From: Bob Keith - Cool Dadio Media - Zakho, Iraq, Tuesday, 5:00 p.m., 24 October 2006.

 

 Unlike Turkey, there just isn't much for bus service in Northern Iraq.  And, I have had to rely on taxis.  It is best to pile in with four other travelers because then you all share the price. Often though, they want to short cut through Mosul and Kirkuk - bad guy places.  So I often rent the whole taxi to myself and go through the mountains. And, this Ramadan holiday time here often sees days without many people at the taxi ''garages'' at certain hours.  So I had to ride the 50 miles to Zakho, Iraq alone. 

 

  You know one of the only bus lines I was able to use was the ride from Sulaymaniyah to Halabja, which is only five miles from Iran.  That ironically, I considered one of my most complicated and dangerous days. It just wasn't a route you would expect a bus to go. But the Zakho ride escalated to almost match the Halabja ride.

 

  The 50 mile taxi ride from Dahuk back to Zakho went well until we got to town.  ''I'' and only ''I'' of course, misunderstood the Arabic numbers used to agree on the price of the taxi ride before hand. But that was the least of my impending problems. 

 

  The taxi driver pulled into Zakho and he immediately shifted into, I-can't-find-the-hotel-mode. I knew where it was because I had stayed there on my first night in Iraq. I started to see landmarks and knew I could walk from that point, but he rolled on seemingly determined to play stupid for as long as possible even though I gestured in every sign I could for him to stop.  

 

  The straw that broke the camels back for me was after he drove down three dangerous alleys.  One which was a dead end.  When he finally pulled out of the alley maze, he turned down a one way street the wrong way.  The police here enforce no traffic laws except for that one because somebody going down the wrong way could be a bad guy trying to do some kind of damage.  So of course this guy being on a ''stuck-in-stupid'' mode broke the only traffic law anyone in the entire region enforces. 

 

  Keep in mind this fool drives the Zakho route for a living.  By then I had the door open, but he turned right into a machine gun check point.  While he tried to explain his lunacy to the soldiers, I got out and waited to pay him.  Then he jumped out of the taxi (soldiers at his sides), and wanted to argue about the price after almost getting us both machine gunned. 

 

  It is like the their Christmas Day here.  All the shops are closed except some sidewalk toy vendors.  That in itself is creepy, because the streets usually bulge with people. All that was in the streets were plenty of soldiers; adolescent and teenage boys by the hundreds playing with realistic toy guns (to make matters worse they play with fire crackers too); and, a few people trying to get to their relatives' houses for the holiday meal. 

 

  When ever there is a car wreck here, or even some problem with a work truck ýn the street or something similar, the men and boys in the streets crowd into the scene for a first hand view and talk loud about it.  In one minute, the taxi was surrounded by three hundred men and boys (the boys all with toy guns).

 

  I threw the money at the taxi driver, grabbed my bags, pushed away from the taxi, and proceeded to turn right into a Pesmerga soldier with a machine gun. I held my breath.  But, he just touched my elbow, gave me a reassuring smile, pointed at the taxi driver and said in rather good English, ''Idiot.''  

 

End of message.

 

Bob Keith - Cool Dadio Media


    - The odious orange and white taxis in the busy "men" filled streets of
 Erbil, Iraq.  Photo by Bob Keith, October 2006 -