Final prep and staging - Iraq Project II
This is a reposting of my Iraq Project II. I will post a dispatch-entry Monday thru Friday until the original project is recreated. The real-time journey was posted by The Janesville Gazette in February and March, 2008.
Final prep and staging for Iraq
posted February 24, 2008
Today was a day to regroup in quiet Midyat, Turkey and review my plan to enter Iraq. I will leave a bag at my hotel. I will enter Iraq with only one small duffel bag. There are convenient areas in Northern Iraq where multiple bags are fine, but there are just as many remote areas where too many bags are a burden.
A handful of things are essential for a trip like this: Passport; cash; international cell phone; digital camera with computer cable; paper towels; and, a flash light. Everything else can be scrounged up on the road if needed.
Turkey seems to save its international impact moves and then pull them out all at the same time - and it would seem, while I am in-country as well. Their president just approved a lifting of a ban on head scarfs in universities. Even though Turkey is 99 percent Muslim, they have tried to implement a sec ular culture for decades. This move is seen by some as a trend toward slipping back to a more Islamic society.
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- Syria looms down the hill. Heading left on the pic, Iraq is just on the horizon.
It is here on both trips that I paused - even hesitated - before going into Iraq.
Photo by Bob Keith, February 2008 -
Turkey has also apparently sent a sizable military force into Kurdish Northern Iraq in the last couple days. There is no sign of activity where I am at here near the border. The mountains in Northern Iraq are like any other mountains - vast and complicated to navigate. Suffice it to say then, somewhere north of me, the Turks are in Iraq. You would not know they have done anything by the mood here. But, this region of the world has been at war off and on for centuries. People apparently are not easily jolted into taking notice. This action by Turkey speaks to how delicate our American situation is with the region. Both Turkey and the Kurds of Iraq are our allies.
Someone asked on the GazetteXtra blog if you can use credit cards in Turkey. The answer is yes. But, expect to find fewer shops and hotels that use them the farther east you go and the remoter the areas are. Forget about ATM or credit cards in Iraq. Iraq does not have a banking system for the public that is visible. Last trip I had to go to street money-changers - very biblical so to speak. I went to a bank once and they shooed me to a jewelry store next door to get some Iraqi Dinar.
Just one last footnote on money. The dollar has fallen significantly to both the Iraqi Dinar and the Turkish Lira since my last visit to the region. In October of 2006 I could get approximately 1.50 Turkish Lira to one Dollar. Now you get 1.17 Lira. In October of 2006 I got approximately 1500 Iraqi Dinar to one Dollar. I hear now it is more like 1200 to the Dollar. This is troubling considering as I mentioned, Iraq does not really even have a viable banking system that I could see.
Bob Keith
Midyat, Turkey
Final prep and staging for Iraq
posted February 24, 2008
Today was a day to regroup in quiet Midyat, Turkey and review my plan to enter Iraq. I will leave a bag at my hotel. I will enter Iraq with only one small duffel bag. There are convenient areas in Northern Iraq where multiple bags are fine, but there are just as many remote areas where too many bags are a burden.
A handful of things are essential for a trip like this: Passport; cash; international cell phone; digital camera with computer cable; paper towels; and, a flash light. Everything else can be scrounged up on the road if needed.
Turkey seems to save its international impact moves and then pull them out all at the same time - and it would seem, while I am in-country as well. Their president just approved a lifting of a ban on head scarfs in universities. Even though Turkey is 99 percent Muslim, they have tried to implement a sec ular culture for decades. This move is seen by some as a trend toward slipping back to a more Islamic society.
- Syria looms down the hill. Heading left on the pic, Iraq is just on the horizon.
It is here on both trips that I paused - even hesitated - before going into Iraq.
Photo by Bob Keith, February 2008 -
Turkey has also apparently sent a sizable military force into Kurdish Northern Iraq in the last couple days. There is no sign of activity where I am at here near the border. The mountains in Northern Iraq are like any other mountains - vast and complicated to navigate. Suffice it to say then, somewhere north of me, the Turks are in Iraq. You would not know they have done anything by the mood here. But, this region of the world has been at war off and on for centuries. People apparently are not easily jolted into taking notice. This action by Turkey speaks to how delicate our American situation is with the region. Both Turkey and the Kurds of Iraq are our allies.
Someone asked on the GazetteXtra blog if you can use credit cards in Turkey. The answer is yes. But, expect to find fewer shops and hotels that use them the farther east you go and the remoter the areas are. Forget about ATM or credit cards in Iraq. Iraq does not have a banking system for the public that is visible. Last trip I had to go to street money-changers - very biblical so to speak. I went to a bank once and they shooed me to a jewelry store next door to get some Iraqi Dinar.
Just one last footnote on money. The dollar has fallen significantly to both the Iraqi Dinar and the Turkish Lira since my last visit to the region. In October of 2006 I could get approximately 1.50 Turkish Lira to one Dollar. Now you get 1.17 Lira. In October of 2006 I got approximately 1500 Iraqi Dinar to one Dollar. I hear now it is more like 1200 to the Dollar. This is troubling considering as I mentioned, Iraq does not really even have a viable banking system that I could see.
Bob Keith
Midyat, Turkey
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