The “City of Jasmin” (in arabic: مدينة الياسمين).

A boy playing with pigeons in front of the Umayyad Mosque

According to historians, the name Dimashq is mentioned as early as 2000 BEFORE Christ, but there are signs that the place was inhabited as early as 9000 BC. That could well explain why Mark Twain said “No recorded event has occurred in the world but Damascus was in existence to receive news of it … There was always a Damascus.”

These are cliché words but anyone who has been there can only but feel the age of Damascus. It literally feels ancient – much more than most European cities, or Jerusalem for that sake. Of there are other place in the world with old building, but there is definitely something about these houses that makes one feel like he’s living in the middle ages… It is really fantastic. Maybe it also has something to do with the fact that there are no tourist hordes wandering about the tiny beautiful streets (the way they do in Jerusalem, but I’ll come to that in a later post, inch’allah). Or maybe it is also the proper gentlemen/shop-owners in the souq that speak French and address ladies by a formal Mademoiselle… Quite different than the image of angry Arabs we usually get from the western mainstream media!

Just the place we stayed, Hotel Al Rabie (الربيع), is a 600 years old building, with a magnificent courtiard with tiles on the walls and a fountain that makes a nice background sound when reading a Naguib Mahfouz (نجيب محفوظ) book.

And of course there is the magnificent Umayyad Mosque… supposedly one of the most beautiful in the world!

The Umayyad Mosque

But Damascus is also the capital of Syria, one of the most oppressive state in the world, with a Soviet style crumbling administration; and the greyness of the new city did not fail to remind me of this fact. The best example was the huge square building that was built in the 50s – or rather that was never finished. So there is this enormous block of concrete right in the middle of the city center, next to the beautiful old city.

A Soviet style unfinished building...

What to say about Syria? It’s enigmatic, obscure, and fascinating. For a start, the Assad ultra-strict regime – where for a while the President had 30 secret agencies that he was playing against each other – closed the country to mainstream tourism. Then, after 9/11 Mr. Bush got the brilliant idea to add Syria to the list of “Axis of Evil” countries, and this killed the little tourism industry that was developing.

Now, as a result, one can explore the fantastic ruins of Palmyra or Apamea alone – with a bit of luck. There are tourists, but so few that they go unnoticed; unless walking around the old parts of Damascus and Aleppo where shop-owners in the souks try their best to sell you scarf’s, spices, carpets, tea cups and others essential things. In simple words: Syria’s history is rich and so accessible that it is one of the only places in the world where one can walk on 2000 years old ruins.

But Syria is also home to one of the most oppressive regimes in the world – or was until not so long ago. When entering by land, the sight of useless and corrupt customs officials is the first indicator. This means that the waiting time to get the visa on the border can vary from 20min to several hours, with the price following the same fluctuations going from US$ 18 to 100. It all depends on the mood of the fat guy working on that day, and on how much baksheesh he gets. Same thing goes for the central post office in Damascus.

Still, people’s warm welcome offsets completely the grayness of the regime. Several people sincerely asked me if I was having a good time in Syria, and took great pleasure to hear that I enjoyed myself. And the fact that this is the cheapest country to travel to in the region – apart form Egypt – makes it a good destination for backpackers.

It has been almost three weeks since Sabrina and I arrived in the Middle East. We have traveled through Syria and Jordan, and tomorrow we should reach the Holy Land for a Holy Week. As I am sitting in the lobby of Palace Hotel in Amman, listening to Telephone (a French 80s band), I thought I should write an entry in the blog of mine.

The Middle East. Since my first experience with travelling in a Muslim country – Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and later Malaysia – I had been looking forward to finally come in this region, where Islam was born.

However, to tell the truth I was slightly anxious. However culture relativistic, informed and open-minded I try to be, the mainstream media has somehow formatted my perceptions; and deep inside I feared Arabs.

Paradoxically, however, I have never felt that safe (apart maybe from China). In the beginning it seemed kind of strange to being shouted at every five seconds; especially when people are not insulting you but are saying “Welcome to Jordan” with a beaming smile on their faces! People are absolutely amazing! Three weeks in the region have only reinforced this feeling.

In addition, ancient-ruins-like Syria is a gem! There are fantastic sites to explore, with the privilege to be almost alone! Indeed, since the great Bush administration has brilliantly added Syria to the list of the fabled “Axis of Evil”, the tourist industry has plummeted. So while it’s sad for the local tourist industry, it is fantastic for those – like me – who despise the sight of tour buses.

Tursun Gul, a local Uighur woman on a crutch, shouts at Chinese armored personnel carriers and soldiers wearing riot gear as a crowd of angry locals confront security forces on a street in the city of Urumqi on July 7, 2009. Click on the image to access more pictures. Warning, some photos are shocking.

I found a testimony on a blog on Le Monde.fr, a French newspaper. Here is an excerpt.

I was in Urumqi on July 5th. The demonstration started at 5 pm. It had been announced on the web the day before. That was mainly students who were asking for justice after what had happened on June 26th at Shaogan. Rebiya Kadeer has nothing to do with that. Around 5 pm we started to gather on the People’s square, in front of the prefecture, with black t-shirts to show our message. I was with my girlfriend. We were around 200, 300 people, mostly students. Then some more came to support us. Ultimately we were more than 3000. Among us were even some Uyghurs officials working for the government.

Please follow the story here.

Georgetown's beautiful houses...

Georgetown! How much did I like that place! Once again, I keep on praising Malaysia, to the point of boredom. But how could I not? The old architecture, the small streets, the big mosque, stuck between Little India and Chinatown… The smiles…

Now that I’m back  in Hong Kong I already miss this tranquility, this cheerful spirit. In contrast, I find Hong Kong dehumanizing, dehumanized, and both at the same time. And it’s even more striking since there are also Chinese in Malaysia, they also speak mandarin – putonghua -, and yet they are so different!

Maybe it has something to do with the developments of the last century in mainland China, or the Mao phenomenon and the craziness that followed: years of mass mobilization campaigns, of maddened collectivism, of insane government programs that cost millions of lives and the sanity of many…

Or is it just the fact that there’s room in Malaysia? Indeed only 20 million people live in this country which isn’t small. That like a drop in China’s population of almost a billion and a half. Maybe, since people can actually breathe (politically and physically) they have, let’s say… ‘cool down’?

Who knows?

Market in Kota Bharu

After my previous post people might think that I spend my life having fun on paradise islands… but it’s not true! As many of my friends could confirm easily, I am a hard worker. So after 5 days on Pulau Perhentian of hard labor Sabrina and me went to Kota Bharu to discover a bit these Malays people. We ate at the night food market, listened to the prayers, observed men women interactions in this part of the Muslim World, went to the vegetable market (picture above), got a haircut (for Sabrina)… Busy we were.

Being Buddhist

(Jungle Temple…)

And then it was time to change a bit of scenery, so we went Buddhist temple hopping on Friday. Kelvin, the son the our guests at Ideal Traveller’s House drove us around the northern province of Tumpat, along the Thai border.

Our legendary luck stroke once again as we ended up in the middle of a festival of some kind, so we got free food and a free bamboo leafs packet making course, taught by old Thai women (picture above: me not understanding anything about what she’s saying… with the monks in the background wondering what’s going on).

That was really fun, as there was no other -westerner- tourists whatsoever. After the third temple we got tired of it and went back to Kota Bharu, as it is known here. That night we tried to have Tum Yum soup, but a tropical rain forced us to go to Pizza Hut, and it was my first time; and I have to say: these American pizza are really awful. I would go further: it is a real sadness that whole countries around the world get to discover la pizza in the American way, and probably will never get to bite on a real pizza.

This is a tragedy.

Coral Bay at Pulau Perhentian

Malaysia!!! I finally managed to escape the frenzy of Hong Kong for a delightful ten days. After almost a month and a half of school, parties, suffocating heat and stuffiness, and a constant bath among billions of people I needed a break. So Sabrina and me flew to Perhentian Islands, for the second time in my long and eventful life. We first wanted to go to El Nido on Palawan, Philippines, but then a typhoon flooded the country. We then though of going to Pulau Weh, an other island in Aceh, Indonesia, but once again Mother Nature (la pachamama, caramba!) played against us and sent earthquakes on Sumatra. Really not nice. So in the end we went to Pulau Perhentian, ignoring the people suffering all around; but what is there to say, eh?

BBQ corner...

Anyways, Marco, Morten and Marcel, three friend of mine, joined us on this little piece of paradise. This (on the above picture) is where we had dinner every night: fish bbq! Amazingly really nice. There is little better in life than beach, sun, and bbq; except beach, sun and bbq on Perhentian. That is said.

But I should also praise the incredible people of Malaysia. It is really a wonder, for such nice people is definitely what makes the most of Malaysia. You may come for the Petronas Tower, or the Orang Outan, or Borneo, or even Perhentian Islands, but it’s the people who are the best asset. Every one is just so nice! And on top of it I really like the interesting symbiosis between Malays Chinese, Hindu and… me, I guess.

Malaysia is my favorite country in Asia, so far, and only Central America could equal it in terms of the “I just feel good here” scale.

Concert at Grappa's Cellar

Tonight I decided I’d try a story in pictures because to show Hong Kong I need both. So, this is thus the story of an ordinary Saturday night in HK.
We (us, the exchange students) had already gone out in the famous lame clubs of LKF (Lan Kwai Fong) on Friday, so Saturday we tried to have an easy night. First we had dinner at the residence. Great dinner. With Scottish Baileys for dessert. Then around midnight we started to shake ourselves and went toward HK Central to assist a rock show that my friend Lara had told me about; and it was actually quite fun to see a concert here. But since we were slightly late there was only half an hour of the show left, so we headed toward LKF to see this place while being sober, for once.

After hours

On the way I stopped and took this picture of a [late] worker. It was 1:30 a.m. Hong Kong literally never sleeps; everyone run 24h non stop.

Lan Kwai Fong

Anyways, we still made it to the busy LKF which we found quite more trashy now that we weren’t feverishly drunk. The place was packed, since it was Saturday night. It’s funny how perspectives change with alcohol. So we had a beer from 7/11, wandered among the crowd, and headed back to the residence.

Horny horns, and incredibly enough people buy and wear them...

I also noticed this peculiar phenomenon: I saw many people – boys and girls – wearing this astonishingly beautiful party accessory… and then I found the dealer. Why???

Finally we took a cab, one of these big Toyota that I haven’t seen anywhere else than here in HK. They must have a special factory producing these cars because they all look old fashioned, and yet some of the cars are brand new. I guess it gives a special ‘touch’ to Hong Kong.

Half an hour later we were back at the dear City University student residence, which I already find annoying. The walk between the university campus and the residence (5 min uphill) is the most tiresome: it’s almost impossible to reach at the residences without being soaked in your own sweat. And there are no shops around the residence, so one end up going up and down quite often.

Another critic (I like to criticize, of course) would be to the lack of place ‘to be’ on campus or at the residence. Since it’s bloody hot it’s not really nice to sit down outside, but there’s nowhere to go except the miniature bedroom and the Homey Kitchen!

Which of course leaves the pool; the fantastic 50m open-air swimming pool where I go almost everyday to swim and tan… And then beside the pool I also have to work on my homework: practicing portrait photography and write short stories… So I can’t really complain about my life in HK!

Today Sabrina and me went sight seeing in Central, Hong Kong Island. After walking a bit we got tired so we took one of the double deck tram: best way to visit Hong Kong! Here are some pictures. Writing is too tiring tonight…

At the Airport

Hong Kong! Where to start from?
Maybe from the start then. This is a story that begins to be repetitive but once again I should first say that my original plan did not include Hong Kong for 2009-2010! Sabrina and I wanted to go in exchange to the American University in Cairo for a year, but we got to go only for one semester; so we had to chose another destination – anywhere – to spend the fall 2009 semester. And Hong Kong was our choice. Our ‘exchange manager’, Pauliina Rouleau (now in maternity leave), suggested Hong Kong, as there was spots available, so we said: “why not?” And here am I.

I was never really interested in discovering HK. I always though that it was much more interesting to go to rural China, which I would lamely but truly say is ‘more Chinese’. I also always said that cities did not interest me, specially the huge ones. But Hong Kong is just amazing, crazy, crowded, busy, shiny, big, traditional, western and eastern in the same time.

Hong Kong Harbour

The harbour, for example. It was the busiest in the World for some time, and it is definitely the busiest I’ve ever seen. It’s immense. It also constitutes the ‘introduction to HK’ as one kind of has to go through when coming from the airport to go downtown. And the view in the background of the forest of skyscrapers is almost surreal. Wowowiwow.

The view from my dorm...

Talking about skyscrapers, I could also go on with the superlatives, but I won’t, because it’s getting boring. Just look at the view I have from the roof of my student residence at City University. Luckily we are situated in one of the most expansive neighborhood in HK, so I pay 500 US$ rent for an entire semester instead of billions per month. Good. On the picture above, in the very center, you can see some fierce light. That’s Mongkok, the busiest area in the world (I have personally compared every square inches). On the right of the center the Bank of China building can be seen, and even more on the right is the tallest building in HK, still in construction, the ICC tower (International Commerce Center, for the ignorant ones). Sweet stuff.

A

And then that’s what I do on Friday evenings: floor dinner party (7th floor, hall 9), with KFC buckets and Pizza Hut delicatessen.