Syria, Wadi Rum, Splitting the Bill

Syria: Highlights (I went quite a while ago, but I can’t just pass this over! I’m going to try and be a fervent blogger for you guys during the next two weeks, since I LEAVE IN 12 DAYS!)

1. Everything.
2. Watching the world’s oldest living 1001 Nights storyteller do one of his daily shows.

3. The city of Aleppo, which I just liked the feel of.

4. Damascus, the old city. I don’t even know how to explain how cool it is. People kept telling me, “Syria is like what you imagined when you pictured going to the Arab world back in the states.” But what did that mean to me? I thought as hard as I could and couldn’t really pull up the mental picture I had before. I’m not sure I really had one that was too specific. I mean, really the only thing I had to go on were music videos from my Egyptian Arabic class and Aladdin…and Syria isn’t really reminiscent of either of those things. Maybe Aladdin in some places if you have an over-active imagination. But it is so cool.
5. Looking over the whole of the city.

6. Food/coffee of course.
7. This bus that was upholstered with Spiderman towels.

8. The fact that people didn’t constantly try to speak English with us!

Interesting story: While we were in Syria, we told everyone we were Canadian to avoid trouble. For the most part, it wasn’t questioned. One day, however, we took a cab into downtown Aleppo and as we got out, we all pulled change from our wallets to pay the driver our part of the fare. He looked us up and down. “Where are you from again?” he said. We told him Canada for the second time. “You are American,” he said. We protested. “Whatever you say,” he replied, “but do you know how I know you are American? Because you all paid separately for yourselves.”

So there’s some food for thought. This is a BIG cultural difference between the Middle East and America, by the way. Talking details about money makes people here extreeeeemely uncomfortable, and usually one person just pays for everyone and it works itself out later. Maybe in places like restaurants, people split (but usually not). However, anything smaller than that is not for dividing. People get uncomfortable when we split things, like it is shameful, as if we were incredibly greedy and penny-pinching. We’re not…it’s just a difference in habits.

What surprised me is that apparently Canadians don’t do that…I didn’t know it was just an American thing. I still don’t quite believe it is…

MOVING on quickly to where I went this weekend: Wadi Rum. If you come to Jordan, go to Wadi Rum. It is where Laurence of Arabia was filmed, and you basically pay to ride around in a jeep all day and sleep in a big tent in the middle of nowhere. The views were stunning.

Not going to lie – my favorite part might have been the BEDOUIN KITTENS!!
Not that Bedouin kittens are any different, but I have found throughout my travels that adding the word Bedouin to things makes them ten times better. The Jordanian tourist industry has also realized this.

I can’t believe I haven’t ridden a camel here. This is a huge problem. Somehow, riding tired tourist camels doesn’t seem very glamorous. But I guess there’s not much difference between riding a tired tourist camel and riding a tired camel in an exotic spice caravan in ancient times. Caravan camels were more tired if anything…glamor is not so much a factor in the life of a camel.

I do love looking at camels though…they are such interesting animals and move so strangely. They remind me of dinosaurs. Once I got to see two baby camels frolicking in a field with their mothers. I don’t think I actually need to see anything else now in life…I am complete. Everything that I see now is just a bonus.