Exploring the Al Rashid area

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 and recently changed to card-only.  But for me, it was back to cash-only of USD80.

The passport control queue had just cleared and I breezed through past the carousels to the landside arrival area at 0110.

Careem rip-off

Few weeks ago, Baghdad airport had security restrictions which limited only a few companies to pick up or drop off passengers.  The going rate into the city was fixed at a rip-off USD40.

It all changed in time for my arrival and I was overjoyed to be able to use Careem (rideshare app) to order my ride to the Malik Dijlah Hotel (King of the Tigris Hotel, Dijlah being the Arabic name for Tigris) for only IQD17K which is around USD10 at the common blackmarket exchange rate.

Exiting the terminal when I saw that the driver was already on site, I couldn’t see him.  A shuttle tout tried to usher me into his vehicle to take me the airport gate for IQD10K (standard price during the monopoly taxi era so that people can get Careem from there).  Fortunately, my driver saw me before I was duped into the shuttle ride.

At around 0115, the roads were deserted and I was at the hotel around 0145.  Unfortunately, this is where the Careem dream came unstuck.

The driver said it wasn’t a Careem ride and asked for USD40 but then came down to USD30 when I refused.  He then enlisted the hotel reception to help him with the discussion.

I offered him USD15 for the ride, which was still generous compared to the Careem rate.  He declined but as I was tired, finally agreed to USD25.

I was ready to hit the sack and in the back of my mind, I thought perhaps the Careem dream was too good to be true and was also lucky I didn’t land during the USD40 monopoly era a few weeks ago.

My travel companion E, who landed 10h later had not a hint of a problem with his driver.  I was a bit peeved as I had done all the research, done everything right but was hit with a crook … but it was plain sailing for him.

I did lodge a report with Careem in the morning to complain about the driver and also get them to reverse the IQD8000 cancellation fee which their system had charged me.  It turned out that the driver had cancelled the ride when I had hopped into the car, claiming that I hadn’t showed up.

Meeting up

After doing my laundry quickly, I retired after 0200 and slept till my alarm at 0730.  I must have been tired and fell back asleep till 0830.

After breakfast, it was already 0930 and a bit more than an hour till my travel companion E would land.

My plans to go sightseeing didn’t seem feasible, so instead, I explored the surrounding area for money changers.  The immediate area seemed to specialised in moulded stucco or plasterwork and a bit further, it was medical and disabled equipment.

I finally found a few money changers that gave IQD150000 for USD100.  This is about 14% better than the official rate but not as good as the 23% that I had read some time ago.  The hotel confirmed that this was a good going rate before I committed to the deal.

E arrived around 1210 with no Careem hassles, unlike my experience.  We had a nice catch up before heading out around 1330.

Al Rashid Area

We wanted to explore the Al Rashid Street, including the Al Mutanabbi Street areas.  As these were both stretches of roads to explore, I felt I was better to order a Careem to a particular landmark instead.

I chose the Abbasid Palace as our destination and ride took us through Al Rashid, giving us a preview of what we should look for on the return walk.

Unfortunately, the palace was closed and expected to reopen on Sunday, which was five days away.

We backtracked on foot to Al Rashid, taking time to look for the turquoise dome of a mosque that we had seen.  Then we saw some very dilapidated buildings that had seen better days, under which were some friendly military people.  This seemed to be the gist of the area:  dilapidation with a few gems still in good repair and friendly locals.

We went past another mosque before taking a light lunch of falafel shawarma at a fly-infested stall.  Flies are plentiful in much of Baghdad, it seems.

We found the Safafeer market, which is home to plenty of copper-ware shops.  But at around 1500, things were starting to quieten down with many shops closed.

We found Al Mutannabi Street with a few stalls selling books.  On the corner by the Shahbandar Café was a street of well-reconstructed buildings.  We killed some time there while the café was closed for cleaning.

We made it back to the café around 1615 to enjoy a couple of cups of tea while enjoying the atmosphere that oozed out of every nook and cranny.  The café is a famous icon of Baghdad because it was the gathering ground for writers, poets, writers, intellectuals and political personalities.

By the time we emerged from the café, the sun had set and the streets were dead.  We couldn’t work out if this was the norm or an unusual evening with the looming Census curfew starting at midnight.

We walked back to our hotel, admiring the many once-gorgeous buildings that are now in need of TLC.  We remarked to each other that despite being one of the cradles of civilisation, a lot of the architecture reflects the colonial heritage without much local flavour.

There weren’t many food options in our area that were open and we settled for a shawarma each, which turned out to be disappointing.