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

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.