Visiting Palmyra was on my Personal to do list for quite some time now. It gained prominence when I came across a couple of blogs with comments like “if you have only one day in Syria then this is the place you should see” . This is a small city which is about 200+ kms from Damascus. After much procrastination as usual I woke up on a saturday morning and hit the road. I gathered enough information about this place thanks to Google. I left home at 7 AM to the bus stand curiously called 'Garage Golman" (No clue why a bus stand is called Garage…..Syrian Istyle). Without much difficulty I reached the place and got a ticket in a KHADMOUS bus. (Most Popular local bus agency) The ticket was just 115 SP. I managed to get a ticket for an 8 AM bus. Original intention was to go by 7 AM bus but as usual my lazy bones did not get up on time hence the delay. Bus looked good and also was very neatly maintained. The bus took off at 8.05 AM with just 10 passengers, unlike some agencies back home who wait till the bus is completely packed not just the seats. The buses even had an attendee and were served water.
I managed to be awake for quite some time looking outside the window. Once we reached the highway there isn’t anything spectacular to watch and so slept off. I got up with the shout of the bus attendee. He looked at me and said this is Palmyra. I got down and found myself opposite one small shop and empty deserted street wondered if the bus guy played foul and dropped me in some god forbidden land. I frantically looked for some posters and was satisfied when I found one with Palmyra written in English. I was expecting too many visitors flocking the place but in contrast this place looked almost deserted.
I hailed a taxi and luckily managed to make him understand that I am a visitor and came to look at the Roman ruins in their city. The taxi guy could speak some broken words of English and he carried some postcards and explained that he would take me to all those places for 1000 SP after a little negotiation I managed to get him for 600 SP. The deal was that he would take me to all the important places and drop me back at the bus stand at 6.30 pm for my return bus.
…Watch out for the complete story in a little while.
I managed to be awake for quite some time looking outside the window. Once we reached the highway there isn’t anything spectacular to watch and so slept off. I got up with the shout of the bus attendee. He looked at me and said this is Palmyra. I got down and found myself opposite one small shop and empty deserted street wondered if the bus guy played foul and dropped me in some god forbidden land. I frantically looked for some posters and was satisfied when I found one with Palmyra written in English. I was expecting too many visitors flocking the place but in contrast this place looked almost deserted.
I hailed a taxi and luckily managed to make him understand that I am a visitor and came to look at the Roman ruins in their city. The taxi guy could speak some broken words of English and he carried some postcards and explained that he would take me to all those places for 1000 SP after a little negotiation I managed to get him for 600 SP. The deal was that he would take me to all the important places and drop me back at the bus stand at 6.30 pm for my return bus.
…Watch out for the complete story in a little while.
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