Damascus, Day 2

Aqaba, Jordan

 

After a dizzying previous night of watching War of the Worlds and getting worked over by gay Syrians, I thought maybe a different breakfast would change my fortunes in Syria. I headed out to kind some restaurant called Al Kawal, that Lonely Planet recommended, hoping they might have something other then bread, cheese, marmalade and an egg for breakfast. Turns out they did, sort of... Instead of marmalade they had honey, which was actually a refreshing change because if you stuff the egg into the flat bread, then coat it in honey, it actually does taste different then when coated in marmalade... Oh how I long for a nice bowl of Raisin Bran with milk... /sigh

 

I didn't really do much that day. I early afternoon trying to find an international call center to call home, which turned out to be harder then I thought it would be. Most of the hotels wanted the equivalent of 3$US/minute for the call, which seemed like extortion to me. (I already got dinged once this trip making a 3$US+/minute phone call from Vienna and wasn't about the make the same mistake twice.) After some hunting, I found an internet cafe that would make the call for a fraction of that price, using the computer. So I saddled up to the computer behind the cash registration, the operator punched in some codes, and through a rather flimsy microphone/earphone combination headset thingy, I was chatting with Ottawa, Canada... Go technology... Sort of...

 

I spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out with Ahmed, the guy who runs the internet cafe. I needed to burn a bunch of CD's to back up my photos and frankly wasn't all that interested in wandering around Damascus again, so we just talked for awhile since the internet cafe was empty, and Ahmed, in his early twenties, spoke excellent English.

 

Dinner that night was uneventful, and other then wandering around the souq and the old train station looking for some night shots to take, there really isn't much to say about my second day in Damascus.

 

Ahh, but readers, you're not getting off with such a short update so fast...

 

Speaking with Ahmed was probably the first at length conversation I've had with a local on my trip and it was incredibly entertaining. Of course we spent lots of time talking geek stuff, like computer security, how to run an internet cafe, and all that. But we also talked a lot about traveling, girls and a bit about politics.

 

Probably the most meaningful part of the conversation I had with Ahmed was when he started telling me about the difficulties he, and most other Syrians, have in obtaining visa's to travel to other countries. As a Canadian, I all but take it for granted that I can visit any country I want. Even North Korea and Bhutan, two countries notoriously difficult to obtain visa's for, can be visited with some patience and perseverance. If nothing else, it's really just some paperwork and some bureaucracy that you have to deal with, it's not a political problem. For Turkey and Jordan I just paid some money while the train waited. For Syria, I had some fun with the paperwork, but in the end it wasn't really hard or even time consuming and I got the visa within hours of applying. Last year, when I needed one for Australia, United Airlines just sold me one at the airport. Simply put, as a Canadian, you just really don't think twice about visa's because you know that you can get one in the end, you just need to figure out who you talk to and what you need to fill out.

 

But talking with Ahmed, the same cannot be said. He, and many of his friends, have tried to apply for visa's for several countries in Europe and in the Middle East. The bureaucracy that he is exposed to his mind boggling. Simply put, he, nor many of his friends, have been able to travel outside of other Arab countries. Getting a visa is just to difficult.

 

I'm not going to get all soft and reflective here, but while talking to Ahmed I truly understood, for the first time while traveling, the freedoms that many of us in the west enjoy without a second thought. Granted being a student with a Syrian passport probably raises a few flags with the United States Immigration, but still it's a shame that others can't share in the freedom to travel that I enjoy. It's generally cited that around 20-25% of Americans posses a passport. Since you need a passport to travel overseas, you could conclude that only about 20-25% (at best) of Americans have traveled overseas. Disregarding the financial restraints of traveling (and I know they are huge), but it's still amazing that so few people exercise a freedom that they enjoy, while in other countries of the world similar people simply can't enjoy that same freedom. I realize traveling isn't for everyone, but talking to Ahmed I just wished that I could borrow a few of those unused passports and lend one to him, because I would love for him to see some of the places that he's only dreamed of. 

 

So, uh, yeah... It was a rather eye opening conversation with Ahmed and if you're even in Damascus, then check out the "C@IO" Internet Cafe and tell him I say hi.  

 

Kenny