Yes, apparently we do it too! Didn't think so after the change in the U.S. came and went, but since I woke up at "11:30 a.m." the other morning, I guess we're just a bit behind schedule or something.
If you want to know what happened so far on the trip to Iraq: post #1, scroll on down to read it.
Tim and I are now on the luxury coach to Silopi, the border town on the Turkish side of Iraq. On our 5 hour journey to Silopi we got to see a lot of the scenery of southeastern Turkey, as well as some of the shadier elements of border towns combined with truck stops. Interesting combination. We changed busses in the town of Cizre (Chiz-rey) from Diyarbakir. It was really close to the Syrian border and definitely the most shady place we visited during our entire 48 hour journey. As soon as we got off the bus to change to the other bus, 10 local taxi drivers practically assaulted us (that was a common theme on this trip by the way). Little boys trying to carry our bags, other boys and girls putting on their 'sad' faces and begging for money, lots of taxi drivers arguing over who would get to drive us, even though we weren't taking a taxi... Then, after we had somehow communicated that we wouldn't be using their services, we were loading our bags onto the bus and it started pulling away - while all the doors are still open! Tim and I tossed our bags inside, almost got hit by the bus, and scooted inside the door as some other people started yelling at the bus driver for being an idiot. We took the front seat to stay abreast of all incidents and conflicts. I guess the bus driver was really in a hurry - leaving without everyone on the bus sure got things moving faster though. Nice tactic buddy. It worked as he wanted, albeit with a bit more yelling than was perhaps ideal.
The same thing happened in Silopi, except there were fewer taxi drivers and they were more aggressive. Two definitely almost seriously fought over our fare. We sided with the third guy who wasn't fighting at all. $50 total for our taxi to the border - 8pm and dark. Three checkpoints along the way. No pictures for sure. It felt like we were about to enter a war-zone.
We crossed the border with one taxi and our driver (Turkish/Kurdish) negotiated with his Iraqi counterpart for our Iraqi portion of the trip. Another $30 to Dohuk - now 11pm because of the time change. The Iraqi taxi driver decided to take a shortcut by the way - no lights on this 1.5 lane road, going about 110 mph, no seatbelts, highbeams on of course. We only encountered 2 or 3 cars before entering the city where there was another checkpoint. The Kurdish Forces have it goin' on. They're fairly thorough and keep things both moving and safe at the same time. I was definitely impressed.
Check out the web album for Iraq and Diyarbakir
More to come about our 36 hours in Iraq
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