A traveller's reflection: Iraq Day 02: Baghdad

My Travel Journal

"There isn't much I haven't shared with you along the road and through it all there'd always be tomorrow's episode" - Elton John

I started traveling around the world since early 80s when I had the opportunity to combine business trips with vacations. Then later when my rezeki is in abundance, there were numerous other trips along the way for vacations, most of the time with hubby and the kids when the timing is right. I have also started to compile the journal and photo-pages covering almost more than 45 years of world wide travel. Some destinations I visited just once, others many times. Many of those places are the obvious famous places people would like to visit but some, the casual traveler doesn't even think to try. I have placed links to my travel at the side bar of my personal page, My Life Reflections, and will be updating them from time to time.

My wish is to continue my travel and complete circumnavigate the globe, insyaAllah…

Thursday 14 December 2023

Iraq Day 02: Baghdad - Basrah

“I’m in love with cities I’ve never been to and people I’ve never met...” – John Green

(Hummus varieties, Iraqi-style)

Route: Baghdad - Basrah
Distance: 534 km
Hotel: Hotel Manawi Bashar, Basrah

There were some changes to the original itinerary but we were not informed and caused some confusion. Instead of staying in Baghdad for two nights, we headed to Basrah which is about 534 km from Baghdad. We learned later that the change was to accommodate a few who will fly in later, and join us in Baghdad.

(Leaving Baghdad International Airport)

(Patriotic monuments lined the main road)

(Posters of Martyrs along the highway to Basrah)

(Traffic congestion at one of the many Military check-points)

The journey to Basrah took more than 7 hours, inclusive lunch and comfort breaks. First stop was for refuelling and a late lunch at Anwar Babel Tourist Restaurant located at one of the R&R in Babylon. Lunch was a large plate of pilaf rice and grilled half chicken served for two. After having our hot chai, we performed jamak takhir Asar/Zohor prayers at a musolla next to the restaurant.

(Anwar Babel Tourist Restaurant, a popular resting place for travellers)

(A big portion served for two)

(A tasty chicken biryani mandy for lunch)

(Hookah smoking remains popular in Iraqi)

We continued our journey and made another comfort stop at a R&R in Nasiriyah and had a cup of steaming chai. The weather was cool and there were busloads of crowd from all over the world. They were on a religious pilgrimage trip to the holy cities of Karbala, Najah and Kufa to celebrate the Martyrdom anniversary of Fatimah Zahra and to visit Makam Sayyidina Hussein and Sayyidina Ali.

(A beautiful sunset over Nasiriyah)

(Having hot steaming chai with the local girls)

(A traditional reed hut converted into a musolla)

From Nasiriyah, we continued our journey for another 250 km to Basrah. We managed to get some much needed sleep in the bus. We reached Basrah around 10.00 pm. As it was already quite late at night, we had packed beef sandwich for dinner.

Tonight we stayed in Hotel Manawi Bashar, Basrah.