Some more pictures from my
old collection. Here’s one of the Syrian army, and my little motorcycle. That
little bike I bought of some shady character in Hamra, and I was very glad I could
get rid of it 3 months later as it was a piece of junk. Of course I was new to the country, and was
not aware of the fact that people who appear very friendly and nice and willing
to help you, are equally willing to screw you if they can get away with it. I
paid $500 for it!!! Even some 20 years
later, a bike of this caliber wouldn’t fetch even half of that price.
But I did not know
anything about bikes, nor about local prices, and when the friendly man said
that this was a very good and fair price, almost a steal, I believed him. He
did teach me how to ride the thing though.
Another thing I did not
know then was that you had to watch out for the Syrian soldiers. One day, after
a photo mission from the top of Bourj el-Murr (this is 1990, and I wanted to
get an overview of downtown, which was then much like a jungle overgrown with
of trees), I walked in downtown and it was getting dark. There was only one
sandy road, going from the Normany checkpoint to the Port and then East-Beirut.
I did not like getting caught in the dark there, there were no street lights
there at the time, and since there were very few cars passing by, I flagged
down the very first car I saw coming my way; a Mercedes.
A Syrian check point. Regular soldiers were in uniform. The guys to watch out for were the plainclothes one; they were Mughabarat (Secret Service) |
In the back were two
soldiers sitting, kalashnikoffs on their lap. “Can I get a ride to Hamra?” I
asked the chauffeur. I did not speak Arabic at the time. He had this deer-caught-in-the-headlight
look. He raised his eyebrows a couple of times up and down, looking very
seriously. It was not clear to me what he was telling me.
“So . . . can you take me to Hamra,” I asked again.
His eyes only got wider,
and now he raised his eyebrows even further up, creating wrinkles in his
forehead.
I had no idea what he was
trying to tell me. I waited.
“Ehhhh, no place,” he
finally said.
What no place, I thought,
only two soldiers. You tell me I don’t fit.
“Sure there’s place,” I
replied. The two soldiers in the back were looking the other way as I got into
the front seat.
I turned around, trying to
strike up a conversation. “So, you are from around here?” I said.
They briefly looked at me,
and replied “Arabeh.”
“They speak no English,”
translated the driver for me.
And in total silence we
drove out of the downtown zone, in those days a no-man’s land. It was dark now.
At the crossing of Hamra
and Rue du Rome (near the old An-Nahar building) the soldiers got out. The
driver almost deflated the moment he pulled up again. He let out the longest
sigh ever. “Ffffffffffffffffffffffffffff.”
“I am just around the
corner,” I said, “You can drop me off here. "
“Oh no,” he replied, “It is not safe at night, “I will drop you at your front door,” and so we proceeded to my little shack on Rue d’Amerique.
“Oh no,” he replied, “It is not safe at night, “I will drop you at your front door,” and so we proceeded to my little shack on Rue d’Amerique.
As I got out, he said: “Don’t
you ever ride with Syrian soldiers again. They can do terrible things to you.
You must not ever get in a car with them again.” I had no idea they were
Syrians; all uniforms looked the same to me. The Syrians were the occupiers
then.
“So how come you took them?”
I asked him.
“We have no choice. They
stop us, you stop. They ask for a ride, you give it. They ask for your money, you give that too.”
3 comments:
I have really enjoyed reading this interesting post, just as much as all the previous ones! Congratulations for this amazing blog! Greetings from Romania!
what's wrong with a pot-bellied father with 5 kids? You better you no tell me bitch!
Very interesting photos and story! I get shivers down my spine reading posts like this one, just because they bring back so many stories and memories...
I would be very curious to see if you still happen to have the photos from the Burj El Mur, that would be very fascinating to see as I am sure not many people can say they have been up there!
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