We drive to Amman on our way to Jerash. We are on the highway just passing through when we see “Carrefour” in bright lights. With squealing wheels we exit the highway to go shopping! With a lot of self control we make it out of there for just less than 50Euro. We continue driving to Jerash. There is a lot of produce being sold on the side of the road but the most prevalent (and popular judging from the number of cars pulled over) is something green. We try to get a look as we fly by. Green beans? Okra? Curiosity gets the better of us and we stop. It is 1.5 Dinar per kilo for whatever it is. We try one and still don’t know what it is. Something bean shaped, green and fuzzy and people can’t get enough of them. Megan?? You’ll have to let us know. In Jerash we were hoping to see the chariot racing demonstration with army formations and gladiator ‘fighting’ as the warm up. Maybe Julia thought that Russell Crowe might make a cameo appearance. Alas, it is Friday so there is only one showing and we’ve missed it. We decide to drive on to the border and cross to Syria. It is amazing the distances we can cover with the good roads and tame traffic. 600km would have taken us 3 days in Ethiopia! Jordan immigration and customs for departure is even more pleasant and efficient than on arrival. First to immigration where we pay departure tax (5JD per passport and for the vehicle), then we are stamped out by immigration and then customs stamps the carnet. The guys at customs share their pumpkin seeds with us and ask us about our trip and then we are on our way. We drive through the no mans land and Stanley wonders about the possibility of camping there (for free?). Syria Immigration is the first building. Julia, Stanley and Eowyn all have the Syria visa in a second passport and it is the only visa or stamp entered. The official takes one look and says “you have other passports”? We do and hand them over. They are looking for any evidence that we have been to Israel/Occupied Palestine (depending on who you’re talking to). If they have any evidence or even suspicion that we have been there we will be refused entry. We haven’t so we don’t expect a problem even with the double passports. We are asked to sit and wait while they review all the passports and we need to fill in some forms in duplicate. After we have completed the forms we are called back to the counter and the officer says “Go back to Jordan”. Uhhhh, what? “Go back to Jordan and get the departure stamp in the passport with the Syrian visa”. They were very pleasant about it but explained they can’t issue their stamp without a stamp from the previous country in the same passport. So we get back in the car and drive back to Jordan. They officials on the Jordan side didn’t seem surprised that we’d been turned back and asked what the reason was. They were very helpful and one of the officials at the entry gate accompanied us through the offices to explain what we needed. We had to pay the departure tax again but we had the new stamps in about 15 minutes and were on our way back to Syria.
After we get stamped into Syria we go to customs. We were met by and agent (who didn’t identify himself as an agent which was confusing because we thought he worked there) but it is not necessary at all to use an agent as the officers working there are helpful and the process straightforward. At first glance customs seemed to consist of three men sitting around a small table drinking some strange tea. They looked at our Carnet and sent us into a building. In one building there is a currency exchange and a window for the insurance and a road tax. The man at the exchange calculated (correctly!) what we would need for insurance, road tax and diesel tax. It is necessary to change that amount of money at least as you must pay in Syrian Pounds. The diesel tax is $100 and the insurance and road tax $51 for our vehicle (for 1 month which is the minimum amount of time possible to purchase). There is one final stop to get the carnet stamped and we are on our way. We make the drive to Damascus in about 3 hours. Find the campsite (after a lot of looking!) and cook up a delicious late meal with all our goodies from Carrefour. (New Kaboun Camping N33˚ 31,781; E36˚ 21,889 after Skoda Dealer).
Note: There were 3 American guys waiting at the immigration in Syria (two sleeping and one reading a book - indicating they had been there for some time)... It turns out they arrived at the crossing without a visa. We saw them the next day in Damascus and said they had been able to obtain a visa at the border but it took about 15 hours (required faxes from the Embassy, etc) so it isn’t fast but in their case it was possible.
