Dohuk to Istanbul

Friday 1st October

October already. I realised I had left my 'hunting' knife/fork/spoon set in the taxi yesterday. Its very useful and was a gift from Monty so wanted to get it back. Tried to communicate this to the staff at the hotel since they know the taxi driver. They went away and brought me a plate and fork! After a bit more sign language and another hotel guest's English, they called the driver and he brought it round about half an hour later.

We got a taxi to the garage and waited about 20 mintues for two more people for the shared taxi to Dohuk; that is the longest we have had to wait. This taxi driver was actually quite sensible and we could relax; there were also fewer cars on the road cos its Friday, Islam's holy day. We switched taxis about 50kms out of Dohuk and they delivered us right to the hotel. Dohuk was quiet.

This evening we went to Dream City which is an amusement park about 1km out of town, complete with rollercoaster, ferris wheel, bumper cars and games arcade. Groups of young men, and young women, but not together because thats not really allowed. As often happens, quite a few guys have come up to chat with us, which is good. We sat on the grass and watched the Crazy Disco' which was a sit-down spinning wheel thing. Booming Kurdish/dance music, flashing lights and dry ice. A very entertaining evening.

Saturday 2nd October

After a bit of internet, shopping and a hamburger and chickpea greasy soup for breakfast, we got a taxi from Dohuk to Zahko, for the border crossing back to Turkey. The valley looked great in the clear blue skies. We first had to hand in our passports and get a stamp out of Iraqi Kurdistan. Then after a while, into a share taxi with two Turkish guys. When we got towards the Turkish customs there was a long queue of cars and we had to wait around for maybe two hours which was frustrating; even our taxi driver seemed surprised. They only had a cursory check of our bags. Eventually we got stamped into Turkey, using multiple entry visa from before.

The driver took us as far Cizre, which was great, further than we had expected to go. We considered our options, but since we both felt we had seen enough sights in southern Turkey we decided to head for Istanbul ASAP. At least 24 hours. We waited for 3 hours and then got on the bus at 7pm. At one stop we were surrounded by 8 or 9 young teenagers. They were just curious and laughing at and with us. Cheeky ones ran onto the bus to steal cartons of water, no one seemed to care.

Sunday 3rd October

 I couldnt really get to sleep, until about 2:30am. Then  we had to change bus at 530am, and get on another at 9am which was a bit grim. But the scenery today has been great, and they have screens on the back of the seats, so been watching MTV this afternoon, mainly Depeche Mode montage. And they give you cake and coffee or cola. We stopped at the bus station in Ankara, and from what I saw, it looked nice. Clean.

We got caught in some heavy traffic and rain around 7pm so we didnt get to Istanbul until 12:30am, lots of stops on the way. But, fair play, the same bus company puts on free shuttles to certain parts of the city, so we got that so far and then a taxi to Sultanahmet, to the hostel we stayed at before. So it took us 38 hours to get from Dohuk in Iraqi Kurdistan to Istanbul. Phew.