Syria

Bosra - Damascus - Palmyra - Hama - Apamea - Qala'at Marqab - Crac de Chevaliers - Beehive Houses - Qasr-ibn-Wardan - Rassafeh - Qal-aat-Jaabar - Euphrates River - Serjilla - Al Bara - Ruweiha - Jerada - Aleppo


Salaam alaykum!


QUESTION POSED BY CURIOUS SYRIAN:
"So, do you all go to school and learn kung fu?" (thinking I’m from Japan as all middle easterners do)


LAST THINGS ON JORDAN
- Jordan food isn't exactly inspirational. Basically the only foods you can get is either a Falafel (mashed fried chickpeas) or schwarma (chicken or beef or "mystery meat" roasted rotating on large skewers) sandwich. Or you can try the Bedouin speciality of “Mensaf”. which is basically boiled sheep or goat meat pieces piled on top of a
huge platter of rice. A hot yogurt soup is poured steaming hot on top of all this, and sprinkled with nuts and herbs. Guests of honour usually get the whole goats head, especially the eyes or tongue!

- Got a pack of playing cards featuring the 52 most wanted Iraqis that that US were handing out to soldiers (the one with Saddam as the ace of spades). Also picked up some cool Iraqi money with Saddam on it!


ENTRY INTO SYRIA

Caught a bus from Irbid to the Jordan border town of Ramtha, where the friendly bus driver took me by the arm and led me to the service taxi office (which you catch to go through the border into Syria). Here I was treated to free tea and coffee while I waited for 3 other people to fill the taxi with before we could leave (it took 2 hours).
Finally, we took off to the border, where we had to pay departure tax. Then I was in duty-free land....

No turning back now. If I get rejected at the Syrian side then I have to re-enter Jordan again with a new visa, and then work out how to get to Israel from there. The official law is that if your country does not have a Syrian embassy, you can get your visa at the border. Australia DOES have one, but there have been reports of Aussies
getting in anyway, and all the locals told me it would be ok.

So, took a deep breath, and walked into the Arrivals/Visa office.

I tried every trick in the book. I smiled, tried to speak in Arabic, and mentioned my family was from Vietnam*. It worked. After a quick word to the superior officer, they asked me to get 30US worth of Syrian pounds from the exchange office on the Syrian side for the visa. In other words, they let me into Syria WITHOUT a visa, to get
money, then come back to pay for the visa and re-enter with it.

So, after filling in a short form (which I didn't even need to complete - which is a far contrast from other people who get asked for all sorts of details, permission letters etc), I got my visa and I was in! Hurrah!

*Telling people I’m Vietnamese instead of Australian elicits a more welcoming response and more favours, particularly overlooking the fact that I’m not a student when I present them my youth card. This is because Vietnam defeated the Americans in the Vietnam war which they are happy to hear about.


SYRIA - THE FRIENDLIEST PLACE ON EARTH

Forget Axis of Evil, the threat of Terrorists and a nation of people wanting to destroy America - Syria is nothing like the way it is depicted in our often biased media. In fact, Syria is one of the most friendliest and hospitable places in the middle east if not the world. These people welcome you with open arms and bend over backwards to make your stay a pleasant one. Yep, Syria is definitely on my list of favourite countries along with Portugal and Morocco.

One thing I noticed in Syria - these people are fanatical on adding lights and all sorts of adornments on their cars. It is very common to see taxis driving past with neon flashing lights all over it. Also, trucks reversing (as with Jordan) do not make the standard beeping noise. No, they play this musical tune which is the same everywhere that really gets into your head and is really annoying after awhile, but you can't help and laugh at the same time when you
witness a macho guy in a big truck reversing to this happy cheerful tune!


BOSRA
Not Basra as in Iraq - Bosra, which is almost a black basalt version of the pink pale limestone roman ruins of Jeresh. What also made Bosra striking was the huge complete amphitheatre, modified into a fortress with huge walls enclosing it and citadels - one which used to contain a hostel but is now unfortunately closed.

I was lucky to get here from the border as I had no other Syrian money to pay for the bus to Bosra, but one friendly guy I met on the street offered to exchange a Jordan Dinar for 75 Syrian pounds (which is the correct exchange I found later on, so he didn't even try to rip me off). What a great group of people.

I then caught a luxury bus to Damascus. Luxury buses are quite cheap despite the name, and they serve free ice cold water and sweets as well!


DAMASCUS
Damascus is awesome! With a stunning labyrinth of covered souks snaking around the Great mosque with it's amazing nature influenced mosaics, the cheap greasy schwarmas and felafel stands amongst delicious ice drinks, ice creams and pastries (no one makes desserts as good as the Arabs), and a general chilled out environment, Damascus is definitely one of my favourite cities. Met up with Richard, an American who I have ended up travelling through Syria with. We explored Damascus and chilled out with a group of locals checking out the beautiful girls walking past their antiquities shop.


PALMYRA
Palmyra is a spectacular ruined city in a desert, featuring a huge temple dedicated to Baal, a series of colonnades, a well preserved amphitheatre, a scattering of pyramid shaped funerary tombs and a stunning Arab castle perched high up on a steep hill overlooking the ruins, which was a great place to witness the sunset. Palmyra is a great place to get good quality dates, and also dodgy fake student cards (which Richard bought as Student cards get 90% off entrance fees!)


THE CHILLED OUT TOWN OF HAMA
We caught a dodgy local bus to Hama, which is a chilled out little town famous for its gigantic wooden water wheels on the river, very picturesque though they make a sound similar to a cross between a lawn mower and a vacuum cleaner. Hama was where we stayed while we negotiated 3 days of tours for $62US each! Not a bad price to see half of Syria....


CASTLES, DEAD CITIES, AND SWIMMING IN THE EUPHRATES RIVER
Day 1 tour was with a driver driving us around in a '74 Mercedes. He took us to Apamea, which is one of the dead cities in Syria. A dead city is one which was suddenly abandoned and left to ruin after a earthquake or unknown circumstances. A great place to pretend to be Indiana Jones and climb over the ruins. Amongst the ruins you would
find Bedouins who have modified some of the ruins into homes for themselves and their goats. Apamea is quite a stunning dead city in a picturesque location amongst red poppy flowers and wheat fields with mountains in the background.

A drive through these mountains took us to Qala'at Margab, which is a small castle on a hill with overgrown vegetation crawling over it's ruins. More driving through the mountains which the driver pointed out stuff
to us in Arabic, to which with our limited knowledge could only reply "Khamila" (beautiful), "hellowa" (pretty), "kwayis" (good), and "muntaz" (excellent). Which is pretty much how I’d describe Syria.

We ended up at Crac des Chevaliers, the most complete and spectacular medieval castle I have been to. This place is huge, and all the vaulted passageways, dark tunnels, towers and battlements that you would imagine in a castle. It even had a secret tunnel which we sneaked into when no one was looking. It was fun exploring this castle perched high up on a hill overlooking the town below and the green valleys and mountains with fig and apple trees growing on them.

Day 2 tour was with a driver driving us around in a 51' Pontiac. He took us into the desert, starting off with the famous beehive houses. These houses are cone shaped mud brick houses which look like beehives and are inhabited by Bedouins. Next was to Qasr-ibn-Wardan, which was a striped Byzantine castle of basalt and brick in the middle of a plain. The ruins taking a rather desolate beautiful surrealistic Dali-like appearance.

Then to Rassafeh, a stunning dead city in that it is really in the middle of nowhere in the desert, consisting of a wall surrounding what is now mounds of dirt hiding collapsed ruins, in the centre a ruined church and palace the only thing standing in the desolate landscape. Very picturesque indeed.

Finally, we made it to the Euphrates river, which is what I’ve always wanted to see since it is the beginning of Mesopotamia, i.e cradle of civilisation. We visited Qal-at-Jaabar which is a citadel overlooking the turquoise coloured Euphrates. A class of school kids on camp found me more interesting than the citadel themselves, swamping me and getting me to pose in photos with them. Clearly they've never seen an Asian before or something - I felt like such a celebrity!

Afterwards, we swam in the cool crystal clear waters of the Euphrates, which was what we needed after a long day in the desert.

Day 3 tour was in an ordinary taxi. Oh well, can't have it all.
Anyway, we spent the day touring other dead cities. First was Serjilla, which was an eerie grey ghost town, very cool. Then we saw the pyramid tombs of Al bara. Ruweiha was next, set in a lunar like landscape. And finally Jerada, a red Byzantine city overgrown with thistles.

We ended up being dropped off in Aleppo, Syria’s second largest city, which is where I am now...


WHAT'S NEXT?
I'm gonna hang out a few days here, then head along the coast back to Damascus, into Jordan, and then go into Israel. After that I fly to Turkey...
Stay tuned..