Monday, July 06, 2009

I'm in Erbil again. Drove here with my car. It was the longest drive of my life, I was told it takes five hours to get here but it ended up taking eight hours because of the dust storm. The weather was alright until we got onto the highway and just before entering Erbil the weather cleared up again.

The roads here are quite different from those in Baghdad, I don't think I've seen a single pot hole yet. I'm trying to learn my way around since I have my car with me, luckily it's not such a big city and they have a few circular roads which means you'll end up where you want to get to eventually.

Everytime I come here, I think of how nice it would be to move here. Over the past two weeks I've been trying to think of a farm exit strategy. I can't go on working and living on the plantation forever. It seems like it isn't too hard to find a job here or perhaps I could continue my studies.

So far I'm thinking that I need to delegate the day to day work and go see them every weekend. That leaves me to focus on the more fundamental issue of sorting out ownership of the land which is a mess, the land is composed of many plots and ownerships of each plot is shared between my uncles and aunts. Sorting the legal side and then physically re-organizing the land will take a long time.

Truth is that I've had it with the plantation. It's a horrible horrible place to be. Ever since I left it two or three weeks ago, I've been avoiding all calls from the there leaving Fozzy and Nahida to take care of everything over there.

As soon as I get to Baghdad I'm going to finish smoking whatever hash I have left and go back to the plantation and start shaking things up or fall flat on my face.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

You should take a year off, find an awesome city and work part time for beer and rent money. I did this for two years in Tokyo before I settled down. After that you wont feel so bad about working so much.

Anonymous said...

I wanna have sex with you?

Average American said...

Wow Shaggy! Do you suppose the comment above this is a cute girl? Good luck with that and especially with the farm.

Shaggy said...

You're right I should, but I need to get this farm thing out of the way.

How could I say no to sex? Everyday I'm on the verge of fetching me a sheep to keep me more than warm at night. (e-mail me!)

Thanks for wishing me luck, I need it hehehe.

Anonymous said...

I could not email you for some reason from blogger my email address is guamedward2@yahoo.com email me and I will will give you my facebook address! Curiosity got the best of me and I wanna know what you look like Baghdad Bacon and Eggs. P.S. make sure you write from Baghdad Bacon and Eggs so I know who you are if you indeed decide to email me! Good luck with the farm thing! LOL

Anonymous said...

Hello,

I intend to travel to Iraq this winter. My plan is to go from Turkey. How reasonable do you think it is to go from Erbil to Baghdad? Do you think it'll be safe?

Shaggy said...

It's easy enough to get from Erbil to Baghdad. You could arrange for a taxi from Erbil to pick you up very early in the morning.

Before making an agreement with so taxi you ought to check where in Baghdad he will drop you off or if he'll accept to drive you to the specific place you desire and at what extra cost.

Driving your own car could work too, but I have no information about what documents you might require to go along with your own car.

The road to Baghdad isn't complicated and there are checkpoints every so often and the guys there will gladly give directions. That's when they might also ask for documentation and generally behave a little too open about their curiousness about you. Remember to ask for advice on what a good time to leave Erbil would be too.

You can also get a flight from Erbil to Baghdad. Sorry I don't have any information on how to get one of those flights.

That's all good if you can pass off as an Iraqi. If you can't pass off as an Iraqi however, you should seek some official advice from an embassy for example.

I hope that helps.

Asad said...

Thanks a lot for the quick reply.

How much do you think a taxi should cost? I just don't want to rip me off. Will it be a bad thing if they know I'm a foreigner? I figure it'll be advantageous for them to know that I'm at least Muslim, and my Arabic isn't so bad, although it's pretty formal.