Taxi from Syria to Jordan:

While traveling in the Middle east in 2008 Lindsay and I needed to get from Damascus Syria to Amman Jordan. There are numerous ways to do this including flying, buses and even an old train (although last we heard this was not working). We decided to take a shared taxi both for the experience and the speed. In order to do this you have to go to a particular bus station/taxi stand to find drivers willing to make this long trip. We were not quite sure where this was but luckily the night before we left we meet an Englishman that was living in Syria and he told us exactly how to get there. We woke in the morning and took a taxi to the correct bus station/taxi stand. Arrival at a Middle Eastern taxi stand can be a very intimidating experience. You have about 15 drivers surround you yelling out different destinations and pricing..."Beirut!", "Amman!",etc. I am sure there is a method for picking the best driver but we just found one that had a decent price and said "O.K." Upon this agreement he immediately grabbed our passports and led us to his car. There was another older middle eastern women sitting in the car and we were all very confused. Here we were sitting with this women in a taxi with no driver. Furthermore, the driver had been gone about 30 minutes and had our passports! It turns out they will not leave until they have a full car. Thus, the driver was out finding one more passenger heading from Damascus to Amman. He finally found another person and off we went. It was two Syrian men in the front seat (the driver and one passenger) and me, Lindsay and an old Muslim women in the back seat. The drive is pretty uneventful as most of the scenery is desert and rocks. However, the highlights were stopping at the various stands along the way, the incredibly nice guards at the Jordan border and the occasional conversation in our "car full of strangers." Not only was this a very fast way to get between Damascus and Amman (about 4 hours) but it was a great experience as well.