Reminiscence from the Levant: Part Thirteen – Crossing the border to reach Jordan
There is little public transport between Maloola and Sadanaya… sometimes on Sunday a few buses run from Maloola to Sadanaya… otherwise one has to book an entire bus for going to Sadanaya.
For any Christian family… going to either Sadanaya or Maloola is a family picnic too… so I saw that many families had booked an entire bus for a day trip to Maloola and then to Sadanaya… and then back to Damascus. I could have hitched on to one of these, if I had tried hard… but didn’t feel like being a gate-crasher… instead I decided to go back to Damascus… outside the church I entered a trinket shop and purchased some beautiful mementos.
By the time I got back to Damascus, it was three in the afternoon… during the ride I had almost decided that I will proceed to Amman and stay there for the night, before moving to Madaba. But upon reaching Devesh's house…. I started having two thoughts… I wondered why to leave this creature comfort and reach Amman in the morning, rather stay here at night and reach Amman in morning and then proceed to Madaba. In the hindsight… it would not have made much of a difference… though crossing the border in the dead of the night is a surreal experience.
There are two options of crossing over… either by a taxi or by a bus… bus even though cheaper is very slow… compared to the taxi… prefer a shared taxi. The taxi that I boarded was amusing… it was driven by an Iraqi driver. The four passengers were from four different nationalities- A middle aged Syrian, a young Yemeni who was visiting Damascus on a business trip, a Malaysian student who studied in Irbid… and then me- an Indian traveler. Five people, five nationalities… it doesn’t get better than this. You realize that Iraqis are light hearted guys who love to joke, Yemeni are often joked upon by others and yet they are the most sporting guys, Syrians are the very generous by nature and the Malaysians are very serious and no-nonsense guys but very concerned about others. I may be generalizing, but that is how they all behaved. It was a great observational exercise.
Crossing the border by land is an interesting exercise… in other modes of country-hopping the exit from country of departure and entry into the country of arrival, is often separated by a time gap… in land crossing it is not the case… you see a lot of interesting things… how trucks are lined up, how there is a no-man's zone, how things happen… how people carry so much stuff and how it is often pain in the neck for customs people to clear all of them. And experience it all.
Back in Palmyra, in the night when I was asleep in the hotel… I felt thirsty… and I did something ridiculous- drinking water directly from the tap… this folly started showing its effect while I was going towards Amman. I had a terrible stomach upset… so much so that the driver and the Syrian gentleman offered me to take to a doctor in Irbid and then proceed towards Amman.
Well those are two references of Irbid, now. Irbid is a border town in Jordan, famous for its educational institutions and a wonderful museum. It also serves as a base to explore the ruins of Pella and cross over to Israel from the Jordan River crossing. It is said that the nicest view of Jordan River is through this border crossing. Upstream the river is in the disputed areas of Golan Heights, and therefore out of bounds… and downstream it is sapped of its splendour- when successive dams take away most of its water for irrigation and other activities…. It is said that the future Palestinian state in West Bank will have only this river as a source of water… and because most of its water is taken away before it enters the Palestinian Territories, the fate of Jordan River is also a matter of dispute between Israel and Arabs. It is said that the only source of fresh water inlet to Dead Sea is this river (I believed so, but I discovered something else on my way to Petra through the King's Highway)… And because this stream has reduced to a trickle, Dead Sea is dying very fast. How fast is something I realized only when I reached the Dead Sea.
My wife had kept a few medicines for me in my bag… luckily I was able to locate them and took a medicine for stomach upset… it took me two full days to fight it out… I had often read travel guides advising that one should stick to bottled water, while traveling… but only now did I realize that it can get really bad if one does not follow the advice. Anyway, luckily this stomach upset hardly upsetted any of my plans… just that, I needed to be extra-cautious, going to lavatory just before venturing out of the hotel.
It was a strange feeling when I was leaving Syria… I had spent few of the best days of my life in this country… and perhaps I would not ever come back to Syria… but that is life… travelers should not get attached to a place, but aren’t travelers humans too. I wonder what it would feel like when I will leave Egypt, forever.
The Syrian border authorities were very nice this time… one of the officers asked me if I had a nice stay in Syria… I smiled and nodded. The border post had a huge poster of Bashar Al Asad, the Syrian President waving us good bye. (Syria is replete with his posters… big and larger than life… but every time I saw any of his posters, I thought –this man needs a better image manager… all his posters represent him in very animated and artificial poses… he is always alone and forlorn… adding to his dictatorial image… contrast him with Jordanian King who had carefully carved out a different image for himself… he is always seen in the posters with his family… thus adding to his benevolent image. Personally whenever I saw the face of Bashar Al Asad, he came across as a nice human being with a degree of innocence and benevolence…. Who would have loved to rule benevolently but for the historical baggage he inherited.)
A little ahead was a duty free shop, my driver bought two cartons of Benson and Hedges and hid it in every place possible… giving us two-three pack each to carry as personal wares… it seems that cigarettes are expensive in Jordan.A little ahead Jordan begun… the road got slightly better, street lights definitely better and then came a huge poster of King Abdullah II with his family… and his wife Queen Rania.
I was approaching the land of Queen Rania… whom I consider the epitome of feminine grace and strength… a very beautiful lady, Lady Diana of the Middle East. She also studied in American University in Cairo… so we share the Universities too. Over here people respect her; girls cite her name as a role model. So here I was in her land.
For any Christian family… going to either Sadanaya or Maloola is a family picnic too… so I saw that many families had booked an entire bus for a day trip to Maloola and then to Sadanaya… and then back to Damascus. I could have hitched on to one of these, if I had tried hard… but didn’t feel like being a gate-crasher… instead I decided to go back to Damascus… outside the church I entered a trinket shop and purchased some beautiful mementos.
By the time I got back to Damascus, it was three in the afternoon… during the ride I had almost decided that I will proceed to Amman and stay there for the night, before moving to Madaba. But upon reaching Devesh's house…. I started having two thoughts… I wondered why to leave this creature comfort and reach Amman in the morning, rather stay here at night and reach Amman in morning and then proceed to Madaba. In the hindsight… it would not have made much of a difference… though crossing the border in the dead of the night is a surreal experience.
There are two options of crossing over… either by a taxi or by a bus… bus even though cheaper is very slow… compared to the taxi… prefer a shared taxi. The taxi that I boarded was amusing… it was driven by an Iraqi driver. The four passengers were from four different nationalities- A middle aged Syrian, a young Yemeni who was visiting Damascus on a business trip, a Malaysian student who studied in Irbid… and then me- an Indian traveler. Five people, five nationalities… it doesn’t get better than this. You realize that Iraqis are light hearted guys who love to joke, Yemeni are often joked upon by others and yet they are the most sporting guys, Syrians are the very generous by nature and the Malaysians are very serious and no-nonsense guys but very concerned about others. I may be generalizing, but that is how they all behaved. It was a great observational exercise.
Crossing the border by land is an interesting exercise… in other modes of country-hopping the exit from country of departure and entry into the country of arrival, is often separated by a time gap… in land crossing it is not the case… you see a lot of interesting things… how trucks are lined up, how there is a no-man's zone, how things happen… how people carry so much stuff and how it is often pain in the neck for customs people to clear all of them. And experience it all.
Back in Palmyra, in the night when I was asleep in the hotel… I felt thirsty… and I did something ridiculous- drinking water directly from the tap… this folly started showing its effect while I was going towards Amman. I had a terrible stomach upset… so much so that the driver and the Syrian gentleman offered me to take to a doctor in Irbid and then proceed towards Amman.
Well those are two references of Irbid, now. Irbid is a border town in Jordan, famous for its educational institutions and a wonderful museum. It also serves as a base to explore the ruins of Pella and cross over to Israel from the Jordan River crossing. It is said that the nicest view of Jordan River is through this border crossing. Upstream the river is in the disputed areas of Golan Heights, and therefore out of bounds… and downstream it is sapped of its splendour- when successive dams take away most of its water for irrigation and other activities…. It is said that the future Palestinian state in West Bank will have only this river as a source of water… and because most of its water is taken away before it enters the Palestinian Territories, the fate of Jordan River is also a matter of dispute between Israel and Arabs. It is said that the only source of fresh water inlet to Dead Sea is this river (I believed so, but I discovered something else on my way to Petra through the King's Highway)… And because this stream has reduced to a trickle, Dead Sea is dying very fast. How fast is something I realized only when I reached the Dead Sea.
My wife had kept a few medicines for me in my bag… luckily I was able to locate them and took a medicine for stomach upset… it took me two full days to fight it out… I had often read travel guides advising that one should stick to bottled water, while traveling… but only now did I realize that it can get really bad if one does not follow the advice. Anyway, luckily this stomach upset hardly upsetted any of my plans… just that, I needed to be extra-cautious, going to lavatory just before venturing out of the hotel.
It was a strange feeling when I was leaving Syria… I had spent few of the best days of my life in this country… and perhaps I would not ever come back to Syria… but that is life… travelers should not get attached to a place, but aren’t travelers humans too. I wonder what it would feel like when I will leave Egypt, forever.
The Syrian border authorities were very nice this time… one of the officers asked me if I had a nice stay in Syria… I smiled and nodded. The border post had a huge poster of Bashar Al Asad, the Syrian President waving us good bye. (Syria is replete with his posters… big and larger than life… but every time I saw any of his posters, I thought –this man needs a better image manager… all his posters represent him in very animated and artificial poses… he is always alone and forlorn… adding to his dictatorial image… contrast him with Jordanian King who had carefully carved out a different image for himself… he is always seen in the posters with his family… thus adding to his benevolent image. Personally whenever I saw the face of Bashar Al Asad, he came across as a nice human being with a degree of innocence and benevolence…. Who would have loved to rule benevolently but for the historical baggage he inherited.)
A little ahead was a duty free shop, my driver bought two cartons of Benson and Hedges and hid it in every place possible… giving us two-three pack each to carry as personal wares… it seems that cigarettes are expensive in Jordan.A little ahead Jordan begun… the road got slightly better, street lights definitely better and then came a huge poster of King Abdullah II with his family… and his wife Queen Rania.
I was approaching the land of Queen Rania… whom I consider the epitome of feminine grace and strength… a very beautiful lady, Lady Diana of the Middle East. She also studied in American University in Cairo… so we share the Universities too. Over here people respect her; girls cite her name as a role model. So here I was in her land.
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