Oct 8 - All set. After some pondering and blatant ditherment, I have booked my flights for the Kurdistan trip. As all international flights in and out of Kurdistan are suspended at the moment, the tour has been rerouted to go in overland from Turkey, so I'm off to Sirnak via Istanbul and then by road to the Ibrahim Khalil border crossing and into Kurdistan. This is a much more tiresome and far more expensive route than the originally intended short cheapie FlyDubai ticket to Erbil, but that's no longer an option. The itinerary has been reorganised and has now cut out Kirkuk, which is a pity, as I like to go to places you hear about on the news so you can remember them when a news story comes on, but it's definitely too 'iffy' at the moment. The new itinerary should hopefully be relatively safe. If not, we'll just have to see. Setting off on 16th when JTP will be back to mind my babies.
Oct 16 - Well off I go; to Istanbul, then Sirnak, then by bus over the border to Kurdistan. Wish me luck, I'm looking forward to a memorable trip. Just hope it's memorable for all the right reasons.
Oct 17 - Aaaaargh! Strike a light. Knock me down with a feather. Would you Adam and Eve it? I have just heard that my application for a Letter of Invitation to visit Turkmenistan (where I was due to go three days after my Kurdish trip) has been denied! What a cheek! Do they think I'm a spy or an undesirable (don't bother answering that) or something? Anyway, it has blown a hole not only in this year's travel plans but more importantly, in my ambition to visit every country in the world; I am very angry about this!
Meanwhile, we made it by bus from Sirnak across the border to Zakho in Iraqi Kurdistan. A very long drawn out and tortuous process which took almost two hours and included handing our passports over umpteen times and being digitally fingerprinted and photographed. Then we stopped to see Delal Bridge in Zakho, which dates from 600 BC and is currently being restored. Very pretty. We were besieged by a group of very cheeky but very friendly children, all wanting to pose for photos and then look at them on our smart phones.
Then we headed to Duhok where we are spending our first night. Hotel is okay but bed sheets dirty. Went out to change dollars for local currency and then had dinner at a very cheap eatery and got acquainted with the group. There are about 15 of us. We are a very diverse group and all travel fiends as usual. It is almost worth coming on a YPT tour just for the sake of the interesting people you will meet. Our guide told us about the Iraqi army having taken control in Kirkuk today. As it is no longer on our revised itinerary, this is not a problem for us. Of course, if the army, having so easily overcome the Peshmurga in Kirkuk (the Kurds having apparently fled their positions after quickly running out of ammunition), are emboldened enough to push on to other parts of Kurdistan, such as Erbil or Sulaymaniyah, then we'll be stuffed; we'll have to wait and see. Our guide told us that we are completely safe in Kurdistan, but I was mildly alarmed when I noticed that our coach driver kept a handgun beside him. His driving is also very scary. At one point yesterday, he swung onto the far side of a main highway and we drove for several, very looong seconds, straight towards the oncoming traffic including a juggernaut which we were virtually eyeballing, before he swung over out of the way at the last minute. vI thought my number was up. Imagine being driven the wrong way up the M1 or the SZR. Blimey. Sometimes it's better not to be in the front seat.
We check out at 7.00 this morning for breakfast in town then sightseeing, lunch in a cave restaurant and then to make our way to our next stop in Rwandas. I'll keep you posted....
Oct 18 - Lunch beside the beautiful river Zab. The Great Zab or Upper Zab is an approximately 400-kilometre long river flowing through Turkey and Iraq. It rises in Turkey near Lake Van and joins the Tigris in Iraq south of Mosul. We found a delightful shady spot for lunch where we could admire the flowing river and her lush banks.
Oct 18 - Amadiya Old Town, Part 1, dating from 600 AD. Lovely friendly people, sweet tea and raw pistachios.
Oct 19 - Hoorah! Unbeknownst to me, YPT appealed against the refusal of my Turkmen visa and the decision has now been reversed. So I am now flying out on 25 Oct and returning on 3 Nov. as originally planned. Well done YPT- great service!
Onto our first full day in Kurdistan. Yesterday we crossed the border near Zakho and pressed on to overnight in Duhok. This morning we checked out of the hotel early and went to a nearby restaurant for some breakfast at 7.00 a.m. Our guide, Belin, ordered for all of us. Our repast started with a bowl of lentil soup, followed by creamy plain yoghurt and raw honey. We also had copious quantities of freshly baked flat bread and squares of Kiri cream cheese. It was washed down with a small glass of sweet black tea. Delicious.
You have already seen my brief comments on the day’s activities when I posted some photos, but this is the slightly more detailed version. To recap, we covered virtually all the elements of a classic YPT day on tour. We travelled through some lovey scenery: mountains and deep river valleys. We followed the lovely river Zab for much of the way, a river which changes its colour like a chameleon as it meanders through the wide alluvial plains and fertile arable land. The river acts like a lateral oasis, so that its banks are particularly densely covered with trees, a thick green fringe on each side.
Our first stop was to see the remains of one of Saddam Hussain’s palaces near Amadiya. It was perched like an abandoned eyrie atop a high mountain and we reached it by a long, twisty, vertiginous road full of hairpin bends and curls. Saddam of course would have arrived by helicopter to his personal helipad. The palace has now been converted to a communications/radio mast station. It is a wreck and nothing remains of the opulence and luxury that it once would have held. But the views afforded by the enormous windows, now glass-less gaping holes, were simply stunning. Saddam must have felt as though he was on top of the world, and in his heyday, of course, he was. He had more than 40 such palaces and flitted between them so that no-one outside his inner circle could ever be sure where he was. All the palaces were kept fully staffed and provisioned lest he should swing by at a moment’s notice.
From there we drove down into Amadiya old town to see the mosque dating from 1500 A.D. and the town itself, which was first settled in 600AD. We strolled around at a leisurely pace, doing a little shopping and then sat to drink tea and take in the local sights and sounds. I loved the traditional costumes worn by the men, of baggy trousers with a tunic or waistcoat and broad sash around their waists. On their heads they wore a turban-like headdress. The men have really striking features: dark eyes, olive skin and aquiline noses and they favour moustaches. They took an obvious pride in their attire and were more than happy to pose for photos. They were really friendly and smiley and accommodating-such a nice change from people who are reluctant to be photographed or who just refuse to co-operate for the hell of it.
Our itinerary said we were to have lunch in a famous cave restaurant, but that didn’t happen. Instead, though we had lunch outside in the shade beside the river Zab, which was more than pleasant.
Next we went to Barzan, to see the graves of the former president and the prime minister of Kurdistan-respectively the grandfather and father of the current prime minister. There is also the Barzani Memorial Centre, built to commemorate these figures of the prominent political dynasty. Belin commented that the three domes of the memorial building symbolised the three religions of the Kurdish region: Muslim, Christian and Yazidi. It wasn’t until then that I learnt that Yazidi is a religion rather than a term of geographical provenance. Apparently they are animists who, because their beliefs are mainly handed down orally, are much misunderstood and are sometimes mistakenly thought of as devil worshippers. They are also known as the Cult of the Peacock Angel (a reference to Melek Taus, the only one of the seven angels who refused to bow down before Adam). They are strictly endogamous, only marrying amongst their own religion. We are due to visit Lalesh, their most sacred site, later this week and it is said to be the highlight of the trip. I am really looking forward to that now.
Onwards we went to visit the Shanidar Cave, which, as I mentioned in a previous post, nearly killed me struggling up 300 steps to reach it. But we also stopped enroute for an obligatory YPT tour bus breakdown. New brake pads were fitted and we were soon off again.
Our last slog of the day was a long four hour drive to Rawanduz, where we would spend the night. Along with various bedbugs and dirty sheets which I have already described. The Panko Resort was a very odd place. A bit like a housing estate up in the mountains above Rawanduz, with individual detached villas and its very own roller coaster! It boldly (deludedly) proclaimed itself a five star resort, but aside from its abysmal standards of housekeeping and hygiene, the restaurant had an extensive menu on which almost everything we tried to order was unavailable. Shades of Basil Fawlty but nowhere near as funny.
It was a very long, but satisfying, day and after dinner I just crashed.
Oct 21 In complete contrast to the Yazidi village of Lalish, this ancient Assyrian village of Al Qosh is a Christian village, dating from 1000 BC. It boasts the tomb of the prophet Nahum, several Christian churches and the Rabban Hormizd monastery on the mountainside.
Oct 24. Halabja, where Saddam gassed the Kurds with mustard gas, sarin and other substances. Out of a population of 15,000, 5,000 were killed outright and 10,000 were blinded, burnt and disfigured. Some of the images on show, were very graphic, please take note before viewing the gallery, you may find a couple distressing. The survivors suffer from tumors and other diseases and their children suffer from birth defects.
Oct 24 - Slemani Museum, Sulaimaniyah. Second largest museum in Iraq. Loving it here.
Hope you’re enjoying my snaps— in As Sulaymaniyah, Iraq.
We have left Sulaimaniyah now. Currently stopped at the "fish village" to collect our pre-ordered fish for our swim and picnic beside the lake in Dukan. Then we're heading to Erbil. Apparently the Iraqi army is leaving Kirkuk at the moment and moving to Erbil, so they could get there before us, which could make things interesting— at Qashqoli in Dukan.
The Kurds. Well, when I journeyed through Kurdish Iraq, I can honestly say that I have have rarely encountered a people whom I admired more. Proud, hospitable, striking in their features and attire, friendly in a most respectful manner, inquisitive, delighted that foreigners had taken the trouble to come and visit them. The same goes for the Yazidis. I was indelibly enamoured by both peoples.
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