Return to Syria

Return to Syria

Today I return to my favourite country after 15 years, having visited in 2002, 2004 and 2010.  Since my last visit, parts of the country have been to hell and back:

• Over 40% of Syria’s buildings have been damaged or destroyed.
• Some cities lost over 70% of their housing stock.
• 13 million+ Syrians displaced internally or abroad.

With relative peace prevailing now, I wanted to see how the country has changed and planned this trip many months ago.

Why do I love Syria?  It is home to the remnants many layers of culture and civilizations, hospitable people, delicious food and generally affordable.  And it appears Syria loves be back by giving me visa-free access (one of four nationalities) while some Western nationalities pay USD75 to USD150.

With limited flights in and out of Damascus and Aleppo, prices are prohibitively expensive.  I didn’t want to risk flying standby on staff tickets, eg. on Turkish Airlines, Emirates or Flydubai.

Fortunately, I was able to redeem my points on Turkish Airlines.  With no seats available for redemption in Economy class, Business was OK at double the rate whereas it would be several times the Economy cash price.

Hiccup leaving Istanbul

I woke at 0400 at my Arnavutkoy hotel and was in a taxi at 0430.  The driver had to be reminded to put on the meter and upon reaching the airport 10 mins later asked for TRY200 (NZD8) more than the meter price.

He threatened to call the police but didn’t pursue the matter as I walked off into the terminal.  Getting airside was super-fast with an express lane for Business Class.

I was airside 3h before my 0740 flight and was entitled to Turkish’s lounge rather than my usual bank card one.  The entrance was a bit hard to find as the airline had two lounges and each one had two entrances (one for lift and wheelchair passengers).

While the lounge was nice, I wouldn’t say it was leaps and bounds better than my usual one.  It was definitely less of a zoo with not so much of a crowd in there.

I wasn’t that hungry at this ungodly hour and ate enough to keep going and stayed a total of around 1h15 before heading to the gate.  Here, it was my first interaction with the airline staff as I hadn’t been document-checked since I had no checked-in bags, holding only a mobile boarding pass.  Quite pleasantly surprised there were no questions asked about a Syrian visa or onward tickets.

No separate bus was put on for Business Class customers for the remote gate boarding for the B737-900ER.  We pushed back at 0740 and held for a long time.  I could see from my port side window that the engineer had walked to the plane and back a few times.  It wasn’t a good sign.

The pilot came on to say that we needed a change of aircraft and at 0825, we disembarked into waiting buses to be taken back to our original gate 10 mins afterwards. I saw on the screen that our new ETD was 0915 which was around 30 mins away.

The new departure time seemed too good to be true, knowing how the behind-the-scenes activities entailed.

At 0930, we were provided with water and soft drinks quite swiftly and I was glad I had eaten something in the lounge to tide me till the inflight meal.  Quite soon after, we were back on the bus bound for the replacement B737-900ER.  We were probably back in the terminal for only 40 mins.

We eventually left for a second time about 1h50 late. I was very impressed with how quickly they found a spare aircraft, fuelled it, did the paperwork and transferred the cargo, bags, meals, crew and passengers.  The 1h50 included about 45 mins of trying to fix the first aircraft and 25 mins boarding the second.  Meaning, much of the behind-the-scenes recovery was done in about 40 mins.

I was very relieved once we were airborne as I didn’t have much time for things to go wrong.  I chatted to the man seated next to me and he was a Syrian Arab who now has a Turkish passport.  Turkey accepts talented professionals from Syria and it helped that his ancestors were Ottoman officials.  Syrian Arabs are quite palatable to Turkey but Syrian Kurds less so, he said, when I asked.

Arriving in Damascus

Arriving 2h late in Damascus at 1150 was no big deal compared to nightmare disruptions one can experience with flights.

I was the first at immigration and it was swift except that the officer stamped yesterday’s date into my passport and had to take me to another counter to find the “Cancelled” stamp and restamp it with the correct date.

I had checked online with the taxi company about the price of the ride to the old centre, because I expected a rip-off price.  Sure enough, they replied with a high price of USD20 but in reality, it was worse at USD25 and they simply wouldn’t budge.

In the car, there was a local in front.  I thought he was the driver’s mate but could have been a freeloader.  It’s hard to tell as he didn’t seem like a traveller with no luggage.

As we got to the old city and approached the Shahrayar Hotel, the roads got really narrow and busy, and some were one way.  I decided to walk the last little bit and it turned out to be a 10 minute walk.

Overall, the ride wasn’t too bad and got me to the hotel an hour after landing.

Revisiting Damascus

I have 2 nights or just 1 full day in Damascus.  With an out-of-town excursion planned tomorrow, the pressure was on for me to go revisit as much as possible.

My hotel was close to an alley which led to the back of the Umayyad Mosque and the nearby Al Hamidiyeh Souq.  My priority was to find a money changer and I missed the one in the souq and had to search further afield.

With some money, I grabbed a shawarma and continued outside of the old city in search of the Museum area and Martyr’s Square area where we once stayed.

On the way, I stumbled on the Hejaz Railway Station which I had never seen in my previous three visits to Damascus!

Damascus is nothing like I remember.  It was busy on the roads with traffic and also on the pavement with people.  I could hardly walk in a straight line.  I believe that during the civil war, many people left unsafe areas and moved to Damascus.  The capital was safer and under government control, meaning that it wasn’t subject to bombardment.

I couldn’t remember a big flyover near the Museum but later, looking on Google Earth’s historic satellite photos, it was there already.

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Umayyad Mosque

Back in the old city, I revived myself with a Buzah ice cream (but not at the famous Bakdash parlour) before visiting the Umayyad Mosque.

The mosque was built around 700 AD but the site is much older.  It had an ancient Aramean temple 2000-3000 years ago, then a Roman temple and then a church before the mosque was built.

One of the minarets of the Umayyad Mosque is the Minaret of Isa (Jesus) son of Maryam (Mary). Some Muslims believe that Jesus will descend through this minaret at the end to time to defeat the anti-Christ.

A shrine inside the Umayyad mosque is believed to hold some remains of John the Baptist’s skull, passed on from the Christian era. Because the saint is also a Muslim prophet, the remains are now enshrined.

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Christian Area

After about 3h on my feet exploring, I was ready to call it quits.  However, I missed the alley for my hotel and overshot to the Christian area nearby and that added an hour to my walk.  There were a mix of Catholic and Orthodox churches there.

I had done really well doing a 4h walk, considering the 0400 wake-up in Istanbul (same time in Damascus and Istanbul).

In the evening

For dinner, I grabbed a crispy chicken sandwich roll, making a change from shawarma.

I finished the day with another visit to the Umayyad Mosque to catch it in a different light.