A tourist's guide to Syria may sound exotic, but there are actually quite a few of them on the market (Culture Shock!, Lonely Planet, Michelin, Nelle, Rough, and several that are not part of a series). In addition to the usual traveler's fare about antiquities, exchange rates, and restaurants, guidebooks also provide plenty of on-the-ground information of interest to analysts, and especially so in relatively closed societies like Syria, where the media often overlooks such matters. Mannheim, a graduate of the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, knows his stuff and the Handbook contains many such nuggets.
Take the topic of simply coming from and going to these two countries. It is impossible to procure a Syrian visa in Lebanon – for the obvious reason that Syria maintains no diplomatic presence there. Curiously, visa applicants need a letter from their employers indicating that they have a job to return to, suggesting an unexpected Syrian fear of being deluged with job-seekers. It no longer suffices to present a passport clean of Israeli visas; Syrian and Lebanese consular officials now study the entry and exit stamps from Jordan and Egypt to make sure that they do not include any border crossings with Israel. Beirut International Airport boasts the largest cigar shop in the world.
The political differences between the two countries covered emerge clearly. In Syria, Mannheim warns, "steer clear of delicate topics." But in Lebanon "everyone is more than happy to talk endlessly" about all manner of sensitive matters. The Handbook confirms that the crackdown on drugs was for real (cannabis "these days it is not readily available in Lebanon or Syria"). Syria's totalitarianism has one redeeming effect, making it "probably the safest of all the Middle Eastern countries in which to travel. Theft and violent crime are virtually unheard of."
Mannheim is much less reliable when he looks at the larger picture, whether political (where he has the usual fashionable left-wing politics) or otherwise (Lebanon is "the most liberal of all the Middle Eastern countries"? what about Turkey and Israel?). Fortunately, there is not too much of such wrong-headedness in a guidebook mostly dealing with practical matters.
