd think they were running on oil and lubricating with gasoline. You couldn't see 2 blocks away at street level because of it. On top of that the city is, as you know, terribly old and so it is also dirty and worn except in a lim- ited residential section which we only barely touched on as we drove back. Of course we had to visit the Street Called Straight and several places where the Apostle Paul had stayed or been imprisoned etc. and also a visit to the large mosque where John the Baptist's Tomb is. You have to take off your shoes to go into a mosque and the women had to wear a black robe over their heads and shoulders. They provided these to us but they were literally stinking having been worn by god knows how many others before us. You'd be right if you guessed that I'd be the one to make a complaint about that to the head of the guard. Damascus is a place to be able to say you have been, but once was enough. It's interesting his- torically but neither Damascus, Syria nor the Syrian people made a very good impression on me. I could do without all three.

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