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[[start page]] 150/ Beyond Dammam the road was unfamiliar to me. As we approached Qatif we passed a summer Bedu village in the outskirts with the old Portugese fort on a small hill in the back ground. I wished I had saved some film for it ,but I had rather wasted it at Saihat. We stopped just this side of Qatif and passed a field full of melons ,and then went in a gate and back to a native hut with a crew of Arabs and numerous black goats. It was a typical native palm hut ,and Daggy knelt down with his sucking bottle and tube which sucks in the mosquitoes. [[image to left: a Drawing of a small hut, like described in previous sentence]] There were a few in the darker parts of the room on the palm leaves of the wall just above the floor. He got about 2 dozen and it was 104°F inside even with the shade. The roof was hardly rain proof. We returned and found Joe had eten several water mellons; Hassein persuaded us to stay, but we had to get back to Dhahran, so I could make the 6:30 bus to the airport. I had time to swallow supper whole in 15 minutes and make the bus ,and then out to the airport for customs and to weigh baggage in [[insertion]] to [[/insertion]] the plane which took about 2 hours, then back to Dhahran again, to leave for airport at 3:30 A.M., a ragged life! We saw dates drying on the ground. Aug. 16- To say that I really slept last night would be an untruth. I tried to drink plenty of water to be sure I had to get up. But as is so often the case water does not have the expected effect here. I only got up twice to phone for the time 1:30 A.M. and 2:27 , the second time was just right to make a 3:00 A.M. breakfast ,and get on the bus at 3:30 A.M. [[end page]] [[start page]] 151 Then I left Dhahran for the last time (though I had my doubts for awhile) without regrets. We were all on the plane at 5:00 A.M. ready to go. One of the booster pumps for a carburetor didn't go so there was a 6 and 1/4 hour delay until they finally got the thing fixed ,and we left at 11:15 A.M. Meanwhile ironically enough the "Gazelle" left at 8 A.M. (I hope with my boxes aboard.) I will not enter into how time was passed; it barely crawled along ,and the benches were hard to sleep on. There is mostly just sand between Dhahran and Damascus. We arrived at Damascus about 3 P.M. There are many beautiful gardens and cultivated fields in the area of Damascus with numerous trees but all apparently planted. I saw a large buzzard like bird tan in color with black and white wings. There were also English sparrows ,and the crested larks like the ones in Arabia. There was a willow like tree in the center of a small park ,but probably none of the greenery was originally native to the valley. There were barren sand rock mountains approximately north and south of Damascus walling the city in a valley. We had lunch at Damascus airport ,and left without trouble in about 1 hour. We arrived in Istanbul about 3 hours before sunset. The airport is several miles from the city. The sea of Bosporus is surrounded by steep and rather barren hills, but with some apparent scrub tree growth. There was quite a strong northwest wind with white caps on the sea. I saw a couple of dhow like rigs and one small fore and aft sloop with two jubs. Flying over it the water was very clear with a tropical look to it. The air was quite cool almost cold and there was a short spell of rain from large cumulus clouds. There was quite a pretty sunset. The fields around the airport were covered with a rough thin tan grass something like [[end page]]
