[0:00]Today I'm staying in the most luxurious hotel in Damascus, Syria! Beit Al Wali. I'll be staying in the presidential suite, which costs 440 USD per night, and I'll be showing you what a luxury experience is like here in Damascus. From the presidential room, the hotel architecture, a luxury dinner and of course, a traditional Syrian breakfast. It's gonna be a fun and enjoyable time. Let's start the video! So this is $200 worth. Look at this. Look at my this is a 1/8 of it. I can't even like fold my wallet. I'm staying at the best hotel in Syria, everybody. Beit Al Wali. Let's go check in. Beit Al Wali. Okay, so do we press the full speed? No, no, when you check out, they're going to put your bag in the room and we need your passport, please. How much is it? 425 per night. That's the presidential. Presidential. And it's available. Okay. Can I make sure that I can I pay now? Cause if I can't pay with my card, then I'm fucked. Thank you. I need just your signature. I can sign, but if I can't pay with my card, I can't stay. The moment of truth, everybody. Is Revolute going to pull through? You doubt your Mastercard? No, I doubt Syria accepting my Mastercard. You need four tonight? Yes, please. But like this would be one of the only places in Syria that accepts card. I think, yes. And we are the first, yes, they are the first hotel. First place in Syria. But maybe before like 2011 you could pay with card. Just your master, Visa no. Oh, is that Visa? Luckily, I got my other Revolut card. Let's try this. Oh, my God. Is it actually going to work?
[2:07]Pin accepted. Approved. We did it. We're living in luxury. We're staying here. Yes. So basically is is a lot of a lot of sections. You will find this fountain, another fountain and we will go with us. Welcome! Thank you. Because it's your first time here in Syria. I'll make a small tour around. What's your name? My name's George. Nice to meet you, George. What's your name? Luke. Luke. Welcome, Luke! So, in our hotel we have four big houses connected to each other. We are on the fourth house, the biggest one. included 14 rooms, six downstairs and eight upstairs. Wow. You're going to have a look. It's so beautiful. When was it built? The house is it's like 300 years old. Wow. But the hotel it's 15 years old. So all like these these are 300 years. Wow. They are updated. They renovated it. The whole tag or architecture was so the same. Yeah. And here, business center, you can.
[3:18]Wow, it's so cool how it's split up into like different quarters. Here, the first house, we have here 11 rooms, four downstairs and seven upstairs. Wow. Look how beautiful the architecture is. All the traditional Syrian windows. I love the wood. I love the doors that they have here. It's beautiful. He's saying this is the Mr. he's the owner of Beit Al Wali, Mr. Edward. And he's welcoming you. He's very hospitable and he said he wants to offer you the berries, the Shami, the Damascum berries, this is special.
[4:02]I'll take the berries. I'll try the berries. I will open a balcony and you can see the whole Damascus from the top. Now we're going to go in the top there. How long has he been the owner for? He did it like he did it stone by stone. You know, like he did all of all of all of those place.
[4:25]That's so cool. It's beautiful. Can I get my photo up there?
[4:49]Yeah. You can also get a person can actually. So if you're famous or you're of course famous, you're going to have your picture up. On the screen you can see how it looks like before from 1970 to 2010. How it looks like before and how it's now. So 2010. Yeah. Renovations in uh 2007. So they start working on it in 2007. Incredible. Oh my goodness. Look at the architecture. Look at the wooden things. Syria is known for this type of wood. Yeah, what's it called?
[5:24]What was it called? The tree is, yes. What is it called in English?
[5:32]Here the second house, we have here 13 rooms, eight downstairs and five upstairs. And so how many rooms total in the whole place? 47. 47. Yeah. And what's the best room? Royal suite. Okay. Then the second, the second, the second best room? Sorry. Presidential suite. Yes.
[5:53]You worked so hard for it. You waited a night. But the funny thing is, if my card doesn't work here, then I'm going back to the old hotel I was at. No, it doesn't. He says you're gonna have. Here you can see the architecture of Damascus. The all houses in of Damascus, the old houses are the same. They look like this kind of. style, a fountain, two floors, a room, a wood. Look at the sky. Look at the ceiling. Look at the architecture there. This is so super special for Damascus. And they have seats here. People used to gather here. Like they're all the same. Like this. It's called Diwan. And this is a room. They basically have different different rooms. They planned. They use plants. Here, for example, very fun um thing. It's a swimming pool? This is not a swimming pool. This is a mini swimming pool for watermelon. We just fill it with the with water and then maybe we put watermelons inside or fruits inside, you know, special for my grandpa is. And then you eat it. Yes, to wash them or to cool them up. Ah, yeah.
[6:59]Oh, very small.
[7:03]How many people can it fit? Six people. No way. That's so small. You just said it's for you. I hope they don't see this for. Maybe six kids. How will it affect you? Wow. Here's the restaurant.
[7:25]Here's where you're gonna be having breakfast. Yeah. So delicious. The best part about Syria is that all of the tables have an ash tray automatically on it. You can smoke anywhere here. Anywhere you want. Even in the hospital. This is here. That's it down and you have upstairs. Can people, if they're not staying here, can people come and eat? Yeah, but they should have a reservation. That's better actually for safety. Wow. Oh my goodness. Look how beautiful this is. You have the mountain side over there and all the all Damascus. This is basically Syria where you can find a big church next to it, a mosque, right next to it. All Damascus. Yes, everywhere in Damascus. People here are very with different background, different cultures. We all, we've always lived together. Past 50 years, the dictators separate people, they divided between Christians and Muslims and Druze and Alawite. Like we have variety of people, variety of religions. But we still among all the problems that happens and we face as people. We still live next to each other. You can find a house, a Muslim house, next to it a Christian house, next to it whatever. We always live next to each other. So this is the old town, this area. Like how old is it? When were these? Thousands of years. And people have lived here the whole time. Yeah. Do you know that the underground, the the ground that we were walking in, the pipes, the water pipes are still ancient since the the Empires, the past Empires. We they still there.
[9:12]Yeah, they still work. Yeah. This mountain, during Assad, people were forbidden to go. Really? To go just to even go up the top? No, it's just for Assad's family. Only. People were depraved from seeing their own uh city for almost all those years. They were deprived just to see, to have a go and look. After deprivation people, thousands of people started getting getting on this mountain. It's the mountain that overlooks the whole area, whole Damascus. Yeah, look. You can even see the houses, they like built up. Look at this. Welcome. Thank you. Thank you. So what is this one? This is a shami, like the berries. That's, uh, like Damaskin berries. Special for Damascus this area. You could Can you get it in other parts of Syria?
[10:02]Of course. But this is where it came from, Damascus.
[10:11]Terrible. No. You better not say terrible. I can push you. No, it's uh, very good. Kind of like sweet and sour at the same time.
[10:25]Did Assad ever stay in the presidential suite? No. No, Assad never came. Sucked in. I'm better than you. I'm staying in the presidential suite in Syria. Oh, poor Assad. Poor Assad. We wish you were here. We're celebrating without you. Come, come. Please come here. Is Syrian cuisine at all similar to Lebanese? Lebanese cuisine is actually Syrian. Really? Yeah. We are one big one Syria.
[10:57]We are all of us living on Syria, Jordan. We were the big Syria and then we were divided by the like Spiko and agreement. So we basically have the same very close traditions and everything. But now each one of us has his own taste and I will say Syrian's better. And I'm lost. Which way's the exit? Cause the other thing, there's mirrors. I thought that was an entrance. It's a mirror. It's a mirror.
[11:25]So these are little buggies that are only for the guests here at the hotel. Oh, we even got These are actually extremely luxurious. We're going to be having a cool tour.
[11:48]Where are we going? Where does this go? No, we're just gonna have a small like we're just gonna go to Bab Sharki where we are and you have to, sorry, memorizing the names. So, and then we're going to be back to Bab Touma square. I know that one. Bab Touma. Yeah, exactly. So we're gonna go to Bab Sharki and Bab Touma, the square. This is pretty cool. Cool way to get around town. I hate walking. So uh, it's always a positive. Is this a Tesla? Tesla, Syria? No. Golf. Golf. What the fuck is it? I'm asking. Elon Musk hasn't made it to uh Syria yet. Maybe very, very soon, since Assad has fallen. Yeah, exactly. They have to activate the master card better, you know? Exactly. They start with this. Guys, I've actually just absolutely uh in disbelief that my card actually worked here. I didn't bring enough cash into this country. Hotels are always going to be the most expensive thing, and I'm so glad that I'm able to pay with card there.
[12:53]The biggest elevator in the hotel. What's your favorite food of Syrian? Shakriya.
[13:13]Why does everything have yogurt here? No, it's not everything. It's a couple of foods.
[15:21]Okay. So what do you say you're undecided about? What do you choose? What is too much good food here to choose between? So I have the ribs. You help me, please. Okay. Give me the option. You have to eat with me. So there's the ribs like this. Sheep. Not that. And then we have the what's this called in English? Like this meat, which is like type of rice with cooked yogurt. And inside it, sheep. Do you just love sheep? That one sounds better though. Is there a Syrian beer that's known? Yes. What's it called? Afamia. Afamia. Do they sell Afamia? Yes, they have Afamia. Can I get one? Yes, please. Thank you. Wow, look how frosty this is. We're so cool that we can give you this. Thank you. And this in the same minute. Okay. Eat it. Take it. You eat it and the same time you drink it in the same time.
[17:08]Very good. It's not very strong, which is nice. It's very light. It's extremely frosty, but it's just a light beer. I mean, I'm not a beer reviewer, so I don't know how to give the exact words to describe it.
[17:27]Let's see. Syrian hummus. Not as good as Lebanese. Really? It could just be this place, though. I've found all the Syrian food so far to be insanely delicious.
[17:40]It all beats Lebanon for me. Really? Thanks for. I'm a die hard Lebanon. And I love Lebanon. I'm a die hard Lebanon.
[19:40]Yeah. But you don't really get in Lebanon. They will tell you to stay there. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Let's do a quick review. We'll enjoy this time with our friends here. Yeah, chicken in Syria is extremely well marinated. It's a different kind of uh, different kind of taste. It's very delicious.
[24:55]Yeah. Well, good morning, everybody. I'm enjoying breakfast in bed. This is the kind of breakfast that I want.
