Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Preparations 3: Tuesday 5
th
July 2005
“Visa collection and news from Syria”
Holiday -1
That morning, I got up too early as usual. My mind and body, unfortunately for me, do not
seem to differentiate between work days and holidays. The headline in the paper (which I
didn't show Ophelia) was:
“Two Terror Suspects Dead in Clash with Syrian Forces”
Unfortunately, this occurred at a tourist site in the very centre of Damascus and not in a
more “obvious” border area with Jordan, Iraq, Turkey or Lebanon. The spin from the Syrian
government was that this was an “Al Quaeda” attack on “Democratic Syria”. Accordingly,
I made a note to cross out Mount Qassion from our places to visit (something, which we
forgot to observe on our last night in Syria).
It was a “hot” time to travel to Syria. Rafik Harriri had been assassinated in Lebanon a few
months earlier. Syria had been accused of complicity in this act and Syria was still officially
designated as an integral part of President George W. Bush's “Axis of Evil”. It was also only
two years after the Second Gulf War (March 2003) and Iraq, Syria's neighbor, was anything
but stable at this time.
Both Peter and I had the support of our wives and families to make this trip and so our pre-
parations continued unhindered.
Two days earlier on the 3
rd
, we had visited the Syrian Consulate in Dubai twice; the first
time to remind ourselves how to get there, collect application forms and to get them printed
in Arabic and the second time to leave our passports. The day unfolded thus. We left home
11:45 a.m. and returned at 4.15 p.m.
We first made an exploratory swoop to remind ourselves of the location, so we would be
able to get to the Consulate ahead of the queue. Then, we went to the “Pars”, a new Iranian
restaurant smelling of rose water and with an uncomfortably cold temperature. We ate too
much for Dhs.45. The main course consisted of Persian rice with saffron and zereshk berries
and baked chicken. Salad and sweet were also included. The chicken was overcooked and
we left feeling full up having nevertheless eaten very little of the huge portion. Back at the
Consulate at 1:30 p.m., (we had been given a time of 2.00 p.m. for visa and passport collec-
tion) the room was filling up. It was soon packed. There was no ticketing or queuing system.
Most people were there for some residence papers or commercial licenses. At 2.00 p.m., a
