TRAVEL IN DAMASCUS

Yellow Coloured Taxis are one of the prominent features of the Damascus Roads which no traveller or visitor cant miss noticing. There are too many of them passing by, no matter which ever road you are in and at what ever time. So far, it is close to 3 weeks now in the city and I have always managed to catch one even at about 12 or 1 in the night. Travelling in one of these cabs is quite safe as I did not face any problems till now. However, One has to take care that he knows the exact address of the place he intends to go or better get it written down in a slip in Arabic so that it is easy to communicate.

There are electronic meters in every taxi but rarely one uses them. Most of the time we have to bargain. I have now made a thumb rule that whenever I go in a taxi normally I would bargain for about 60 to 70% of the price he has asked for. I always managed to make him accept that. Still somehow I feel I am paying more but we cannot avoid certain things when you are new My knowledge of arabic numbers both written and spoken are being of great help to me. I am now managing quite well with the taxi guys even strike a conversation with some of them with very few arabic words I know. They are all very good and try their best to help in case you are looking for a specific place.

The other most and more economical way of travelling in Damascus is in the 5 rupee cabs. I have not yet explored these cab services completely but have managed to spot too many of them going everywhere. They are white vans plying fron one area to another. You can just hail for one and can get into it and go along. We have to pay only 5 lira. The problem is you should be well aware of the place where you want to go. Normally the co-passengers are very helpful and would normally direct you to the correct direction provided you can make them understand in Arabic or if they understand English, which is normally quite rare. I have not yet ventured much in these cabs right now. I was also made to underatand that there are various coloured onee like red, green yellow etc which ply in specific areas. I would venture out on these very soon if not anything I can get down at the place where I got in as they normally go in circling the whole town.

Somehow, there arent many public transport vehicles like buses. I wonder why ? I could see lot of bus shelters on all the main streets "with two chairs".... But havent any bus stoping there. May be they are scare or have specific times. Have to find out !!!!