11. The search for diesel!

Crossing the border from Turkey to Syria went smoother than we thought. Unfortunately the money also ‘went’ smoother than we thought: $165 to bring the car in… auch!

Cans opened the old fashion way

For obvious reasons Syria is not the hot tourist destination at the moment, and so we find ourselves at the border with only Turks, Iranians and Syrians.  Good thing we don’t have to wait in line to get the passports stamped. Within 15 minutes that first part is all done. In that quarter of an hour I have not only waited and filled in a paper, I’ve had time to see how some Turks cross the border: with a bribe between the passport. 200 Syrian pound and the ‘no’ becomes a ‘welcome’.

One hand on the truck, the other one on the tea

After having all the papers sorted out for the car we can start making our way to the first petrol station. You see, the $165 not only includes a compulsory car insurance, it is also a diesel tax. Diesel is super cheap here and subsidised by the government. As this is obviously only for their own people, foreigners pay extra when entering the country as they will also fill up their tanks with that same diesel. Which brings me to my next point: filling up the tank.

The Cruiser’s tank is obviously not full when we arrive in Syria. We of course  thought that we would cross the border and fill up in one of the many petrol stations we are sure of this country is possessing. I mean really, in Turkey there are so many of them you can only wonder how they all have enough business to survive.  But my friends, it is Friday (their Sunday) and the diesel is finished for today. Normally the petrol stations gets a truck full of diesel every day, but of course on Friday even the delivery man rests.  I can’t even remember in how may petrol stations we have asked for fuel, but the answer was always the same: tomorrow.  So with an orange light screaming for liquid we are luckily still able to make it to a campground. We won’t be doing any ‘bush camping’ in a country that surely is not an example for stability at the moment…

And oh yeah, the guy in the little shop here immediately tried to raise the price for two drinks. 50 he shows me on his calculator. I look at him, say that that is more expensive and type in 40 (as Kosta paid at the border). It might still be a bit too much, as we have no idea of prices yet, but I don’t care. The only thing I can think is ‘Oh boy, here we go again…’

Next morning we rise and shine, ready to go and get some diesel on our way to the centre of Aleppo. And if you would think that in a country like Syria it really can’t be that hard to get diesel, think again! Remember those  holidays where you and the kids were on your way to that nice cottage in Switzerland and you were driving through Luxemburg?  You thought it would be a great idea to quickly fill up the tank at a more economical price in that little country. You saw the line in front of you and you thought “Shit, we are going to have to wait an hour”. Yes, remember that moment… and imagine it 10 times worse! LOL It is about 9 am and the diesel hasn’t even been delivered yet! Cars and trucks are already waiting. So we drive around for a while but it’s the same situation everywhere: no diesel. By then we have already done almost 800 km since we last filled up the car. We are running super super low on diesel. And this makes us do something we would normally never do: we drive to the next petrol station, pass about 1 kilometre of people, at some parts waiting in double lines, and pull into the petrol station skipping them all.

Waiting, waiting and waiting

As you can imagine some people are not very pleased with this. But then you have the advantage of being foreigners with an interesting car… and really to be honest, being the only foreigners around.  While others complain to each other and to whomever is in charge, others arrange for you to be the first one in line.  After standing there for about half an hour, it is 12 o’clock and the diesel truck arrives! “Full, please.” Our 90 litre tank is filled up to 91,20. We were really driving on our last drops of diesel! 20 euro for a full tank and 5 euro bribe for the petrol man . Now we can finally start our ‘tourist afternoon’ in Aleppo!