Articles from this Category
21 November 2024
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 […]
20 November 2024
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 […]
19 November 2024
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 […]
17 November 2024
Tea factory and sweet shop Today I did an excursion to Uzungol, a picturesque lakeside village with the lake formed about 500 years ago due to a landslide blocking the outflow of water. The trip came with a few other inclusions. I reported to the tour office at 1000 and departed soon after. We collected […]
16 November 2024
I had opted not to do an excursion till tomorrow, due to wet weather forecast. It is good that I have a spare day. Instead, I’ll do the sights of Trabzon further from the bazaar area where I’m located. First up, I walked to the Gulbahar Hatun Mosque built in 1514. En route, I passed […]
15 November 2024
Sumela Monastery Trabzon’s highlight for me was going to be the Sumela Monastery out of town. In the late autumn season, I had read that public transport options are more difficult, so I booked a tour online with Sumelatur for TRY700 (NZD35) and came with a number of other sights. I walked to their office […]
14 November 2024
Arriving and domestic transfer in Istanbul With only 4h between meals onboard the flight from Male to Istanbul, I took only half a sleeping pill instead of a whole one. I enjoyed 2h sleep horizontally on three seats and managed to doze for a further two. Surprisingly Turkish Airlines served 2 full meals on the […]
29 June 2024
Revisiting sights Kim arrives in Istanbul today, coming from Taipei via Hanoi. His flight was scheduled to arrive at 0520 but had landed at 0445. I had set the alarm for 0610 and hit the tram at 0630 for Aksaray Metro. He had already been waiting 10 mins when I got there at 0640. The […]
28 June 2024
Flying to Istanbul I woke to an email from Turkish Airlines advising of a 50 min delay to my 0725 service to Istanbul. From the airport hotel, I walked over to the terminal about 1h25 prior to the new departure time. At the check-in desk, I asked if they would accept a mobile boarding pass […]
18 January 2024
Another dream standby flight My Thai Airways B777-200 pulled up at the gate 5 mins before our schedule departure time. Boarding took place without passport checks. We departed about an hour late but it was otherwise an awesome flight with only around 50 passengers. I had three seats on which I was horizontal for 6h […]