It is a slow start this morning due to the adventures of yesterday. We leave Petra heading east for the highway to take us towards Amman. We climb through hilly countryside before descending and finally joining the highway. The highway is two lanes in each direction and we make good time. Reaching Amman, we manage to skirt the traffic of the city and pick up a ring road. After a couple of wrong turns we find a highway sign posted for the Syrian border. We keep heading north and arrive at the Jordan border post. After an hour of running from pillar to post for passport stamps and exit approvals for the car we are done. We drive to the gate and, after a final official check of all documents by an official, we enter no mans land between Jordan and Syria. It’s a 3 KM drive to the Syrian side and we go through a gate and are advised to park the car up. You need to fill out 2 immigration forms for Syria. We fill the forms and hand over our passports. The Syrian Immigration officials are in a hurry to stamp them and in no time we we have the passports back stamped. Now for the car. I am approached by a bad smelling man who speaks some English. For a fee, he will take care of all the car documentation. I engage him and we start running from office to office obtaining stamps and changing money for customs charges. Finally $200 lighter all documents are done. We head to another gate and we are into Syria. The whole process has taken an hour.
We follow the signs for Damascus which is about 120 KM from the border. The road is in reasonable condition and the land mainly agricultural. Traffic is light and we arrive in Damascus in just over an hour. Now all hell breaks loose. Damascus is a busy city. Cars are coming at you from all directions. The worst are the yellow taxis who undercut you and appear from nowhere. Despite watching your mirrors closely, they keep appearing where you least expect them. We are lost. The hotel is in the Old City and we are going around in circles. We finally stop and ask a cab driver to go to the hotel and we will follow him. He gets reasonably close but the police are stopping him going into the area. Eventually we get the hotel on the phone and they tell us to stay where we are and someone will come and get us. I park the car and a policeman is all over me to move it. I talk to him in English and try to explain that I don’t speak Arabic. He is becoming frustrated and angry and tries to speak English. I switch to German and he must be ready to shoot me when the hotel porter appears and clears up the situation. We stack the bags on a trolley and set off into the Old City. The place is a labyrinth and we follow the porter for about 800 meters until we reach the hotel. I wait for Charles as he has fallen back carrying his own bag to avoid tipping the porter. Finally, we are at the Old Vine Hotel (See picture). The Old Vine Hotel is a converted 17th Century house focussed around a central courtyard. The bedrooms lead of the courtyard which is cool and quiet thanks to 12 foot thick walls.
After checking in we take a walk around the maze that is the Old City. The place is a vibrant throng of humanity from all races and creeds. The hotel is close to the Umayyed Mosque and we use this a a reference point to get back to the hotel. We head for an area where we know there are bars. Returning at 1AM the streets are so quiet it hurts your ears. We have changed the plan for the stay in Damascus. We have decided to head north a day earlier to a resort called Latakia. This will give us the chance to visit the crusader castle at Crac Des Chevalier. The traffic should be light as Friday is the weekend.We have breakfast and head out to walk around the Souk El-Hamidiyeh. The place is huge and every time you expect to have reached the exit. another street appears selling more goods. We reach the spice area and the smell is amazing. Every spice and herb in the world seems to be on sale.and merges in the air to make you want to stay there for hours.
Damascus really is a vibrant energetic city. Even at night you can feel it straining at the leash to erupt again. Then at dawn the leash breaks and the energy is released for another day.
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