EXPLORING THE BUSY, BOOMING CAPITAL


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Middle East » Iraq » North » Arbil
October 13th 2010
Published: December 2nd 2010
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citadel
Woke up early to leave for the next city, Erbil, about 180 kms away is the capital of Kurdish Iraq. I have to wake up reception, still sleeping at 9am, paid my bills and he wrote me a place I can stay in Erbil. Walked to the share taxi stand next to the bazaar, I paid 15,000 dinar and waited half an hour to get more people before we set off. 3 hours more or less we drove into dry desolate landscape, brown and arid at this time though there is already a chill in the air as it is now autumn, I noticed a number of checkpoints and we got checked 3 times, most soldiers can't read Roman letters and they thumb through my passport meticulously and asks where I am from as if my passport does not says it at all.

Eventually made it to Erbil but my taxi driver won't drive down to the garage, he wants me to get off somewhere in the city and get another taxi to my preferred hotel, really ticked off at this dude, he eventually dropped me off somewhere and a taxi guy waiting quoted me 4,000 dinars to get to the center, I bargained hard but he won't budge, only a 5 minute ride and I was in the center, grrrr. Anyway Zheen hotel I found but they are full so they recommend the next door hotel called Ali. They only have 2 bed room and quoted me 20,000 dinar, I tried to bring the price down but he wont take it so I left and found a small hotel called Bekhal hotel later I found out it's on the LP book, this guys are a--holes, for the same price as Ali hotel I get a crappy smelly dirty room next to the street and dirty toilets, the manager gave me an attitude of take it or leave it we are on LP we don't need your business! There was a German dude who was just checking out the place as well, we were to share a room here but I cannot find any that I like so I told him we should go to Ali hotel and make a deal with them.

At the Ali hotel, suddenly the double bed room is 30,000, I bargained it down to 25,000 split between the 2 of us, good deal! well for Iraq it is, they have no backpacker's facilities here after all this really is rarely visited as of yet.Then next task is to find ATM machine Frank the German guy and I walked towards the big park with fountains just below the citadel on the south side, there is a big mall on the other side of it called Nishtiman there we found an ATM machine at the bank of Baghdad, a small branch is on the side of the mall, they were very helpful as I tried in vain to draw money, Frank the German had no problems but my card always gets declined, one of the managers told us to try the International Hotel 10 minutes away pointing us the direction, they have a couple of ATM machines there, ok so we set off, and we noticed a wall of concrete barriers surrounding the hotel premises and we have to go through a couple strict security checks, the locals refer to the hotel as Sheraton but its really not!

Anyway after getting inside the hotel we looked for the ATMs they were at the lobby next to the restaurant and Western union office, alas both ATMs declined my card again, I think I forgot to tell my bank I was going to Iraq! duhhh!! I have now to change my dollar bills at the Western Union which was not so bad a rate. Frank had cappucino at the hotel and we saw the huge buffet and I asked how much, $26! ok we go back to the bazaar then, There is a lot of rich looking people walking about in the lobby including 3 priests, we did not know there are Christians here! Anyway we left the safety of the hotel and walked back towards the bazaar, we could not find a decent place to eat so ended up at the restaurant next door to our hotel, food was good and we were starving but we paid $10 each, next time we will skip this place!

We decided to climb up the citadel and on the way to the path, we saw carpets and posters bearing images of either the current leader or some war hero whose name escapes me and of Jesus and Mary! we took delight in taking photos of this oddity, who would have thought we see this in Iraq? Anyway we climbed up the citadel and in the southern side where there is a sculpture of a sitting Mubarek Ahmed Sharafaddin, a 12th century historian. Lots of men taking photos of their friends, we noticed a lack of women here, we found them in the bazaar, shopping for clothes and jewelleries! There is a security check beyond the statue and we wonder if we are allowed in , we walked to the security dude and he cupped us and let us go in, this is the ancient settlement where hundreds of stones and mud brick homes are seen, it looks like a ghost town as the government paid the residents to evacuate and so they can redevelop the place with help from UNESCO, it's eerrie especially at dusk but we found a few interesting buildings one with nice tiled ceiling mosaic frescoes.

We tried to see if we can climb up to the minaret but security forces are all over the place so we just wondered about small alleyways discovering the old houses. It was getting darker so we headed down and tried to find internet and a liquor store! We succeeded by following groups of men into this small store.We bought some Efes beer and went back to the hotel. Been a long day, spent mostly walking the city center.We both slept very well, our room is small but has good ceiling fan and we have good very hot shower! The only thing is power gets cut in the morning, at least we are out most of the day so its no matter. we sat down at the big park with fountains I think it is called Shah park, overlooking the citadel, we were sat with the locals sipping tea or coffee and smoking sisha. it's a cool place to people watch, not a lot of women walking just mostly men. After breakfast we walked down an alleyway full of old men in their costume buying and selling beads and tobacco leaves, they were nice enough to let me take their photos which was cool.

Walked again to the "Sheraton" to inquire about flights out of Iraq from the travel agent inside the hotel, security is always tight here, this hotel is popular to business people, at the parking lot you see lots of SUVs mostly Toyota Land cruisers and a few sports cars. While Frank was having cappuccino I inquired of flights out, not so cheap but at least save me from backtracking into Turkey. We then walked back towards the center and we passed theses stores selling military stuff,we stopped by and bought some patches and we got to talking to one store owner, very friendly and he gave us tips on how to get to the Hamilton road the cheaper way.

First we took a taxi to garage Shamal where we are to take a minibus to Soran, the taxi drivers there told us no buses, only hired taxi goes there, freaking liars, we found one honest guy who pointed us to the buses, we paid 6,000 dinars each way, the road is also know as Haji Omaran, and the drive is scenic, the landscape is barren and arid with occasional trees but the mountains were colorful, we were stopped at 3 checkpoints and Frank almost got into trouble cause he forgot his passport, only his German ID, at the 1st checkpoint they interviewed me and asked if I knew him, and asked me his name as if trying to catch me, in the end they let us go. Most of the time these guys don't know what they are doing really, they cant read whats on the passport, anyway we have to be patient and give them a smile after the passport is returned. The scenery got better as we get into this canyon area, deep gorges and we eventually saw the Gali Ali Beg waterfall which was underwhelming, the driver paused and asked if we want to get off there, we decided to keep going and we drove all the way down to Soran and made a return trip with the same driver. On the bus were mostly young men trying to practice their English on us, but the 1st thing they ask is How old are you?? Next question!? I playfully announced, blank stare from the crowd, they know no more English phrases so they shut up.

At the bus station in Soran we hang out for awhile at a small store owned by this nice fellow, he took out his Kurdish-English cheat sheet translation booklet, and started reciting phrases such as your age please, Why are you here, etc... he wont take the money when we bought coke but I insisted. Back on the bus it filled up quickly and lots of women too. Frank had to move next to me to accommodate the women. We got stopped 3 times again and this time we all have to get out, women to the left, men to the right and each of us were checked, again a lot of delays because the soldiers dont know what to do with our passports, we have to wait for them and it is getting cold, we are high at more than 1,000 meters and its getting late. Arriving in town again we walked back to the bazaar where our hotel is located. We decided to splurge and go to the German restaurant in the suburb of Ainkawa, the driver cant find it but eventually did, really good food and nice kind owner, we chatted with him with a few beers which we thought were free but is not, it is super expensive, I could not sleep that night thinking of how much I paid for a meal! Good ambience but its for expats not travellers!

We got up at 8am because the power got cut early. I took a nice hot shower and we paid our bills, 26,000 dinars each for 2 nights. We looked for breakfast at the Shah park again, I bought some donner kebab while Frank was changing money on the side street, he was fuming mad for the bad exchange rate but could do nothing, I tried to buy a sim card but is quite expensive, about $8 so we skipped that. We walked towards this huge mosque called Jalil Khayat which is quite beautiful to look at from the outside it was patterned from the Blue mosque in Istanbul apparently, we enjoyed it, but cant go in as there was no one there. We walked back to the citadel and visited it again one more time, we met Iranian tourists who asked us to have photos with them, then we entered the mosque, a nice Imam showed us around, in his broken English the history of the place and why and when the citadel settlement was abandoned. he gave us snacks too. Then we said goodbye, went back to the hotel, collected our things and headed to the Sulaymaniyah garage.

At the Sulaymaniyah garage we asked about a shared taxi, there is none, only buses and it goes to the outskirts of Kirkuk which the LP
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Shah park
specifically said to avoid, worried, me and Frank wont get in the bus, one driver asks with a grin, are you scared of terrorists?? hell yeah!! Don't worry he says, Kirkuk is Kurdish and we dont go into the city only outside, we were still not convinced luckily they gave us a tip, we can go to some town 1st then connect from there, we got on a taxi to another"garage" called Koya, our destination, it was a bit far from the center, we have a skillful driver who navigated through traffic with ease, at the garage we managed to find the taxi to Koya, shared one, for 5,000 dinars. The driver is trying to convince us to take him all the way to Sulaymaniyah but he is asking for 15,000 dinars more so we declined. We got stopped 3 times again, thorough check of luggage as well, quite annoying. 1 hour later we got to Koya but the asshole driver dropped us far from the Sulaymaniyah garage, so we have to walk and we asked the so many armed military and security people milling around the streets, a tad bit intimidating, they were friendly to us though and we found the garage.

As we say goodbye to the capital one could not help but notice all the noise of construction going on in this town. At this moment Erbil is going under an economic boom with many modern and tall buildings under construction but also health care, education, jobs are all widely being improved. This is not the Iraq I imagined, I thought it would be chaotic old ancient looking towns but all we see is the taste of modernity creeping in ever so quickly to drown whatever culture and tradition they might still have here.




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Nishtiman mall, ATM on the side of the bldg.
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citadel


3rd December 2010

wow
you actually went to Iraq?! Wow. good to see this side of the globe. Stay safe!
9th August 2011
Erbil

Wow. This is a very interesting photo-good job.
9th August 2011
Erbil

Good job capturing the handshake! The right place at the right time.
23rd August 2011

your fotos are really beauifull...

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