We left Antakya Turkey around 10 am and headed off to the Syrian Border, It was about a 25 km ride so that would put us there with plenty of time to clear out of Turkey then in to Syria and then ride to Aleppo and find a place to stay. As we where riding along the back road to the border that was mainly under construction with long stretches of ungraded gravel which are always fun with the bike fully loaded we were flagged down by a police officer, after we pulled off the road the officer proceeded to tell us how much he liked the bike, asked us if we were going to Syria then let us go wishing us a safe trip and asking if we had enjoyed our time in Turkey. Gee I didn’t think I had been speeding!!
As we approached the border we ran parallel to an 8 ft high Razor wire fence and posted every kilometer or so was a guard tower complete with armed guard in full kakis. Wow this was so different to going to the USA. Clearing out of turkey took about 30 mins then we had to ride through no man’s land which was about 1 km long full of trucks all waiting to get in. Arriving at the border of Syria we where immediately greeted by a gentleman from the ministry of tourism Welcome to Syria he said with a big smile I will help you with your papers we are happy you are here. He then directed me to the customs window where I showed our passports and after answering several questions about my profession and my parents names I was told our Visas would cost us $52.00 US each so off to the bank to pay for that. I returned to the same window where I had to fill in a small card with names of parents our names and profession then the passports where stamped by a very fastidious gentleman who checked every page of our passport to see where we had been but as we entered on our new EU passport there were no stamps in it yet.
After receiving our stamped passports and our Visas we returned to the Office of Tourism where we sat and talked for a while then another gentleman said he would look after our Carnet and insurance for us He took $100.00 Turkish lira for taxes and fees (about $70.00 US we are not sure about that part) then said the insurance for the bike for one month would cost $40.00 US so we sat and chatted with the first guy while this guy ran off and got our insurance papers and the Carnet Stamped.
Upon his return he asked for a small donation to show our appreciation ($10.00US would be nice he thought) so again we cashed out then the first guy was told to stay with us till we cleared through the final customs check point where everybody was having their cars and luggage searched we where advised not to show our GPS as there is some sort of problem with them and security in Syria so that removed and stowed in our tank bag we sailed through with no problem no search for us, another wave and a smile from the final inspector and Welcome to Syria, thank you for visiting.
The whole procedure took about three hours from pulling up to the Turkish border to entering into Syria.
Not bad I thought.
We rode into Syria a short way then pulled over to get the GPS out but when the screen came up no luck no roads no map OK now the fun starts!!!
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