Above: Taq Kisra.
Travelling in comfort
Today we travel in comfort from Karbala to Taq Kisra and then Baghdad’s Alawi Garage, using a car and driver. Such a routing would be possible with baggage and public transport. And once in Baghdad, we would try get a shared ride to Tikrit.
Our driver arrived at the hotel around 0840 when I finished breakfast, even though he was booked for 0930. We managed to hit the road at 0915.
Taq Kisra
Taq Kisra is a Persian palace from the 3-6th Century AD, before the area became Arab. The iconic arch once housed a throne room.
We are visiting Taq Kisra knowing full well that it is closed for restoration and only viewable from the outside. So, in essence, we are paying a bit of money for the private transport just to see the place from the outside. But we’re happy as we don’t know when we might return to Iraq.
It wasn’t a surprised when we arrived around 1100 and were told that we couldn’t enter the site. There was a large vacant area from which we could get a good view Taq Kisra from afar, after trampling through a bit of a rubbish dump.
As we got closer, the stone wall obscured the palace more. But it was low enough for me to hold my camera up over the top for an unobstructed shot.
We left after about 30 mins to continue our ride to Alawi Garage, getting there around 1240.
Continuing to Tikrit
We managed to get a car outside Alawi Garage to Tikrit straight away, and also bargained the price down a little. I think the driver wanted to go back to Tikrit ASAP and was slightly flexible on price as a result.
Including a 25 min meal break, the journey took about 3h and we were dropped off near our chosen Bay Rock Hotel about 1600. It was freezing in the shade by now as we walked to the hotel.
Unfortunately, there was no room at the inn and we had to take a short ride to the Tikrit Plaza hotel where they could only accommodate us in a five-bed room. It was a high price (USD66, our costliest so far) to pay for a low-spec hotel. Fortunately, it was clean enough and there was free drinking water everywhere in sealed plastic cups.
We ran into some South African YouTubers here, dressed in jalabiya and sneakers. They were surprised that our travel here had been smooth as they had had many issues with transport, sites being closed etc. I guess they hadn’t done their homework and don’t speak Arabic. They felt a bit unfriendly perhaps it may have impacted their interaction with locals. And maybe they were too focused on creating content rather than enjoying Iraq and interacting with her people.
We took dinner at a local burger joint where I had a burger and fried chicken for the same price as E’s more premium burger combo meal.
After dinner, we looked for the garage for Samarra for tomorrow’s excursion. Unfortunately, we were too late and it was closed. Locals were friendly and wanted photos with me rather than E (not just tonight). Makes up for his white privilege last night at the car booking office.