I hope is because Syria was actually beautiful
I visited Syria in the Summer of 2004 and it was a very hot summer and I was young traveler who traveled to Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan , Sinai and Egypt over a 6 week period with 4 other friends
at that time the War in Iraq forced many Iraqis to leave Iraq and come to Syria
Man Syria was beautiful, the food was so cheap and so tasty, the BBQ and the rice was amazing as was the dry naan bread
the fruit was fresh and the people were so nice and welcoming sometimes when I smell sheesha it brings back memories of my time in Syria
I visited Palmyra and I guess the things I seen are long gone in terms of the historical sites all but destroyed
We traveled from Damascus to Beirut through the Bekav Vally it was amazing drive so memorable, we stopped at this very popular bakery and the bread was amazing
when we reached immigration the Lebanese asked us where we were from, we replied we are British , he came over and said you guys dont look British we replied yes our forefathers are originally from Pakistan and he smiled and laughed and said if you have a Pakistani passport we can enter Lebanon for free other wise for British its $60 fee
none of us carried Pakistani passports so we paid the fee and entered Lebanon
just thought I would share this story one of many