You can't run and nor can you hide in a Syrian bath house, explains JJ Somerset.

Syria has forbidden the country's students and teachers from wearing the niqab - the full Islamic veil.

Will it be useful to add to my CV, I wonder, the title of honorary Bedouin camel trekking manager?

Camel riding for two should really only be permitted for those who are really, really good friends, finds Jill Worrall.

Some company would have been nice, but even on my own, spending a birthday exploring probably the best Crusader castle in the world takes some beating.

I have spent nearly a month in North Africa and the Middle East and in both areas the land seems in grave danger of being suffocated by swathes of fluttering, tattered plastic bags and mountains of plastic bottles.