Met a few American soldiers on the street and tagged along with them for a walk. American soldiers are like super heroes here, everyone loves them.

a street in Erbil

Tried to find an ATM because I will need to withraw more cash for my next few destinations. I read that there is only one ATM in Erbil which work half of the time and it’s inside Hotel Sheraton. Found my way there but the ATM only accept VISA card. I left my VISA card at the Hotel so I wasn’t able to get cash. The security is pretty tight here and the hotel was surrounded by a thick wall

and everyone needed to pass through a security checkpoint before allowed in.
Walked further down on Iskan street and found 2 more ATMs. I was surprise to be able to get USD from the ATM of Bank Karwa.

This Is quite a surprising discovery because on Lonely Planet and many travellers forums, no one ever mentioned this and some travellers had to go back to Turkey in order to get cash.

There are a lot of constructions and rebuilding going on in Erbil

Today is Friday and it’s a weekend here so many people go out to shop. Cars toward the bazaar and citadel.

Met Nabil, an Iraqi living in Dubai at the hotel. He wanted to visit his family in Baghdad and stopped by Erbil.
We visited the Citadel.

Took a taxi to Sulaymaniyah Garage (3500 Iraqi Dinar) and then took a shared taxi at 1pm to Sulaymaniyah (15,000 Iraqi Dinar ~USD13).

Guys in Kurdish pants

It’s around 200 km to Sulaymaniyah
[mappress]
and again we passed by many military checkpoints. My bags were spot checked a few times. Almost no one speak English here and many people can’t read romanized alphabet. Even though they had my passport, but they kept asking if I am from Korea or Japan because they weren’t able to read romanized alphabets. The ride to Sulaymaniyah will pass by the suburb of Kirkuk. Like Mosul, Kirkuk is one of the most dangerous city in Iraq so I was glad nothing happened.

Arrived at Sulaymaniyah around 4pm and the family I was with from the shared taxi invited me to stay with them. The father of the family speaks some English so I was able to understand what he is saying.
Kurds are very nice people.
Jalal, my host

Jalal’s family

Itadakimasu..Iraqi Kurdish food

Then watched Korean soap opera because there’s the only Asian channel they have on cabel.

From Diyarbakir to Sulaymaniyah, most people I met have been very friendly. Even though Northern Iraq is still part of Iraq and is only an autonomous region but they are more Kurdistan flag than Iraqi flag here. People here speak Kurdish which is a different language from Arabic and everyone is very proud of their heritage after being prosecuted for so long.

One Response to “Dohuk to Sulaymaniyah, Iraq”

1. hotphoto says:

   September 7, 2010 at 2:42 pm

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