Cardboard box sat upon cardboard box in stacks that rose up from the floor to nearly the ceiling of a meerschaum pipe workshop in Eskisehir, Turkey. They had been sitting there for what may as well have been ages, the workshop was nearly devoid of artisans, and I was informed sadly that because of the [...]
The human was born a traveling animal. For over 100,000 years we walked across the great Savannas, made way through the jungles, camped in Arctic tundra, and hunted and foraged in the forests of this planet. Then, a little over 10,000 years ago, a blip in the timeline of our species, we started laying down our satchels, building our shelters with a sense of permanence, and began cultivating the grains and animals in our surroundings. This great event, perhaps the largest shift in human cultural evolution, happened around a great temple now called Göbekli Tepe in southeastern Turkey.
This is the ancient story of the rise of the farmer, the fall of the nomad.
Q: What is the weather like in Israel in the winter? What clothing should I bring? A: As for weather in Israel in January, think autumn. Expect temperatures between 5 and 20 degrees Celsius, 40 to 70 degrees Fahrenheit depending on your location in the country. In the south around Eilat, the temperature will be higher, [...]
This story comes from a reader named Marc Davies and documents his experience of trying to enter Syria without a pre-arranged visa, being awarded a transit visa at the border, overstaying it, and then exiting the country cleanly. This story shows the great division between official immigration policy and actual policy. Marc’s journey went off [...]
Israelis Travel Through a Hostile World Israeli culture is one part Arab (basically) one part European Jew (basically). Within the past century Jews from North Africa, the Middle East, Europe, and the USA convened together in the biblical lands and Israel was created. A new culture was formed in the process. Hebrew was resurrected from [...]
By the time we arrived in Syria, my belly had grown round and my feet had grown slow. I was ready to start traveling slow, but we had plane tickets back to the US in two weeks from Cairo. After leaving Iraq and going back to Eastern Turkey for a couple more weeks, we crossed [...]
I hadn’t really planned on going to Iraq. Wade briefly mentioned it in passing while we were daydreaming about the trip. I shot him a “what the hell are you thinking?!” look in response. Nobody goes as a tourist to Iraq. Let alone when they are pregnant. “We’ll just go to the northern Kurdistan part. [...]
New Travel Photos from Aqaba, Jordan Below are links to photos that Chaya and I took in Aqaba, Jordan last spring. Aqaba Travel Photos Shopping in Aqaba Jordan Fishermen in Jordan Sea Urchin Photos in the Red Sea Women Swimming in Jordan Tourist Attractions and Hotels in Aqaba Jordan
Seventy new Travel Photos from Jordan have been added to the travel photos section of Vagabond Journey.com. Please have a look at the visuals from this quick journey through Jordan. It is interesting to note that Chaya was really pregnant during this point in these travels, and as I look back through these photos it [...]
Can an American fly to Syria without a visa? Official policy states that an American citizen must receive a Syrian visa in their home country prior to traveling to Syria. Though this is just official policy, and is not always enacted in practice. In actuality, as of the spring of 2009, Americans were able to [...]
Damascus, Syria Travel Photos — The following photos were taken in Damascus, Syria during the spring of 2009. Markets of Damascus, Syria Men and hookahs in Damascus, Syria Animal furs and skins for sale in Damascus, Syria Ice cream and vegetable peelers in Damascus, Syria Travel from Damascus, Syria to Amman, Jordan For more photos [...]
Travel Photos from Syria – These links go to photos from Aleppo and Damascus, Syria. They were taken during the spring of 2009. Architecture in Syria Train in Aleppo Station Syria Train Travel in Syria Damascus Travel Photos Souq in Damascus Syria To view more photos from around the world, go to Vagabond Journey Travel [...]
Travel Photos from Syria These photos were taken in the spring of 2009. Syria Travel Photos Street Scenes, Souqs in Aleppo Children in Aleppo, Syria Streets of Aleppo, Syria Souq of Aleppo, Syria More travel photos from Syria
Photos from Iraq — These links go to pages of photos from Northern Iraq that I took in the spring of 2009. Photos from Iraq Hotel in Dohuk, Northern Iraq Dohuk and Countryside of Iraqi Kurdistan Amadiya and Mountains of Northern Iraq Amadiya and Dohuk, Iraq Road to Iraq and Travels in Middle East Vagabond [...]
Do you think that a blond haired blue eyed American will get messed with too bad in Iraq? It is not my impression that you will be messed with too much in Iraq. I do not think that your blond hair or blue eyes will invite trouble any more than dark features. The people in [...]
These past travelogue entries from the Middle East have brought me to the conclusion that I am a penny pinching, incorrigible, uptight, money conscious geek and that the people of Egypt, Jordan, and Israel are money grubbing liars and cheats. This was my experience, but my experience was greatly limited by circumstance. For the sake [...]
Transportation to cross borders between Egypt, Israel, and Jordan
The border crossings between Egypt, Israel, and Jordan are very much frequented by tourists, and transportation options are readily available. Taxis, buses, and minibuses ply these borderlands regularly.
Did the Israel border give you any problems bringing your knife in the country?
To answer your question, no, we were not given any problems bringing knives into Israel at the border. The Israelis checked our bags with an x-ray machine, but they did not give us any flak about the 6-inch Bedouin knife in Chaya’s rucksack. I really would not worry too much about it. But I also would not recommended not bringing a knife that is sentimental or expensive, as I suppose that there is a possibility that it could be confiscated.
I entered the shower room of the Gar Hotel in Duhok, Iraq with full confidence — I have been traveling for a long time and have mastered many different showering systems. I was not expecting to be baffled as I closed myself into the stone tiled shower room: I looked for the shower — I [...]
How is Traveling from Jordan to Israel?
If you look like tourists and you have your own car the route from Jordan to Egypt should be no problem at all.
Just cross the Israeli border from Aqaba (10 km from city) and go through Eilat to Egypt (Taba). You could drive this route in under a half hour. Including border formalities — assuming you do not have Iraq or Syrian stamps in your passports and already possess Egyptian visas — I would say that you should be in Egypt in under two hours.
I am planning on taking a low budget airline to Amman (Jordan) and then enter Israel from there. What I need to know is would I need a tourist visa to Jordan as well if im gonna take the road to Israel? or will they help me with a Transit Visa? If so how many days can I get a transit Visa for?
I do not think that transit visas are offered in Jordan if you intend to continue your travels by land. If you had proof of a connecting flight, then you could just get a transit visa at the airport. But, from what I can tell, transit visa cost just as much as a regular tourist visa.
Egypt Denies Travelers at Border – Crossing border to Egypt, part 1 of 3 After leaving the hotel in Eilat at the first glimmers of dawn, Chaya and I went to the bus stop in search of a ride to the Egyptian border. This bus was said to only cost 5 sheckles ($1.25) — not [...]
Crossing back to Israel- Crossing Border Israel to Egypt, Part 2 of 3 Chaya and I were now in a predicament — a Catch-22 on the global chessboard of travel: We were refused entry to Egypt — we could not move forward. We were required to recross into Israel to get an Egyptian visa with [...]
Preparation for Egyptian Hustlers Egypt, Egypt, Egypt! We were Egypt bound as we dropped off the key to our room with the hotel mafia man in Eilat. We were excited . . . though apprehensive. The stipulation behind getting a reduced priced room in Eilat was based upon us staying for two nights, when we [...]
Israel is Expensive I only nipped off a tip of the southern point of Israel — and this was a mighty touristy tip at that — but I must say that this is among the most expensive countries that I have ever traveled through. I am talking USA or Western Europe expensive. Upon paying over [...]
Israeli Soldiers Wear Street Clothes Camouflage Upon crossing the border out of Jordan and into Israel, one startling observation shook me up: almost all of the soldiers at the Israeli border were wearing street clothes. They were typically young men — who were probably doing their conscription duty — with very large machine guns, t-shirts, [...]
Israelis Scared of Obama Inside of a photo developing shop in Eilat I got talking with the woman who worked the counter. She was half-way old and looked a little like someone an uncouth USA teenager might call a “cat lady.” Her hair was a little wild, her eyes did not sit too well in [...]
Did you get a visa for Syria while is Istanbul?
No, I did not get my visa for Syria at the consulate in Istanbul. I went to the border without one and crossed near the Turkish city of Kisli. It took 7 hours to get the Syrian visa at the border, but I eventually got through.
I was told by other travelers that only Americans need to wait this long, as other nationalities can get visas at the border in a half an hour. Ever since that skirmish on the Syrian/ Iraq border where American planes bombed a Syrian border crossing, American travelers now need to get permission from Damascus before a visa can be granted. This usually takes from 6 to 8 hours.
Wandering in the sun and warmth of Eilat, Israel “I was in Eilat in 1965 and there was nothing there. There was no running water, it was 100 degrees, and I was like, ‘Man, they are going to a have a hard time making this a tourist attraction,’” spoke Chaya’s father on a Skype conversation [...]
Bottle Recycling Cages on Israel Beach Good Idea Sometimes when traveling you come across some action, contraption, or system that you just have to stop and say, “Gee, that is a good idea.” I usually stand next to such thing gawking at it like some sort of moron and then whip out my camera for [...]
Israel on Shabbat The country of Israel becomes a ghost town every Saturday morning. The streets are devoid of people, most every business is closed down, and all is quiet. Not even taxis are on the prowl. As I walked with Chaya through the silent thoroughfares of Eilat, I watched with interest as an empty [...]
Crossing Israel Border with Iraq and Syria Visas We were well warned that crossing the border from Jordan to Israel with Iraqi and Syrian visas in our passports may prove to be a obstacle of mountainous proportions. Travelvice Craigy was stuck in Israeli immigration limbo for 12 hours as he tried to cross from Jordan [...]
Travelers Burned at Aqaba Ferry Port From the new edition of Lonely Planet’s Middle Eastern guidebook, Jordan chapter about the ferry that runs between Aqaba, Jordan and Egypt: “There are two boat services from Aqaba to Nuweiba in Egypt . . . The fast boat (one hour) leaves daily except for Saturday and costs US$36/ [...]
Vagabonds Wounded by Sea Urchin in Red Sea We were gotten. Yes, Chaya and I now know what it is like to step on a sea urchin. We were swimming in the Red Sea on a beach near Aqaba in Jordan. We were just doing our day, playing in the water and the sunshine. I [...]
Aqaba Jordan Not Disgusting For Long Arriving in Aqaba by 6 dinar minibus from Wadi Musa my first reaction was to say, “Ick.” Perhaps it is folly for a traveler to dish out value judgments on places at first sight, but this is a folly that I must admit is difficult to uncultivate. I have [...]
Bedouin Tattoos Tattooing has long been a custom for both Bedouin men and women. Today, the old style can still be seen over the hands and faces of older men and women, and it is very common for young men to still get tattooed with modern designs on their upper and lower arms. The tradition [...]
Little Akmed “Akmed! Akmed!” a bristled mother calls to her Bedouin son in Petra. The poor mother is ignored. Little Akmed is too busy shaking down a couple tourists with his wit and charm to heed is mother’s calls. Chaya and I are the tourists. We were sitting in the shade of a huge sandstone [...]
Tourist catchphrases in Petra As in many tourist zones of the world today, the touts and vendors 0f Petra have discovered that if they can make visitors laugh there is a much better chance of selling them something. But there is only so many times in one day that a tourist can hear a donkey [...]
Business men can be good guys, too “I really hate seeing animals treated like this,” a fat American spoke gruffly as a Bedouin quickly rode by on a beleaguered looking horse. The business man seemed to be trying to give himself a big self-congratulatory pat on the back in the presence of his business chums. [...]
Modern Bedouin A young Bedouin man dressed up in a clean black robe with a fancy white headscarf and shining black sunglasses sat down next to me as I sat in the shade of a pavilion drinking a $1.50 can of cold Sprite. —————————- Wade from Vagabond Journey.com in Jordan- May, 2009 Ask Travel Questions [...]
Photos and Anecdotes from Petra The following are random photos from Petra in Jordan that did not really fit into other travelogue entries.—————————-Wade from Vagabond Journey.com in Jordan- May, 2009 Ask Travel QuestionsClick on map to view route of travel. Bedouin kids showing off “tattoos.” Little girl showing me her “tattoos” as her brother looks [...]
The Lorax of Petra I stood in Petra with Chaya at my side watching some 20 year old American girl loudly scolding a Bedouin boy for how he was treating his herd of donkeys. “You can’t slap the donkey!” the great defender of animal rights yelled at the 9 year old boy who had been [...]
Vagabond Engagement at Petra Day 1: Hike up to the monastery and visit all of the tourist sites in Petra Day 2: Hike into the mountains and get away from everyone. I paid a million dollars to have two days of hiking around Petra with Chaya. By a million dollars I mean $35, which is [...]
Tourism in Wadi Musa- Petra I know that I am getting close to Egypt: everyone is trying to rip me off on everything I buy. I have been quickly absorbed deep into the bosom of tourism and am clearly a walking, breathing, bank chit. In every corner I am met by drawn on smiles and [...]
Bartering Prices for a Bus Ticket Travel Tip The following is the algorithm that I often use for negotiating bus fares in areas of the world where rampant tourism has created a double tier pricing system where locals pay one price and foreigners a higher rate. Sometimes this works, and sometimes it doesn’t. In Jordan [...]
Transportation in Jordan “Wadi, Wadi, Wadi,” the conductor called out as I approached the minibus that he was dealing tickets for. I looked at how he was looking at me, and I knew then that I was going to be in for a struggle. There are two prices for transportation in the touristed stretches of [...]
Amman, Jordan is Not a Modern City In Syria I was warned that Amman, the capital of Jordan, was a very modern city. When talking to other travelers, the word “modern,” is often used as a euphemism for “bad” or “not very interesting.” When used in reference to a place, “modern” also insinuates tons of [...]
Crossing Border Syria to Jordan The service taxi from Damascus flew. The driver clearly wanted to be rid of us. We were a group of five foreigners that assembled at the Al-Samariyeh bus garage in Damasus. Besides myself and Chaya, the troupe consisted of two young Chilean doctors and an old tramp of a traveler [...]
Traveling Through Middle East It was time to leave Damascus, it was time to leave Syria. Syria, a country that I have always daydreamed into while looking at maps as a kid is now someplace real to me. The fairy tale Neverland bubble of traveler dreams has now been pricked and popped by the pin [...]
Service Taxi from Damascus to Amman Leaving Damascus, Going to Amman After exchanging some Syrian money for Jordan Diners and asking the guy at the counter of our hotel how much a cab should cost to the Al-Samariyeh bus garage, Chaya and I strode out of Damascus. I worked the taxi driver down to a [...]
Hello Craig, Man, we had a hell of a go getting from Jordan to Cairo. I highly – HIGHLY – recommend flying from Amman if you want to visit Petra. It would probably be cheaper than either the ferry/ overland route or the road through Israel. The reason: visa fees, exit fees, border zone exit [...]
Hello Craig, It would have cost $120 to $140 for both of us to take the ferry from Jordan to Egypt (Aqaba to Nuweiba). The fast boat was $70 per person and the slow one $60. No way. The boat company decided recently to double their already expensive fares (though I have a large suspicion [...]
More notes from Craig of Travelvice.com on how to travel from Amman, Jordan to Tel Aviv, Israel It was only 68 miles (110k) between Amman and Tel Aviv as the crow flies, but took over 12 hours, 2 Israeli interrogations, and $43 in transport to make it over here. I was laughing so hard in [...]
Traveler please note that the current Guidebooks to the Middle East have many errors. Below is an email from Craig of Travelvice.com on how to travel from Damascus, Syria to Amman, Jordan. I followed this advice and it is right on. -Wade The following is information on how to travel from Damascus to Amman from [...]
Travel Solo or with a Group, Travel Instinct vs Logic To travel about the world solo is to live on the winds of intuition, instinct, and your own decision making capabilities; to travel with other people is to have a sense of “safety in numbers” but also to loose a good deal of your own [...]
Travel to Damascus Syria Rode into Damascus on a four hour, $5 bus from Latakia on the northwestern coast of Syria. I have always wanted to travel to Damascus since the day I set foot off of the old farm, and this would be the day. It is funny how traveling to a place that [...]
White Power Toothpaste from Turkey I buy the cheapest toothpaste that I can possibly find as a rule. I cannot help but to think that is all the same stuff, regardless of how different the boxes may seem. The bottom shelf is where I find must of the items that I buy, and the cost [...]
Animal Hides Furs in Damascus Market I like to wander through the markets of old cities just to see what I can find. In Damascus my delights were endless. There are few things that I like more than seeing something odd and having its usage explained to me. This is just one of the regular [...]
Taxi Travel Tip I like to enjoy the countries that I travel through and come away with good impressions of the people. Thus being, I try to take taxis as least often as possible. I would often much rather walk for hours than enter into negotiations with taxi drivers, who occasionally have the tendency of [...]
Women and Men in the Middle East A young woman in hijab walked up to me in the streets of Aleppo and began talking. I was so taken aback by this act that I nearly dropped the falafel sandwich that I was eating. It had been a long time since another woman besides Chaya opened [...]
Child Labor in Syria A friend of mine works for a French cosmetic company that manufactures their products in Syria. As I went through the rounds of asking him about his work and what he does all day – it is still beyond my understanding what business men really do – he mentioned that child [...]
Couchsurfing for Americans difficult in Syria After sending out dozens upon dozens of couchsurfing requests in Syria and turning up very few wiling hosts, it seems apparent that Americans have a difficult time finding couches here. The reason is simple: if the police catch Syrians with Americans in their homes there could be problems. Couchsurfing [...]
Cheap Food in Syria The food in Syria sells for cheaper than most anywhere in the world that I have yet traveled. To a great extent, the fast food of Syria can rival that of India as far as value. Sit down and wait for your food style restaurants seem to be remarkably few in [...]
Bus to Damascus It is my impression that the long distance bus services in Syria are generally for VIP clients. I reckoned this initially because all of the bus company windows had V-I-P written on them and the cost of the ticket was five times as much as second class in the train. But the [...]
Latakia Syria “Why is everyone looking at us as if we are aliens here?” Chaya asked me as we were walking through Latakia on the coast of Syria. I could not come up with a suitable answer for her. If Aleppo could be called an overtly friendly place then Latakia was slightly lacking in this [...]
Train Travel in Syria Trains are cheap in Syria. I love traveling by train, it is by far my favorite mode of public transport. There are few things in travel more exciting than jumping onto a clunky old ancient train and riding deep into the interior of a foreign land. Train travel in most parts [...]
How Americans can get out of trouble in Syria Before departing from my couchsurfing host in Aleppo he gave me a gift. “If you ever get into any trouble with anyone for being an American in Syria, just show them this,” he said as he handed me a cigarette lighter. I was puzzled, as his [...]
Aleppo, Syria Markets Friendly People The city of Aleppo comes in as the number two city in Syria to Damascus, but I am told that it is a better place than the country’s capital. I have always wanted to travel to Damascus, so I hope that Aleppo will not fog up my experience. I do [...]
Elderly Tourists Young Backpackers in Syria I was surprised to find myself surrounded by roving gangs of geriatric European tourists after crossing a hellish and remote seeming border into Syria. The taxi from the border drop Chaya and I off in front of the Baron Hotel, in Aleppo’s new city, which was the rendezvous point [...]
Syrians Friendly to American Travelers “Can you tell us why we love everybody but nobody loves us?” -an anonymous Syrian man I learned early on from travel that I should line up all of my preconceived notions about places, put them upon a chopping block, and give them a good wack from the great axe [...]
Syria Sanctions Means that Paypal is Unavailable I tried to check my Paypal account from Aleppo, Syria, but I was struck to find this message after I tried to log into my account: Error 3028. You have accessed your account from a sanctioned country. Per international sanctions regulations, you are not authorized to access the [...]
Sufis and Money Exchange in Kisli Turkey Woke up in the Istanbul Hotel on the Syrian bordertown of Kisli and toggled off a list of what I needed to do before I would be ready to cross the border. 1. Check couchsurfing to confirm my travel details with host in Aleppo.2. Get US Dollars3. Get [...]
Arrived in Syria from Turkey I crossed the land border between Turkey and Syria near Kilis on Friday night, April 9th. It was a 7 hour fiasco, but we made it. I will write more of this crossing at the appropriate time.—————————-Wade from Vagabond Journey.com in Aleppo, Syria- April 12, 2009Travelogue –Travel Photos –Travel GuideClick [...]
Turkey Expensive Country for Travel It is a very lucky occurrence that the Couchsurfing is good in Turkey, for if it was not, the country would be too expensive to travel in. Food is cheap in Turkey, you can fill yourself up off of $1.50. Transport is moderately prices, $3 per seat hour on a [...]
Bus from Sanliurfa to Gaziantep to Kilis “We should have stayed in Urfa for another day,” spoke sick Chaya as we nested into a room at the Otel Istanbul in Kilis, on the Syrian border. It sucks to travel sick. Traveling is the last thing that a sore throat, pukey, coughing person wants to do. [...]
Mobbed by a Gang of School Children – or Why I love Traveling The following sequence of photos and video shows precisely why I love traveling so much.—————————-Wade from Vagabond Journey.com in Sanliurfa, Turkey- April 9, 2009Travelogue –Travel Photos –Travel GuideClick on map to view route of travel. I was walking through the streets of [...]
Mobbed by a Gang of School Children – or Why I love Traveling The following sequence of photos and video shows precisely why I love traveling so much.—————————-Wade from Vagabond Journey.com in Sanliurfa, Turkey- April 9, 2009Travelogue –Travel Photos –Travel GuideClick on map to view route of travel. I was walking through the streets of [...]
Travel Sick in Turkey We have barricaded ourselves into Sanliurfa in the southeast of Turkey, for Chaya has come down with some form of travel sickness. We went to a walk in clinic and the doctors told here that she was fine and healthy. She was not fine and healthy. Her throat was so swollen [...]
Tattoos and Travel I do not usually walk around in public in short sleeve shirts. To do so would bring entire cities to a halt in some parts of the world. I remember one time in Calcutta when I left my hotel in a sleeveless shirt and became an attraction for a crowd of hundreds [...]
Blacksmiths in Urfa Turkey Video I was walking through the market in Sanliurfa when I came upon a section that was reserved for blacksmiths. I watched for a moment as a man ordered a shovel to be made by hand over an open flame. I asked if I could make a video, and the blacksmith [...]
Blacksmiths in Urfa Turkey Video I was walking through the market in Sanliurfa when I came upon a section that was reserved for blacksmiths. I watched for a moment as a man ordered a shovel to be made by hand over an open flame. I asked if I could make a video, and the blacksmith [...]
Gobekli Tepe Archaeology Site Story I received a tip off more than a month ago from the Hobotraveler’s Indian techie, Andrew, that I should write a story about the Gobekli Tepe archaeology site in the southeast of Turkey. Since then, I made contact with the German Archaeology Institute, who is excavating the site, and researched [...]
Hasankeyf: Another ancient city to be destroyed in Turkey The history of Hasankeyf goes back 10,000 years. This is three times longer than the Giza pyraids, 10 times longer than Stonehenge, and makes the glorious civilizations of the Maya and Inca seem as if they were flourishing just yesterday. Hasankeyf is one of the oldest [...]
Hello Obama in Turkey Music Video After months of anticipation – and everyone talking to me about it – Barak Obama has arrived in Turkey. The fanfare here is out of this world. Every television station has Obama on it or people talking about Obama, every newspaper has his half black face all over it, [...]
Kir Pidesi Cheap Turkish Food All cash strapped travelers to western Turkey should remember these words: Kir PidesiKir PidesiKir Pidesi For you will invariably be saying them a lot during your visit. Kir pidesi is simply baked bread stuffed with cheese, meat, or spinach. The best part: they cost only 30 to 60 cents each, [...]
New Travel Help Website – Ask Travel Questions As part of my New Year’s Resolution efforts to deliver more pertinent and poignant travel information, I have transformed the Travel Questions Forum into its own site called Travel Help. The purpose of this website is to provide a better place to publish reader directed questions and [...]
Hello Jackie, To get to Iraq from Turkey you can take a bus from Istanbul to Silopi and then cross the border by taxi. There is a very good chance that you will be able to go straight from the airport to the bus station in Istanbul and ride directly to Silopi. But it may [...]
Hotel in Midyat, Turkeyor, Take a bad situation and let it turn itself around We walked into the lobby of the Hotel Yuvam in Midyat, Turkey to find a kid in his early twenties working the front desk. He spoke zero English and could not fully make out our intentions in Turkish. Eventually, he realized [...]
Travel from Iraq to Midyat, Turkey After crossing back into Turkey from Iraq, Chaya and I quickly sought out our next destination on a lightning bolt sort of whim. The car that we rode to Silopi in dropped us off at the bus terminal and there was a bus leaving immediately for the west of [...]
Money for Travel Writing I find myself sitting in a hotel room in the southeast of Turkey seriously running out of money. I have $1,500 in my bank account, and I still need to buy a flight back to the USA for the birth of my first child. I need to make money. Now. I [...]
Walking Back to Turkey from Iraq With a tail tucked in between my legs and no more money in my pockets, Chaya and I returned to Turkey from Iraq. I did not anticipated that there would not be any public transport in the northern regions of Iraq and that I would have to take expensive [...]
Amadiya, Iraq This is a continuation from Travel Iraq Duhok to Amadiya. After walking for a half hour through the slopping streets of mountainous Amadiya in the northeastern pocket of Iraq, it became apparent to Chaya and I that we may have stuck ourselves in a hole: we could not find a hotel anywhere. Prior [...]
Iraqi Visa at Border Crossing the Iraq border from Silopi or Cizre in Turkey to Zakho in Iraq is a very straight forward procedure. There no strings to unknot or riddles to unwind here: you go across the border and get stamped in. It was far easier for me to get into Iraq than it [...]
No International ATMs in Iraq In the provincial capital of Duhok in northern Iraq the signs of internationally capable Visa/ Mastercard ATMs are common. But none of them work. There are no longer any international ATMs in Iraq. Somebody please correct me if I am wrong, this information comes from my experience and what I [...]
Generator Power in Iraq As I walked through the streets of Duhok, the provincial capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, I was surprised to find that all of the businesses were powered by generators. The rumbling sounds of these electricity making curbside internal combustion engines set the soundtrack to this region. There seems to be little to [...]
Travel Iraq Amadiya from Duhok Walked over to the taxi stall in Dahuk in search of a ride to Amadiya, a town an hour to the north near the Turkish border. As could be expected, we were promptly feasted upon by a gaggle of hungry vultures from all directions. Taxi men yelled, taxi men screamed, [...]
No Buses in Iraq I left the front door of the Gara Hotel in Duhok with my full pack upon my back and Chaya at my side. We wanted to either venture north to a little mountain town called Amadiya or east to Arbil. The provincial capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, Duhok, is not a big [...]
Border crossing to Iraq I crossed the Iraqi border at Zakho at around 10 am this morning. This was one of the most straight forward, comfortable, and easy borders that I have ever crossed. Chaya and I awoke this morning to find a taxi driver knocking on our hotel door. There is only one reason [...]
Iraqi Border on Election Night There is only one reason to come to Silopi, and that is to go to Iraq. Everybody here knows what I am doing. As soon as I stepped foot off of the bus, every taxi driver, shoeshine boy, and sidewalk hustler joined in on the ensemble: “Zakho? Zakho? Zakho?” There [...]
Online Daily Travel Writing The motorcyclist Cihan Karadag told me in Istanbul that he does not know how much he is going to write online during his journey through the Middle East because he wants to have the time to think about his experiences and impressions before he publishes them. “Yeah, wouldn’t that be nice,” [...]
 |  |  |  |  |
