A Malaysian Night In Damascus

On the road again, my 9th trip, flying to my favourite part of the Middle East - Jordan and Syria. With the project in the former completed, what's is left to do now is only Syria. It's not a country that is easily understood especially when the country is always painted as aggressive by Western media unless one has been on the ground. There have been a number of unfortunate events lately, a massive bombing in Damascus and US Blackhawks' incursion to a small village in the East of the country amongst others. The economy is also suffering through a US export restriction which prevent any form of US technology to be exported to the country. On the bright side, the people here are just taking those on their chins and living life as normal as they can. Most of all, it is always a pleasure to work with the people here - they are very friendly and kind.

It's a two hours flight to Vienna before catching a 3.5 hours flight to Damascus. In the past, one always gets a bad deal flying on European carriers to this part of the world. Their business class is simply a normal economy seat but with the middle seat left empty to give a bit of gap with fellow passenger. But now Air Austria has changed its business seat to a proper one. Obviously it could not compete with A380 configuration but it is a blessing in any case. As always and I do not understand it fully, a plane arriving at Damascus International airport always has to circle above the airport a few times before finally making the landing. My best hunch is that it is part of the heavy security protocol here.

When I checked in for dinner at the hotel, rather than expecting an Arabian delight, there were surprisingly Malay dishes on offer. It was apparently Malaysian Night theme! So there I was ordering some of those familiar dishes. Unfortunately it was not the same and quite disappointing, how can a Syrian cook make a proper Asian dish - I should have known better. So back to normal Syrian dishes from now on.