I have always found the Dutch people’s capability to use their bike to transport goods very amusing and quit admirable. With some good will, a Dutch person can transport a couch or half a wooden floor on a bike. The ability in Denmark ends by two shopping bags in the front and a child on the back.
But the Syrians are without comparison. The bike is used as everything from a mobile coffee, bakery, snack bar all-in to pasta wholesale delivery. With the balance of a tightrope dance, the biker maneuvers his bike in and out between the mass of people in the narrow souq or the aggressive yellow cabs in the chaotic traffic crossing.
The Syrians have a special relationship with their transportation means. Horses and bull dozers are decorated with feathers worthy for the circus ring, small Datsun trucks can be traced back to their respective regions of the country by the way they are decorated - Homs has one style, Aleppo another, the fringed red patterned rug saddles used on the backs of camels and horses have gotten their revival on the seats of bikes with or without motor. The Syrians are true artists of the street.