Solo Entering the New Syria (After the Dictator Fell)

Harry crosses into Syria overland from Beirut, months after the government fell, and the line the video turns on is that this could not have been done at any point in his life until now: Syria required a tour guide and permission, and he is walking round Damascus alone.

Everything practical in it is useful — the land border removes the visa, dollars work directly, the street exchange rate beats the bank, and sanctions mean no phone data of any kind. And the honest part is the safety question, where his own read and a policeman’s flatly contradict each other and he prints both.

Key moments

• [00:00] The plan, and the visa rule he’s been told: British citizens need one to fly in, and the land border stamps you free.
• [01:06] He pays for the empty seats in the shared taxi rather than wait an hour for it to fill.
• [01:38] Through the border in about half an hour. The questions were about his stamps, not his visa — and Nigeria, oddly, causes more trouble than Afghanistan or Somalia.
• [02:10] Two passports, because one holds stamps the US doesn’t like.
• [02:47] Country number 67.
• [03:18] The Syrian pound exists and dollars are king.
• [04:41] Straight out of the border into the middle of the city, with no data and no idea where the hotel is — which he says is the point of a land border.
• [05:14] The empty plinth in the square. The statue has been taken down.
• [05:47] More women on the street without hijab than he expected, and Christians out for Easter.
• [06:17] No eSIM works here at all — the one country where his usual advice doesn’t apply.
• [06:49] Syria’s sweets, which his Lebanese friend concedes beat Lebanon’s.
• [07:24] Lost in the souk, in the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world, and enjoying it.
• [07:56] On security: heavily controlled, lots of armed personnel in and out of uniform, and he isn’t going to shove a camera in their faces.
• [08:28] Damascus feels safe; outside it he doesn’t know yet.
• [10:09] A 500-year-old boutique hotel built round a courtyard and a fountain.
• [11:50] $130 a night — expensive for Syria, which he puts down to sanctions.
• [12:23] The society is more mixed than the statistics suggest.
• [13:01] What sanctions and a decade of war have done, and a new government attempting reform.
• [13:34] The fear, named: that Syria becomes another Libya or Iraq, where the dictator fell and things got worse.
• [14:08] Billions arriving from the EU and the UK, against an estimated $300 billion needed to recover.
• [14:38] His observation about poverty everywhere: people adapt, and the people here are no sadder than people in England — possibly happier.
• [14:38] Changing money: 10,800 to the dollar, against 11,000 quoted online.
• [15:12] $100 makes him a millionaire, in a stack too big to carry comfortably. He doesn’t count it.
• [15:42] Why the street rate exists — the bank rate is bad and this is what Syrians use.
• [16:22] A shoe cleaner who speaks English, Turkish and Arabic.
• [16:50] Harry can’t follow the price in pounds and names his own — about $1.
• [17:23] 35 years in the job, and he’s 44.
• [17:23] Asked whether life is better before or after Assad: after.
• [19:16] Harry gives him $100, and is immediately asked for another 100.
• [20:25] He buys a young policeman a shawarma, and gets offered something back.
• [20:58] The policeman’s answer on safety: not safe. Not Damascus, not anywhere in the country. Harry calls it not reassuring and records it anyway.
• [21:33] The new Syrian flag, which he prefers — and which has no emoji yet.
• [23:14] Nightlife in Damascus: bars, clubs and tattoo shops, which he flags as not what people expect here.
• [24:19] A mosque, a church and a row of small bars within sight of each other — Damascus in a nutshell.
• [25:19] The thing he keeps coming back to: you could not travel this country solo at any point in his life until now.
• [26:22] Back into the indoor souk, looking for knafeh.
• [27:31] A candy-floss-like pulled sweet, which he rates well above candy floss.
• [28:08] A seller declines to be filmed so politely that Harry calls it the most respectful refusal he’s had.
• [29:17] Roman ruins standing in the middle of the market, unfenced — because there’s so much history here nobody has bothered.
• [29:49] The range of faces: Iraqi, Arab, and some he says look English.
• [30:22] He invites locals to eat with him and they pay for him instead.
• [30:52] Knafeh — soft cheese, bread, crisp top, syrup, hot — and the Lebanon comparison.

Extracted pages

• Place: Damascus
• Country: Syria
• Tips: Judge a place for yourself, When people don’t want to be filmed, Insist on paying, Carry a foreign eSIM