Down the highway in a big yellow valiant…. To Damascus!!

Actually, I wasn’t in a big yellow valiant, but I was jealous of the people who were, and the cars weren’t exactly valiants but they looked like them! I drove to Damascus on Sunday from Amman- it is less than 3 hours from Amman. All the Damascus-Amman taxis are these hilarious yellow beasts of cars which looks like big old valiants or something like that (not being a car person can’t be more specific, but think, big, wide and yellow).The road from Amman to the border is essentially desert (as is most of Jordan) but once you hit Syria it seems to get more fertile and the road fills up of all these trucks laden with fantastic looking veges (we had to dodge a few apples and capsicums coming off the back). I spent two nights in Damascus, near the old city. I am pleased to say that Damascus completely lived up to expectations in terms of being a fascinating and what you imagine an old Arab city to be. I spent most of my time wandering through the old city and the souks, which I think you could just do endlessly and still find more fascinating and beautiful things. The nicest thing about Syria was how lovely and gentle the people where. In one walk of about 2 hours I counted about 10 people who I met and who did something nice for me, from the woman who helped me ask for apple juice in Arabic (tufah) and then walked me the few blocks to the place I wanted to go, and then turns out she spent 30 years living in Bankstown and then returned to her beloved Syria once her children were grown up), to the young artist who gave me directions, then showed me his little gallery and then directed me to a lovely hidden little café where I could find some nice lunch. With everyone I met there just seemed to be this unique gentleness.