Taking the high road in Iraq

Think Iraq is all desert and sand dunes? Think again. The last couple of days have been spent up in the Zagros mountains bordering Iran and Turkey and you’re more likely to see a snowman up here than a camel. Actually, if the truth be known we didn’t see any snowmen or camels but we did see big wheels. Lots of them. Take any beauty spot and you can be certain than an Iraqi will have tried to improve on nature by building some monsterous hotel or theme park. Of slightly more interest to most western tourists we did see a ski resort they were in the process of building – though they did seem to have picked the rockiest and most snow free mountain slope around on which to build it. Away from the tack though the scenery was truly beautiful; huge snowy mountains and deep valleys and gorges. In another time and place this could be a major trekking and winter sports holiday destination.

As public transport is limited up in the mountains we hired a taxi and driver for three days – the driver is a funny guy who has taken great pleasure in playing practical jokes on us like pretending to take the wrong road and drive into Mosul (which would be very, very bad) and other such hilarious antics – this proved a wise decision when we couldn’t find anywhere to stay in the mountains and so were able to carry on last night to the city of Dohuk. The city had something of a surprise for us this morning (and no, it wasn’t yet another kebab – well ok we did only have kebabs but that wasn’t the surprise) - an art gallery. Now I don’t want to sterotype but I wouldn’t imagine a place like Iraq to have art galleries. Even bad ones. But Dohuk had an art gallery that wasn’t just not bad, it was really good. And it’s not just Dohuk. In Sulyamaniya the other day we visited another almost equally good gallery. Yes another unexpected side to Iraq.

After the human art we went off in search of more natural art. Back into the mountains we drove into scenery that was possibly more stunning than yesterdays. Huge mountains seperated by a wide fertile valley in the middle of which the small town of Amadiya was perched atop a table top shaped mountain rising out of the valley floor. The weather was gorgeous, we sat in a restaurant in the sun and had a big lunch (kebabs - again....) looking out a stunning mountain vista. Who would imagine that Iraq could actually feel like a holiday destination? I’m surprised to say it but I’m really enjoying this place!

Park Life Iraqi Style

Another great day here in Iraq. We returned to the regional capital Erbil and being a Friday, which is a holiday here we did what Iraqis do on a Friday and went to the park. When I say park I don’t mean a grotty little bit of grass with some trees and a few people kicking a ball about (though there was that as well). Oh no, I mean a park that has a train to get about on, lakes with dancing, multi-coloured fountains, fake caves filled with Mona Lisas’ (I rather suspect these were fake too), the biggest and best childrens playground I’ve ever seen (yes, better than any in Europe), a cable car that must be a kilometre or so long, a skate/BMX park (seriously!) and zillions of very noisy and very colourful wedding parties most of whom wanted us to come and join in (and if we’d hung about any longer we may have been expected to marry a relative or two). Yes, no matter how you look at it, not just are the Iraqi’s amazingly friendly (the amount of times people ‘forget’ to make us pay is amazing), but it’s also the tackiest place I have ever been – and that’s just great with me!!

Iraq day three

Today something amazing happened! The sun came out! Oh yes, you think Iraq is all sun baked desert well not so. Up here in the north it rains, and it rains and then it rains again. So taking advantage of this rare glimmer of sunshine we started the day with a walk around Sulamaniya’s souk where we saw cute fluffy bunny rabbits about to be be-headed, chickens being cooked with flame throwers and posters of Adolf Hitler next to ones of Che Guevara which frankly was a little strange. We also found a fantastic tea shop with pictures of Kurdish freedom fighters all over the walls and about a hundred old men playing dominoes and backgammon and Marion, the only girl in the vicinity, wishing she was a man.

A cheery afternoon was spent in prison looking at people being tortured and gassed. The Amna Suraka is an old Saddam era prison/interrogation centre/torture chamber. The current authorities have left it much as it was the day they over ran it and took control of it over the Bathists. The huge complex was littered in bullet holes and inside were very graphic pictures and models of the results of Saddams gassing of Kurdish villages and people being tortured. The odd thing was the reaction of the visiting Kurds and Arab Iraqis who presumably all know people killed in the Saddam era and yet treated it all like a big jolly carnival. Oh, we’re in a torture chamber where people I knew may have died ho ho ho, let’s take some photos, joke about and lock ourselves in the prison cells and climb on the tanks! What family friendly fun all this is!

In the prison café (with Wifi may I point out) afterwards we met a big group of Iraqis from across the country who were in town for a conference on blogging and media freedom in Iraq. We had no shortage of invites to Baghdad, Kirkuk, Mosul and Najaf amongst others and they said we could bring friends so if anyone wants a lovely (but possibly quite short) holiday in Mosul do let me know and I’ll pass on your details.

Then we went for a walk in a park and got married! Well, ok that’s an exaggeration but we did get an invite to join in a Kurdish wedding celebration in the children’s playground. All I can say about that is thank god only the women were dancing as I’m not totally sure Iraq is quite ready for my caterpillar dance yet….

Iraq diary

Today we drove east from Erbil to Sulamaniyah via the very small town of Koya. The driver of our share taxi obviously thought we looked bored so tried to liven things up by killing us all with his crazy driving and then giggling to himself at every near miss. Who said it wasn’t dangerous here?! The driving meant we didn’t have much time to watch the scenery which was possibly a plus because it couldn’t have been any more grey and bleak. It started as gentle hills and then got more and more rugged and through the rain and grey you could see huge snow capped mountains in the distance. Koya was just a small town with an interesting souk and an old castle. Some woman from the council was dragged out of her office because she spoke English and made to give us a tour of the town. She looked really happy about this. She did get quite excited when it came to showing us the museum but unfortunately it had been so long since anyone had asked to see it that all the locks had ceased up and nobody could open the door. Frankly this was something of a relief.

Sulamaniyah, when it came, was a surprise. For a start it’s huge and really spread out with massive four lane highways that are impossible to cross, shopping malls by the dozen and lots of stuff that may once have been buildings but are now just crumbling wreaks. Basically a typical Middle Eastern city. We asked someone what the best thing was to do in Sulaymaniyah. They said to go bowling so that’s what we did. Yes, Iraq is not exactly how I imagined it!

Iraq

Wow, what a day! Finally after many, many adventures with Air France strikes (they really are a crap airline!) and snow we finally made it to Iraq!

I’m in Erbil, capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, and have therefore naturally spent the day ice-skating! Oh yes, the zillion year old citadel was interesting, the museums were, well actually they were quite dull, the souks were, well like souks anywhere else in the Middle East and so I went to the Family Mall, a huge shopping complex with everything you’d expect to find in Iraq – coffee shops, wireless internet, Mango, Adidas and other chain shops, a fun fair complete with roller coasters and big wheels and a 5D cinema (that’s 3D plus movement and water spraying over you) where I watched a ‘horror’ movie and a 9D cinema – though I have no real idea what the other 4D’s are, an amusement arcade full of Iraqi children playing shoot, kill, death computer games, a large train chugging children about and, of course, an ice-skating rink. Now if only all shopping malls were such fun

Tomorrow I scoot eastwards to Sulamaniya for a day or two before returning to Erbil for a couple more days.

Off to Iraq!

Well I never thought I'd find myself halfway to Iraq and actually be looking forward to it! But, for the next 10 days I'll be travelling around Iraqi Kurdistan partially for Lonely Planet and partially for some photographic projects and my own mere interest. Ok, so to most people the word Iraq means guns, desert, death and other nice stuff but Iraqi Kurdistan, in the far north of the country on the border with Turkey, Iran and Syria is something of a different face of Iraq. The area is largelly autonomus from the rest of the country and has been since a UN No-fly zone was imposed 20 years ago after the first Gulf War. Today it has it's own government, security and police force, borders. visas, flag and everything else that makes up a seperate country - except that it still remains a part of a greater Iraq. It's also safe (compared to the rest of Iraq anyway) and has seen very little of the violence that has engulfed the rest of the country. And not just does it act differently to the rest of Iraq but it looks different. It's got mountains. The Zagros mountains and they're really, really big mountains and it's got rivers, lakes, snow, water, forests and everything else that doesn't look like a desert.

I'm going to be flying into the Iraqi Kurdistan 'capital', Erbil, very late tomorrow night and will spend 8 days travelling around the main cities and through the mountains both updating the Iraqi Kurdistan chapter of the Lonely Planet Middle East guide and just seeing what Iraq is like - very exciting!

However, first I have to get there and that isn't going well. I should have been in Istanbul tonight but am instead in a hotel in Paris after snow in the south of France grounded my first flight and meant I missed the connection (hey there was almost a centimetre of snow you know!). With luck I now fly onto Istanbul and then Iraq in the morning but a four day air traffic strike begins in France tomorrow and nobody can tell me if my flight will actually leave. All going well though I will try my best to update this blog with words and photos  each day whilst I'm away. On the other hand you might just hear about my train ride back home when tomorrows flights are cancelled!

Sumatra & Java Research Trip

                                          Photo: Mt Bromo, Java, Indonesia - photo S.Butler

I recently came back from a couple of fantastic months on the Indonesian islands of Java and Sumatra. I was there for Lonely Planet in order to update the relevant chapters of their legendry Southeast Asia on a Shoestring guide, but of course whilst I was there I got to do quite a lot of surfing (in fact that was one of the reasons why Lonely Planet chose to send me there to do the job!). I mainly concentrated on Java, partially because there wasn’t time to spend weeks trudging out to all the offshore Sumatran islands and partially because I’d never surfed in Java before and it seems to be the one island that, aside from G-Land, most surfers skip completely. As you’ll see I scored a few pretty good days up and down the Javan coast. What I enjoyed about this trip was that I was actually forced to head inland and visit all the big tourist towns, cities and sights which is something that most surfers miss out on. It was time away from the waves well spent and Java in particular was simply wonderful. I don’t think I have ever been anywhere quite so artistic, refined and cultured as Java - everybody seems to be a musician, artist or dancer. The countryside itself, with its spine of volcanoes and bright green rice paddies, is also utterly spectacular. I was lucky enough to be there when Mt Bromo was erupting and walking around the surrounding villages or the plains below the volcano with an umbrella up to protect from the ash and sand falling like snow out of the sky was quite memorable. The highlight of the trip though was the Ijen Plateau where I followed a group of miners deep into the belly of a live volcano to photograph them as they mined sulphur from the edge of the acidic lake that sits inside the crater. It was the toughest environment I have ever been in and even with three face masks on everytime the sulphur clouds enveloped me my eyes would stream and I’d start retching! Most of the miners work with nothing more than a cloth over their face. The cloud was so noxious that in the space of a couple of hours it had literally corroded away and destroyed one camera lens and one flash unit! When a BBC film crew went there to film the Human Planet series they said it was the toughest place they’d ever filmed!

I have put a selection of photographs from the Indonesia trip up online

Slideshow of photos -

http://www.flickr.com/photos/25936994@N00/sets/72157627167620591/show/

Photos with a description - http://www.flickr.com/photos/25936994@N00/sets/72157627167620591/

I have also put a selection of images of the Ijen sulphur miners online as well as some more information on them.

Slide show of images - http://www.flickr.com/photos/25936994@N00/sets/72157627207641045/show/

Photos with description –

http://www.flickr.com/photos/25936994@N00/sets/72157627207641045/