Latakya 30/07/08

It's seems like I only just got to sleep when the phone rings with Rami's voice on the other end...

"Ben! Ben! Good morning. How are you? We are out the front"

I manage an affirmative grunt, almost fall back asleep then drag myself out to where they are waiting. Rami and Alaa where two of my best friends while living in Damascus and I'm stoked they made the effort to come and visit. After twenty minutes catching up on all the gossip we decide to go back to sleep for a couple of hours, it's still only 06:30...

Managing to sleep till ten Muhammad recommends a beach 25kms to the North and we head up there. The beach is Beautiful, framed by steep cliffs on either side and almost deserted. A perfect choice!

Eating breakfast then playing in the waves for an hour it's a great way to spend the morning. Heading back to Latakya the guys want to go to a famous strip of restaurants by the beach for lunch, but by the time we finish mucking around at the hotel and make our way there it turns into dinner...

Treated to fresh fish barbecued to perfection and a view watching the sun setting over the Mediterranean the restaurant couldn't be better. We have a great time before moving to another little cafe overlooking the sea on the other side of town.

Max joins us and the discussion soon turns to politics and the Arab/Israeli "problem" :)

Rami and Alaa are both Palestinian while Max lives in Beirut doing his PhD on the varying situations of the Palestinians in nearby countries. I have already had numerous discussions with Rami and Alaa on this topic and am happy to sit back and enjoy the banter, occasionally throwing my two cents worth in when I feel it's needed...

I'm impressed Max is happy to speak his mind, as too many foreigners living in this area view talking about Israel as a taboo, especially if you have something critical to say about Hamas or Hezbollah. Many groups when talking between themselves even go as far as calling Israel "Disneyland", in fear that by mentioning Israel by name the wrath of the Syrian people and government will instantly come crashing down around them. Quite bizarre considering this topic is often one of the first things Palestinians and Syrians want to get your view point on when getting to know you, and that from my experience most assume that being Western you will automatically be pro-Israeli. They are happy to have an intelligent debate and the different issues in the hope of giving you a different slant to the situation and even though the discussions can get heated, as there is obviously a lot of emotions involved, they are not going to get violent in any way if you disagree with them.

I would even go as far as saying I don't think you would be any physical danger if your view was "Israel has a right to exist, the Arabs are the ones causing all the problems and they are all terrorists". You would probably get yelled at, called an idiot and kicked out of the country soon enough but I doubt if it was said in a non-aggressive way you would come to any harm :)

Rami and Alaa head to the bus stop going back to Damascus, leaving me and Max waiting for another friend to come and pick us up. A kid turns up selling gum trying to convince us to buy some, then attempts to stick a packet in my pocket when we refuse. I let it fall to the ground and now that it's out of his hands the kid thinks we should pay for it. Ignoring him and walking off we get followed by a tirade of abuse as he follows yelling and screaming. The little fella's only about 12 years old so there's not much we can do but we do get slightly concerned when he picks up a big rock...

"Careful, they're good at rock throwing" Max jokes in obvious relation to the night's discussions.

The rock does come racing in our direction but luckily it was a very half hearted attempt to scare us, rolling along the ground. Our lift appears, rescues us and we go for a beer, then after dropping Max off Sami and I head to the beach for a game of pool. Blue Beach is a fun area at night and I'm glad we made the effort, but after a couple of hours I'm happy to head back to the hotel for bed...