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Read my Travel Diary and other articles from a six week trip to Syria, Jordan & Egypt during October and November 1998

The Middle East

Si_lad
2004-03-26 20:27:02

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tasty) and a meal each, which consisted of lots of meat (skewered kebab style), lots of bread and various dips (like humus), salad, chillies and chips. Delicious and filling. The bill was about UK£4 each – and this was quite expensive!

Some initial observations of Syria: Women are not hidden away in their homes (contrary to some western views of the Arab world), and appear to have plenty of freedom. Some dress in western clothes, some wear veils and others don the black head-to-toe chador (tent). 99.9% of men have moustaches. There are not many dogs (which is nice), as Muslims believe them to be dirty. Driving is lunatic – the horn being the major component of any vehicle. Crossing the road is not for the faint of heart. Beer and some other alchoholic drinks are available and not frowned upon as much as I had thought (although Syria didn’t appear to be the sort of place you would want to go on a drunken bender!).

"Sit down, take it easy, have some tea, enjoy the Nargileh. Very fruity".

14th October 1998

I Slept like a log in our room last night and we started off reasonably early – grabbing some fresh unleavened bread from a "hole in the wall" bakers for breakfast. We continued our wander around the old city, venturing into some spice and meat souqs, and looking around some smaller mosques. We returned to the same café where we met our friends (it seems like they spend most of the day there!) for a chat and some spicy coffee. We spent quite some time watching the world go by, but eventually dragged ourselves away after a quick shawarma.

In the afternoon we had decided we would take a Microbus to a district on the edge of Damascus called Muhajireen, to get a view of the city. We found the place to get the correct Microbus station but found the language barrier difficult when trying to explain where we wanted to go. In the end we managed to get ...