1 | $ | = | 42 | S£ |
1 | DKR | = | 7.70 | S£ |
100 | S£ | = | 2.40 | $ |
100 | S£ | = | 13 | DKR |
1 | $ | = | 50 | S£ |
1 | DKR | = | 9 | S£ |
100 | S£ | = | 2 | $ |
100 | S£ | = | 11 | DKR |
The black market rate when cashing travellers cheques is S£48-49 a dollar; the larger the amount you cash the better the rate. Do not pay commission.
How to find the black market: You will probably meet people who will offer to exchange. Or you could 1) go to a shop, 2) pretend to be interested in some goods, 3) tell them that you are sorry, but you don't have much Syrian currency - you have to go exchange first. Now the shopkeeper will probably offer to exchange; the only problem left is finding an excuse for not buying anything afterall.
Warning: Exchanging money in other places than the banks is illegal; so it is a bit risky to exhange on the black market.
Driving on the Syrian highways was a soothing experience after having travelled on the Lebanese roads.
In the night I paid a visit to some friends that I met last time I was in Syria. We went to what could be Syria's most cosy little café; I don't know the name, but it's close to the clock tower and this is the name written in Arabic: [homscafe.jpg]. It's a combined gallery and garden café. They serve beer. Later on we went to the Gandool Café near the hotel to smoke the argeeley (hubble-bubble) and play Backgammon.
October 18th.
The enormous Crusader castle is impressive and should not be missed.
On top of the castle is a touristic restaurant. The prices are outragous and the service is miserable. If you want to ingest something, do it at the restaurant just outside the entrance. I heard rumours saying that this restaurant has a few beds that you can sleep in for a reasonable amount.
In the afternoon we went back to Homs. From here we caught a microbus to Hama (S£25 each plus S£25 for the luggage).
October 19th.
Hama is kind of nice. The small streams, the Orontes River and the water mills make it worth a short visit. The museum is a must-see: The mosaics are wonderful and the setting is very nice. The signs and written explanations are - as usual in Syrian museums - virtually non-existant. But the employees at the museum are happy to tell you all that they know.
In the afternoon we caught a big bus to Aleppo (S£65 each); going with a big bus as apposed to a microbus is more expensive but saves you problems with luggage - in microbusses they will often try to make you pay for an extra seat as there is not much room for backpacks. Also, you buy the ticket for the big busses in advance and the busses take off at a fixed time, so you don't have to wait for a microbus to arrive and fill up.
In the evening, we went to a nice area not mentioned in the guide book (have you ever been to Aleppo, Lonely Planet?). It's a bit north-northeast of the public park marked "2" in the first Aleppo map in the guide book. A bunch of restaurants lie in the circumference of a square with fountains and little gardens. I don't know the name of the square or the area, but here's the cards from two of the restaurants - not to say that these two restaurants were better than the others: [aleppo2.jpg][aleppo3.jpg]. The food is not very cheap, but it was generally worth the money. A dish of reasonably tasty spaghetti Bolognese was S£140 at one of them; a Syrian beer was S£50-75 dependent on the size. The funny MacDonnalds imitation, MidMac, is very expensive and not very good.
October 20th.
We went to the museum, which is certainly worth a visit. It's open from 9 am - 4 pm; closed on Tuesdays.
Otherwise a pretty boring/lazy day. The souq (covered market) was closed due to the fact that it was Friday.
October 21th.
Before going on our trip, we had contacted the Institute of Archaeology at the University of Copenhagen to hear if any excavations were being carried out in Syria. And they told us about one northeast of Aleppo.
In order to go there, we went to bus station and caught a service taxi to Membitch. In the Syrian service taxis you'd better not be too big - they squeeze four people together in each row of seats. Also, they are very often on the verge of falling apart and they don't drive very fast. So, where possible, catch a microbus instead.
In Membitch we had to pay a quite high amount to get someone to drive us to the excavation site next to a small village, Tell Jurn Kabir, about 40 kilometers from Membitch.
Tell Jurn Kabir is a small village next to the Euphrates river about 20 kilometers south of the Turkish border. The life in the village is probably not far from the way people have been living for thousand of years. The setting next to the river was beautiful.
As it was getting dark and it would be difficult getting back to Aleppo at this time, we were happy to be invited to stay with the excavation team for the night. Their cook prepared the best Arabic dinner we had in Syria. Excavators get up early so we went to the tents at nine.
October 22th.
We were woken up early by the braying of donkeys and started out on a walk along the river. Near Tell Jurn Kabir was a great, old muslim castle way out of the tourist-beaten track. After a couple hours of walking we came to an even more isolated village north of Jurn Kabir. We were invited to tea and a strange meal. Communication was very difficult but it was fun. On the way back, we had planned to flag down one of the weird small river dinghys and pole around for a while, but we were in hurry to get home before it got dark, so unfortunately we didn't have the time.
Back at Tell Jurn Kabir the excavating team's translator arranged for transportation back to Membitch in a pickup truck (as this was far from any public transportation, we had to pay the driver S£350 for the trip). In Membitch we had no trouble finding a microbus back to Aleppo (S£30 each).
In Aleppo we forgot about our budget and went to the wonderful Sissi House restaurant in the old Armenian quarter: [aleppo4.jpg]. Dinner was around S£400 each + tips (if you order imported beer, be prepared for a shock when you see the bill). The menu contains good traditional Arabic food. The waiters are very attentive but not very organized. If you go on a busy night, they will call for a oute-playing musician (an oute is an Arabic stringed instrument).
October 23th.
Phonecalls abroad: When the telecommunications center next to the post-office is open, you may have an operator call and then pay by the minute afterwards. We chose to buy a phone-card (S£900) instead; you can use the cards in the card phones outside the office day and night. When the office is closed, you might find people selling phone-cards outside (S£1,000); in this case you should see how much is left on the card before paying anything. It's not possible to make collect calls from Syria, and I doubt that any credit card systems work. The connection to Denmark was very good and came through right away. The international prefix is 00.
We went to the university to take a look. It was more charming than the university in Damascus.
Now it was time for the souq (covered marked). Some people say that the Aleppo souq is the nicest souq in the Middle East, and I think they may be right. You could spend hours there walking around and drinking the tea you will be offered in the shops. The manager of one of the shops has become famous among some travellers and once the French newspaper Liberatión even published an article mentioning him. His name is Allah-Hudin (I think) and he sells fabrics in a shop close to the entrance by the citadel. He's extremely funny and famous for making fun of the tourists by insulting them and pretending to be a sleazy Arab salesman.
October 24th.
Aleppo is nice, but now we were starting to get bored. So we decided to buy a train ticket for Deir Ez-Zur; a train ride along the Euphrates river sounded like a good idea. Unfortunately, the trains only go there at night (10:35 pm and 11:45 am; the tickets are very cheap; the ride takes about 5 hours), so we didn't see much of the beautiful river.
We didn't get much sleep on the train. The train station Deir Ez-Zur lies far from the town center, so you have to find some kind of transportation; we took the only available drezina (a three wheeled pickup moped) and we had to pay S£50 for the ride. At this time of year the temperature is low in the morning - bring warm clothes.
Short of alternatives we stayed in Hotel Damas. In the guide book it sounds OK, but it's really a shitty place. A bed in a shared room is S£200, a double room is S£375. The owner may charge you extra if you take a hot shower; but I think he usually doesn't notice it, he is very old.
We met two other travellers: Pierre, from Belgium, and Martin who studied archaeology in Paris and was on his way back home after digging in Syria for half a year. We decided to rent a taxi for all the day and go to see the sights along the road to Iraq. After bargaining for a while we found a driver who would do it for S£1400.
First stop was Qala'at ar-Rahba, a 13th century desert castle. It's essantial to bring a flash-light if you enter the lower rooms which are completely dark - there is big openings in the floor leading down to another floor below.
Second stop was at the excavation at Tell Ashara. The guide book was way off, here. The site is being excavated by a French/Italian group and they have really found some interesting stuff, dating back to at least 1800 BC. Martin knew some of the people digging in Tell Ashara, so we had a very exciting guided tour. In the 19th century BC the town of Mari was the great political and economical power in the region; the excavations in Tell Ashara suggested that Ashara was the religious center.
Third stop was Doura Europos, the remains of a former great Roman fortress city. The setting is beautiful and mysterious - the Euphrates lying on one side and the wide open space of barren desert on the other. Martin and Pierre wanted to stay there for a long time, rather than going to Mari, so we split up for a while.
Kasper and I went to Mari. We were in a hurry and we didn't have anyone to tell us about the excavations, so the excitement was limited. It was, though, strange to walk around in the remains of the city, once so powerful.
October 26th.
Took a bus to Palmyra from the big bus station (ask for directions to the "bus garage") at 11.30 and arrived at 3 in the afternoon. Pierre had other plans but we arranged to meet again later on our trip.
Watching the sunset over the ruins was wonderful. Bring a flashlight and see the ruins at night, it's a funny experience.
At one of the small restaurants in the main tourist street we ate at the one with the stupid sign saying "student discounts". Their manzaf (a hearty meal of rice and chicken) was cheap and good, but the rest of their dishes were nothing to write home about.
October 27th.
Kasper, Martin and I hired a taxi to drive us to Qasr Al-Hayr Ash-Sharqi, an Omayyad desert castle lying approximately between Deir Ez-Zur and Palmyra. After bargaining for a while, we got the driver down to S£2,000, which is supposed to be their minimum - it may be higher in the tourist season. The castle was a unique experience, but it's questionable if it's worth going to if you are low on time and/or money. Don't eat at the highway restaurant, it's unreasonably expensive.
In the afternoon we had a little rain; quite a funny experience in the middle of the desert.
The locals in Palmyra were surprisingly friendly, one would have thought that they would be fed up with tourists.
The garden restaurant near the Karnak bus office was a bit expensive but their food was actually OK.
October 28th.
Tickets to enter the Temple of Bel are S£200, but I think it's worth going. The museum was another S£200 and this was also worth it. To see the underground tombs and the tomb tower (which is normally locked), you must buy yet another ticket (S£100, you get it at the museum entrance) and it seems almost mandatory to pay someone to drive you there, although it's actually within walking distance. A guide will probably even insist on going with you, but I advise you to refuse.
Unfortunately we didn't have time to go to the Arab castle on the mountain behind Palmyra, but I was there the year before and it's certainly worth the walk - the view over the ruins and the oasis is stunning.
At the Karnak office we (Kasper, Martin and I) had bought bus tickets in advance for the Damascus bus which leaves at 3 pm (S£90 a ticket). The bus went through Homs so we didn't get to Damascus until 7:30 in the evening.
In the evening we went to The Umayyad Palace Restaurant: [damas3.jpg]. Again, we forgot about the budget; the buffet was excellent, the setting was very nice although a bit touristic, there was live music and two male dancers doing a special dance once in a while. Eating there will cost you S£700 per person + drinks (no alcohol); an argeeley is a steep S£100; Visa accepted.
October 29th.
On the right, further down the narrow street leading from the Choukri Kouwatlii Avenue to the hotel is a nice little bakery that comes in handy for breakfast (S£5 for two pieces of bread).
After picking up some mail at the Poste Restante desk at the post office, we went to the National Museum, which is certainly worth a glance. In the winter half-year it's open from 9 am - 16 pm; in the summer it's open from 9 am - 6 pm. It's closed on Tuesdays.
Near the National Museum, behind the War Museum is a nice little handicraft market (marked #10, Artisanat, on the Central Damascus map in the guide book) where you are likely to find things of better quality than in the souq - and in less hectic surroundings.
Around Bab Touma (Gate of Thomas, marked #20 on the Old City map) is a nice Christian quarter extending north-east along a street with even more shops of every kind. I got a haircut for S£100, which was a bit steep, but the result was satisfactory.
In the evening, we took a taxi for around 20 minutes north-west on the road leading to Beirut and Zabadani, along the Barada river. In the summertime this is supposedly a great place to go and eat. At this time, the restaurants had closed down the outdoor facilities, unfortunately.
October 30th.
In the morning we bought tickets for Amman at the Karnak bus station. Note: For some strange reason they only accept payment in dollars from foreigners, that is $5 a ticket. We also found the British Airways office and reconfirmed our return tickets.
This was my great walk-around-town day. I took a taxi out to the eastern part of town to see a friend. From there, closely watching the map and avoiding the big streets, I went to the Abbassid Stadium, continued past the Bab Touma Gate, and purposely got lost in the charming old city. From the Souq al-Hamidiyyeh I went to the university which wasn't very interesting.
In the afternoon, Pierre came to Damascus and we all went to a hammam (Turkish bath) near the Omayyad Mosque. In the sauna we met two Danish guys, Stig and Morten, who were going on motorcycle from Denmark to South Africa. They were not the only ones going that way, we actually met quite a few people doing that trip; we even met a Belgian couple who were going there on mountain bikes.
Martin left for Paris in the evening. Together with the Danish MC-guys we went to a bar on the first floor of the building which also houses the Siyaha Hotel (marked #48 on the Central Damascus map in the guide book). There were lots of people. Beers were S£40.
October 31st.
In Damascus, the bus for Jordan left at 7 in the morning.