Just returned today from Aleppo, Syria. Syria ended up being quite a nice place and extremely safe. People were out walking around at all hours of the day and night.
When I return to Istanbul (currently in Antakya), I will write more but here is a summary of exciting events:
- Arrived in Hatay Province early April 24th
- Departed to Bab Al-Hawa (via Cilvegözü Sınır Kapısı) at noon on the 24th
- Taxi driver took me to the wrong boarder crossing (Yayladagi)
- Went to correct boarder crossing and dealt with taxi driver who expected to get paid twice after taking me to the wrong place.
- Met new, cooler taxi drivers at Cilvegözü who took me to Bab Al-Hawa
- It turns out that not many Americans cross over through this port of entry into Syria, no less than 5 boarder guards inspected my passport, ignored the visa, and continually asked me where I was going.
- The taxi drivers became irritated because we were stuck there for an hour while the guards were trying to figure out what to do with my documents. After they started telling the boarder guards to just stamp my passport (and after they pointed out that I actually had a visa) they let us go.
- Met friends at boarder crossing.
- Went to Aleppo, very nice city.
- Secret Police (CIA of Syria) came looking for me. They wanted to make sure that I was not a spy and really was in Aleppo.
- Returned from Aleppo to Antakya, getting out of Syria is much easier than getting in. The guards and the guy selling coffee remembered me...
- The Syrian taxi driver thought it would be a good idea to drive on top of a median to get around some trucks, the Turkish guards were not impressed and were quite angry.
- Made it back to Antakya for 2500 Syrian Pounds ($55), better than the 125 Turkish Lira ( $95) it cost to get there.
- Heading back to Istanbul Wednesday morning
I have taken lots of GPS tagged photos that I will put on my website later this week...
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