Sat at the departure gate in Istanbul’s Sawyer Airport, I waited to board flight number IF 224.
Over the last few years I have taken many flights, traveled to many places. These are places that have changed how I see the world, changed my understanding of life, and taken me far beyond my comfort zone. Flight number IF 224 was set to be another comfort-zone crossing experience!
I was boarding the airline Fly Baghdad. It would take me on a two-hour and 50-minute journey to somewhere I never thought I’d be lucky enough to visit, Iraq. Mesopotamia.
“Why would you want to go THERE?”
I’m often asked, “is it safe to travel to Iraq?” In fact, there seems to be no shortage of people looking for Iraq travel advice, despite the country’s history of bad press in the western world. The country was once labeled the ‘Axis of Evil’ by US President George W. Bush, after the September 11th attacks. Even a year before the 2003 invasion, this is a country that had been in the headlines for as long as I can remember – war, terror, and Saddam Hussain.
Every conversation I had when discussing my travel plans was met with the same type of response:
“Why would you want to go there?”
“Is it dangerous in Iraq?”
“I’d never go there”.
And so on, and so forth.
A major thing that travel has taught me is that we, as people, are all fundamentally the same. We live the same kind of existence day after day, albeit, under completely different circumstances. For this reason, countries like Iraq have always screamed out to me from the map on my bedroom wall – I want to understand the similarities, and experience the differences.
My research for this trip began in 2020. It was mainly focussed around the Kurdistan region of Iraq, in the north of the country. Kurdistan had been open to tourism and was pretty much unaffected from the goings on you might read about in what is known as ‘Federal’ Iraq. But, on the 15th March 2021 the Iraqi government lifted the requirement for pre-arrival visas, for citizens of 37 countries. Much to my delight, the United Kingdom was one of them. This was a chance of a lifetime.
For all intents and purposes, the research, booking, and journey were similar to any trip I had been on before. However, there was the potential for this being like nothing I had ever experienced previously on my travels.
Touchdown in Baghdad
When we touched down in Baghdad on the afternoon of 9th September 2023, the 40-degree heat hit me like a brick when I disembarked the plane. As we were the only ‘tourists’ on the flight, our arrival process was much different to that of the other passengers. Prior research had told me that upon entering the airport building, to the right would be a very basic and not well-signposted ‘visa on arrival counter’. Here, border control would provide a form, ask for my visa on arrival confirmation, and stamp me into the country.
Surprisingly, this was a very straightforward process – albeit a little slow. The fee due on arrival was $75, I had $80 and upon asking for $5 change, I was told that the price was in fact $80…
Who was I to argue? And frankly, under no circumstances would I even consider it! The gentleman I dealt with was friendly. He took my passport and wandered off into the distance. Whilst sitting in suspense on the cold metal seats, I had a brief moment of concern that I had handed my passport to someone, who, for all I knew, would never come back with it. Thankfully, 15 minutes or so later my arrival stamp was awarded, with a smile, from the passport control counter. I stepped out into the unknown. Welcome to Mesopotamia!
Walking through the airport I felt a mixture of excitement and nerves: I wondered what awaited me on the rest of this journey. There was security everywhere, including armed guards, like a lot of other airports I had arrived in. Upon clearing baggage claim, we were through customs and in Iraq.
Too many taxis and some unexpected hospitality
My research had told me that the budget process for getting to Baghdad City Centre was essentially a 10k Iraqi Dinar (£6) shared jeep, which would take me to a taxi stand and from there I would be able to continue to the city. There is the alternative of taking a taxi directly from the airport, but where’s the fun in that?.
Leaving the terminal building we were greeted by security guards who pointed us in the direction of the car park where a 4×4 was waiting, with space left. The other passengers were locals, and seemed excited that the reason we were there was for tourism, contrary to the usual foreign visitors, most of whom were just there for work.
30 minutes later the 4×4 pulled up, quite literally, in the middle of nowhere. We turned into a car park between two dual carriageways, where we were greeted by a barrage of taxi drivers competing to take us the rest of the way to the city. The taxi haggle-dance was underway.
Initial negotiations started at the $40-50 mark, which was higher than the price I’d expected for a taxi directly from the airport. We rebuffed those and tried to formulate a plan, whilst also being hassled and led to the various buildings to haggle some more. Fortunately, we had both been in these situations before and being used to them, it was not as intimidating as it would be for travellers who have not yet experienced this kind of behaviour.
We decided to delve into the taxi-app world of Iraq, and use Careem. This particular app is well known across most of the Middle East and is the preferred way to travel within cities; it offers less hassle and a fixed price. Once we’d achieved a mobile phone signal our driver was en-route and we waited on a main road and tracked the driver on his way to us, while carefully avoiding the ‘taxi mafia’.
It was there that we experienced our first glimpse of Iraqi hospitality, as a local police officer called out to us and ran over to ask if we were okay. We assured him that we were, and after some minor GPS issues, we were in the taxi and – 20k Iraqi Dinar (£12) later – we continued on to Baghdad City Centre.
Police, security and military on every corner
The first thing I noticed about Iraq that differed from anywhere I’d been before was the security presence. We saw police, security and military on every corner, all with large automatic weapons strapped across their bodies. Although the Iraq War was over, the country’s desire to keep things safe was resoundingly clear. This was daily life in Baghdad, and something we would ultimately become used to.
The main part of the city came into view: we drove past huge areas of lush green parks, the train station, bullet-ravaged buildings. We also crossed the Tigris River, which is one of the two rivers that make up Mesopotamia. The other being the Euphraties.
A surprising feeling of peace
We arrived outside our hotel for the first night’s stay in Baghdad. Our choice was the Dijlat Al Khair Hotel, as it was one of the more affordable hotels available on Booking.com, costing just £38 a night for a twin room. Upon entry, we were greeted at the check-in desk by the owner, who we would come to know as an extremely welcoming, inquisitive and friendly person. He was also surprised and pleased that we were there on ‘holiday’.
Upon entering the room we put our bags down, and immediately opened the doors to the balcony. The first thing we wanted to do was step out to take in a proper view of the city. As we stood there, drinking in the warmth, the peach-tinted sunset, both of which were set against the cacophony of distant car horns and shouts… we felt a surprising feeling of peace. This was when the realisation hit us, almost as hard as the stifling heat did when we stepped off the plane. We were here, in Baghdad, in Iraq, and we had 10 days ahead of us.
10 days that would turn out to be an incredible and life changing journey.