Into Iraq: step-by-step

There are many ways into Iraq, but the most common for third-country
nationals are via Jordan and Turkey. I did the Turkey route a few days ago
(and in keeping with habit, I'm posting from an Iraqi hotel via a
jury-rigged Wifi connection), and figured some how-to info might be
interesting to the (probably small) share of people considering making this
trip.

First of all, make sure you have a multiple-entry Turkish visa if you plan
on retracing your steps!

The border town is called Silopi. The closest airport in Turkey is
Diyarbakir; you can fly there for $80 each way from Istanbul on Turkish
Airways if you buy the ticket in Turkey ($150 if you buy it outside the
country). Since there is no advance-purchase pricing, no round-trip
discount, the flight almost never fills up until a few hours before
departure, and there are several flights a day, you might as well save the
money and just buy it at the airport in Turkey.

From Diyarbakir it's about a 4-hour ride to Silopi by taxi (just tell the
driver you want to go to Iraq). There are plenty of taxi drivers at the
airport, and they's all probably honest. If you arrive after about 2pm, you
should probably spend the night in a hotel in Diyarbakir and set out first
thing in the morning - the road is quite dangerous by night (hilly, unlit,
crazy drivers). Depending on what languages you speak (Arabic good, Kurdish
or Turkish better), you will pay around US$100, give or take. If you have a
lot of time you could take a bus, but the few buses I saw were really
slow-moving and crowded; not at all the standard that travelers of western
and central Turkey would be accustomed to. Along the way, stop in the
Turkish city of Merdin (about halfway to the border), which has a stunningly
beautiful setting. You have to see it to believe it. Just walk around and
soak it in for at least a few minutes. Your taxi driver will have a smoke
and hopefully call all his friends on his cell phone so he doesn't have to
do it while he's driving.

When you get to Silopi you must make a photocopy of the first two pages of
your passport (showing your photo, passport number, etc.). If you arrive at
the border without this you'll be sent back.

From Silopi you can get a special cross-border taxi for US$10 or less. These
are authorized to run you back and forth and the taxi driver will help you
with the process. You could also do it on foot (you'll have to walk a couple
miles past a long, long queue of trucks waiting to cross over).

At the Turkish checkpoint you'll come to a long building in the middle of
the road (i.e., to your left) with many offices; you need to get your
passport stamped in the passport office which is on the opposite side of the
building. This is pretty chaotic and you must just fight your way to the
front of the departure line, where you'll hand them your passport and
photocopy. They'll stamp it and then hang on to your passport for no
apparent reason for about 5 minutes, then give it back.

Then you proceed to the next Turkish checkpoint where they'll verify that
your passport was stamped, and quickly poke through your luggage. After
this, you're out of Turkey, and it's a short distance across the "no-man's
land" to the next stop. When you see the sign proclaiming "Welcome to
Kurdistan of Iraq", go inside the building and hand them your passport. It's
a stark contrast to the Turkish post, which was all mayhem and barked
orders; here they will chat with you and invite you to take seat while they
process your passport. Once you are seated, a man will come out and bring
you some tea to drink while you wait and watch TV. Then, you're stamped, and
that's it - you're in Iraq!

Actually you're in the Kurdish-controlled area which for the moment is in
many ways autonomous. Supposedly there are some American troops at the
border post as well, but I sure didn't see them. I was told they hang out
behind the scenes in another building. Your passport will not be stamped
here but instead you'll get a dot-matrix printout which you must keep with
you as long as you travel in the Kurdish areas, and especially if you plan
to travel back north through Turkey (I'll try to get a picture of this on my
web site in the next few days). From here you can catch a taxi or maybe a
bus 45 minutes down the road to Dohuk, which is the first major city (and
one of three Kurdish-controlled provincial capitals) and a nice place to
stop over.

This area is very safe and peaceful compared to the rest of the country
(walking alone after dark is no problem, even at midnight), so it's a good
way to get your bearings before proceeding further south. As you travel
south between Dohuk and Mosul, the checkpoints will no longer be staffed by
the irregularly-outfitted but very friendly Kurdish peshmerga militia, but
instead by the Iraqi police. From this time on you need to watch yourself a
bit because the crime rate rises dramatically. Not to imply that the Iraqi
police are to blame, but rather that the general situation is very different
and much more fluid - the Kurdish area has had several years under UN
protection to get things in order, while the rest of Iraq is still coming to
terms with huge changes to society's ground rules.

A couple other notes:

Iraq is an entirely cash economy. Credit cards are absolutely no use;
likewise travelers checks. You need to have enough US$ cash to get you
through your trip or you'll be in serious trouble (at the border you'll see
people flashing thick rolls of US$100 bills). Count on $15-30 for a good
clean hotel room and $2-5 for a reasonable meal. Local transport is very
cheap. There is a new currency, the Iraqi Dinar, but nobody seems to be
taking it that seriously yet. Anything that costs more than few dollars is
priced in US$. If your change is less than $1 you'll get dinar back (US$1 =
1430 dinar).

Basically all college-educated people in Iraq speak English, most of them
surprisingly well. You'll find that people in markets, small restaurants,
etc., speak bits and pieces but you may need to go through four or five
people to get someone who understands you. Arabic works everywhere including
the Kurdish-speaking north.

Internet cafes are everywhere, about US$1/hour. The water is not safe to
drink. Outside of the Kurdish areas you should probably not be out after
dark. The food is great. People are very friendly, and from the
conversations I've had so far, unanimously grateful for the removal of
Saddam Hussein and friendly towards Americans.

miguel
--
Hundreds of travel photos from around the world: http://travel.u.nu/

Thanks thats really interesting

"Miguel Cruz" a écrit dans le message de
...

There are many ways into Iraq, but the most common for third-country
nationals are via Jordan and Turkey. I did the Turkey route a few days ago
(and in keeping with habit, I'm posting from an Iraqi hotel via a
jury-rigged Wifi connection), and figured some how-to info might be
interesting to the (probably small) share of people considering making
this
trip.

First of all, make sure you have a multiple-entry Turkish visa if you plan
on retracing your steps!

The border town is called Silopi. The closest airport in Turkey is
Diyarbakir; you can fly there for $80 each way from Istanbul on Turkish
Airways if you buy the ticket in Turkey ($150 if you buy it outside the
country). Since there is no advance-purchase pricing, no round-trip
discount, the flight almost never fills up until a few hours before
departure, and there are several flights a day, you might as well save the
money and just buy it at the airport in Turkey.

From Diyarbakir it's about a 4-hour ride to Silopi by taxi (just tell the
driver you want to go to Iraq). There are plenty of taxi drivers at the
airport, and they's all probably honest. If you arrive after about 2pm,
you
should probably spend the night in a hotel in Diyarbakir and set out first
thing in the morning - the road is quite dangerous by night (hilly, unlit,
crazy drivers). Depending on what languages you speak (Arabic good,
Kurdish
or Turkish better), you will pay around US$100, give or take. If you have
a
lot of time you could take a bus, but the few buses I saw were really
slow-moving and crowded; not at all the standard that travelers of western
and central Turkey would be accustomed to. Along the way, stop in the
Turkish city of Merdin (about halfway to the border), which has a
stunningly
beautiful setting. You have to see it to believe it. Just walk around and
soak it in for at least a few minutes. Your taxi driver will have a smoke
and hopefully call all his friends on his cell phone so he doesn't have to
do it while he's driving.

When you get to Silopi you must make a photocopy of the first two pages of
your passport (showing your photo, passport number, etc.). If you arrive
at
the border without this you'll be sent back.

From Silopi you can get a special cross-border taxi for US$10 or less.
These
are authorized to run you back and forth and the taxi driver will help you
with the process. You could also do it on foot (you'll have to walk a
couple
miles past a long, long queue of trucks waiting to cross over).

At the Turkish checkpoint you'll come to a long building in the middle of
the road (i.e., to your left) with many offices; you need to get your
passport stamped in the passport office which is on the opposite side of
the
building. This is pretty chaotic and you must just fight your way to the
front of the departure line, where you'll hand them your passport and
photocopy. They'll stamp it and then hang on to your passport for no
apparent reason for about 5 minutes, then give it back.

Then you proceed to the next Turkish checkpoint where they'll verify that
your passport was stamped, and quickly poke through your luggage. After
this, you're out of Turkey, and it's a short distance across the "no-man's
land" to the next stop. When you see the sign proclaiming "Welcome to
Kurdistan of Iraq", go inside the building and hand them your passport.
It's
a stark contrast to the Turkish post, which was all mayhem and barked
orders; here they will chat with you and invite you to take seat while
they
process your passport. Once you are seated, a man will come out and bring
you some tea to drink while you wait and watch TV. Then, you're stamped,
and
that's it - you're in Iraq!

Actually you're in the Kurdish-controlled area which for the moment is in
many ways autonomous. Supposedly there are some American troops at the
border post as well, but I sure didn't see them. I was told they hang out
behind the scenes in another building. Your passport will not be stamped
here but instead you'll get a dot-matrix printout which you must keep with
you as long as you travel in the Kurdish areas, and especially if you plan
to travel back north through Turkey (I'll try to get a picture of this on
my
web site in the next few days). From here you can catch a taxi or maybe a
bus 45 minutes down the road to Dohuk, which is the first major city (and
one of three Kurdish-controlled provincial capitals) and a nice place to
stop over.

This area is very safe and peaceful compared to the rest of the country
(walking alone after dark is no problem, even at midnight), so it's a good
way to get your bearings before proceeding further south. As you travel
south between Dohuk and Mosul, the checkpoints will no longer be staffed
by
the irregularly-outfitted but very friendly Kurdish peshmerga militia, but
instead by the Iraqi police. From this time on you need to watch yourself
a
bit because the crime rate rises dramatically. Not to imply that the Iraqi
police are to blame, but rather that the general situation is very
different
and much more fluid - the Kurdish area has had several years under UN
protection to get things in order, while the rest of Iraq is still coming
to
terms with huge changes to society's ground rules.

A couple other notes:

Iraq is an entirely cash economy. Credit cards are absolutely no use;
likewise travelers checks. You need to have enough US$ cash to get you
through your trip or you'll be in serious trouble (at the border you'll
see
people flashing thick rolls of US$100 bills). Count on $15-30 for a good
clean hotel room and $2-5 for a reasonable meal. Local transport is very
cheap. There is a new currency, the Iraqi Dinar, but nobody seems to be
taking it that seriously yet. Anything that costs more than few dollars is
priced in US$. If your change is less than $1 you'll get dinar back (US$1
=
1430 dinar).

Basically all college-educated people in Iraq speak English, most of them
surprisingly well. You'll find that people in markets, small restaurants,
etc., speak bits and pieces but you may need to go through four or five
people to get someone who understands you. Arabic works everywhere
including
the Kurdish-speaking north.

Internet cafes are everywhere, about US$1/hour. The water is not safe to
drink. Outside of the Kurdish areas you should probably not be out after
dark. The food is great. People are very friendly, and from the
conversations I've had so far, unanimously grateful for the removal of
Saddam Hussein and friendly towards Americans.

miguel
--
Hundreds of travel photos from around the world: http://travel.u.nu/

Can't believe you are in Iraq, Miguel. Aren't you afraid that somebody
might shoot you ?
--

Alfred Molon

http://www.molon.de/Galleries.htm - Photos from Myanmar, Brunei,
Malaysia, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Nepal, Egypt, Austria, Budapest and
Portugal

On Sat, 13 Mar 2004 22:54:00 GMT, the renowned Alfred Molon
wrote:

Can't believe you are in Iraq, Miguel. Aren't you afraid that somebody
might shoot you ?

In "American Kurdistan"? I would think it's pretty safe.

Best regards,
Spehro Pefhany
--
"it's the network..." "The Journey is the reward"
Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com
Embedded software/hardware/analog Info for designers: http://www.speff.com

On Sat, 13 Mar 2004 18:35:55 GMT, (Miguel Cruz) wrote:


There are many ways into Iraq, but the most common for third-country
nationals are via Jordan and Turkey. I did the Turkey route a few days ago
(and in keeping with habit, I'm posting from an Iraqi hotel via a
jury-rigged Wifi connection), and figured some how-to info might be
interesting to the (probably small) share of people considering making this
trip.
[snip]

You are an intrepid explorer, Miguel. How far south do you plan to
travel in Iraq? Be safe!

Michael

If you would like to send a private email to me, please take out the TRASH, so to speak. Please do not email me something which you also posted.

Alfred Molon wrote:
Can't believe you are in Iraq, Miguel. Aren't you afraid that somebody
might shoot you ?

From what I've heard there aren't many people hanging around taking random
potshots; the attacks so far have most been planned in advance and against
conspicuous and predictable targets. Plus, I only have enough time to be in
the north which ranges from completely safe to moderately risky. No time for
Baghdad! So I'll live to annoy the newsgroup another day...

miguel
--
Hundreds of travel photos from around the world: http://travel.u.nu/

"Thomas F. Unke" wrote in message
...
(Miguel Cruz) writes:


From what I've heard there aren't many people hanging around taking
random
potshots; the attacks so far have most been planned in advance and
against
conspicuous and predictable targets. Plus, I only have enough time to be
in
the north which ranges from completely safe to moderately risky. No time
for
Baghdad! So I'll live to annoy the newsgroup another day...

Respect!

I think this year's newsgroup prize "hardcore traveller of the year"
will be for you. ;-)

I wonder where he finds all that money required to be mobile all the time.
Well, perhaps camel rides are not that expensive.

On Sun, 14 Mar 2004 09:01:03 GMT, the renowned Thomas F. Unke
wrote:

(Miguel Cruz) writes:


From what I've heard there aren't many people hanging around taking random
potshots; the attacks so far have most been planned in advance and against
conspicuous and predictable targets. Plus, I only have enough time to be in
the north which ranges from completely safe to moderately risky. No time for
Baghdad! So I'll live to annoy the newsgroup another day...

Respect!

I think this year's newsgroup prize "hardcore traveller of the year"
will be for you. ;-)

Happy travels and come back safely!

Ditto. Take care, Miguel. Quite an adventure!

Best regards,
Spehro Pefhany
--
"it's the network..." "The Journey is the reward"
Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com
Embedded software/hardware/analog Info for designers: http://www.speff.com

On Sat, 13 Mar 2004 22:54:00 GMT, Alfred Molon
wrote:

Can't believe you are in Iraq, Miguel. Aren't you afraid that somebody
might shoot you ?

but at least they don't whip people, like in singapore.....

Markku Grönroos wrote:
"Thomas F. Unke" wrote:
(Miguel Cruz) writes:
From what I've heard there aren't many people hanging around taking
random potshots; the attacks so far have most been planned in advance
and against conspicuous and predictable targets. Plus, I only have
enough time to be in the north which ranges from completely safe to
moderately risky. No time for Baghdad! So I'll live to annoy the
newsgroup another day...

Respect!

I think this year's newsgroup prize "hardcore traveller of the year"
will be for you. ;-)

I wonder where he finds all that money required to be mobile all the time.

My travel is funded entirely by the savings I reap using ATMs instead of
travelers checks.

miguel
--
Hundreds of travel photos from around the world: http://travel.u.nu/