British Airways | 747-436 | Riyadh (KKIA) ✈ London Heathrow | Club World |
Beware all prices and administrative details are very old, and may have changed significantly since then, most prices are quoted in the UK.
The first half of our journey from Riyadh to Yugoslavia by Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria, Turkey and Bulgaria.
Riyadh Sunday, August 9, 7 pm 4764 45 miles on the speedometer.
Drove all day to Medina, stop for lunch in Buraydah Camped in the desert about 50 km before Medina - we had no room in the car for real camping equipment for our camp was car mats laid on the ground.
We stopped on the past Medina and Khaybar and disabled in Al Ula and Medain Saleh Any attempt to go to Medain Saleh in a normal sedan car is not recommended - the luggage carrier released on rough terrain, we taken the wrong way and got lost and got stuck in the sand we had been following a Saudi family in a Suburban that we met were also going to the tombs Medain Saleh, but it appeared that they were strangers to the region and were also lost, however, they were very friendly and helped get us out of the sand, and we all finally found the Saudis Abdullah graves, his father, uncle, son and cousins were in Jeddah and we summer tourist vacation quietly, after driving all the way up the coast Jordan border and inland south again Abdullah had many attraction rs previous trips to other parts of Saudi Arabia, and this hit as unusual as we met we no Saudis interested to see their own country before we returned by Al Ula and camped in about 50 km .
The Nabataeans here before they practiced moved to Petra.
We had breakfast with Abdullah and family and had started, separate the main road where they have turned to Medina and went to Teima and Tabuk, which is pretty big place, but disappointing - we t could not find the souk or any element of interest except the Hijaz station, so we went there a hotel that looked good on the road to Jordan out of Tabuk, but we didn t stop about 53 km Tabuk we turned on the main road to Jordan, crossing the railway Hejaz deceased for 60 years on a large modern bridge and took the road to Aqaba in Jordan This proved that a very good road and crossing the Hejaz mountain rock formations were fantastic, followed by views of the Red sea, Sinai, Elat and Jordan, he fell to the coast and Arabia - Jordan border.
We went through the Saudi side without problems, even though we were pretty searched for duplicate plates and registration documents after removing the original we do not have in Jordan so easily, however, because the customs had gone home the procedure it is that the car should enter the country without plates or documentation the car receives a letter of authorization to be in Jordan at the customs office in Aqaba no cost, but it can be done in hours work - we arrived in the evening, so we had to camp on the border, we should have stayed in Tabuk If we had arrived Thursday afternoon, we probably would have been stuck until Saturday morning we also found that our visas Jordan had expired, but fortunately we have issued new on the spot to 3 dinars each.
The Customs us at headquarters to get permission for the car It took several hours, including the customs denied access to the port where the office was, and having to go to the police for permission to go to his office when it was finally finished, we went to the Holiday Inn - a toilet such unsuspected luxury bath we swam in the cool clear sea, and had a good meal then we went out of the hotel directly in a radar speed trap and were fined on the spot 7 This was actually our only brush with the law for the entire trip, but it didn t seem like a very good start in the post noon we went to Wadi Rum, the famous Lawrence - rock formations most incredible Hijaz and a picturesque fort had a good meal and retired to a real bed
We stopped in Petra Everything seems so close here after the great distances in Saudi Arabia and stayed at the Government Rest House - booked the night before, fortunately, because it was full Four people in a Volkswagen scored Sana in London have seen Visited refuse Petra - beautiful, but it is sad to be back in failover, backsheesh, guides, etc.
The amazing ruins of Petra, created by the Nabateans.
We took a wrong turn and ended up in my so we had a look at the Hejaz railway station, also of Fame Lawrence drove in Kerak castle and crossed mosaics Madaba along the Kings road that winds through the mountains overlooking the Jordan valley and the Dead Sea and Amman and stayed in a hotel overlooking the Roman amphitheater.
6th century map of Palestine - a part of the mosaics of Madaba.
There was a look around Amman and taken to the Dead Sea for a float.
Drove in Jerash, a Roman city well preserved While we were looking around us were filmed by a camera crew of the Jordanian television to make a documentary on Jordanian antiquities, and we ooh-ed and ah-ed and underlined bits of the ruins, one of the crew acted as a guide and chatted in incomprehensible pidgin English as he shows us around Luckily, there was not a sound recording because Jamie was screaming offscreen he wanted to go to toilet Then we went to the border.
But even magnificent Roman ruins can be just too exhausting.
Jordan-Syria border is a very trying experience Everything depends on whether the Syrian customs authorities will accept your license plates and registration documents as valid - they do not have to be original, but the plates have to be good metal quality, not replicas cardboard, and our registration book was a photocopy cut to the right shape and certified authentic by the British consul in Riyadh Even then, it is entirely the chief customs - there are no rules, and he said not, then it's not Fortunately for us, he said yes Note that the export plates such that some countries seem to matter not be acceptable.
A If your documents are not acceptable, then it will work as follows expensive in fact if you follow this procedure, you do not have to have plates or a registration book to all and you can still probably go back to England, but it will cost you when you reach the Jordanian side of the border, the boys will rush and request your documents - if you entrust them they have a manifesto prepared for the car to give you the Syrians, and they will try to load on 50 for the privilege They can be haggled about 30, but if you do it yourself it will cost less than 10 and take much longer When you arrive at the Syrian side that you do not have to choice but to use an agent - you give him the still little boys come clear request documents before they have a chance to get out of the car and it will make all the paperwork trè s painless, until you have to pay about 50 which is refundable when you leave Syria, and another 80 that is not all that goes into the pocket of agent - there are dozens of different guarantees and the taxes they have to pay one of them is a convoy fee because if your car is not registered, you are allowed to pass through Syria as part of a convoy, even though we were told it wouldn t apply to us as we were a family, however, you only get 72 hours to cross the country that doesn t leave much time for sightseeing All these provisions may be made during normal working hours.
B If your documents are acceptable, then it is a very different picture Place the plates on the car everywhere in Jordan - they do not seem to mind that you got or not on the Jordanian side of the border, they will insist that you need manifesto anyway and the Syrians, would you go back without if you're really confident about your documents ignore them, otherwise go to a When you get to the Syrian side, hide the obvious Jordan if you had a brush aside all the little boys and trying to follow the labyrinth below.
2 Change a little money in the bank because they can ask to see later, the slide change - you're not supposed to bring the Syrian money.
3 Get a form at the counter of the Customs Office and fill it in Arabic to get help from a bystander.
4 Get the chief customs office in front of the entrance of the customs office to write something on the form that is where it will decide whether your documents are OK or not, it will probably ask to see the plates on car.
5 Buy a set of stamps to 25 Syrian pounds to 10 SP 1 small shed beyond the customs office.
6 The man in the office behind the counter of the customs office must write something on the form too.
7 to form, passports and stamps to the man behind the counter of the Bureau of Customs It prepares the customs document and you pay him 25 and SP.
8 The man in the office in front of the bank must stamp something on the paper and you pay him some SP.
9 Driving the car until the banks to seek After being searched and they check again that your plates and registration book are acceptable a bad time - the man who told us no good, but the head of Customs is came and canceled will type something on the paper and you are this sounds simple, but it takes a long time.
10 You need to buy third party insurance at the border you get to the hangar beyond the desk in front of the main customs office can do so at any time during parts: 1-9.
What we actually did was to get the manifesto of the Jordan side because we did not know better, had a terrible row with the officer when he tried to charge us 50 and after seeing all the world leader Customs was down 20 uS paid him the money on the Syrian side, we almost gave up and used the agent to prepare 50 80 72 hours worth, but at the last minute, we found the Syrian leader Customs said that our documents were OK we then made 1 to 10 with many using a very friendly Syrian who was there when people offer to help, you get very suspicious that they are after something but in fact, this chapter has spent much time and effort for us and didn t expect anything - we gave him some packets of cigarettes and was really grateful for the two sides of the border, password formalities Port are quite simple, it is the car that caused the problem.
It was dark this time but we are led to Damascus and began to look for a hotel that seems a big gap in class between the Sheraton Hotel style about 50 a night and many hotels style pretty average to 10-15 a night we had a very long search because all the hotels seemed to be full, but finally we found a reasonable room with a free a long day.
I got treated to a day of driving off and we had a guided tour of Damascus in the morning and was walking in the afternoon Damascus is very interesting and definitely worth a visit to the old is how an Arab town should be, with seething souks and very ornate mosques and palaces the new part has the feel of a modern city captial in the evening, we had a very good meal at the restaurant Ali Baba, and we also had a bottle of wine Syrian product, which was horrible.
Riyadh to London, Riyadh, London, the customs office counter, counter Customs.