No photos!

On Saturday, after the long journey back from the border, the car needed a fill up and a good wash. We headed to Khak Gas Station... After filling up, they give a coupon for the car wash... Amazing! Especially considering that in 2006, Mu mostly filled up his tank by purchasing his gas from a child at the side of a road who then emptied on of the plastic containers filled with pink (the premium gas) into the tank.

I had to take a photo. What I didn't expect is that the car wash man would come and tell me that photos were not permitted. Mu laughed and asked why the man thought that the station was so important as to prohibit photos. But I wonder.... is this a left over from more dangerous times? Does a photo give a plan to someone with bad intentions?

Delayed again by FOG

And the trip back to Hawler was just as difficult as the journey from Hawler. Although the border crossing only took about an hour, it was because we didn't arrive at the border until just after midnight (after 5:00 am by the time we arrived home). We departed early only to be delayed another 3 hours in the Konya due to fog... Below are the pictures taken to measure the density of the problem. The first was probably taken at about 10:30 am after an hour or two of delay...



And the second photo about 30-40 minutes later... Finally we made it to Istanbul, but of course far to late to catch the connecting flight to Istanbul. Two hours later in Ankara, we were again delayed in continuing on to Diyarbakır.

bumpy road to recovery

It has been a week since my surgery and 4 days since I have been back. The last few days everyone has been asking after me and telling me that I should be taking it easy. In truth, there is still a little more recovery that needs to be made, but a couple hours teaching doesn't really cause me much grief. I think the only thing I have really done wrong this week was to not stay a few extra days in Istanbul so as to avoid the rocky overland route back to Hawler. Ordinarily, I would fly Istanbul- Erbil direct on Atlas Jet... but all the seats were sold out until Wednesday, so I bought a ticket to Mardin instead. Getting a ticket to Mardin as a domestic destination was a stroke of luck as there are many flights to Diyarbakir, but Mardin-bound flights are infrequent. (If you look on the map above - top left corner- you will see that Mardin is at least an hour's drive closer to the Iraqi border.
In the Mardin airport, I was lucky to run into a Paris-based Baghdadi businessman who was going to Dohuk to visit his siblings in their new safer city. He was able to give me a lift, saving me $160.00 US. (In my delicate state I was willing to pay this exorbitant sum to go directly to the border rather than to do public transport to Silopi and transfer to the border from there.
The real issue regarding my travel, however, was not related to time or money, but rather to the road conditions in the Kurdish regions of Turkey. The roads are very poorly maintained... meaning potholes more jarring than the oversized speed bumps on the path to our apartment. Even though the driver carefully selected the side of the road to drive on by the condition of the asphalt, bumps or sudden swerves back to our side of the road (to avoid the oncoming oil trucks and mac trucks) were unavoidable. Needless to say, I didn't feel so hot by the time I got to Zakho. But at least from, Zakho, my fragile health was not in the hands (or cars) of strangers. In Zakho, Mu met me and drove me to Hawler (Arbil on above map). This was a long stretch, but not nearly so bad due to recently maintained roads and careful driving. Poor Mu. After dropping me off, he had to continue on to Sulemaniya taking the long route through Koya instead of passing through Kirkuk as the latter route is more dangerous after nightfall.

Anyway, I am sitting on my sofa now and wishing that I had delayed my trip back... or at least taken my camera with me as Mardin is beautiful. Above please see a picture I stole from the internet.

The flight home to Hawler

Dear Saffron,

You will be happy to know that I made it safely back to Hawler. The unfortunate thing is that it took 2 days and was costly as I had to go back and forth between the airport twice and buy plane tickets for two alternate routes home. (But at least they will refund almost 70% of the cost of one of the tickets).

On Thursday, I waited until 8:00 pm to go and buy my ticket in the airport. At 8:00, the agent asked me to come back at 9:00 as the computer was down. At 9:00, the agent told me the flight was postponed and that I should go home and come back on Friday. I stored my luggage at left luggage and took a bus back to Beşiktaş.

The next morning, I woke up early to a phone call from Cengis (you will remember him the post about Batman). I don't really understand Turkish, but it seemed like he was asking when I would be there. So I took a quick shower and rushed out to the travel agency to try and find a ticket to Batman or Diyarbakır. Unfortunately, the earliest flight wasn't until 6:55pm... but the travel agent helped me to call Cengis only to find out that he probably wasn't really inviting me along since he was already at the border.

Anyway, I decided to hold off on the ticket until 1:00 pm in case Laveen decided to fly. At 1:00 pm however, they said that it was unlikely and that I should just buy my ticket to Diyarbakir. The flight to Diyarbakır had been filling up and as there were only 8 seats left, the price had increased by $20.00. I bought the ticket over the phone and slowly started making my way to the airport. At 5:50, just before picking up my luggage, I checked Laveen again to find out that they had decided that they had changed their minds and that the flight would (100% certainty) be leaving at 10:00 pm. I agreed to the $50.00 cancellation fee for the Diyarbakır ticket and bought a round trip to Erbil... And as you have probably guessed I made it home safely, but the troubles never cease! My phone battery died and I was unable to call and confirm my arrival time with Mu so there was nobody to pick me up from the airport. At least the taxi driver spoke some English and decided to bring me home (5 minutes) for less than the 'special' airport taxi fee of $25.00.

In limbo

After a trying day (you will have already read about my day-long call marathon with Aras cargo after which no package arrived), I have finally made it to the airport. I took a cab and the driver offered me a cheap rate to drive me direct rather than to the airport bus stop. This was a mistake as the driver insisted on trying to teach me Turkish and Kurdish the whole way and asked me uncomfortable questions even though I tried to make it clear that I had a very jealous boyfriend.

Anyway, now I am sitting in the airport cafe waiting not to fly, but to find out whether or not Laveen will permit me to buy a ticket since they still don't know whether or not the plane will leave this evening. This is unfortunate as I am not looking forward to another trying road trip. Ah, well... such is life. You will know that I made it if the next post is from Erbil.

Parking Ticket

Dr. F seemed amazed by the sight of this police officer writing a parking ticket on a side road in Ainkawa. When I asked him was he found so interesting, he responded that it seemed strange that in a region with no enforced traffic laws (other than, Don't try to cross city checkpoints with bombs on board), that the police bother to write parking tickets. I wonder how many of the ticketed parties actually pay? Those who have to renew their license in the same city that the offense was committed?

All flights to Istanbul cancelled

I guess this is what happens when the US doesn't raise any objections to to Turkey flying into Iraqi airspace to hunt down the PKK. So last Saturday, although I had planned to fly to Istanbul on Sunday and had just arrived in Sulemaniya at 10am, I found out that Laveen wasn't flying, turned around after lunch and came the 3 hours back. So sorry to the two Canadians who had accompanied me there. I got home, had a nap, packed my bags and set off towards the border by taxi at 11pm.

Now it is late Monday night and I am in Istanbul. I arrived yesterday at about noon. Tomorrow I fly out for London. But I had time for the following:
A trip to the Grand Bazaar...

... where I shopped for Christmas presents.

A few photos of Metro station tiled walls; This is Kabatas.

Shopping and a 3D movie (how retro) at Kanyon shopping center.

I will be sad to leave tomorrow if only because I have a long journey ahead to get to the middle of nowhere Canada (sorry Mom), but I return on the 5th of January. Who wants to make a bet that the Istanbul - Erbil flight scheduled for January 6th will also be cancelled?

Nechirvan on Nechirvan Street

Picture from www.Chris-Kutschera.com

"Who is this HOT guy?" you (or someone somewhere) might ask.
He is the reason I yelled at a beret-wearing AK47-toting guard yesterday. I had a very important meeting with some officials set for 10:00am and of course at 9:50 and a 10-15 minute taxi ride from my destination, I ran into difficulties. I stepped out from the drive to my apartment onto the main street when some of these camoflaged guards used go-away doggy finger gestures to tell me to get out of the street and back into the drive. I stepped back and impatiently shifted from foot to foot waiting for some sign that I could go out and catch my taxi. In the meantime, traffic kept accumulating in the drive from the apartment, of course every white SUV filled with men all staring at me with amusement and those looks that might indicate that they have never before in their lives seen a woman! One of them seemed so intent on talking to me that I stepped closer to his car and he informed me that traffic had been stopped so that Nechirvan Barzani (the guy in the photo and prime minister of Kurdistan) could pass. Shortly after an entourage of BLACK (not the usual white) SUVs with tinted windows passed and I was finally allowed on my way. Nonetheless, although completely unreasonable, I was so frustrated at being stared at for nearly 10 minutes that seemed like an uncomfortable eon, I yelled at the guards for making me stand on the side of the road where I could be treated like an unwitting zoo specimen.

Drive by Shooting

A little scared to pull out my camera while passing through Kirkuk... once again... and once again by accident! I put on my telephoto lens and shot pictures from the back seat over Pambette's shoulder through the dirty glass of the Jeep Cherokee's window. (Just to let you know, although Kirkuk has been posted here more than once, it is always an accident when I find myself there - this time being no exception...the only difference is that this time, the driver also didn't intend to go there. We discovered the error when we passed Chamchamal instead of Dokhan).

Our first experience of Kirkuk was a high traffic jam/blockade where we sat hemmed in by lorries and other vehicles haphazardly matted together. Uniformed military personnel let us sit there a while before starting to weave their way among the vehicles slapping the sides of cars to get them to stop or move ahead and untangle the many lines of traffic. Later we found out there had been some incident with American soldiers and some fundamental Islamists and hence there was a curfew on the city which lasted until 5pm... so I guess we waited there until 5:00.

This next photo was accidentally shot. You aren't supposted to take photos at checkpoints. This is the actual Kirkuk checkpoint (the little white booth with the three men in unifroms in front). We had no problem entering Kirkuk. It was as though all the guards in Kurdistan had been warned that there was a red Jeep Cherokee of foreigners trying to find their way to Hawler. At some of the checkpoints they even spoke to Dr. Z in Turkish.

This next photo is of nothing - just the road as you enter the opfficial city boundaries.

At this point, it was starting to get dark and we were really driving too fast to shoot any non-blurry photos, but this one is of a statue of someone ?(Kirkukis, please write and let me know who this is)near the center of the city where you start to pass by the citadel, the markets and streets with little street stalls and... cows!

And this last photo is of a typical scene in Kirkuk. Last time I saw the Iraqi National guards dressed in Ninja outfits manning mounted guns on the back of a truck. This time it was a convey of armoured vehicles - American?

Traveling on the Edge

All of you who live in Hawler probably think that this post is going to be about another rought night at the bar in the compound... but it isn't (at least not directly). Although Eid falls on a weekend this year and we technically were only supposed to get 3 days off, our department got the whole week and many planned trips abroad - 2 of "Daily Hawler" readers' favorite characters were planning a trip to Beirut. On the morning of their flight I got a call from character A. He wanted me to get out of the shower, dry off quickly and go bang on character B's door as he hadn't shown up to pick up A at the agreed time and didn't seem to be home. Nor did he answer his mobile. A went solo to the airport only to find that B wasn't there either. Dilemma...

I went down and rang B's bell twice. I was about to give up when B answered the door fully dressed, looking completely relaxed, but somewhat bewildered to see me at the door. I told him A was waiting at the airport. He asked what the time was, thanked me and sauntered off with the door still ajar. B apparently called B to say, "I might make it on time." He DID make it... JUST!

B is now my new hero. Not for being so casual about time that A is unlikely to ever take a morning flight with B again, but for not having a heart attack when he realized he had 20 minutes to get ready, get to the airport and get on the plane.

Failure to wave

This post really needs a picture (I promise one as soon as I fix my camera). Prominantly near the middle of major intersections in Hawler, there are little boxes where traffic police (or are there special titles for people who direct traffic?) stand.

Recently, after an unsuccessful attempt to get one of our students admitted to the Korean hospital (we didn't have a pass to get in), we were leaving the long dirt road that leads out of the Korean military base and back onto the road when a traffic cop stopped us. RE, the driver, was asked for his license and registration... then he allowed us to travel on our way. As we drove away, I asked RE why we had been pulled over. Even though it doesn't seem to be a law here, we were even wearing seatbelts. There seem in fact to be so few road rules that I couldn't begin to imagine why, with our very responsible driver, we had been stopped. It appears that before pulling onto the road, RE failed to wave at the officer.

Saddam is sentenced...

...and it would seem to me that today Hawler celebrated. I went to Ainkawa after work today to experience the worst traffic since I have arrived. It took an hour to get to a place which should have taken no more than 20 minutes. Not only that, the regular beeping of horns sounded more joyous somehow. Everyone was out celebrating? On BBC World, we saw pictures of Iraqis in Baghdad protesting the verdict. How surreal! It was certainly not the atmosphere here today.