Life in Syria continues

I imagine quite a few people are thinking that there is no normal life left in Syria. But if they were on site they would be proven totally wrong. For the past year, the issues have only been affecting certain areas of the country and most of the cities, towns and villages are experiencing a more or less normal life. Not that everything is ok and unchanged; one could not claim it to be business as usual. Prices are going up, the economy isn't doing too well and many shops have closed long time ago.

This is only one side, though. The other is that you can still leave a peaceful and good life in Syria these days. It all depends on where you are living. Damascus for instance, the capital itself, is peaceful and tourists and locals can move around freely. There may be checkpoints at certain times on certain motorways, roads and streets but in general things are ok.

It is a different story once you move outside the very capital. Checkpoints are more common and there are entire areas which are being cordoned off most of the time. Overland travel still is possible as of January 2012 between the big cities but buses may take alternative routes at times. It all depends on the specific security situation. And at the end of the day, there are many fun-loving Syrians who are still flocking into upscale coffeeshops and restaurants in Bab Touma, Malki or Abu Rumaneh!

Hilarious Syrian Air

Recently, Syrian Air ran a promotion giving 15% discount on selected routes. I could not resist and checked online if I could get a bargain.

Many of you know these websites where you are starting a query and are then asked to enter some hardly readable characters displayed on a photo. Now, this is the screen I saw when checking for my itinerary:

I almost peed into my pants. Literally. And I was lucky enough to capture the screen. Hilarious.

Damascus Airport Slowly Getting International

I remember how Damascus International Airport was a few years ago. Yes, the displays were in Arabic and English, yet most announcements were in Arabic only. It occasionally happened that foreigners asked me about their flight's status and the meaning of some announcements.

In 2010, a quality programme was introduced and you could see that people started getting trained on customer service. That means... not all of them, but at least some. Cleanliness was increased and more and more staff apart from the check-in people were able to speak English, including the shop agents. Nowadays most announcements are bilingual and understandable. However, the immigration officers normally don't speak sufficient English to handle incoming non-Arabic speaking tourists. Unfortunately, this has not changed yet.

So let me ask that inevitable question: how can an airport claim to be 'international' if key staff don't speak English? It makes a tourist's life quite difficult at times. One can only hope that with the increasing influx of travellers, this will change to the better.

Non-verbal communication à la syrienne

I just walked out of a small corner shop with a broad smile on my face. Not because I had bought a pack of cigarettes, but rather because of this typical Syrian non-verbal communication.

When I walked into the shop, I asked if they had yellow Gauloises. The shop agent did not even look at me but just clicked his tongue. Everything said & nothing to add. I bought a different brand then.

Syrian Transportation

Although there are national flights to various locations with Syrian Air and Syrian Pearl (a subsidiary of Syrian Air owned about 20% by them) as well as trains between the main centres, travelling by bus is the number 1 option within Syria and to neighbouring countries. I received a few questions about such services and therefore post some information about buses in Syria in this blog.

I can speak predominantly for the situation for departures from Damascus, yet each medium sized city in the country has a karaj (bus station) with departures in regular intervals.

If you want to travel from Damascus to the south (Deraa, Sweida, Amman, Jordan) and Lebanon (Beirut, Chtoura) you must go to Suomrieh karaj which is outside the city, about 2km after the end of Mazzeh Autostrade. Every taxi driver will know the place. Once arrived there, walk up the hill behind all the microbuses for about 300 yards and you will come to a security checkpoint where your luggage will be screened. Then get out of the building and turn right towards a huge travel market where all bus operators have small offices. Many of them are labelled in English as well. They have standard rates so forget about bargaining. If you are not a Syrian national you will have to present your passport for verification. All in all it is a pretty well organised karaj and English is spoken by some staff.

You can also take service taxis from there to major destinations, price to be bargained. They will leave as soon as four travellers are there. As a general input, calculate 700 SYP to Beirut, 500 to Chtoura, 700 to Amman and 250 to Deraa.

For trips to the rest of the country (Hama, Homs, Aleppo, Deir Ez Zor, Qamishli, Palmyra, Lattakia, Tartous), 'Pulman karaj' in Harasta is the place to go. Harasta is located about 7km north of the city centre on the Homs highway. All destinations north and north east of Damascus are served from here. It is much less organised than Suomrieh karaj, yet you do not have much choice anyway. The good thing about it is that the frequency of buses is very high and for just a little extra you can take a VIP bus which offers some pretty good amenities compared to the standard service.

Local transportation concentrates on the Baramkeh bus station near President's Bridge close to SANA news agency building, 4 Seasons Hotel and the National Museum. You will find microbuses and some modern green buses to all destinations within greater Damascus, yet the labels are in Arabic only. Ask your way around. A short trip will cost you 5 SYP on a microbus, a longer 10. No receipts will be issued. If you are taking a green city bus, the price will be 10 SYP and you will receive a small paper ticket you have to stamp immediately.

Tartous has a well organised karaj as well, just as you enter the city from the motorway coming in from Homs. You cannot miss it.

Lattakia's karaj is about 2km south of the city centre.

A Helping Hand

I am not a fan of the Lonely Planet, to be honest. Too superficial in my eyes and focussed too much on budget travellers. That said, I am aware that the Lonely Planet has been designed for this target audience so no hard feelings. Also I have to admit that they are covering some countries and places which appear to be permanently ignored by other editors, such as Iraq for example.

Now, there is one rather positive exception to my statement: the thorntree travel forum where readers can ask questions to the world, and generally receive responses of any quality under the sun. After posting my first question there about a year ago, I started to visit the Middle East forum regularly and also posted responses myself. It has become a habit for me to try and help a little.

Why? It is all about positive experience and valuable responses I could observe on personal basis. As an example I was looking for a car rental in a country where there is almost no tourism at all, and thorough internet research gave some results on a government website. However, all the companies stated there told me they would give me a car with a driver and were not willing to rent out a car just like this. Having posted my question on the forum, a contact with a small car rental agency was established within 48 hours. Since then, I hired a car at this car dealer with its small rental agency multiple times.

I do agree that many questions just start getting repetitive. The eternal question about an Israeli passport stamp, the best route through Syria, Lebanon and Jordan, or the visa on arrival question for Syria. They have become evergreens of thorntree, and have even been used as a running gag on the forum where the main link to the Middle East forum has a subtitle: "... and does anyone know about that Israeli passport stamp?" Another one is what to do on a stopover in Dubai, and every time I read these questions I am getting nervous, if not upset. If I was Lonely Planet I would introduce moderated forums in order to keep off most of the spam messages if I may call them so. One person per geographic area could make a significant difference, increase the overall quality and reduce the number of useless messages to a minimum.

Thorntree, a good invention. But please use it reasonably.

Syrian Bank

So there I went to my local bank branch in Abu Rummaneh to finally collect my ATM card, after opening an account about two months ago through a representative at my office. On almost daily basis had I received account statements via e-mail, unanimously stating zeros all over the screen, with the exception of my account number, the current date, and the bank's contact telephone number.

The mission was to collect the ATM card, deposit some Syrian money on my new account and exchange some foreign currencies before depositing them to account. It was 3:40pm when I entered the branch, took my waiting number and sat down on a sumptuously upholstered armchair. A few minutes went by and I was the only customer left in the branch, yet everybody seemed to be busy doing something. Then an employee approached me asking me what I was waiting for. I showed him my waiting number and told him my various requests.

The answer was devastating: no, you cannot collect your card today, it is already too late for that. No, you cannot deposit or exchange foreign currency now, it is already too late for that. No, we do not accept Jordanian Dinars, Turkish Lira or Omani Rials at our bank, you have to exchange them somewhere on Sha3lan Street. No, you cannot do anything right here right now. Wow.

After some discussion they allowed me to at least deposit some Syrian currency before I had to leave the branch. They explained to me that after 3pm they don't do anything but clean up and close their books for the day.

I can only wonder why they would still allow people to enter the branch, take a number and wait. And the fact that they do not exchange currencies from two of their neighbouring countries intrigued me very much. Lots of space for improvement I guess.