SYRIA: Everything FREE for Tourists? I Tried Spending 10$ in Damascus!
People are not accepting money from me...Everything is free! This is the Umayyad Mosque... Ice-cream with so much of Pistachio on it. Shopkeepers don't deny to...
He's not interested in money. Good Morning Everyone! I welcome all of you in this new video. I'm in Damascus, capital of Syria. And in today's video I will spend $10 and try to buy whatever I can. I did the same experiment in Turkey and Lebanon. I will only buy things that a general tourist require.
Such as water, coffee, taxi, food, snack and some local things. I'm pretty sure Syria is not on your favorite tourist destination's list. I got $10 converted to SYP.
If you'll check online the official USD to SYP rate is $1 = 2512 SYP. But conversion rate on the ground is different. You can get 3450 SYP in exchange for $1. i.e. ~ 75 INR. I've got the currency exchanged already. This is 34,500 SYP.
i.e. $10. And I'm going to spend this today. I'm going to make my first expenditure here only... to buy Hummus. I've been to many Arab countries and according to my personal experience I feel like Syria's Hummus is the best. I'm going to order it now.
This Hummus and I'll tell you how it is prepared. They take these boiled white chickpeas and make a paste of it. Then they add sesame oil, lemon juice and salt in it. Then they mix it and serve it with garnishing. This one's Hummus. And for those who don't like Hummus they can have this dish which is made by boiled beans and garnished by olive oil and tomato. Let's pick out Hummus.
This is Hummus. This one's called Tahini. It has olive oil, sesame oil and boiled beans. And this one has boiled white chickpeas' paste, sesame & olive oil, lemon juice and salt in it. We are having our food with our guide. And Manoj Bhaiya (Traveling Mantra).
Syrian people make and serve food by their heart. We just ordered Hummus and they served this salads and breads as complimentary. Usually, Hummus is eaten as breakfast. It is very healthy and vegetarian. It is cost efficient also. So, financially weaker people tend to eat it as all of their meals instead of meat.
I've not tasted it... Did you try it? How's it? Fantastic! Awesome... I'll also taste some. Fortunately, I didn't had breakfast. So, the meal just cost us 4,000 SYP. In Syria you'll find perfume shops everywhere. They really like to smell good all the time. And this type of Cobbler shop is also very common.
I can smell very strong coffee aroma...Here it is. We are in the old city of Damascus now. They have converted all the old buildings into Hotels.
This is one of the hotels... It's giving vintage vibes. I'm good. How're you? [IN HINDI] What...? [IN HINDI]
How are you bro, Good? [IN HINDI] He was saying few lines in Hindi. I'm roaming around in the old city of Damascus and no buildings are made up pf cement. All are made up of Lime Stone. It's forbidden to construct using cement. It's a crime here. But some people don't take it seriously.
All the walls are made up of Lime Stone reason behind this is to preserve the heritage of Syria. It's a new mall being constructed. These are public bus service run by Syrian Regime.
I would not prefer traveling in this bus. Fare on this bus is just 4 SYP i.e. $0.054 It is very cheap. This bread costs $0.08, but it's not fresh.
It feels like I'm crossing a road in Delhi. This is a local market in which all the Chinese goods are sold. Used goods too... This carrot juice cost me 500 SYP.
He's not interested in money. This cost me 500 SYP and he was accepting the money. But I insisted to pay. He's pouring more juice... Fresh Carrot juice for $0.15/- All the vegetables in Syria are grown in Syria only. No vegetables are imported
but Bananas. *Veges and fruits. One thing I liked about this market is that no one will deny you from tasting fruits. They consider denying to customer as very bad gesture. People are not accepting money from me... It seems like everything is free here.
Our guide said this place have delicious Kebabs... So we were just looking here... and the owner came with freshly made Kebabs for us. I said I'm full... He said, if we want we can taste the Kebabs. I tasted it and asked to pay. He said, no money! So, those Kebabs were not cheap but free.
As you must would have notices in my other videos of Syria that there is destruction everywhere but nothing happened in this market. This is because in Damascus there were not as much destructions. In the suburbs, situation was not good but main Damascus city was good.
Other cities got hit in Civil War. In this city only few small blasts occurred. We were buying sponge from this Soap Shop. Syrian Soaps are world famous. I asked how much for the sponge. He replied, "GIFT!"
Dignity matters the most for Syrian people. You saw in the morning, a lady came to me begging... Pre Civil War that started in 2011, you would have never seen anything like that. People never used to ask for any kind of favors to anyone. But Civil War has affected Syria's economy very hard. You will only see few beggars only roaming around i Syria. Comparatively none from let's say Egypt and India. This is Tamarind Juice which I had also in Lebanon.
It's very spicy and delicious. I spill it a bit. They say, your Damascus' tour is incomplete without tasting Ice-cream.
This shop is more that 200years old. Let's get inside. This is Pistachio and this is Ice-cream. They are not compromising in making it grand. This is some kind of pudding.
It was the main counter. It's very busy... This is not even peak hours. This is boiled milk, they put it in this. They freeze it and then they hammer it.
A cup of Ice-cream with Pistachio is of 3,000 SYP. 3000 SYP is not even a Dollar. For $0.8, I bought this amazing Ice-cream. It's very busy but we got a table. It tastes like pure milk. Very creamy.
And the price we got it for is totally worth it. That too sold in a 2 centuries old Ice-cream parlour. They say, your Damascus' tour is incomplete without tasting this Ice-cream. These girls are sitting with us. They wanted to have a pic us but were hesitating in asking.
And we were also hesitating to ask from them for a picture. It's Tuesday's afternoon. All the offices are open, still so many people are here. I'm just imagining, how much crowded this place must get during weekends.
This is the Umayyad Mosque which is most highlighted tourist destination. The most beautiful thing I like about this mosque is: this gate is from 1st century, Roman's time. And that is Islamic Architecture. it was built in 7th century. Originally, it was a church but then they converted it to a Mosque. While passing from here I heard "Juraab-Juraab" [Socks in Hindi].
For a second I felt, I was in India. After roaming around in the market we have come into the Umayyad Mosque. That was a Quran School but they have converted it into a cemetery and body of some very important people of Syria are resting there. Damascusians have a unique way of living.
If you go to a common house in Damascus, you will find water, greenery and beautiful women. This is what they say you'll find in Heaven. Water Fountain, Trees & Plants of Oranges and Figs... So, Damascus is considered as heaven. And this is the 4th most sacred place in Islam after Mecca, Medina and Al-Aqsa Mosque.
You can see these mosaics. These are typical Islamic Mosaics. You will find picture of any animal or human in these Mosaics. Initially, whole Umayyad Mosque was covered with these mosaics. But it got hit twice. In 13th and 19th century it caught fire and lost most of the mosaics on it. They are again making same kind of mosaics all over it. We came here in the old market in search of some Souvenirs.
Found a shop, which has fridge magnets.... and I wanna buy post cards also. These souvenirs keep the experiences alive for longer time. This is another expense of a tourist.
There are many different types of souvenirs. Keyrings... and coasters... Got some postcards... I've bought these for me.
1 post card cost 1000 SYP... He is showing post cards to me... This is a great shop. I bought many post cards. It cost 1,000 SYP for each. I bought it for many people but we will not count all. We will only count consider one.
I'll buy a fridge magnet too. This is the shop... I'm buying this one for me.
We have come to the oldest coffee shop of Damascus to have some coffee. These sweets are just like Indian sweets... Not even $2. Awesome, we'll have this...
2022-02-27 05:29
