Visa/Crossing the border
Crossing the borderWe crossed the border by bus coming from Antakya to Aleppo. On the way there, the bus broke down because of lack of fuel. This happens regularly, since fuel is cheaper in Syria, so the drivers try to get to Syria to fill up his tank, but sometimes he fails.
Also don't be surprised if someone on the bus puts a bottle of whisky above your seat. He buys some bottles in Turkey, but since he's only allowed to import 1 per person into Syria, he will divide the bottles over the passengers in the bus, and collect the bottles once you've crossed the border. I refused this since I didn't know what was going on, it was only later someone explained this to me.
The border crossing was pretty smooth. It took us 90 minutes to cross the border.
Getting your visaWe bought our visa at the embassy in Brussels. It costed about 35 US$. The man at the border spoke good English and told us (without us asking for it) we could have gotten the visa at the border.
Note: you can no longer get a multiple entry visa anymore, but you can still get a double entry visa. Ask for it if you plan to visit Lebanon or Petra.
The visa can be obtained at the Syrian embassy in Washington and costs 61 US$ nowadays (2/98).
Coming from JordanYou cannot get a visa at the Jordan/Syria border. A recent report told me you can no longer get your visa in Amman either as a foreigner, only Jordanians can get one (8/99).
Coming from LebanonYou can get a visa at the border, but they won't make life easy for you. One report said the visa had to be paid for in Syrian Pounds, and they also wanted to see an official bank receipt. This means you'll need to walk 1 km into Syria, change money and come back, thus delaying the other passengers of your bus (5/99).
Coming from IsraelWhile applying for the visa, or when crossing the border,
never tell them you want to go to Israel. If you've been there before, make sure not to tell them and apply for a new passport if you have an Israeli stamp in your passport. Even if you don't have an Israeli stamp, but a Jordanian stamp from Allenby bridge, or King Hussein bridge or Aqaba, they will assume you came from Israel and still refuse you the visa. There's also a border crossing to Hungary which has a name very similar to an Israeli city, and that might be confusing giving rise to problems. Look at the
Visa-page on the Israel part.
Money matters
There is a black market to change US$. It's not really a dangerous business, but still it's better to be discrete. Rates at the black market are 10 tot 20% better then the official rate (see table):
Type of money
|
Rate for 1 US$
|
| Official Cash |
42 S£ |
| Traveller cheques Black |
47 S£ |
| Black market Cash |
50-52 S£ |
Where to change money ?
Official Market You could of course simply go to a bank, but this can take some time.
There are 2 official exchange boots where you can easily get some money without too much hassle:
- At the Hejaz railwaystation
- at the Martyr's Square
If you get stuck at night, you can still go to a big hotel like the Cham Palace Hotels where you can always change money, but at a slightly lower rate.
Black market We changed 3 times on the black market. A well known place is the Martyr's Square where you will often get offers to change money. The same goes for the bazaar.
We changed twice at our hotel, not at the reception but with someone of their personnel who probably makes some money doing this.
We never had problems with being cheated.We also changed once in a small pub in Maalula.
While leaving the country, they didn't check how much we had officially changed.
Currency converter If you want to know the actual official rate, go to this currency converter
http://www.oanda.com/cgi-bin/travel
Transportation
Bus
Karnak busThese are the buses of a government-run agency. They have big, comfortable though somewhat older buses going from 1 city to another. They are not really frequent, and they can be fully booked, so make reservations preferably 1 day ahead.
Pullman busThese are either bigger buses or small Japanese minibuses of a somewhat better quality. We didn't often take them, since we never quite understood where to catch them.
MicrobusThese are smaller uncomfortable buses. we often took them. They have the advantage that they were very frequent, so we never had to wait more then 5 or 10 minutes. They were also very cheap.
Local busesThese are bigger buses with plenty of lights and texts like "Allah is great" etc... Try to avoid these buses. First of all it takes some time before they fill up, and secondly they tend to stop everywhere, making their average speed very low.
TaxiTaxis are very cheap for transport within the city, f.i. to go to the bus station. Usual fare is about 20 tot 30 S£
For larger distances however like Maalula-Sydnaia they can be much more expensive (200 to 300 S£ for 25 km).
Go on to "General info 2"
