Reyhanlı is situated about 5 km from the border crossing with Syria which makes it an ideal place to try to meet up with the "resistance" who are fighting the forces of Al-Assad and his supporters.
Not that it is an "ideal" place to meet them given that I've been here a day and managed to give up 10 TL to a seemingly friendly motorcyclist who gave me a ride to his house approximately a football field an a half from the border. From his house we could here the intermittent "Thud" of a tank or artillery shell.
His name was Said and he picked me out easily on the side of the road as if I was a walking ATM with flashing dollar signs.
He made it mostly clear that the ride was "bedava" which roughly translates to "free, on us, ect..." but changed his tune when we reached the border and cooly asked me for 50 TL whereupon I found the smallest bill in my wallet - a ten - handed it to him in disgust and walked away.
Maybe I could've had some balls and told him to F-off but I thought that it would cover his fuel expenses and the time away from his "job" of doing whatever the hell he does that allows him to own a motorcyle and live in a house which is far better than anything I've ever lived in.
My fortune changed a bit later when I met a news team comprised of a Syrian, Jordanian and a couple of Japanese reporters named Cho and Fatma (the name she gave me) who are based in Istanbul. They agreed to give me a ride back to the city but then forgot to tell me that we had passed the city and were about 15 km outside of it on their way back to Antakya.
So, I got out, and hitched a ride with a truck from a melon patch where some men with weathered faces kindly gave me a couple of melons - one sliced! - and sent me on my way.
'No pictures, no comments'
I did manage once back in Reyhanlı to make my way to the State Hospital and was quickly told I couldn't take pictures or visit any of the wards.
I talked to the director who was quite friendly and welcoming despite telling me that he couldn't tell me anything that I didn't already know: "Yes, we have fighters from Syria recuperating in our hospital, no, none of them are foreingers, ect..."
I then made my way back to the city center where I tried to take a nap on the side of the road but was quickly wakened by two boys on a motorcyle - they couldn't have been more than 10 yrs old - asking me for change! I yelled at them "but you have a motorcyle!!! WTF!!! I want a motorcyle!"
Later, in an actual dusty park, a gang of about 15 children kept crowding around me... I woudn't have been suprised if they started trying to poke me with sticks like they did to the caged bear and ostriches in Dohuk Zoo a couple of years before.
'Adieu'
Nothing to report.... Istanbul is sounding better every minute I waste here.
No comments:
Post a Comment