مدونة إيكار – رياح التغيير

Dear visitor …

I would like to welcome you and your family ( in case you brought them with you ) in your alternative home … SYRIA …

Syria is the cradle of civilizations as you may have heard back there in your country, we are proud of that, even though we might have lost the place that we once had as leaders in lots of scientific fields, but we are working on getting this place back.

We are glad that you chose our country to visit, the purpose of your visit might either be for tourism or for commercial purposes, whatever your real purpose was, me and my friends would like to welcome you here …

I can see that you have already discovered that this place is much different from your home town, there are lots of rules and stuff to learn so you can get accustomed to this country, but wait, we are a bunch of young and helpful guys who decided to give you some nice and useful hints to use them while you are here, believe me stranger, these tips will become very handy in some situations, not only a money saving tips, but also they might save your life one day … is that true ?

I don’t want to give you some stupid information about the capital, population, main cities, climate and other geographical and historical data, just google these things on the net and you will find millions of websites talking about those facts, but what I am trying to give you here is something lot different, something that you can only find in this thread, even your personal tour guide might not give you this kind of information, I am not telling you to stop trusting him, but you might not be the guy whom he cares about the most after all.

Just keep on reading and decide for yourself …

100 Roses my friend

TAXI – 1

Yup .. you have lots of these things in your country, you might not have used them unless it was an emergency or your vehicle was down for some reason, but here, those things will be your daily travel method, I think that you already discovered that renting a car was kind of a stupid idea ..

1- high rental prices : especially that you could not help looking as a foreigner with your distinguished accent, so the shop owner naturally gave you a price which is 3 times the one he usually asks for, and he might have also swore by his kid’s life and that he will divorce his wife ( typical Syrian ways in swearing !!) that this price is the lowest in the middle east .. and I think that you believed him as you thought that some extra pennies are not worth his kid’s life or his marriage ..but I am sorry to say that you were fooled ..

2- Fuel problems: it is not the fuel price , I think that your country also has a high fuel price, this is a common problem in the whole world, but I think that you noticed that this queue of cars that started 3 km far from the Fuel station ends there, you think that you lost half of the fuel tank waiting for your turn ? well let me tell you what happened, we had more Fuel stations than the current ones, but some stupid fuel stations’ owners were smuggling our precious oil to nearby countries, those !@#!!#$ bastards are using our fuel ( which is supported by tax payer’s money ) for their personal benefits, so their stations were shut down, those bastards deserved it …

What ?? you think that the citizens were the ones punished by this move as they have to waste three more hours every time they need to refuel because it was not a bright idea to close those stations without allowing new stations to open to cover the loss of supply ? , no no no no, remove those silly thoughts from your brain.

3- Yeah, you guessed this one right, it was easier to walk to the place you wanted to go than finding a parking for the vehicle, and you may have noticed that all Schumacher’s ancestors are born in this country, if you managed to safely guide your car through all those perfect and well mannered drivers, I dare you to find a place to park this car , driving rules are just for passing the exam ( no one asks about them even at the driving license exam ) …

Ah, and regarding the policemen you asked me about, try to avoid each and everyone of them, change your driving course if possible, they are here to make your life worse, just think of the poor sheep that fell into the hands of a hungry wolf, just keep your seat belts on and try to keep a fire extinguisher and a medical kit inside the car and always pray that your car’s plates are clean, if they managed to pull you over for any reason ( they have lots) you might want to ask your tour guide on the ways of handling this situation because I’m afraid that I can’t write them here.

Now I’m perfectly sure that you won’t think anymore of using a personal car or a rented car to drive, so, I’m going to tell you now how to deal with local taxis. Keep following this thread

P.S : information contained in the above article is a fictional opinion and is not based on any scientific or historical events, and doesn’t even express the opinion of the writer himself !!! so read at your own risk