Damascus International Hotel

... Turkey, Iraq and Jordan, there are doubtless tensions, pushes and shoves played out at some rarified political level. This is the nexus, almost midway between the points of the compass. Not a faultline, more a fault point.<br><br>Yet on the ground there seems a fatalistic calmness. There are no public zealots parading their ideological wares. Regional strife, for the time being, is absent, Iraq being the exception, with rather exceptional external forces at work.<br><br>But modern ...

... visas (free, yay!!) given while the ferry cruised along, but we could not find anyone who knew a thing about this so when we went to get off a policeman took our passports from us (never a nice experience) amd told us to wait at the immigration office. Happily it all worked out OK, we get the passports and the visas and got through customs.<br><br>Once we were out we were swamped by taxi drivers who grabbed, yelled and pulled you as they tried to get your ...

... the reader) and found an area more accessible to the public. It was gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous. We sat on a giant semitruck tire and just took in the city. As the sun went down you could see the hundreds of mosques in Damascus as their bright green lights came on a dotted the horizon. It was really beautiful. DeVan and I shared a nargileh and got to enjoy music playing from Die so all was more than well. It could only be better if you could camp up there (with a fleece ...

... from Bekdach, and found a place to eat dinner. The food was so so but the view was pretty gorgeous, overlooking the mosque and Damascus at night. Then we all headed back to our place and sat at the coffee place drinking tea/coffee, smoking sheesha, and playing cards while DeVan and Mango went on a ghost hunt. Adib, Mohammed, Omar, and I played Trix and Complex and a nearby dude took interest in my natural ability to whoop ass (actually complex is pretty hard but ...

... into the sun. This she felt was a bad deal. Dino gave him the 10 and with nothing else to take the guy walked off. When the bus finally arrived another porter came and gave us the stickers to stick to our bags to put in the hold and then wanted another 50SP. This time with no money left even Dino said "No." Off the porter went in a huff. If he wanted some money he could share the money of the other porter.<br><br>The border crossings went as smooth as we have grown to expect. Our ...

We arrived in Damascus late at night and were whisked by a chauffeur-styled taxi into the main city. This was a good and unexpected start. The trip in cost $1500 Syrian Pounds or around $60 NZD. It was a long ride and we felt we deserved a little luxury. Explore had advised us that we would be staying at the amazing and funky Madina hotel in the City Centre. Wrong. The Madina had no idea who we were, despite the booking sheet stating this was the first hotel for ...

... only a few sellers with clothes, lots of wind-up toys, socks, etc. There were a few more people to give it some atmosphere. Back to the hotel and sit with our feet up. We got on-line in our new room! Answered a few emails and then out to dinner. It was a very enjoyable meal in a fancy looking restaurant with all the men in suits or vests, white shirts and bow ties. Even a man to open the door. Back to the hotel, I was disappointed, couldn't get online again. What a bummer.

... for us .Eventually we got another tour operator to ring our tour group, and ascertained our pick up person was in the airport. It turns out he was waiting for us in the visa area without realising we had to have our visas before leaving Oz, and had therefore already cleared through immigration. The tour was to be the same deal as Jordan - it was explained that we would have the one driver but local guides would be organized on site. Our ...

... peur à l'idée de quitter la Syrie demain ! Car en effet, je suis en partance pour le Liban. M'efforçant d'adopter une trajectoire continue lors de ce voyage (continuer vers l'avant, autrement dit), je me dirige vers 15 jours libano-syriens en zigzag, débutant vers l'ouest (Damas vers Beyrouth), redressant vers le nord est puis l'est syrien (Tripoli Homs Palmyre, peut être pousser jusqu'à l ...

... of pearl that it shined like silver. After the palace we went to the Umayyad Mosque and battled the crowds. I think this was a highlight of my trip though. <br>Before we could enter though all the women had to get this horrible grey cloak with a hood to wear, I didn't use the hood though because I had my scarf. We all looked like monks and the outfits were boiling. Once we were appropriately dressed we visited the resting place of Salah al-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyud ...