Damascus

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Damascus
Some of our group are doing a day trip into Lebanon which periodically closes its border to tours. Kate did the tour last April and the border was closed shortly after. I am sure the closure had nothing to do with Kate’s visit. From our camp it is a Taxi ride into Damascus central so at 9am 12 of us walked about 1 km to wave down a Taxi and it was a small mini bus that pulled up. These operate much like a bus service with no determined route unlike a Taxi that you hire for a private single trip the mini bus will pick up and let down passengers along your journey, so often the trip takes a round about route. We negotiated a fare or 150SN (Syrian Pounds) and as the exchange rate is 40SN to the Ozzie Dollar that made our fare about $3.50. Split between 12 people it was a bargain.
We spent the day wandering around parts of the old city, past the citadel and the Souq (Souk) and paying to look around the Grand Mosque where we were required to “Be fitting the Special Clothes”. Men had to have shoulders and legs covered so long loose cotton pants were provided in the 50SN ($1) entry ticket and the women were required to wear cotton over coats so that the head could be covered as well.

Friday is the main religious day for Muslims so the Souq was closed except for a few shops and those that were open were not supposed to sell anything during prayer time which ended around 1pm. After a refresher stop at a surprising beautiful restaurant we decided to return to our camp. We had split into 3 groups earlier in the day so now it was 5 in a cab for 100SN and arriving back at the camp at 3pm. Time for a beer or two and then at 6pm we wandered out to buy Kebabs and cake which was great eating experience.
Along the way a dozen small kids running around wanting to slap hands or shake hands and yelling “where from” or “how are you” made for a very noisy walk.

Day 2 in Damascus saw us return to the city to see the Souq in full operation. Neither Sean nor I are in shopping mode as we have decided to leave all the shopping for Carol when she joins us in Istanbul but we still decided to walk around some more.
Today we managed set some sort of record with 17 of us in the one mini bus plus the driver. He agreed to take us into the city for 10SN each or roughly 20cents. True to his word he took us to the exact spot we asked for and even offered to give us change when we handed over 200SN which amounted to a 60cent tip.
On our return to the camp we just arrived as the rain started so we were able to pitch in and put the tent flys on and get all the sleeping mats and other bits and pieces lying around under cover. It was a short but intense downpour and was our first rain in the Middle East.

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