Imam Ali’s shrine by day For a change, our Najaf hotel didn’t have breakfast available.  We shared an instant noodle and I poured some coffee into my muesli to complete the deal. It was around 0900 when we were ready to depart Najaf but had an hour till the hotel’s check-out time.  E had wanted […]

Nasiriyah to Najaf   As we were somewhat ahead of plan, and in consideration of only a 3h ride to Najaf today, we took things easy this morning.  We left our packing till this morning and left the hotel at 1015 for the garage. We made our way through traffic to the garage and waited […]

Getting to Chibayish marsh Today we go to the marshes of Chibayish to see the homeland of the Marsh Arabs.  We walked to the station which had cars to Chibayish and managed to get seats in a nearly-full van, which then left rather promptly around 0915. Just like in Yemen, passengers pay their fare to […]

Baghdad to Nasiriyah This morning, we left Baghdad after the lifting of the two-day curfew at 0001.  Bound for Nasiriyah, we arrived at the Alawi Garage at 0835 as there was plenty of information suggesting that this was the southbound garage for taxis. Unfortunately, despite corroborating different sources of information, it was the wrong garage […]

Today is the second day of the census curfew.  We had hoped that we could go to Taq Kisra a little outside Baghdad but it would be a monumental task compared to yesterday’s shorter trip within the city.  And we would risk not be allowed to return! The second possibility was to retry the Kadhimiya […]

Big effort to get there We headed out around 0940 after the hotel breakfast, initially wandering by foot to the area that sold medical and disabled equipment.  My plan was to go to the Martyr’s Monument by Careem but with the census curfew on, I thought it would be wise to test the water on […]

Visa on Arrival I landed on time at 0030 at Baghdad International Airport.  It’s not a huge airport and I was at the Visa on Arrival counter 10 mins later completing a very simple form. The form and passport was returned about 15 mins later with a visa stuck inside.  Officially, payment had been cash-only […]