Flat Mallory's Last Stand and Syria Round Up

Flat Mallory's Last Stand

As I was finishing up my tour of Syria, I had an e-mail discussion with Mallory's father, Steve, about getting Flat Mallory home.  Mallory's project was due on April 30 and Flat Mallory needed to be back in Owosso for the festivities.  I was initially thinking that I would send Flat Mallory home after my trip to Petra in Jordan.  Then I started thinking about it.  Sure, Flat Mallory had been to many cool places.  It is likely she has been to more countries than you have been to. But do third graders know where Palymra is?  Do they know what Petra looks like? Probably not but they all know the pyramids of Egypt.  I ran a plan by Steve that would get Flat Mallory to the Pyramids and back to Owosso in time for the event.  All I needed to do was change a few plans and hope everything worked out. 

Yes, a paper doll was dictating my itinerary.  We went to Petra and then worked our way south towards the Gulf of Aqaba.  We took the ferry over to Egypt and then a seven hour bus ride up to Cairo.  The next day I took Flat Mallory to the Pyramids of Giza.  Mission Accomplished.  Unlike our former President, I didn't put up the banner just yet.  I needed to get her to DHL so she could go home.  DHL is closed on Fridays in the Middle East so I would need to send it the next day.  I went to the DHL office on Saturday and it was closed.  I walked three miles to the Federal Express office.  It was closed.  Why? It was a national holiday in Egypt.  Whoops! 

The next day I was on a flight to Abu Simbel and I would be getting into Aswan in the late afternoon.  The city only had a DHL office and it closed at 5pm.  It was our only window.  If it went out the following day, Flat Mallory would miss the event.  Now gentle reader, I am pretty laid back but knowing that you could disappoint a third grader who was depending on you is pressure.  We got to Aswan after 3 pm and by the time I found the DHL it was well after 4pm.  I am quite sure the manager at DHL thought I was crazy to be using a courier service to send a paper doll back to the US.  I made him promise me three times that Flat Mallory would be back in time.

As Rule #1 of Singh Around the World states everything will work out in the end.  It did.  Flat Mallory survived a vicious attack by an ostrich where she lost her arm.  She had been folded a dozen different ways over the months.  She survived a kidnapping at the hands of some young backpackers in Tanzania.  She survived on her own when I left her at an internet cafe by accident.  In the end, she made it back home in time for the class activity.  I am quite sure she was the furthest traveled by thousands of miles then any of her counterparts.  Flat Mallory, I shall miss you.

Small World Experience in Syria
I was at an internet cafe in Damascus "skypeing" with a few of my colleagues at Public Policy Associates.  I have started to prepare myself for the working world during the past two months.  Near the end of our call the electricity went out.  I looked at the women at the computer terminal next to me in frustration and we started talking.  She told me that she over heard me talking about Battle Creek and the Kellogg Foundation and asked if I knew her old boss, Rick Little.  I started laughing. I didn't know him well but I had met Rick when he was the CEO of the International Youth Foundation. After the internet cafe, we had dinner that night and found out there were at least four or five other people we knew in common.  She had done some work with Rick on a project called the League and I had served on its founding board when it was just a small program in Michigan in the mid 1990's.  Another small world experience!

Don't Eat Here

I went to this restaurant for lunch one day in Damascus.  It was a decent meal of chicken, salad, hummus and bread.  I got the bill and was surprised at the cost.  It seemed very high but I went ahead and paid it.  While I was waiting for my change, I did the math in my head.  It was three times the amount I had thought it should be.  When the waiter came back, I told him that there was something wrong with amount.  He looked at me blankly claiming not to speak English.  I asked for the menu and made a gesture for it.  He went back to the front of the restaurant and was gone for five minutes.  He eventually came out with a menu.  I turned to the page where my meal was written and the price was crossed off with a pen and written over it was a new price.  It was comical.  I don't know if he thought it would work but I looked at him and just stared.  He put his head down realizing that he had been caught.  He went back and got me the right change.  It was the only negative experience that I had in Syria.

A Quick Tour of Syrian Ancient Sites

The Quick Tour
                       Pictured:The Qala'at ibn Maan castle overlooking the Temple of Ba'al-Shamin.

After spending a few days in Damascus, I made a quick tour of three historic areas in other parts of Syria.  My first stop was the ancient city of Palmyra. 

Palmyra (Arabic: تدمر Tadmor‎) was in ancient times an important city of central Syria, located in an oasis 215 km northeast of Damascus and 120 km southwest of the Euphrates. It has long been a vital caravan city for travellers crossing the Syrian desert and was known as the Bride of the Desert.

In the mid-first century, Palmyra, a wealthy and elegant city located along the caravan routes linking Persia with the Mediterranean ports of Roman Syria and Phoenicia, came under Roman control. During the following period of great prosperity, the Aramaean and Arab inhabitants of Palmyra adopted customs and modes of dress from both the Iranian Parthian world to the east and the west.Graeco-Roman. Tadmor is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible (Second Book of Chronicles 8:4) as a desert city built (or fortified) by the King Solomon of Judea, the son of David. (Wikipedia)  

                      Pictured: Crac des Chevaliers from its fortification wall.

The next stop was the famous castle of Crac des Chevaliers. Crac des Chevaliers is a Crusader fortress in Syria and one of the most important preserved medieval military castles in the world. The castle is located east of Tripoli, Lebanon, in the Hims Gap, atop a 650-metre-high hill along the only route from Antioch to Beirut and the Mediterranean Sea. It is one of many fortresses that were part of a defensive network along the border of the old Crusader states. The fortress controlled the road to the Mediterranean, and from this base, the Hospitallers could exert some influence over Lake Homs to the east to control the fishing industry and watch for Muslim armies gathering in Syria. (Wikipedia)

                 Pictured: The ruins of Apemia, Syria.

The last stop on the three day tour was the ruins of Apemia.  As I was exploring the sites, two bus loads of school children had come to visit as well.  It was a national holiday, Syrian National Day.  A few of the young boys approached me and started to ask me questions in English.  "What is your name?"  "What is your favorite subject?"  "What is your favorite sport?"  "Where are you from?"  They loved the fact that my name was Samir.  They started parading behind me chanting my name. "Samir! Samir!"  Every once in a while their friends would come over, the leader would tell them that I was from America or that my favorite subject was history.  Soon I had thirty kids following me chanting.  Eventually, a very embarrassed teacher came running over and started yelling at the kids.  I told him that everything was fine but he kept apologizing for their behavior.

An American in Syria

I was at a cafe in Damascus having lunch when an older German women said something to me in German.  I understood the gist of what she was asking but I responded in English.  She looked at my with a puzzled look and asked me where I was from and I told her, "the USA."  She said in a sarcastic way, "I thought you Americans were not allowed to visit countries that are part of the Axis of Evil."  I quickly replied, "Well technically Syria is not an Axis of Evil country, it is a rogue nation.  It is like being a little brother and never getting any recognition and having to go to bed early."  She continued to look at me in a puzzled way as she walked away from my table.  Obscure political humor never goes over well but it amuses me and that's all that counts.

I found everywhere that I went that Syrians and other travelers were surprised that I was from America.  Other than tour groups which are usually quite isolated, there are not many independent travelers that hail from the USA in Syria.  People were very nice and always had questions for me. "Did I like their country?" or "Did I like Obama?" but I was surprised when one Syrian asked me why "Americans hated his country."  We had a long conversation about Americans not hating his country but how we were concerned with the actions of the government.  I had to laugh when he responded, "Oh, we are the same then.  We have many questions about our government too."  Too often we cloud the actions of one's government with its people. 

I am not sure where our foreign policy will go with Syria over the next year but it will be one that has to be delicately crafted.   I am not opposed to sanctions and direct rhetoric with Syria but I can't imagine creating comic book categories for countries is effective foreign policy.  I am not sure former US Ambassador to the UN John Bolton's adding Syria to the category of "Rogue Nations" was effective but at least Superman, Batman and the other guys at the Justice League now know who the bad guys are. 

As President Obama's envoys engage in their second visit to Syria since the beginning of the year, a decision on whether we will reinstate our US Ambassador in Damascus will be on the table. Not having an Ambassador leaves an important void of American influence in this region.  Just at the end of the week, Obama announced that he would continue the sanctions that were instituted during the Bush administration. The action squarely announces that if the Syrians want to change the relationship, they will have to show meaningful change and not the status quo.

In the end, it is really time for Syria to decide which direction they want to head.  They can not continue to play both sides of the fence. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is often quoted about wanting a stronger relationship with the US and peace with Israel but then the next day he is promoting a nuclear Iran.  If Syria was serious about stabilizing the region, they could be a key mediator and instrumental in the process.  Their influence with Tehran is an important piece of the puzzle, as we work on direct diplomacy with Iran.  The next few months will be telling which direction Syria and the US will head under the Obama administration.

Mission Impossible: Getting Into Syria

Syria was next on my list. I wanted to go to the country but everything I was reading was making me doubtful that I would be able to obtain a visa.   My Lonely Planet Guide mentioned that Americans and British were required to get their visas from the Syrian Embassy in their home country.  I had an American friend who tried to get a visa at the border a few years back and was turned away.   I guess it didn't help when the Bush administration added Syria to a companion group of the "Axis of Evil" the infamous "Rogue State" status.

I didn't have time to send my passport back to the US.  I, also, was heading to Israel and needed to go to Syria first.  Syria is one of those countries that will refuse entry if there is any indication that you have visited Israel.  Though there are ways to get around that by asking the Israeli immigration not to stamp your passport, I wasn't going to be taking any chances.

I was told by one of the UN staffers that I hung out with after the Dead Sea Half Marathon, that sometimes the border officials will relax the rules and allow Americans and British to get visas there. He told me it could be a long wait and they can, in the end, deny you entry but it was worth the try.

So I was ready to take on the challenge of getting into Syria. I was armed with the fact "Rule # 1of Singh Around the World--Everything Works in the End" hadn't let me down recently. I practiced my immigration smile and hoped that something an Egyptian once told me would be helpful in my interaction with the Syrian border official.  When the Egyptian Immigration official read my name "Samir Singh" in my US passport a few months ago he said, "You have a great name for a traveler. Your first name is Arabic. Your surname is from India and you have an American passport.  You can go anywhere."  It was time for me to test his theory.

I took a joint taxi with three Jordanian passengers to the Syrian border. I went up to the counter and pled my case. I was lectured for a while by the official that the rules clearly stated that I needed to get my visa in the US.  I told him that I didn't have the opportunity with my travels to get a visa from the US and that I was hoping to be able to get one at the border so I wouldn't miss out on visiting his country.  I gave the smile and hoped that the next sentence out of his mouth would not contain the word "no."  No matter what he said as long as the word 'no' was not part of it, I had a chance.  He told me that he could fax my application to Damascus and wait for their approval.  He said it could be anywhere from three to eight hours and in the end the answer could still be no.  I told him that I was willing to wait for however long that it took. 

He then looked at my passport and then the application. 

"Samir is your name?"

"Yes, it is."

" Where is your family originally from?"

"India, sir."

"Ahh, India. Namaste."

"Namaste." 

I smiled because I knew I was in.  "Egyptian Immigration Theory" passed the test. The Syrian immigration official told me to take a seat and wait for the reply from Damascus.  I went out to my taxi and told them to go on without me because I would be awhile.  One of the passengers wished me luck and told me that next time there would be no wait because Obama would "fix everything."  I didn't have time to worry about Obama's policy for Syria because now I was stuck at the border without a ride to Damascus.

But just as Rule # 1 states, it all worked out in the end.  Two American students from George Washington University who had been studying in Egypt came into immigration and needed to have some paperwork done before their visas were given to them.  They had their own taxi waiting for them and they were headed to Damascus.  I only waited for two and 1/2 hours in the end and the two students and their taxi driver dropped me off at my hotel in Damascus.