Dec 12th, 2012 at 12:00PM:
Will Iraq become the next big adventure travel destination?
Short answer: Not yet.
Long answer:
At the moment most of Iraq is closed to solo travel. The Iraqi government has authorized only a few group tour companies such as Hinterland Travel and Babel Tours. These tours have a set itinerary and offer very little freedom for individual movement. This is not the fault of the tour ...Click on a label to read posts from that part of the world.
destinationiraq posts
Visiting Iraq: The Practicalities
Dec 12th, 2012 at 12:00PM:
Will Iraq become the next big adventure travel destination?
Short answer: Not yet.
Long answer:
At the moment most of Iraq is closed to solo travel. The Iraqi government has authorized only a few group tour companies such as Hinterland Travel and Babel Tours. These tours have a set itinerary and offer very little freedom for individual movement. This is not the fault of the tour ...Ten Random Observations About Iraq
Dec 10th, 2012 at 11:00AM:
While traveling in Iraq I noticed some interesting things that didn't fit into any of the articles in my series. Some of these observations may be obvious to those more familiar with the country, but odd first impressions are one of the fun things about travel!
1. The traffic police have these cool kiosks that imitate their uniform. Looks like this guy left his tie at home.
2. Spongebob ...A Solo Stroll Through Baghdad
Dec 7th, 2012 at 11:30AM:
I am alone in Baghdad. After a farewell dinner and a visit to an Iraqi amusement park my travel companions have left for the airport. Our guards from the Interior Ministry have gone off to other duties and I'm staying unguarded in my hotel. I don't fly out until tomorrow.
I'm not supposed to leave the hotel. Guards are supposed to be with me at all times. While I understand why the government ...A Family Night Out In Baghdad
Dec 5th, 2012 at 12:00PM:
After a long road trip around Iraq, I find myself back in Baghdad. It's our last night together as a group. For our final dinner we decide to eat a famous Baghdadi recipe at a famous landmark –mazgouf fish at Abu Nuwas Park.
Abu Nuwas park runs for one-and-a-half miles along the east bank of the Tigris in central Baghdad. It's named after an early medieval poet who was half Arab and ...Kurdistan: The Other Iraq
Dec 4th, 2012 at 12:30PM:
Families out for an evening stroll, friends sipping coffee at sidewalk cafes, tourists seeing the sights without a police escort – am I still in Iraq?
Sort of.
I'm in Kurdistan, an autonomous region made up of Iraq's three northernmost provinces. The Kurds kicked out Saddam in 1991 after suffering years of bloody persecution, and they've pretty much been doing their own thing ever ...Visiting The Christian Community In Iraq
Dec 3rd, 2012 at 10:00AM:
Before Iraq was conquered by the Arabs in the seventh century, it was one of the oldest centers of Christianity in the world. Even after the Arab conquest, Christians made up a sizable minority of the population – sometimes tolerated, sometimes persecuted, but always surviving.
Now it's facing its biggest threat in centuries.
The Christian Community in Iraq is a lot smaller than it ...Visiting Ur, Ctesiphon, And Babylon In Iraq
Nov 30th, 2012 at 10:00AM:
Iraq is an ancient land. It's seen a lot of civilizations come and go and each one has left behind spectacular monuments and rare treasures. On a recent visit, I had the privilege to experience many of these sites. Last time, I talked about the monuments of the Assyrian Empire. Today, I want to talk about three more of Iraq's ancient wonders.
Perhaps the most famous is Babylon. It was the ...Visiting The Great Assyrian Sites Of Iraq
Nov 27th, 2012 at 12:00PM:
This Iraqi policeman is busy texting at one of the great archaeological sites of his country – Assur, the first capital of the Assyrian Empire.
Assur was founded at least as early as 2400 B.C., but it wasn't until the reign of the Assyrian king Shamshi-Adad (ruled 1809-1776 B.C.) that it became the capital of a true empire. Shamshi-Adad's armies took over the bulk of Mesopotamia, as ...Hostility And Smiles On The Streets Of Nasiriyah, Iraq
Nov 26th, 2012 at 12:30PM:
There comes a time in every trip when the honeymoon ends. The initial romance of being in a new place wears off and you begin to notice the pushy vendors and the dirty hotel rooms. The first blush of love fades like a flower in autumn, hit by the cold winter wind of reality.
My honeymoon with Iraq didn't end with tourist hucksters or filthy hotel rooms – so far we'd had none of those. ...Beer Run In Basra
Nov 22nd, 2012 at 12:00PM:
We'd been on the road in Iraq for a week, and after inhaling ten pounds of desert sand each, we really needed a beer. Luckily we were in Basra, and our tour leader Geoff knew a good place to buy liquor under the counter. So after a day of seeing the historic quarter and taking a boat trip along the Shatt al-Arab, a few of us ditched our guards and headed out into town.
Ditched our guards? In ...Ghosts Of A Dictatorship: Visiting Saddam Hussein's Palaces
Nov 21st, 2012 at 10:00AM:
The name "Babylon" brings up two associations – that of an ancient city in Iraq, and of a place of sin and decadence. It's only fitting then that Saddam Hussein erected one of his palaces on a hill overlooking the ancient site of Babylon.
This is only one of 70 such palaces, many built during the UN sanctions while Saddam's people were short on food and medicine. Many Iraqis complained ...A Sneak Peek At The Soon-To-Reopen National Museum Of Iraq
Nov 20th, 2012 at 1:00PM:
The National Museum of Iraq is as battered and defiant as the country it represents. Battered because it has suffered looting and neglect, defiant because its staff fought to protect it. Now they're rebuilding and the museum will soon reopen.
I got a sneak peak while visiting Iraq and was overawed. I knew I would be. Here is the treasure house of the dawn of civilization. Giant statues of ...10 Minutes Of Terror On Vacation In Iraq
Nov 19th, 2012 at 10:00AM:
I'm in Samarra, in the heart of the Sunni Triangle, the birthplace of the insurgency and a hotspot for sectarian tension in war-torn Iraq. My heart is racing and my mouth is dry. This is the most frightened I've been in months.
But I'm not scared of the Sunnis, I'm scared of plummeting to my death.
I'm climbing one of the famous spiral minarets of Samarra, a pair of towers with a narrow ...Iraq Street Art: Beautifying The Blast Walls
Nov 18th, 2012 at 11:00AM:
One of the first things you notice when traveling in Iraq are the blast walls. These giant concrete barriers are everywhere – in front of government buildings, schools, mosques and dividing Shia from Sunni neighborhoods. They remind me of the "peace walls" put up in Northern Ireland to keep opposing sides from killing each other.
Like the Irish peace walls, they're ugly, and some locals ...Visiting The Sacred Sites Of Shia Islam
Nov 17th, 2012 at 1:00PM:
"She wants you to take her picture," a man said when the old woman in the black abaya came up to me.
We were standing in the mosque of Imam Husayn in Karbala, Iraq. This is one of the holiest shrines for Shia Islam. It was near here that Imam Husayn, son of Imam Ali, was killed along with his supporters by the Caliph Yazid. The Shia believe that Ali and Hussein were the rightful successors to ...Video Games With A Refugee
Nov 16th, 2012 at 10:00AM:
"Are you American?"
The little boy with the big brown eyes was sitting at the couch next to mine in the lobby of my hotel in Najaf, Iraq. He was dressed in jeans, a button-down shirt and sneakers. He peered at me over the edge of his iPad. I looked up from my email.
"No, I'm Canadian. You Iraqi?"
"I'm Lebanese but I live in Syria. We move back to Lebanon now."
"Your English is ...
Muqtada Al-Sadr Promotional Posters--Why Saddam's Hanging Makes For Good Advertising
Nov 15th, 2012 at 10:00AM:
Like it or not, Muqtada Al-Sadr is the new face of Iraq.
Posters of him are everywhere in the Shia areas, alongside the faces of his father and father-in-law, who both rose to the rank of Grand Ayatollah. They appear on the upper corners of this poster. His father was murdered by Saddam Hussein, a Sunni who oppressed the Shia.
Iraq has always been divided between the minority Sunni and the ...Iraq Road Trip: Who Takes The Ultimate Adventure Vacation And What's It Like?
Nov 14th, 2012 at 10:00AM:
We heard our first gunshots a week into our trip. We were resting after a long drive in our Baghdad hotel when shots crackled through the night. Anyone who was sleeping immediately got up. Nothing wakes you up quicker than gunshots in Iraq.
Insurgency? Sectarian violence? No, a wedding taking place in front of the hotel.
Iraqis like firing in the air when they're celebrating – when ...A Run-In With The Iraqi Police
Nov 13th, 2012 at 10:00AM:
All I wanted was to buy an Iraq National Football Team uniform for my son, a perfectly normal thing for a father to do on his first day in Baghdad. The problem is, doing something normal in Baghdad can land you in serious trouble.
We were in one of the city's many souks, those famous Middle Eastern markets where you can buy just about anything. There were shops for metalwork, books, hardware, ...Going On Vacation In Iraq
Nov 12th, 2012 at 10:00AM:
Who the hell would want to spend their vacation in Iraq?
Lots of people, if they knew the reality behind the media image.
Iraq is the cradle of civilization, with famous sites such as Babylon, Ur, and Uruk. It's also home to stunning Islamic architecture, lively souks and a variety of terrain ranging from snowy mountains to marshland, along with way too much desert.
And then there are ...
