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Published: April 23rd 2006
Aleppo
Capital of Islamic Culture 2006. And therefore cleaner and calmer than we remembered, or is that just our shifted perspective?Finally after months of planning we have our Iranian Visas! We kept meeting people at the Iranian Embassy in Cairo who had just returned from Iran and were enthusing massively about their wonderful experiences there.
So we booked our bus tickets to Nuwieba. We had decided to travel back to the Turkish border quickly so as to try to get to Iran before it gets unbearably hot. It is ironic we went south last winter becuase Turkey was freezing and İran more so, but we did not miss winter. Now we are defintiely going to be too hot somewhere along our route, but we are just going with the flow and you cannot be everywhere in the world at the best seasons, especially when you cycle.
But we really feel now that we need to get back to cycling and camping and making progress by pedal power. I have spent the last week or so reading up about the route ahead, especially from other cycling websites and İ really miss the physical challenge of cycling and camping and living freely again. We have enjoyed our "backpacker time" in Egypt, but it is spring and time for cycling.
So
Al Beik, Aleppo
Adnan and Aammar Al Beik ın their excellent bike shop ın Aleppo. after months of shunning petrol powered movement we loaded our bikes onto the overnight bus and headed to The Gulf of Aqaba and caught the slow boat to Jordan. Although we were in a hurry to get back to Turkey and start cycling we were reluctant to fly, especially with the bikes. Flying, although it can be convenient, is a highly fuel inefficient form of travel and it was going to be more expensive for us anyway.
We spent a long day on the boat going to Jordan, and got our free visa on arrival in Aqaba and found buses waiting to transport the hundreds of passengers to Amman. This was our plan but then we saw a bus headed for Damascus! We were sorely tempted but anxious as we did not have a Syrian Visa. We told all this to the driver who still wanted to take us to the border and he would leave us there if we failed to enter. Fine we thought, we'll risk it and settled down for another overnight bus journey after getting the driver to detour into Aqaba town to stop at a bank machine. İ promptly went to sleep to be
Syrian hospitality... again!
Being welcomed into Magid and Raghda's home for the second time, after failıng to get out of Syria for the second time. Is someone trying to tell us somethıng...? woken up by the driver who told us that we should change our money at the rest station we had stopped at as it was better rates than at the border. We had taken out Jordanian Dinar because we had remembered from our last visit in Syria that our banks at home had stung us badly on exchange rates and charges when we had used Syrian bank machines. Sleepily we changed some money into Syrian pounds and went back to sleep on the bus.
The Syrian border guards did not look impressed by our lack of visas. They looked at our old visas and listened to us explaining that we had been assurred when we left Syria that we would be allowed back in. We also explained that the Cairo and Amman Consulates do not issue visas to non-residents. We were told to sit down. The only other non-arab there, a Russian guy, was also waiting visa-less. Our bus driver was getting aggitated. Eventually after us pleading a lot the guards offered us a 3 day transit visa, brilliant we jumped at the chance. We just had to go to the bank building round the side and pay a
Robin, Maram, Ahmed & Wa'ad
In the home of Magid & Raghda, Jarabulus, Syria whopping 52 US Dollars each ( we had expected this though and it was still cheaper than flying).
We arrived at the bank clerk who demanded the 104 US dollars and refused our Syrian pounds despite us pointıng to a sign that said you have to pay for the visas in Syrian pounds. Yes he said but those Syrian pounds have to have been exchanged here with me for some other harder currency and to our even greater dısmay he said that Jordanian Dinars woudl be OK.
Our luck was beginning to turn for the worse!
Our bus driver was getting more and more impatient and did not like it when we pointed out that this was his fault as he had urged us to change our dinars. Eventually however after lots of arguing we reluctantly used our stash of Euros (which we had been saving for İran) and got some more Syrian pounds ( we now had far too much of this not very desirable currency) and got our 3 day transit visa.
İt felt like coming home arriving in Damascus at 7 am and we easily cycled the streets to our old hotel and
So close, yet so far
Vıew from the hill above Jarabulus lookıng north into Turkey. The village in the centre is Karkamis, inside Turkey. The buildings in the foreground are Jarabulus, Syrian Arab Republic. They are separated by less then a kilometre, yet it would take us a week, 160 miles of pedalling and several more of red tape to cover this distance....... got a great falafel sandwich. Damascus traffic felt calm after Egypt. We decided to keep pressing on as we knew if we stopped to do some shopping ın Damascus that we may flake out after our extensive journey. We found our way to the bus station easily again and passed Syrian army security wıthout too much aggro. The 4 hour bus ride to Aleppo cost us 300 Syrian Pounds ( about 3.30 GBP) and this included both our bikes! Eventually 40 hours after leaving Cairo we stopped at Spring Flower Hostel in Aleppo and the staff there remembered us from our time there in December. İt was wierd and nice to be back where our Middle East adventure had begun. At the time the hostel had seemed a hole but we had been ill there for the first time on the trip and also since then we have stayed in much much worse places. We could not get over how much quieter Aleppo seemed after Cairo and also how much cleaner it was. We later found out that they have smartened up the town a lot since it is the Capital of İslamic Culture now and also the President was
Turkey at Last - Goodbye Syria, Hello Sureyya
After surviving for days solely on Syrian hospitality we were put up by the Koblay family on our arrival in Turkey. Surreyya is in the centre in the pink skirt. due in town in a few days. Also there were loads more trourists there, but this was understandable as it was Good Friday and the middle of the Easter Holidays. Easter is also Clebrated in Syria which has aboıut 13% of ıts population as Christian and some very important Christian early Churches. Aleppo has a sızable Christian Armeıan and Russian populatıon and we enjoyed a day wandering around town and eating chocolate cake and falafels.
We had been given a great recommendation by Maarten, our Dutch friend who we cycled with in Jordan, for a bike shop in Aleppo- Al Beik Bikes. We were treated to extreme Syrian hospitality at the bike shop where they gave us a complete bike service and feed us great pizza things and many cups of tea. They also dug out some very good french made pedals that they had obvıously been saving and sold them to Robin whose original pedals had finally gıven up. İt was wonderful to have our bikes with such great guys who obvıously loved cyclıng and bike maintenance. Mostly on the journey the standard in the bike shops has not been up to home and it ıs usually with anxiousness that we let our prize possessıons in to the hands of the mechanics, however no fears here!
We had decided to go back to the border in Syria where we had entered and thus start cycling ın Turkey from a place we had been before to keep up the continuity of our bike trip. Also this was a big short cut towards Iran. We finally got our bikes into a minibus that was going to Jarrablous which is east on the Euphrates. The rest of the bus was occupıed by a family from that town, they quickly introduced themselves as Magid (English Teacher) and Rahgda ( Doctor) with theır five children. We had a lovely bus ride talking to them about romance and marriage. When we got to town they invited us for lunch and coffee and we really enjoyed this meal with them. We set off cycling the 1 km to the border thinkıng that we were going to make ıt just in time for it closıng for the day. We were a bit later than we had hoped but thought that it did not matter since we had had such a nice time enjoying Syrian Hospitality again.
We got the the border to find it locked wıth a big gate accross the road we had been followed out of town by a group of boys on bikes, who whistled and yelled to the guards but there was no movement from inside. AAAHHHH! We though we have to leave today our Visas runs out. At this point a soldier appears and waves for us to come over to him. We cannot beacuse of the locked gate, so he walks up to us and picks up a rock and proceeds to smash open the padlock, much to our amusment. We begin to hope again that our visas thing will work out. He takes us to his office and makes us more coffee. He phones his general who is not happy. We are told that the border is closed for the weekend as Turkey does not open it on Saturady and Sunday, no one told us this! İt is Easter Saturday and we ask to be stamped out of Syria and to stay at the border area until we can cross to Turkey on Monday. No ıs the answer. But our visas expire, yes İ will not let you out untill you have a stamp from Aleppo the general says. No ammount of pleading helps this situatıon and he sends us off to be put up at the police station. We manage to phone our friend Magid from the minibus and go to stay for him for the night after he had a lengthy time filling out forms at the police station. Robin and İ are given more coffee and this time a sheesha pipe, oh if only the general was this accomodating we think.
We stay wıth Magid's family and they offer to store our bags and bikes for us and even lend us money for the bus back to Aleppo, sınce we had spent or changed all our Syrian pounds into Turkish money. Thanks goodness for Syrian hospitality we think. We arrive back in Aleppo on Easter Sunday only to find that the Immıgratıon department is shut becasue of the holiday and that the next day is Syrian Independence day and a national holiday. We are unable to do anything until Tuesday and by then we will be 3 days over our 3 day visa and illegal in Syria, we are quite anxious and concerned. We manage to change back some money to syrian pounds but do not want to do this too much as we are losing money each time and we had hoped to be enjoying cycling by now and not stuck in a city with only 1 plastic bag of stuff with us. Evenually on Tuesday we wıth baited breath watch as after copious form filling we pay 50 Syrian pounds (0.55 GBP) and get a 15 day extension on our transit visas. We breath a sigh of relief, no massive fine like we had been fearing!
We get a bus back to Jarrabalous and stay for one final night with the family to say goodbye and play with the children and swap photos. The next morning we are stamped out of Syria and we cycle to Turkey ( only 4 days later than we had first planned)!
"Vısa Yok!"
This is what the Turkish guards said to us. Oh no not again we think. But can't we buy the visa here at the border like it says on the British government website. No, is the answer you must return to Syria!!!!!!
Of all the things to go wrong this was the last straw! No ammount of pleading worked - the police would not even arrest us and take us into Turkey like I asked them to! They were very smiley and after a cup of Turkish tea ( nicer than Arab tea!) we were escorted back into Syria where our exit stamp was cancelled.
We were now back in town with food on us for 2 evening meals but no Syrian money. Stuff it we thought and set off at pace to cycle the 80 miles (130km) in the wrong direction West back to the Azzazz/Killis Border. We managed 30 miles that night following the back roads that skirt along the Turkish border. We were stopped near sunset by the police who were quite surprised to see tourists there. They gave us tea and found us a place to put our tent. We were trying to pitch the tent but the local farmers were having none of it and insisted on putting us up in their home. The family fed us and we managed to practice our Turkish, since they were a Turkish family ( this part of Syria and over the border ın Turkey is a complete mixture of Turks, Arabs and Kurds). İt turns out that you do not need money in Syria and after refusing many cups of tea and offers of food we finally bought our visas to Turkey. Although the border official would not accept pounds sterling to buy the visas (despite the visas sticker stating its price in Sterling) farsically he said we could pay in Syrian pounds! We bought it with the last of our Euros and cyled to Kilis for a very welcome late lunch, having already cycled 60 miles that day.
We found a bank machine in Kilis and although we did not need money that day we took some out as knowing our run of luck there would be no more machines for a while. We cycled off east finally to find a camp site. There was no camping to be found howevewr - the flat palin stretched for miles and there were no orchards to hide in either. We stopped to buy bread in a small village and asked if there was somewhere to camp. "Yes - come sit down" we were invited but there was no offer of chai and no campsite obvious and it was rapidly going dark. finally they showed us to the village paly-park but this was far from ideal as by now the whole village knew about us and we had large group of boys and young men watching us try to put the tent up. We decided to find somewhere better and set off in the dark through the open farmland. It was even more hopeless trying to find a camp ın the pitch black, moonless night so we tried our luck at another small group of houses.
As we stopped we wondered if they were really houses, as one looked to be more like some huge village hall. We went to knock on a smaller building but as we did the call to prayer sounded from the big buildıng and so figured it to be a mosque. It did however turn out to be a house and was occupied the friendly and welcoming Koblay family and we were immediatly invited in by Sureyya, one of the grown up daughters (one of 11). We were fed, showered and made wonderfully welcome and slept very well after the monster ride from Syria. Waking early the next day we declined their offer to stay again and set off across the flat plains again finally arriving back in Birecik late in the afternoon - a week later than planned and having cycled 160 miles ınstead of the planned 30km.
We are now back in the place we were in late November except it is much hotter. We have met many of the people we met last time and drunk copious amounts of chay and are now rested and ready to head off east again towards Kurdistan and Iran.
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tarek _rahman
non-member comment
halla hallaaaa
i miss you guys