Sulaymaniyah, Iraq
My host Jalal prepared breakfast for me and he told me that he was in Saddam army for around 10 years since 1979. During the war in 1991 March, Saddam moved his tanks into Sulaymaniyah and the city was emptied. People who had car drove to Iran and people without car ran into the mountains. People here were glad that the American army came and toppled Saddam, else he would still be in control and terrorize the people. Many Kurds were killed in Anfal (genocide) and they were buried alive.
Took a bus from Sarchnack to Amna Suraka (Red Security) museum in Sulaymaniyah in the morning. During Saddam’s regime, many Kurds were imprisoned and tortured here. Many were simply vanished. Outside the museum there were many soldiers. The reason was because there were some VIP there so I couldn’t get in.
Walked around the bazaar area.
The bazaar is pretty big and were flooded with Chinese made goods.
From an economic point of view, China has a lot of stake in the economy in Northern Iraq by supplying low cost products to the people. In many countries I see Chinese goods penetrating the local market and almost everything is made in China now. It’s hard to find things made locally these days.
There are even chinese restaurant and chinese massage parlour here.
Stopped by a shop owner for a chat.
It’s hard to communicate because almost no one speak English. He was pretty nice to offer me sweets and cookies from his shop, I couldn’t accept it so I just paid him for the cookies.
Went back to Amna Suraka again at 2pm and the security looked even tighter. There were soldiers on the roof and maybe some even carried sniper. The guards allowed me to see some tanks
but I wasn’t allowed to go in. I found out later it’s because the wife of the Iraqi president was there.
Took a cab (3000 Iraqi Dinar) to Halabja garage
then took a bus to Halabja (3000 Iraqi Dinar, 1.5 hours ride).
Halabja was the place where Saddam released chemical weapon and killed 5000 people, mostly Kurdish in a few minutes.
On the road, I saw many soldiers coming from the other side and there were soldiers stationed at every 50 meters. Some trucks have big machine guns mounted on top of the roof. Probably it’s because there were some VIP coming to Sulaymaniyah. I didn’t bring my passport with me so I got panicked and was afraid that I couldn’t get back to Sulaymaniyah. There were many checkpoints and it’s random on how the military singled out people. On one of the checkpoints, a soldier asked me for my passport and I just showed him my New York driving license. I signaled that I left my passport in Sulaymaniyah and he just shook his head and finally let the bus go. Once I got to Halabjah, I just took another shared taxi went right back to Sulaymaniyah since it’s a little dark. I didn’t go to the Halabjah museum and just passed by it.
Halabjah still look quite poor.
There was another soldier sharing the taxi with me back to Sulaymaniyah and his AK-47 was on his lap the whole time. I guess probably it’s because there was a soldier in the taxi so we passed all the checkpoints without any issues.
Managed to find an internet café (2000 Iraqi dinar for an hour). Did some research about my trip and then took a taxi back to Sarchnack. Kurdish people have been very nice, I don’t have to bargain hard here and no one really tries to rip me off. There are money changers carrying stash of cash on the street without any worries.
Next day,
From what I read, there are 2 border crossings to Iran. One which is only 75km away from Sulaymaniyah but sometimes they don’t allow foreigner in. I decided to go to another border crossing at Haji Omran which is more popular but further away. From what I read is that Malaysian citizen don’t need a visa to Iran. Sometimes border guards are not aware of all the rules. So to be safe, it’s better for me to take the more popular border crossing. Also the road to Haji Omran will pass by some great scenery. I have 2 options to get to Haji Omran, either I had to go back to Erbil first or take another route with few transfers. I picked the second option.
Got to the garage at 10.30am
and took a shared taxi to Rania (8000 Iraqi dinar, 2 hours).
Passed by some beautiful mountains.
Saw a few Proton (Malaysian made car) on the street
Took another shared taxi to Soran/Diana (8000 Iraqi Dinar, 1.5 hours). Waited for another 2 hours for the taxi to be full.
Honeydew seller
Since there are not many Asians around, everyone tried to talk to me. There is a guy who started to take a pic with me and then everyone wants to take a pic with me.
Arrived at Soran/Diana around 4.40pm.
Took another shared taxi to Haji Omran (10,000 Iraqi Dinars, 1 hour). The taxi driver drove like a race car driver. His average speed is around 100km/hour driving around the mountains.
Arrived in Haji Omran around 6pm and the taxi driver signaled that the border crossing is close for the day. I was a little frustrated because I wished to take the overnight bus to Tehran so I can apply for my Turkmenistan visa the next day. I have a time constraint because my Uzbekistan visa is just valid until Dec 1st so I need to move fast. Especially since the Turkmenistan consulate is famous for their bureaucracy.
Haji Omran is pretty small with many trucks and oil tankers waiting to cross the border
I had to share a room at a crappy hotel without bed (10,000 Iraqi Dinar).
Someone knocked on the door around 8pm and there were 2 guys wearing military clothes with machine guns. No one speak English here but I guess they wanted to see my passport and then I had to walk with them to a police station. It’s pretty dark and I thought if they were just some bogus military officer, they can just shoot me and nobody will know. There were 2 other Iranian guys that went with us so that made me felt a little better. We went into a dark old building without sign and there were another military officer who signaled me to leave my passport and come back and collect the next morning when I want to leave. It’s hard to communicate because they don’t speak English. He gave me a paper in Arabic and I guess that’s the paper to retrieve back my passport.