Going into Syria

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After a short but pleasant stay in Antakya I headed for the border. Weather: lousy, roads: ok
Leaving Turkey was easy enough, apart from sheltering vital papers from the rain which was pouring down by now (upside, most of the Turkish mud has been washed off now). Entering Syria was not a big issue either, just a lot of paperwork goign from counter to counter.
Something like this:
1. Get greeted at the customs office by a chap who said he'd guide me through the process.
2. Get sent to immigration for a stamp in my passport. I did not need to get a visa as I'd allready got one back home. Apparantly I could have got one at the border now, they told me that it is quite fast for most nationalities.
3. To the tourist office, where they told me to get my Carnet de Passage signed at the actual border crossing post.
4. Border crossing post, where the filled out the EXIT part of my Carnet instead of the entry part. 'No problem sir, in Syria we write from right to left...'. OK :-)
5. To the bank where I had to pay for insurance. I thought. Instead he shortchanged me (not for a large amount so whatever) while exchanging my Turkish money, and sent me to another counter for the insurance and road tax paperwork.
6. Man at the other counter was quite confused and sent me back to the bank again, where I was intercepted by my helper who went back to the insurance and road tax counter and explained to the guy what the Carnet thingy was all about. They stamped my Carnet, took the entry slip and sent me back to the bank
7. Got my insurance and road tax for a month (total about 45 US$), some money changed hands in weird ways, I got my papers and tipped my helper. I was told to proceed to the crossing, everything was arranged and they would probably not have to search my luggage.
8. At the crossing I was told I could go on without any problems, so I got on the bike, and then they spotted my GPS. Oooops. 'Please wait here sir.'
9. I was escorted by my helper to a senior official who inquired if the GPS 'uses sky', and looked over the thing a bit curiously. He was a nice guy though, I got some tea while waiting and we had a pleasant conversation. I think the Arab scarf I got the last time I was in Syria helped as well :-)
10. After writing some more stuff in my passport I could go back to the crossing again, with my GPS. My helper explained some things to the official there, more notes in my passport and I could move on.
11. A short drive to the exit of the crossing, where I had to show my passport again, and I could move on.

Total time: about 1.5 hours
Baksheesh that disappeared left and right: couple of hundred Syrian, which is about 5 euros :-)

I stopped a few kilometres later to get some water, and was promptly invited into the shop for some coffee, while a twelfe year old kid with a gold tooth sat there staring at me. Arabic hospitality, yeah baby! I felt right at home :-)

And then on, Aleppo or bust!

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Comments

[Mia]

Syria
Entering Syria sounds familiar... Hope you are doing just fine. Good that you are doing your motorbike to Jordan thing! Here things are just fine. Our little son is soon 6 months and so much fun, and in July we move to a house of our own. And spring is really nice in Sweden now:-) Take care on da motorbike! /Mia