Facing My World – Travel Blog - My thoughts, reflections and experiences of my life around the world.

With few exceptions, border crossings are always complicated especially in the countries we’ve been visiting. They ask you a lot of questions, you always hear bad experiences, but you never think bad things will ever happen to you. But I’ll tell you something: they do! To be honest I wasn’t expecting to have problems crossing the border at King Hussein Bridge / Allenby Terminal, from Jordan to Israel. But I need to admit we would face some difficulties for many reasons.

We didn’t want to get our passports stamped from both sides of the border because we could have problems going to other Arabic countries. At the Jordanian side everything went well. They stamped a piece of paper instead of the our passport without asking (otherwise it would be an evidence that we’ve been to Israel). After that, things changed.

I wont detail that much what happened that day because Leah did an excellent job on her blog. Basically I got stuck there for 8 hours without any reasonable motive and without any information. As I said in the last post, we’re traveling with two friends, one from England and the other from Bulgaria. Leah and them got the visa, even after asking for not getting their passport stamped. The same person was going to stamp my passport, the last one, but she decided to send me to the “waiting area”.

There I went. After waiting for hours someone came to “interview” me and ask a few simple questions. In fact the person was friendly and said many times “sorry.. this is just a normal procedure and soon you will be fine”. This interview was different than the others I heard from people I met that day. Other travelers got their bags opened, pictures in cameras analyzed by the officials, some asked to take their clothes off and others had a very, very bad conversation.

The afternoon was almost gone and more people came and more people left. Most of them passed through but a few others weren’t as lucky. I started to get concerned especially when I tried to get more information but got only one answer: please wait. Leah was really nervous at the time and our hope started to fade away and started to think about how to get back to Jordan. It would be completely disappointing. Israel & The Palestine Territories were one of the places I wanted to go the most.

Suddenly, one of the officials started to stare at me a a little bit intrigued. He eventually got closer and asked where I was from. I answered the question, he talked to someone on the radio and he came with my passport. My question is: what happened there? Why did I wait for freaking 7, 8 hours? I don’t know. I’ve got a feeling that they forgot about my passport because of the way everything happened at the last minute, but I’ll never be sure of that. Moving on…

After one day lost, in very “good” humor and an “incredible” trip beginning, we took a bus to Jerusalem and finally things started to work out. This story continues soon.

It’s not usually cheap to travel by train (specially in Europe), most of the times it’s cheaper to take a plane. Sometimes buses are cheaper unusual plane. But independently of the way you take to go somewhere, taxi is not a usual nor cheap way to travel. Believe it or not, travel by taxi is much cheaper than any other alternative transport, at least when you lose the last bus and it’s your only alternative.

One of the things I learned traveling is not to stick too much to a plan. If I like a place I stay as much as I can, otherwise I just move on. This trip to the Middle East wasn’t different. We haven’t really planned everything, not even the bus we would take to go to Amman. The Lonely Planet guide said we should have booked the bus tickets at least one day before but we didn’t take it too seriously and decided to try some minutes before. Guess what? All the buses were full for that day and we’d have to wait for the next day. Great! I wasn’t really planning to get stuck at a bus station in Syria for one night.

Fortunately, at the same bus station there was a shared-taxi station which is a very common way to travel back and forth to countries and cities around. Basically  you share a taxi with another 3 people that are going to the same destination.The prices are likely similar to the bus ticket,s but you need to negotiate hard. As usual, there are pros and cons to do that, but it was our only alternative. As you share a taxi with other people you need to wait before it’s filled but you can make things faster by paying the available seats.

Fortunately, it didn’t take too long. We’ve met another traveler from Korea looking for a taxi to Amman and minutes later another lady appeared as well. Taxi full, price bargained, time to go. The trip took about 3h, including the border control. At the Jordan’s border we all had to leave the taxi to allow the guards to search for bombs, machine guns and others things inside the card. It didn’t happened to me at this time, but they may even ask you to open your luggage.

After that we got to Amman in the evening in a place close to the hostel. Our stay in Amman was very short because it would be the easiest way to go to Israel & The Palestine Territories before heading to Petra and Wadi Rum, in the south of the country. We stayed only two nights before we departed again.

Besides the desert that covers almost all the territory, Jordan is a slightly more developed country than Syria. Their currency is strong and comparing Jordan Pounds to Euros is almost 1 to 1 (Summer 2009). Also the country is more concerned with environmental issues and has been working on solutions for the Dead Sea problems.

Jordan has an important voice and character in the Middle East, they are the middle field between the countries in eternal conflicts. They try to have a good relationship between the surrounding areas and it’s important to mention that it’s not a simple task. Because of this they have millions of the refugee camps and a huge part of the population are actually refugees. Palestinians, Syrians, Iraqis and the list goes on. So they have their own problems and need to help and accept people from others places.

As I said before, we stayed only two nights in Amman so we couldn’t see/do too much. We mainly saw the Citadel, a Roman Amphitheater, tried a few restaurants and a very interesting pedestrian street where you could see (very) fancy ladies wearing fancy burkas having coffee at Starbucks.

Last but not least, we were 100% recovered from the health problems we had in Hama/Damascus.

The night before we left for Israel & The Palestine Territories, we met a nice couple that were going to Israel too. As we had the the same plans for the next days we decided travel all together. This is the next story.

See you in Israel & The Palestine Territories.

Leaving Aleppo was a hard task. We had memorable moments there and it was definitely much better than we were expecting, but we still had many others places to go and see. Right after Aleppo, we had a short stop in Hama to see an ancient roman site called Apamea before we start the trip to Damascus.

Damascus is the biggest and most important city of Syria. Multiply Aleppo’s craziness by 10 and then you have Damascus. Possibly because of this, the city is more open and multicultural and less strict compared to others place I’ve been in Syria. For example, you can go to the Christian area at night and see guys and girls together, more western products and big (and expensive) chain hotels and imported cars and their loud sound-systems driving around the city. These are things you’d never see in Hama.

Besides that you can find more or less the same things. Mosques, Citadel, souks, good food and so on. The main souk, called al-Hamidiyeh, has its roof marked by gun fire attacks made by the French in the middle of 20th Century. Similar to other souks, al-Hamidiyeh has a wide range of shops. Splendid handicrafts, silver decoration on copper, food and clothes. You can find everything there and it’s a good place to start a city tour. At the end of the souk you can find the beautiful Grand Umayyad Mosque.

As usual, we couch surfed in Damascus but now with an American girl we’ve met through other friends in Aleppo. She was studying Arabic at that time and we all shared her bedroom in the very old souk Sarouja. It was a bit hard to find her place because the taxi driver dropped us 2km away from her place. Fortunately, another great Syrian realized we were lost and decided to help us. He called our friend and asked for the right directions and changed his way only to take us to her place.

Like many others cities in Syria, the best way to explore is by foot. Don’t get intimidated by the size of Damascus. There are many things to be done and seen, also the city is usually very safe and people are always willing to help you as they did so many times. Just be careful with the taxi drivers (this tip is universal, right?). Always ask them to turn on the taxi-meter, otherwise they will charge you much more (or drop you off in the wrong location).

Unfortunately, we got really sick (when I say really sick, I mean really sick) coming from Hama. Leah celebrated my birthday night in a clinic having an IV for 5 hours. I knew this moment would eventually come, but it couldn’t be on a worse day. For almost our entire stay in Damascus we had to stay at “home” during the day because of the excessive heat. Thankfully we have great travel health insurance and it covered everything. Never travel without one.

During the sickness period, tired of having rice for lunch, dinner and etc, we decided to go to the 4 Season Hotel of Damascus and have a nice coffee at the British chain Costa. At that time I was tired of “Turkish coffee” or “Nescafe”. The coffee was really good and the cakes were even better. But you pay the price. We spent more in two coffees + muffin than in a regular breakfast + lunch + dinner. But who cares? We were needing the western culture back in our lives. At least for only one afternoon.

It’s obvious that Damascus’s shine was blinded by this event, but we loved the city. I wish we were healthier and had more time to enjoy the city but we always have the possibility to go back. Syria has been an incredible place. Now we’re going to Jordan, specifically to Amman, where we’ll stay only a few nights before we go to Israel & The Palestine Territories.

Coming from Turkey to Syria we quickly realized that everything turned from water to wine. Or more realistically, wine to water. The western life in Turkey was left behind and we finally arrived in the Middle East. Which is a good thing. After a relatively easy, but funny,  process at the Syrian border we arrived in Aleppo, the second biggest city in Syria only behind Damascus, the capital.

We were warned about the Syrian hospitality but it’s much more than we were expecting. While we were waiting for our Couch Surf host in downtown people came from everywhere  greeting us. Kids, young and old people, no exceptions. For some minutes we became the city touristic point. People saying “hallo”, “where are you from?” and even offering some candies and chairs to accommodate us. The first impression about the Syrians was incredibly good.

When our host arrived there, nothing changed, actually the hospitality just got better. Before we headed to his apartment  he invited us to drink his favorite smoothie in one of the many juice vendors around the city. This smoothie later started to be called “Jamal’s drink”, his name. It became famous with other travelers as well. Some minutes later we dropped our backpacks off at this place and he kindly suggest us to visit the Citadel. One of the best I’ve seen during this trip.

The Citadel in Aleppo is beautiful, massive and in a good  state of preservation. Here’s one tip: if you have an International Student Card, don’t forget to use it. The normal price for foreigners is S£150, but if you have the Student Card you only pay S£10. An incredible discount of 93%. From the top of the Citadel you can see the entire city and for some minute or hours, forget about the craziness out there.

Done with the Citadel, we went back to our host’s place to meet some of his friends and other Couch Surfers. By the way, hosting foreigners in Syria is illegal so let’s keep quite about that. It was an amazing evening. We hung out with many other travelers, locals and listened to different stories, experiences… I already knew at that moment that this would be our highlight in Syria: people.

New day is rising up in the sky. It’s time to go to the old souq (market) and get lost again, the same way we did in Turkey. These arabic markets are interesting because 1) you’ll always have the sellers trying hard to convince you to have a “tea” inside of their stores (then you’ll eventually buy something), 2) you’ll need to negotiate as hard as them and 3) they all sell almost the same products. So after a while waking trough the small corridors you can just go to another place before you get tired. Again, this is what we did.

Much to my delight, I saw some guys playing football in the street and one of them was wearing a Brazil jersey. I decided to go there to talk to him and when he figured out I was Brazilian he invited me to play. That was the idea. Mission accomplished. I love to play football and it wasn’t different that day playing with these unknown guys. We played 2 against 2 and one goalkeeper. Fortunately we scored 3 times and we won the game but it wasn’t enough for them and they “forced” me to keep playing. Is it necessary to say that I loved it?

After a long day, our friends invited us for a kanun concert, a traditional Arabic music instrument. I have to admit it was an unusual concert. Instead of a venue, crowd and tickets we went to the house of one of the best kanun player in the world. Yes, he played for 2 hours at his house, in his family room. This is one of the reasons why I love traveling. It’s highly unlikely to see so close to you a professional playing an instrument with so much confidence, attentiveness and inspiration. Another remarkable night in Aleppo.

Few thoughts about Aleppo

I didn’t really know what to expect from Aleppo but it was surprisingly excellent our time there. The city is chaotic, hot, noisy, smoky (I think 99,9% of the men in Syria smoke), some times dirty, but at the same time the city is beautiful, cheap, kind, with lovely people and delicious food (I had the best falafel of my life there). Also the city is safe. I remember walking in the streets at night in downtown and feeling completely safe and I knew nothing would happen. Unfortunately, most of  the time the media says the opposite. Nothing like looking at it with your own eyes.

After 4 days in Aleppo our next stop is Hama. See you there.

Aleppo, Syria:

Probably this was supposed to be one of the most difficult moments of the Middle East trip: to cross the border from Antakya, Turkey to Aleppo, Syria. The reasons are many. Just to tell some:

• If your home country has an Syrian Embassy you must get the visa in advance and not at the border. They even say you might be denied if you try at the border.
• If you are American you are not really welcome in Syria and probably you will wait many many hours, if you’re lucky to get the visa.
• If you’ve been to Israel or you plan to go there (and the border officials find any reference of these places in your luggage)  your visa will be promptly denied.

The first problem is there is a Syrian Consulate in Brazil. The second problem is that Leah is American and there is a consulate in the USA as well, but fortunately she has a British passport which she is using in this trip. But again there is a Syrian consulate in England too.

Besides that I left Brazil in February and she wasn’t in England (neither in the USA) before the trip. So because of these issues we were a little bit concerned about getting the visa at the border, but this was the only alternative.  While we were in Turkey we tried to contact the Syrian embassy there but they requested a “recommendation letter” from our embassies. Guess the price? US$100. Completely out of our budget. So we decided to try our luck at the border.

We left Antakya close to the Syrian border in the morning by bus. Everything went fine at the Turkish border although my Brazilian passport was almost entirely scanned. Right after that we headed to the Syrian border.

First of all don’t expect to read or talk in English there. The only two English words you might find are “Exchange Money” (which was closed).

We were directed to a line to pay the visa fee. After some minutes struggling to find the amount we needed to pay (remember, only arabic) a friendly guy helped us telling the exact price, in dollars. We were not expecting to pay in dollars and they don’t accept Syrian Pounds, their own currency. The problem is we didn’t have dollars. Another few minutes passed by and they said we could pay in Euros. Why not in the beginning? Ok, the fee was finally paid.

And now what? We went to another room with an incredibly “happy” and “friendly” official. First he looked at our passports, then looked at us, put our passports back on table, smoked his cigarette , drank his tea. After two minutes in this situation he left the room with our passports and came back shortly after. More wait.

Finally another official came with our passports, smiled at me and said: “Brazil! Ronaldinho! Football!” Great, we’ve got our passports back, but there was another step left. We went to the Visa line to get the stamp. It was fast and they asked only few questions and finally we got the stamps. We were about to leave and the official called me at his booth again and said: “Brazil visa yes. Argentina visa maybe. Ronaldinho!!” and we all laughed. There is nothing better to do.

Now we needed to go back to the bus which was waiting for us during all the process. When we within 100m from our bus, kind of running, four or five guards started to shout on us. They wanted to open my backpack. After that they asked where we were from and as soon as I said brazil guess what happened?

“Ronaldinho! Football! Samba! Beaches!” And etc. I don’t even need to mention that they gave up on looking inside of my backpack, do I?

Sometimes God saves, but in many others ways, Ronaldinho does.

Welcome to Syria!