Middle East - Anthony Ham [444]
Silk Road Festival Held annually in late September in the cities where the ancient caravans once met: Palmyra, Aleppo, Bosra and Damascus. A varied program features overseas acts, concerts, sporting events and dance performances.
Bosra Festival This festival of music and theatre is held every September or October in odd years. It offers the chance to be part of an audience in the town’s spectacular Roman amphitheatre. Tickets cost from S£50.
Damascus International Film Festival This annual film festival in November is a 15-year veteran and sees 200 international and local films screened across Damascus.
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GAY & LESBIAN TRAVELLERS
Homosexuality is prohibited in Syria and conviction can result in imprisonment.
Cleopatra’s Wedding Present, by Robert Tewdwr Moss, is an entertaining account of a gay American’s travels through Syria.
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HOLIDAYS
In addition to the main Islamic holidays (Click here), Syria celebrates the following public holidays:
New Year ’s Day 1 January
Revolution Day 8 March
Al-Adha Day 15 March
Mother ’ s Day 21 March
Easter March/April
Hijra New Year’ s Day 6 April
National Day 17 April
May Day 1 May
Martyrs’ Day 6 May
Liberation War of October Day 6 October
Christmas Day 25 December
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MONEY
The official currency is the Syrian pound (S£), also called the lira. There are 100 piastres (also known as qirsh) to a pound but this is redundant as the smallest coin is one pound. Other coins come in denominations of two, five, 10 and 25. Notes come in denominations of 50, 100, 200, 500 and 1000.
There’s at least one branch of the Commercial Bank of Syria in every major town and most will change US dollars or euros. There’s also a small number of officially sanctioned private exchange offices, which change cash at official bank rates. The advantage is that whereas banks usually close for the day at 12.30pm or 2pm, the exchange offices are often open until 7pm.
Country Unit Syrian pound (S£)
Australia A$1 31.77
Canada C$1 40.33
Egypt E£1 8.83
Euro zone €1 62.46
Japan ¥100 52.90
Jordan JD1 69.60
Lebanon LL10 0.33
New Zealand NZ$1 28.50
Turkey TL1 31.63
UK UK£1 93.51
USA US$1 48.20
ATMs
There are now ATMs everywhere in Syria in most tourist centres and medium-sized towns, although Palmyra was a notable exception at the time of writing – expect that to change. Most ATMs accept Visa and are Cirrus or Maestro enabled, but only a handful (including at Damascus Airport and any branch of Banque Bemo Saudi Fransi) take MasterCard. Displays on each ATM announce which cards are accepted. One drawback for those hoping to survive from ATM cash withdrawals while in Syria is that most ATMs set a daily withdrawal limit, usually around S£3000.
Credit Cards
Major credit cards are increasingly being accepted by travel agencies, hotels and shops, but they’re not yet accepted in most restaurants. This situation will change as soon as Visa and MasterCard are given permission to set up shop in Syria; at present all transactions must be processed through Lebanon, and a surcharge of around 10% is levied on the customer to cover this.
The contact number for Amex in Syria is 011-221 7813; for Visa, MasterCard and Diner’s Club it’s 011-222 1326.
Tipping & Bargaining
Tipping is expected in the better restaurants and by all tour guides. Whatever you buy, remember that bargaining is an integral part of the process and listed prices are always inflated to allow for it. If you’re shopping in the souqs, bargain hard – even a minimum amount of effort will almost always result in outrageous asking prices being halved.
Travellers Cheques
It’s becoming increasingly difficult to cash travellers cheques in Syria. If you do find a bank that will change your cheques, you must have the bank receipt with the cheque numbers detailed on it. Exchange offices never change them.
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POST
The Syrian postal service is slow but trustworthy. Letters mailed from the main cities take about