Photographic Voyage

During our time in Turkey we ran into a number of travelers that had recently come out of Syria, and they had only good things to say. In America, we hear about the governmental policies of Syria, but nothing about what it's like to actually live in or visit the country. We decided to venture south from Turkey with a little bit of trepidation and caution. However, once we arrived in Syria we were just plain blown away by the absolute friendliness of the local people. They were so friendly that they would stop whatever they were doing to say "welcome" to us, even, and especially, when they found out we were American. People would stop us on the street or in shops just to say hello, have a chat, and offer us some tea. And they weren't even trying to sell us anything! On multiple occasions we found ourselves walking down the road and someone would stop their car to say "welcome" and wave at us before driving away.

(Note: we wrote this story of our travels in Syria soon after our trip through the country in mid-2009. Since then the political situation has become much more tense, and the tradgedies occuring there greatly disappoint us. The amazing people of this nation deserve better than what they are forced to live with.)

From a town in southern Turkey we took a series of short bus and taxi rides to the border of Syria. The border crossing was designed for cars, but that didn't stop us from stamping out of Turkey at the toll-booth-like immigration point and then starting off down the road towards the Syrian check-in. Unfortunately we found out that it was a long 3km walk in the heat, but within 2 minutes of our hike through the no-man's land, a truck driver took pity on us and offered us a ride. We climbed up into his cab with all of our bags and found out that he was from Poland and spoke 6 languages. English wasn't really one of them, but he was very friendly and dropped us off a few minutes later at the appropriate Syrian immigration office on the other side of the border.

The official line from the Syrian government is that you need a visa beforehand to enter the country (for $130 each with a required letter of recommendation from the embassy). However, we had heard from other travelers that you can just show up and get it at the border after a long wait. However, bribes might be needed. We approached the desk, handed over our passports, and then the man sent us to a back room after finding out that we didn't have a visa. Once in the back, we communicated with an older man in a military uniform with a series of hand gestures and simple English words. He helped us fill out some forms, make copies of our passports, and then told us to wait while they faxed our info to Damascus. We had heard that this process could take several hours and may require multiple bribes. We ended up waiting about 5 hours, but the bribe was never necessary. The man was very friendly, and in the end we only paid $16 each for our visas. We were in!

We found a shared taxi to take us to Aleppo, a large city in the north and our first destination. The taxi ride was scary, as everyone in Syria drives like a maniac at top speed. That didn't stop our driver from pulling over for a pit stop for tea. In Aleppo we found the budget hotel neighborhood amongst a series of narrow streets full of tire shops and auto mechanics. We spent our time wandering through the large and picturesque souq, the old narrow alleyways, and the huge citadel in the center of town. Everywhere we went we heard "you are welcome in Syria" from shopkeepers and random people on the street. At one point we went into a restaurant looking for dinner. We asked to see a menu, and the next thing we knew, the guy had taken us back into the kitchen of the restaurant and was pulling the lids off of large pots to show us what they were making. It turned out to be too expensive, so we went to a place down the street which was really good. We ate there for several nights and then one night tried the place next door. They promptly told us that they didn't have anything and sent us back to the first restaurant, so we just ate there for almost all of our dinners.

One day when wandering through the large souq, everything was much more quiet than normal. Then, one of the shopkeepers called us into his stall excitedly saying "Obama! Obama!" We went in and they were all watching Obama, who was in Cairo giving his speech to the Muslim world. He was speaking directly to the people living in Islamic countries, and they were definitely listening. The speech was dubbed over in Arabic, so we couldn't understand what was being said, but we asked many of them what they thought of Obama. Many of them said he was good, and many were still undecided. They were all very clear about their feelings about Bush, however. One man said that he didn't like America's government because every eight years it is a different government. Despite this, they held absolutely no ill will towards us as Americans. They have very little control over their own government, and are hesitant to discuss it in public. They very quickly and easily separate the government of a country from the people that live there. This is something that I think Americans have more trouble doing. Perhaps this is because we have direct control over our government, and so it is a representative of us as a population. Many other populations in the world are not nearly as lucky.

After Aleppo we visited Latakia, a small town on the coast. Finding a hotel proved to be difficult, but once settled we discovered we had satellite TV and air-conditioning! Latakia has a number of "American Style" restaurants in the aptly named "American Quarter" part of town. These restaurants allowed us to get away from the middle eastern food that we were starting to grow tired of (it had now been over 5 weeks since arriving in Istanbul). We had come to this town to visit a nearby crusade-era fortress known as Salah ad-Din (named for Saladin, the guy who took Jerusalem back from the Christians during the crusades). To get there, we took a minibus to a nearby town and then were planning to walk or take a taxi the remaining 7km. We wanted to walk because the taxis generally proved to be crazy drivers and the surrounding scenery was very beautiful. After walking for almost half an hour, a nice man in a pickup truck gestured for us to hop in to the back, so we did. He only took us half way, but then another man offered us a ride the rest of the way. They didn't ask for money, they just wanted to know where we were from, say "welcome" and offer us some tea. (These people drink a lot of tea.) Once at the castle, we were surrounded by amazing views and spectacular ruins. The castle was built at a high point overlooking the junction of two high canyons, and a third canyon, several hundred feet deep, was carved by hand hundreds of years ago to create a type of "island" for the fortress. We stayed for several hours, walked most of the way back, and then a taxi driver offered us a ride back to town for free. This is the only country in the world where a taxi driver has offered us a ride for free. Amazing!

Next we went further south down the coast to Tartus, another small port town. We took a day trip to the Krak de Cheveliers, another crusader fortress perched on a hilltop overlooking the wide valley below. The scenery was beautiful and the castle was interesting. This was our third large castle so far in Syria, and I can officially say that these people didn't hold anything back when it came to building castles in this part of the world. In order to get to the castle, we had to take a bus that was bigger than a minivan but smaller than a normal coach bus. It was totally decked out on the inside with fancy tassels, decorative trinkets, fancy felt window treatments, and other tacky decorations. It was like riding in an old horse-drawn carriage.

Our next stop was the inland city of Hama, known for its very large and old water wheels once used for irrigation. Some of them were over 120 feet tall and they all made a loud creaking noise as they rotated. Hama also had an old town that we explored, where the buildings were all made of old stone and formed quaint little streets. We also became fast friends with the owners of a family-run baklava shop who sold home made sweets by the kilo at ridiculously low prices.

The next day, our plan was to take a day trip from Hama out to Serjilla, one of the "dead cities" so named because it is essentially a 1500 year old ghost town. We took a bus to the town of Al Ma'ara and had planned to find a bus to Serjilla, but there was a weekly market taking place in the town so we stopped for awhile to check it out. The locals were packed into a few smaller streets selling their produce and wares, and everyone wanted to say hello to us. I took a man's photo and he seemed very proud of this. He ran over to another man and excitedly pointed his finger at my camera. Eventually we tried to find the bus to Serjilla but couldn't, so a nice man and his nephew gave us a ride. They seemed to be very fascinated by us and asked us all sorts of questions about America. We made it to Serjilla and found the old abandoned town. The buildings were made of stone and most were still standing amid the bleak landscape. The scene was eerie but also very beautiful. Apparently the town was abandoned when the land became more arid more than a thousand years before. When we started to return to Al Ma'ara, another nice man insisted on giving us a ride on his motorbike. While we usually avoid motorbikes in foreign countries, we made an exception this time because there was hardly any traffic on the country road and we needed a ride. However, about half way back to town the bike ran out of gas. The man apologized and drove back to a nearby group of buildings while we walked on, but he soon came back and took us the rest of the way. We wanted to pay him something, but he really would not take any money, so we basically had to force it into his pocket. He thanked us profusely before driving off, even though he was the one that did us the favor.

Once back in Al Ma'ara, we wanted to get some drinks before catching the bus back to Hama in time for lunch. We stumbled into a small grocery shop and, of course, were greeted with a "welcome". The man was so happy to learn we were from America that he gave us free sodas and insisted that we sit and chat for awhile. He sat us behind the small counter in the front of the shop because there was no where else to sit. Over the next half hour, various customers came in and I had to help pull random products from the shelves behind the counter and then deposit the money into the drawer in the desk. The shopkeeper spoke decent English, but it wasn't that great, so our conversation suffered a little, but he was so genuinely nice that we stayed a little longer. A customer bought some Tang, and I tried to explain to him that Tang came from NASA, but his bad English and my inability to doodle a decent space shuttle led to him calling his friend to come over to the shop and help translate. His friend was an insurance agent at a nearby shop and spoke excellent English. He managed to fill in the gaps in our conversation before he had to go back to work (after another round of free sodas). Then the shopkeeper invited us to his house for lunch, and so we accepted. But first we saw that he sold shampoo, and we knew we needed some so we decided to buy it from him. He wanted us to take it for free, and was strongly insisting before I pulled the money out of my wallet and put it in his cash drawer which I had been sitting in front of for the last hour anyway.

He closed his shop and led us a few blocks up the street to his house, which was actually an apartment in a short but fairly modern building. His wife and one-year-old son were there to greet us, and I saw her quickly run into the back room with her head uncovered before she came out to officially greet us, this time with only her face showing. Most women in Syria dress fairly conservatively, wearing all black with their heads covered. Others will keep their heads and skin covered, but wearing a variety of colorful robes, while some even wear western style jeans and shirts with head coverings. However, in their own homes among family and friends women can wear whatever they like. The shops in the various souqs sell colorful dresses, many of them somewhat scandalous looking. Lingerie and underwear line the windows of most of these women's clothing shops as well.

The shopkeeper's wife served us fresh squeezed orange juice, Tabbouleh, and an egg and tomato dish. The food was very good and we talked even more about America (they had lots of questions), the recession, family life, and our adventures in Syria. They asked how long we had been married (2.5 years) and if we had any children. When we told them that we didn't have kids, they were very confused. The wife told Laurie to go to a fertility clinic. We tried to explain to them that we would probably have kids later and that most couples in America usually wait a few years, but they just didn't understand. Many marriages are arranged in Syria, and even the ones that aren't still need family approval. The shopkeeper was close to 40, but his wife was about 25. Most women don't work, but instead stay at home with the children.

That afternoon after leaving our very generous hosts we found a public minivan to take us back to Hama. Most of the busses in Syria are either minivans or short microbuses. This particular minivan had a huge stack of sweet dessert rolls in the front seat. Some local men were taking their baked goods from their bakery to a shop in Hama, and the public bus seemed the best and cheapest way to get them there, I guess.

After Hama we made the trip out into the desert to the town of Palmyra. As we got even further from the coast the land became very bleak and dry. There was nothing to see for miles, only sand and rolling dunes. Eventually we arrived in Palmyra, a town which sits outside of some spectacular Roman ruins in the desert. We spent the next few days exploring the ruins, which consisted of a long row of old columns with arches, an old temple, and a very intimidating castle upon a nearby hilltop. While exploring the ruins, various locals were around to take people for rides on their camels and horses. One of the camels had a baby camel following it around, and despite the fact that it was already over 6 feet tall, it was very cute. It was only 3 months old, and his mother had won many camel races in her day (at least according to the owner). In the town we also ate lots of Mafa, a local Bedouin dish made of rice, meat, raisins, nuts, and some exotic spices.

Our final stop in Syria was the capital, Damascus. Supposedly it is the oldest inhabited capital city in the world. When we arrived in Damascus we hopped on board a local minivan to take us into the center of town to our hotel, and we found ourselves weaving through narrow alleyways and wide crazy boulevards with insane traffic. Unfortunately, we spent our first few days recovering from some food poisoning (perhaps the Mafa in Palmyra?) and took things nice and easy. We ate lots of watermelon and baklava to recover. Once we were back in shape we explored the large souq, the old palace, various khans (old trading houses), and the large mosque. The mosque had a huge courtyard full of locals hanging out and chatting while kids ran around playing. The inside of the mosque was also large, and divided between a men's and women's section. However, the division was not very obvious, and I soon found myself being politely but firmly ushered out of the women's section as I followed Laurie randomly on our stroll through the praying area. We then sat outside in the courtyard as the sun was getting low. As usual, everyone wanted to chat with us and offer us tea. Some older men sat down next to us and excitedly wanted to know all about America and about us.

Since we had been a little sick, we decided to forgo the self-imposed limits we had placed on our food budget and treat ourselves to some fine dining experiences. Syria is the best place to do this not just because the food is good, but because everything is very cheap. We ate several meals at various old riad style houses which had been turned into restaurants. They consisted of a large central courtyard surrounded by rooms with fancy decor. We would order our entrees and soon find the waiters bringing us a ton of food that we didn't order, all on the house. Every meal seemed to consist of free desert, usually a plate full of watermelon. One restaurant in particular brought us watermelon, a bowl full of cherries, and a plate full of pastries that ended up being more food that we had actually ordered. The most we ever paid was the equivalent of eight U.S. dollars for the both of us to eat huge meals in a very fancy place.

We were sad to leave Syria. It turned out to be one of the best places we have ever been. It's dirt cheap, the food is great, the sights are terrific, and the people are some of the most friendly we have ever met. I almost hope the travel warnings stay in place, so that it will remain our little secret.