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July 14, 2005
Tech meltdown
I spent the hour delay in Aleppo angling my mobile any which way in search of a signal, and then doing the same in the hour long queue for visas at Damascus.
Not a sausage.
(well, obviously, 'tis a Muslim country)
So there was I, cursing the Syrian mobile industry when I noticed just about everybody else yammering away on their phones. Nobody texting of course - it can't be too easy with their alphabet.
It turns out that Vodafone Ireland don't have a roaming arrangement in Syria. I'm in a personal GSMless black hole. Maybe that's why Paul turned back on his way to Damascus, he realised he had to pick up an O2 sim card.
It's quite wierd how disconnected I feel. I spent the day at the project office meeting the permanent staff and first wave of short term people like me. There's 3 short-termers here today, with another 3 or 4 arriving over the weekend. All the while I knew that I couldn't be contacted at all, which was strangely disconcerting.
At least there's internet access in the hotel room. Mind you if I want to get sent home in a hurry all I have to do is type something smutty into Google.
I should have some time off tomorrow, so I'll try and stick a few photos up here.
Posted by Richard at July 14, 2005 08:52 PM