Landing in Syria

Left Istanbul yesterday. And now we're in Syria. The flight to Damascus took 2 hours and again it was on Turkish Airlines.

Syria is hot. The temperature was at 35 Deg C. For Bruneians, we need a visa to enter Syria. One way is to get it through the embassy where for Holland the nearest is in Brussels. The other way is through an arrangement by Four Seasons Hotel in Damascus. We arranged a meet and assist service for arrival and this guy from the hotel would do the running and speeding up of the immigration process. Then we were whisked in two cars to the hotel.

For Turkey, no visa is required for Bruneians. The visa waiver programme only came into force a month ago. When we looked at the Internet and also sent an email to the Turkish Embassy, they advised us to apply for visa. We were only told of the change after going to the Turkish Consulate in Rotterdam and waiting for two hours for our turn.