Me and the Moldovan Prostitute
Trip Start
Apr 21, 2008
1
159
225
Trip End
Apr 20, 2009
Aleppo, Syria
Saturday, September 27, 2008
I arrived at the bus station at 930 am. I was hoping to find a 10 am bus to Gazientep but there was only an 11 am bus. So I just waited in the lobby of the bus station. Some locals came up to me to say hello. Others came to shake my hand. What a friendly part of Turkey! I really like the Kurds. Fantastic people! It is so different from the Aegean coast where I found the people to be such scammers.
I arrived in Gazientep at 1pm. I found a mini bus to take me to Killis which was about an hour away but before we could leave I had to wait for the bus to fill up with passengers. This took about an hour. Once I arrived in Killis, taxi drivers swarmed me. They knew the only reason foreigners would find themselves in Killis is because they were on their way to Syria. So most of the taxi drivers offered to take me straight to Aleppo for "only" $60. I knew this was way too high. From the research I did by reading other people's travel blogs, I knew it should only cost me 10 Turkish Lira (close to $10 US) to get to the border from Killis and then a few bucks to get to Aleppo by bus. I tried telling the taxi drivers that I just wanted a taxi ride to the border as I was afraid that I would be held up there because of visa issues. If that were the case, they would probably not want to wait and still demand their $60. I eventually found a cab driver to take me to the border for 10 Liras. It wasn't easy. I had to remove myself from the group of taxi mafia men and find a solo taxi driver on the other side of the road who agreed to my price. Unfortunately it didn't work out as planned. A few minutes into our journey towards the border, he stopped on the side of the road where there was a mini van waiting for me. He told me to get out of the car and go into the other car. My understanding is that the guy would take me to the border. So I paid my cab driver the money I owed him and transferred over to the other vehicle. While driving to the border, I realized that the driver was expecting to take me to Aleppo. I said I didn't want to go to Aleppo, just the border. They couldn't speak much English so they couldn't understand that I just wanted to go to the border. I decided I would deal with it once I got to the border.
The ride to the border was less than 10 minutes from Killis. I couldn't believe I took 2 cabs to go such a short distance. There were no issues leaving Turkey as the process through customs was straight forward but as expected I had issues on the Syria side. The customs official said I would have to wait for some official to go on duty in Damascus who would decide if I would be able to enter the country. I asked how long I would have to wait and I couldn't believe it when he said it would be about 6 hours. Friggin eh! So I told the 2 young Turkish guys who drove me to the border that I couldn't go with them to Aleppo. Of course they wanted 10 Liras which I though was bullshit as I had already paid 10 liras to the previous driver. But I had 2 things against me. One - my bags were still in their car. Two - I didn't want to argue in front of the Syrian officials and come across as a difficult person. So I reluctantly paid the guy another 10 liras. It was the easiest money the guy ever made. That made it almost 20 dollars for a 10 minute ride to the border. It almost made sense that I get ripped off one final time in Turkey just as I was leaving the country. It happened so often while I was there that it needed to happen one more time just in case I forgot about this country's favorite national past time.
So it was a little past 3 pm which meant it would be about 9 pm before I found out if I would be allowed to enter Syria. At first, I couldn't believe none of the border officials were able to make an immediate decision about my case. I couldn't have been the first foreigner trying to cross the border without a visa already issues in my passport. But while sitting in the waiting room, I realized that they were a bunch of yahoos. I mean they were nice guys but you could tell they were hopeless. Most of them just sat in the corner of the office and just watched TV.
So not much was going on while I was in the waiting room. Basically, the waiting room was the first place one walked into when they came from outside. Straight ahead was the office of the border officials. People wanting to cross the border needed to deal with these guys by talking to them through a glass wall. There were about 6 border officials - 5 were watching TV while one would deal with any people needing to go into or out of Syria. It reminded me of City of Montreal workers - one guy fixing the pothole and 5 other "workers" just watching. I sat on a bench in the waiting room just to the right of the office. To the left of the office was another glass wall which was just put up by some labourers who were in the middle of setting up a second customs office. The early part of my wait was used to watch these guys build the office. Once they went home, I just read my book. Every now and then someone needing to go through the formalities involved with entering or leaving the country would walk in. There wasn't much traffic though. Not many people came by at all. The few that did would stare over at me while I was reading my book. At one point the lights even went out. Exciting! Not really actually. A generator took care of the issue almost immediately.
I was absolutely freezing while I was in the waiting area. This is because there were 6 wide open doors that led to the outside from the waiting room. The border officials were protected from the cold because they were behind a glass wall. I didn't have any protection from the cold. I wanted to close the doors but I didn't know how the border officials would handle that. When you have such little power, you will find any excuse to show some. So I decided to keep them open. My next strategy was to look colder than I really was hoping it would grab someone's attention and trigger someone to close some of the doors. My strategy failed miserably. They either didn't notice or didn't care. So I sat there just freezing.
To fight the cold and the boredom, I decided to pace up and down the waiting room. I walked from my bench to the opposite side of the room where the second office was being built. Each time I walked towards the new office I would see my reflection in the glass window and each time I almost couldn't recognize myself. I have really thinned out. I look like I did when I finished university 10 years earlier. It feels good to look 25 again.
The guards took no notice of me at all while I was walking up and down the waiting area. They were too busy watching TV. I noticed a few unused computer terminals in their office and was tempted to ask them if I could use one of them to update my blog but I thought this could be a bad idea. I mean they seemed nice and hopeless enough to say yes but I was still uncomfortable with the idea of asking them anything they may interpret as being over the top. It would have been a good photo though - me in the Syrian border customs office using the internet while the officials were in the background watching TV.
Eventually the sun went down and it got dark outside. I was starting to wonder how I would even get to Aleppo once (or if) they allowed me to enter. I doubted that there would be buses running at 9 m at night from the border. At 6 pm, some guy in a light blue Puma track suit comes walking into the waiting area like he owned the place. He didn't look that friendly. He had a cigarette in his mouth and a stern look in his eyes. He barked something in Arabic towards me and my guess was that he was asking me what I was doing there so I just pointed to the hopeless uniformed officials behind the glass wall. He then barked towards them. Most of them stood up immediately as a sign of respect when they realized he was talking to them. They only sat back down when the mean looking guy was out of their sight. I knew right away that this guy was their boss and that he may end up being the one making the final decision regarding my fate.
At 620 pm, all the border guards except one left their desks and moved their chairs to some back room. The fast was over for the day so I assumed they all went in the back to eat. I stared outside and I noticed people bringing trays of food and tea to the surrounding buildings which were probably filled with hungry people. I was starving myself but I doubted anyone would understand that. If they didn't notice me obviously freezing in front of them, they definitely would not even consider that I might be hungry. I did have a good sized bag of pistachio nuts in my bag so I just ate those while I continued to wait in my cold little corner. I even shared them with little kids who walked in with their families. It was nice to have some company - even if the company was less than 5 years old.
While eating my pistachio nuts, an Eastern European looking woman walked in to the waiting area. My guess is that she was no more than 25 years old. She stood out right away for several reasons. One, she was alone. Two, she was walking across the border as I didn't notice any cars outside. Three, she was wearing nice western type clothes. Four, she looked seedy - almost like a heroine addict as she was so skinny. Finally, she wasn't carrying anything with her so I knew she couldn't have been a backpacker. This was the strangest part. She had nothing wither besides a cell phone. The border guys were all staring at her once they returned. I don't think it was everyday that a blue eyed blond came walking through their doors all alone. There was a chance that she was English speaking but I doubted it. My guess was that she was a "working girl". I have read about many Eastern European women "working" in the Middle East as prostitution is a lucrative business here (given that everyone is so sexually repressed). So I waited until she was serviced by one of the border officials to see what language she would speak in. I was bored and had nothing else to do. The guards asked if she spoke English and she said no. She did speak Turkish though. They asked for her passport and I noticed it was issued by Moldova. My guess started looking good. What was a girl from Moldova doing walking across the Syria - Turkey border all by herself? The guards asked her to sit down and wait. She had to been a working girl. One thought came through my head. If this girl got through the border and I didn't, I would be pretty pissed off. There was no way I looked half as seedy as her.
Ten minutes after she was asked to wait, she was escorted to a room where the guy wearing the Puma track suit was sitting. 5 minutes after that, I was asked to go into the same room. My guess was right. This man was going to decide my fate. I was happy that it wasn't even 7 pm and it looked like a decision regarding my situation was going to be made. The sooner the better. When I walked in, the Moldovan was still pleading her case for entry, at least that's what it seemed like she was doing. She was then asked to leave. I wasn't sure if her case was accepted or refused. It was my turn next. I said hello in Arabic ("marhaba") to break the ice. He asked if I spoke Arabic and I said no Then it was down to business. The Puma guy asked me a few questions. He never smiled but I wasn't intimidated, unlike the time I was interrogated by the Syrian official at the embassy in Tehran. He basically asked me why I didn't have a Syrian visa already issued in my passport as this is the formal process. Because there is a Syrian Embassy in Canada, I was supposed to get one in Canada and not at the border. I explained that I understood the official process and that I was traveling for a year and that if I got my visa in Canada, it would have expired by the time I arrived in Syria. He seemed to nod in approval and then asked me to leave. I wasn't sure if this meant I would get my visa but it looked good. The Moldovan was already gone by the time I went back to the waiting area.
It would be 2 hours before I heard from anyone again. That really sucked. Meanwhile I just watched more people walk in and out of the border office. Most of the Syrian men were wearing coverings over their heads like sheiks. I thought it was interesting to see. I also ended up meeting a young Kurdish guy named Kenan who was looking to get a Syrian visa as well. His English was pretty good. He wanted to practice his English with me. I really wasn't in the mood but I was a good sport and went along with it. I was starting to regret it as the guy must have asked me 100 questions. It was really frustrating. I really wanted to be left alone but I could tell he was a nice guy so I tried my best not to look too annoyed. It was hard as I was tired, hungry and frustrated with the whole process at the border.
At about 930, we were informed that we would both be allowed to enter Syria. Hallelujah! I paid $56 for a 15 day visa. Expensive but necessary.
The next challenge was to get to Aleppo. We walked outside the border crossing area and found taxis. Not surprisingly, the taxi drivers were charging a lot to drive to Aleppo as they knew we had no other choice at this time of night. So I told Kenan that we should just hitchhike. His idea was to sleep in a nearby mosque and take a bus in the morning. I was open to this but I wasn't sure if this was legal or not. He said it wasn't a problem in Turkey. IU was still uncomfortable with the idea. I wasn't Muslim and didn't want to offend anyone (or get arrested) by sleeping in a mosque. Finally one cab driver offered to drive us to a nearby bus stand where we could catch a bus to Aleppo. His price was fair so we agreed to this arrangement. We ended up taking a mini bus from this small Syrian town to another bus terminal just outside Aleppo. From there we jumped onto a bigger city bus that would take us to the city center. None of this would have been possible if it wasn't for the help we got from the locals. All of them seemed pretty welcoming to foreigners. It was strange being in Syria. I had so much trouble getting in here and now I was finally here. The second axis of evil country I have gotten to visit. Something told me it wasn't going to be so evil. Not at all actually.
When we were on the city bus, we did have a gang of 10 year olds acting smart with us. They just couldn't stop laughing at us. Anytime they heard English come out of our mouths, they would tart laughing. It was as if we were from outer space. I wanted to slap them on the side of the head but I knew they were just a bunch of uneducated kid. I was hoping an older local would do it for me but none came to the rescue. One man wearing a traditional Arab robe and head covering did eventually ask us where we were going and actually got off the bus with us to help us find our hostel. Kenan had decided to stay wherever I was staying and this was fine with me. It ended up being a good thing as the only room that was available was a double room so we shared accommodations for the night. I was a bit uncomfortable as I didn't really know this guy but I knew I would be fine. Besides, I really didn't want to look for another hostel at such a late time.
After we checked in, we walked around the city center. I really liked the atmosphere. The streets were super busy. Everyone was shopping in the markets or window shopping by the busy retail area. I later found out that today was another religious holiday (they have so many here) and that was the reason why the streets were so packed. One thing you notice right away is how conservative the city is. If I use the way the locals dress as a gauge, then Aleppo would be the most conservative city I have visited to date. Most women here only show their eyes. Some of them actually cover their whole face and just look through their black chadors. I didn't see this too often in Iran - if at all.
Because we were starving, we went to get something to eat in some hole in the wall. Some tour guide trying to sell us some business took us there. We thanked him for taking us there but we were honest and said we wouldn't go to any tours with him the next day. He looked like someone I couldn't trust. I also didn't like him because he made some reference to western women being easy and I told him he didn't know what he was talking about. It wasn't too long after this that he excused himself from our table and left as he could see that I was bothered by his comment. Before he left he said I shouldn't take things so seriously. I didn't listen to him.
Eventually Kenan and I called it a night. None of us knew if we were staying in Aleppo tomorrow. I was too tired to make a decision tonight. I would wait until the morning to decide whether I would stay or move on.
Dino Vagabond
