Sat 20th: Well got into Damascus early Saturday morning. Had no sleep on the plane so was pretty grog. Was expecting to get a taxi to hotel but was very happy to see a familiar face waiting at 5.30 am on arrivals. Waseem my friend and work collegue from last year. more now a freind. We greeted in the usual arab way as i had been accustomed too, having spent the years here with these people. I apologised for getting in so early but he had already been up since 4.00am as it was ramadan.
The hotel had not expected us so early so i said i would wait and told Waseem to go to get ready for work. I would see him at 10.00
I fell asleep in the foyer until i was woken by the morning movements of the guests. Eventually, i was checked in at 10.00am
When i eventually got to see Waseem at his office. I could do no more that day but to explain and plan my movemnts. Later on this day Waseem had contacted a mate that was in the customs. Ossam came at 6:00pm and listened to the same story and with a couple of photo copies of the bike said he would consult a friend and get back to us with a proceedure. What a great day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!thing are eventually moving.................
Waseem, offered me to his family home that evening for Iftar meal with his parents which was welcome and very filling. returned to Hotel.
Sunday 21st: Started early and went to Waseems office and began preparing. List of to do's. list of spares, schedule of offices to visit. Ordered a phone card thro waseem. Got off early and took taxi to the first desination Chamber of Commerce. I had a bit of trouble finding it as it was n the old city and specifically the area Al Harika. (the Fire)as it had previousely burned down. I found a building with loads of people gathering. It reminded me of the security gate at jebal Ali free zone, UAE. when i had forgotten my pass . and having to fight through the smelling bodys of Asian truck drivers who must have slept in thier cabs for weeks with no A/C. I wasnt looking forward to this. I entered and climbed a few sets of stairs to find a counter. Luckily there was no one standing at it. They told me i was on wrong level. so i went up not knowing that they really understood who i was looking for. eventually finding a couple of young lads. when i explained who i was after. they said ...........wait for it.........wrong building.
they actually were quite helpfull and one guy took me out and over to the correct building. Wasnt far out!!!!!
I was told to knock a door on the 2 floor mr Bashir. to which i entered and intoduced my self as Mr Paul. the guy suprised me and said ."oh yes did you get my email" i was baffled but realised the i had written to another guy and he must have passed the mail over to this guy. Result!!! i was actually gonna talk to some one direct. we had a good chat for an hour and told him my plans.. at least he didnt brush me off. He directed me upstairs to another guy Abdu Hissim who again i explained the story and he said dont worry i will help. This was turning out to be a good day after all and i thought i would get somewhere with this. Any way i was to leave it with him and he would get back to me the next day and also wanted to meet up during the week out side work ......ok no problems building a relationship up with someone in the ministry. every little helps.
I thought i would pop in and see some more old aquaintances at our old companies agents. It was good to see all of there faces after the year out. I also had some other business with them over some other bikes i had bought and where in storage. I showed them the paperwork that i had for the Sunbeam and they seemed to think that i had to get it renewed. they took charge and sent it directly to Derrazzor Where it had to be re stamped. So that was a good move. They invited me to their evening Iftar party on Monday. Which i explained i didnt want to go as i hadnt bought many clothes. I knew it would be a suit and tie job.
I re thought about the invite to the Ifatar party at the Cham palace. I hadnt eaten all day and quite frankly had forgotten about it so it had to be done. I turned up before every body had arrived so i mooched around untill the large banquet hall of the Cham Palace had filled. I then aproached where i was sat down on a table at the back where I couldnt see. The sound of Ali Akbar flooded the room at 6:45 ish and it was like the the start gate was up. Hands reaching into the table like they hadnt eaten for days. the food quickly disapeering like a plague of locusts had decended. I hesitated thinking it would be bad manners to start be for Ali had finished but knew if i did i may regret it.
Boy!!!!!!! that was filling all that chick pea soup. Fatush, Koba in yoghurt, chicken and more yoguhurt, Beans and Olive oil, Fish and rice and then to top it off. Roast beef and potatoe carrots basically a sunday roast. That was a funny cultural dish and i couldnt work out where the chef was coming from on that last one............anyway when i found out there was no singing and dancing afterwards. And the only fluids flowing was water. I decided to go and walk it off back to my hotel. ........I done my beached whale impression on the bed back at the hotel and really wasnt very comfortable. I decided i was'nt gonna eat that late again..............or even eat again for a week.
Monday 22nd: Went to see Waseem again and to see if his customs friend had come back. No!!! but he called and explained that his friend of a friend of a friend etc was on the case. and would come back later. I called the Commerce guy and he hadnt anything either but still wanted to meet in the evenig and to give himself a bit of time. Yeah some thing i have got bags of to give.
Anyway as previousely planned i wanted to locate the boxes of bike bits that nobody seemed to know where they were being kept. I went with a driver to the outer industrial area of damascus to a store yard that the forwarding agent used. I was quite pleased to see the boxes in an almost empty yard. still marked up. I had expected to go to some place where there were hundreds of boxes. But no.... easy one!!!! I returned to Damascus office and spoke with Ossama the company logistics manager. He was quite poitive but i told him to wait untill i spoke with the Customs guy as arranged for this evening.
Well rondavous was at 10:00pm outside some court house, somewhere outside Damascus. The bells were not ringing true i didnt like the feeling about this. Waseem had arranged this and had picked me up in some old banger. I had asked him where his Mitsuishi galant was and he explained it had been towed away as he had parked it on a bus stop. Bit Silly!!
Anyway we waited 5 mins untill 3 guys turned up on Motorcycles. One jumped in the car and instructed us to follow the guys on bikes. After 10 mins of what felt like a cops and robbers chase. though darkened desheveld streets. the orange flashing indicators turned into an unlit ally. I felt that we were not in danger but was starting to get a bit Pissed, as i was realising that i had been on loads of these goose chases before. These were not officials that i wanted to discuss proper proceedures with. They were another of the thousands of chancers who have smelt a foriegner with some money in there pocket.
I followed with Waseem in the dark to a lock up. For a moment i though about what i would look like in a orange coverall and a knife at my throat pleading on a video. I bet The cheeky bastards would have used my new JVC camcorder. talk about handing it to them on a plate.
Anyway enough of that!.........the doors opened and the lights were switched on to reveal four bikes in a corner. a Norton big four in military spec 1935 ish. Matchless G3 Military, BSA B33 AJS 350 red hunter i think. but all in top nick. Its always good to see but that wasnt why I was there. These boys were on at me buying them. None of them spoke any english so it was a good job Waseen was there. we went back to the old guys work shop where i told Waseem to translate . I am not going to f**k around with you guys . (I think he diplomatically translated as "Muck around" coz he doesnt like swearing). I just want a few straight answers and i am not buying any more bikes until i find a way out of this. Well the questions were presented and the upshot of this is what i knew already the answer. They hadnt ever done any exporting before and were only looking to sell the bikes on. Needless to say we made our move and went home. 1.00am in the morning. what a waste.
Tuesday 23rd: I awoke this morning feeling that this is not going right and decided to get back to the Chamber of commerce guy and see what he had come up with.....................Jack shit oh what a suprise. anyway as i write this now To sumerise this at the end of day 4. I have progressed slightly in that the paper work for the Sunbeam. Which has been re-validated and i should pick it up tomorrow. Still unsure that i need something from customs, but its getting to the stage that i am gonna get up to Dez and get riding. and find out at the border. As these guys here don't know what the hell they are doing. I dont know why i sound suprised i spent enough time here. The irony is that they do know and its about corruption and getting money. My collegue and freind of which i wont mention his name. When i asked him how i should conduct my business here he basically said i need to be as bent as they are and thats how it is. Its a pity as Syria has a lot to offer but i am afraid that unless they sort this out it doesnt give confidence in outside investment if you have to deal in these ways.... Its certainly putting me off.
Anyway, Plans for tomorrow are to get a couple of signitures on the letter or Authorisation and another letter from the Auto club. Go see the customs and also a forwarding agent, check out and catch the 5:30 to Dez.................cant wait to see the old gal.
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