A number of people have contacted me on Twitter in response to my request for advice after my blog was momentarily blocked in Syria. Shukran jazeelan to everyone for their tips – much appreciated!
Unfortunately (or fortunately), I’m a busy travel writer with a lot to do here in Syria at the moment – boutique hotels to review, restaurants to try out, artists and musicians to interview – and blogging is not high on my list of priorities at the moment sadly, so I don’t have time to test out all your suggestions now. I wish I did but please know they’re appreciated.
In addition to my lack of time, the intermittent and excruciatingly slow internet access at a lot of the hotels we’re staying at means I simply can’t get on the net when it’s convenient nor wait for photos to upload. And I don’t have time to keep running back to the Four Seasons, which must have the fastest internet access in Damascus.
Quite a few people have written to me about blogspot being banned here and forwarded links about this. It’s good to hear people are getting around this using proxies. I pleased I’m still able to access a large number of blogspot blogs from Syria that I usually read from other parts of the world from Syria, along with Syrian-based blogspot blogs that I have discovered on this trip, as they’ve been a great resource for our research.
People are asking me for specifics about what ISPs I am using and am I using proxies. As I am reviewing hotels, I am moving hotels every couple of days so I’m using whatever ISP the hotel is using and I assume most have a proxy, I’m sorry but I don’t have time to investigate. I would rather be talking to a singer such as the wonderful Rasha Rizk than to an IT guy. Hoping you understand.