Let me just start out by saying that we weren't planning to take a vacation in Iraq- it really just sort of happened. Jessi and Brian and I wanted to meet up somewhere between Tel Aviv and Zürich around Easter, and we decided that Turkey was a really logical choice.
As we started reading our Turkey guidebooks, we decided to focus on the areas that were a little more off the beaten path in eastern Turkey. Since I was going to be traveling with the advantage of a male presence, I thought it made total sense for us to go where I would not want to travel without a man. I figured that I could really go back to Istanbul any time, but traveling in eastern Turkey is probably not something I would do as a single woman. Also, traveling with another woman is helpful, as men and women are often separated for security checkpoints and things, so we were really set up well to do something a little more exotic.
In reading the section of our guidebook on southeastern Turkey, both Jessi and I were intrigued by the mention of crossing the border into Kurdish Iraq and the interesting things to see there. A few days later, the New York Times published a story on the top 40 places to go in 2011, and Kurdish Iraq was #33 (beating out Budapest and Miami, I might add)! This started our research in earnest. Jessi started reading blogs of other travelers who had traveled in Kurdish Iraq, and it seemed really do-able. We also found an extremely helpful chapter on Iraq from Lonely Planet, which had clear information about places to go and places to avoid and how navigate and what to expect.
All of the sudden, we were planning a vacation mostly to Iraq, with a couple of days in Turkey at the beginning and end. Since we had already bought our plane tickets to Istanbul, we stuck with starting and finishing in Istanbul. Plane tickets in and out of Iraq are very expensive (since there is still a war zone tax applied), so we decided to take taxis in and out, which is how most of the backpackers we read about traveled.
We had done enough reading about the area to feel quite good about traveling there, so it was funny to tell people where we were going (although we didn't tell many people). We definitely got a lot of "You're going where?" I have to admit that it was a little alarming when we informed American Embassy in Iraq of our travel plans and they repeatedly sent us emails with dire travel warnings basically informing us that we were on our own if we chose to go. However, the Kurdish region of Iraq (also called Kurdish Iraq or Kurdistan) is relatively stable and safe, so we decided to avoid Baghdad and figured we'd be fine.
A couple of weeks before we left, I discovered that a friend of mine from high school was living with her family in Kurdistan. Through the magic of the Facebook, we were able to reconnect and arrange to meet up, as well as to somewhat reassure my parents that the area was safe.
After that, I was totally looking forward to going and seeing what there was to see. How the world is today is affected by the past and present of this region, so I was thrilled to have the chance to go. It is one thing to read the news, but experiencing and seeing first-hand what was happening in that area is really a great opportunity.
Now that I'm on the other side of the trip, I have to say that it was an incredible and interesting experience. Whatever I expected Iraq to be like, it was quite different and unexpected. And I'm already trying to figure out when I can go back!
As we started reading our Turkey guidebooks, we decided to focus on the areas that were a little more off the beaten path in eastern Turkey. Since I was going to be traveling with the advantage of a male presence, I thought it made total sense for us to go where I would not want to travel without a man. I figured that I could really go back to Istanbul any time, but traveling in eastern Turkey is probably not something I would do as a single woman. Also, traveling with another woman is helpful, as men and women are often separated for security checkpoints and things, so we were really set up well to do something a little more exotic.
In reading the section of our guidebook on southeastern Turkey, both Jessi and I were intrigued by the mention of crossing the border into Kurdish Iraq and the interesting things to see there. A few days later, the New York Times published a story on the top 40 places to go in 2011, and Kurdish Iraq was #33 (beating out Budapest and Miami, I might add)! This started our research in earnest. Jessi started reading blogs of other travelers who had traveled in Kurdish Iraq, and it seemed really do-able. We also found an extremely helpful chapter on Iraq from Lonely Planet, which had clear information about places to go and places to avoid and how navigate and what to expect.
All of the sudden, we were planning a vacation mostly to Iraq, with a couple of days in Turkey at the beginning and end. Since we had already bought our plane tickets to Istanbul, we stuck with starting and finishing in Istanbul. Plane tickets in and out of Iraq are very expensive (since there is still a war zone tax applied), so we decided to take taxis in and out, which is how most of the backpackers we read about traveled.
We had done enough reading about the area to feel quite good about traveling there, so it was funny to tell people where we were going (although we didn't tell many people). We definitely got a lot of "You're going where?" I have to admit that it was a little alarming when we informed American Embassy in Iraq of our travel plans and they repeatedly sent us emails with dire travel warnings basically informing us that we were on our own if we chose to go. However, the Kurdish region of Iraq (also called Kurdish Iraq or Kurdistan) is relatively stable and safe, so we decided to avoid Baghdad and figured we'd be fine.
A couple of weeks before we left, I discovered that a friend of mine from high school was living with her family in Kurdistan. Through the magic of the Facebook, we were able to reconnect and arrange to meet up, as well as to somewhat reassure my parents that the area was safe.
After that, I was totally looking forward to going and seeing what there was to see. How the world is today is affected by the past and present of this region, so I was thrilled to have the chance to go. It is one thing to read the news, but experiencing and seeing first-hand what was happening in that area is really a great opportunity.
Now that I'm on the other side of the trip, I have to say that it was an incredible and interesting experience. Whatever I expected Iraq to be like, it was quite different and unexpected. And I'm already trying to figure out when I can go back!
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