The saturday was more busy and the shops and the market was open. Is we were greeted by the locals I felt much better than Friday. First we went to see the national museum. The entrance fee was the usual 150 SP ( 3 USD). The museum had a nice exhibition of the history of Syria. It was nice to see the archeological objects and learn about the different periods. I found there similar gases as we were offered to buy in Apilia. We stopped for felafel and I asked if it is possible to get the old oil. They used palm oil and it will be possible to get it in few days. It will be nice to have some more vegetable oil but we could not stay longer in Syria. Our next stop was the famous Damascus Big Suq (market). The market was very big and had different sections. we entered through hardware section. It was nice to see the welding shops and pumping materials. It looked as if time has stopped here 100 years ago. The main street was more touristic and offered cloths. We were approached by a man who spoke good english and he took us to his shop. Agnieszka bought more scarfs and I got a nice carpet for my car. After some negotiations we managed to get 50 % discount. On the way out of the market we visited one more store and met there a nice man. He spoke a very good English and was quite open about the life in Syria. He told us that the life after the war in Iraq is more difficult and everything us more expensive because three million Iraqis moved to Syria. The problem is that the salaries of the people are still the same. An average monthly income is 100 USD. It is not possible to make any critique of the government. After one week in Syria it was hard to understand the political situation. Everywhere we saw pictures of the president who is a sun of the former president. So it looks more as kingdom where the king has a lot of power. We left Damascus around 8 pm and drove to the Jordanian borders. Since my tank was getting empty and the diesel is so cheap in Syria I stopped at the first gas station. They told me that they are out of diesel and that there are more stations. The next station was also out but I managed to get 10 liters to my spare canister, but I had to pay almost double price. They told me that it is normal. I was happy to have enough fuel to get to the borders and I was hopping to get some more before we get to Jordan where the fuel is more expensive. The situation at next 6 stations was the same - no diesel. I started to understand the situation. Since the diesel is so cheap 1 liter cost 7 SP ( 0.15 USD) it is used for heating. When it gets colder there is not enough and it is possible to get only for more money. Few km before the borders there was one more station and it still had some diesel. There were several trucks and busses trying to get some. I managed to get my car up front and got some fuel. The situation was chaotic and the counter looked broken. it was difficult to know how much I got, since I payed for 100 liters I was hoping to have my tank almost full. We had to leave Syria before midnight to avoid paying 100 USD for additional week using diesel car. We managed to get there at 11 pm and there were no problems and know-body checked the car again. Since it was 15 min before midnight we stopped right before the Jordanian borders and waited for Sunday. After 10 minutes 2 friendly police man came and told us that we can not park here and they escorted us to the borders. We had to get the visa and arrange everything with the car. The visa cost 10 JD (5 USD) and I had to pay 15 JD for my car ( it was cheaper than in Syria and there was no 1 week limit). The 1 week insurance was more expensive than in Syria it cost 46 SP and I had to pay 10 SP for customs. All together it was around 100 USD for coming to Jordan with the car. We drove about 20 km and stayed and small paring lot in some city.
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