Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
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There was the usual chaos I now associate with Middle Eastern airports. We were not to
leave until midday and decided to spend a couple of hours having morning tea at the Four
Seasons Hotel, a quiet western oasis in the city, surrounded by a degree of manicure.
At the airport there were clusters of Malaysian, Filipino and Indonesian maids wearing their
traditional headscarves. They milled about appearing to be lost and needing some assistance
to find their way to wherever they needed to go.
There were a lot of women in all enveloping black, but the displays in the Souq suggested
that beneath the robe they were wearing something more revealing and more high fashion.
One in particular strolled by showing feet and ankles covered with henna designs, it was
suggested that this was indicative of a new bride. She was wearing very strappy high fashion
heels and moved in a manner belied by the black envelope she was wearing.
I sat and read the papers while others scurried away to do a complete audit of the shops to
the point that the aircraft was due to board and they had to be tracked down and hauled back.
The travel arrangements provided for an overnight stay in Dubai. It was necessary to leave
the airport, but the operation was pretty slick and after a few hours sleep it was back to the
airport. Next stop Bangkok then home.
About a week after departing, the US military raided the Syrian village of Abu Kamal, five
miles from Syria's border with Iraq. The report suggested that US Special Forces targeted a
network of al Qaeda linked foreign fighters moving through Syria into Iraq.
A Syrian government statement said eight people were killed, including a man and his four
children and a woman. However, an Associated Press journalist at the funerals in the vil-
lage's cemetery saw the bodies of seven men -- none of them children.
Whatever the truth of the matter, thousands of Syrians took to the streets of Damascus to
protest the raid. The US embassy in Damascus was shut down for the day and surrounded
by heavily armed police.
