Moving to the north

Moving to Duhok

Today I move to Duhok (also spelt as Dohuk).  It is close to the Syrian and Turkish borders and at this time, Syrian refugees are streaming in to escape from Turkish attacks in Syria under the Spring Peace operation.

The information provided by my NGO contacts suggest that Duhok is safe.  After all refugees are coming here instead of somewhere else, right/

Breakfast at the hotel starts at 0800 which is somewhat late but today, they staff were late with getting the bread, boiling the tea, cutting the tomatoes and cucumber etc.  So it didn’t start until a little after 0830.

I took a taxi, asking for “Duhok Garage” expecting to be taken to the terminal yesterday from which taxis would go to Duhok amongst other places.  But I was taken to a taxi shop a little closer than the terminal.

There were already two people in the car.  One of them was in a hurry so with me, we were able to pay IQD20K (USD17) instead of IQD15K to go immediately around 0915.  We were also lucky to be in a Nissan Altima which was bigger than most vehicles.

The journey took 2h30 with some very good roads interspersed with very bad connections between areas, which seemed quite strange.

It was a short walk to Hotel Kristal from where I was let off the taxi around 1145.  The receptionist tried to check if a room was ready but had no reply and disappeared to find out.  I was hungry so reached behind the counter to leave my bag and went out for lunch.

I ordered a chicken kebab which came with many side dishes.  I was worried that I would be charged individually for the sides and ate only a couple of them, taking care not to touch the others.  As it turned out, all were included in the price of IQ4000 (USD3.50), including a bottle of water.  It’s funny how water is free and sometimes tea as well.  In many other places the profit is in the drinks!

Schedule change

Upon connecting to the internet, I found that Turkish Airlines had rescheduled my flight at the end of my Iraqi stay from 1540 to 0330 on 23 October.  Bloody hell!  A 12h schedule change with only five days to go is very inappropriate for a respectable airline.

In fact, I had an equally bad of schedule change on Atlas Global, from 1825 on 23 October to 0345 on 24 October, but that was notified 5 months in advance.  And I opted for a full refund, rebooking on Turkish instead using points/miles.

But now I have no better options as Turkish only has one flight a day at the same time.  The reschedule is inconvenient but workable; it was something I had tried to avoid.  I rang Air New Zealand back in Auckland to accept the schedule change as it wasn’t possible for Turkish Airlines to do it for me; it had been ticketed on Air New Zealand “paper” (086 ticket).

Fitting everything in

In Duhok, I have a part-day today, a full day tomorrow and an optional full day as a buffer after (with no hotel booking, so I can shift to Sulaymaniyah depending on the progress of sightseeing).

With the Turkish schedule change, I have to use my buffer day to travel to Sulaymaniyah.  That means I have to see do both my out-of-town excursions in the one-and-a-half day that I have ahead of me now.

I investigated the cost of having a car-and-driver and it would be USD50 to Amedi and also USD50 to Lalish.  The latter has no public transport option so I thought I’d try Amedi by public transport today then deal with Lalish afterwards.

 Amedi fail

I went out about 1300 to find the taxis to Amedi.  The garage was quiet and I waited and waited.  The drivers take pride in keeping their vehicles clean, washing the body, cleaning the glass and evening blackening the tyres.

An hour passed and I was still the only one aiming to go to Amedi.  Taxis to other place except Mosul were quiet too.  Perhaps it was because it was Friday (day off) or maybe it was the afternoon.

At around 1400, I thought that if I succeeded in going, I’d be looking for transport back at Amedi around 1600.  While the drivers say it wouldn’t be a problem, I didn’t want to risk it that late in the day.  I called it quits and returned to the hotel to rejig my plans.

Anyway, I left the taxi garage waving goodbye to the cheerful drivers.  I had expected them to try coax me into going so they earn a fare.

Planning for tomorrow

Having failed in getting to Amedi today, I have to go to both Amedi and Lalish tomorrow.  The cheap way would be to go to Amedi by public transport in the morning and then Lalish by private car in the afternoon.

The problem would be that my return time from Amedi is hard to determine and I’d potentially end up going to Lalish quite late.  I bit the bullet and decided on doing both trips with the car-and-driver.

His price was USD50 for each destination.  As the two destinations have no overlapping route, I didn’t expect the price to come down for doing them both.  I asked for a small discount of USD90 and Khalid, the driver, agreed.

The shared taxi price for Amedi had been IQD8000 (USD7) and based on a full car of 4 passengers, it would have come to USD28.  On a return basis, it would have been USD54.  While Lalish is slightly closer, there are no public transport options.  In any case my negotiated price somewhat reflects that.

I had checked on the streets in taxi shops and their prices had been around USD150-180.  I felt lucky to have Khalid for less and he speaks very good English and can somewhat act as a guide.

Settling in

With all planning and organisation out of the way, I settled into my large room with the luxury of a table!  It was nice to gave so space and relative comfort for a change.

I took a walk in the bazaar and finished the day with dinner.  The town and bazaars got super-busy at night. I guess it’s the most comfortable time of day.

I had to buy a pair of reading glasses to replace the cheap one that broke today.  I’m often surprised by the lack of Arabic spoken by the older generation.  The man told me that the glasses cost IQD200 (USD0.20).  When I confirmed it was IQD2000 in Arabic, he replied in Kurdish which I couldn’t understand.  He took the IQD2000 so I guess I paid the right price.