Welcome to Iraq

After much frustration at the lack of information given upon arrival at the Baghdad airport, I took it upon myself to phone a friend to assist in the arrangement of a flight to the CSH. I made contact with Jim and decided to just skip the BIAP process entirely. After climbing into his sand covered Land Rover, we headed off to run an errand or two and set up my flight arrangements.

The next day he took advantage of his day off and I took advantage of the fact that my flight was not until much later. We toured around (if you can really tour any of Iraq) and drove by some of the local palaces. A trip to the bazaar yielded a new Iraqi cell phone for me.

We drove by Lost Lake, which in a nutshell is the lake by where Saddam’s sons had one of their rape palaces and would dump the women’s bodies in the lake. Being near the lake was comparable to being in a holocaust museum. It is impossible to describe the eerie feeling in the air. The trees growing near the edge of the water with their long, whispy dangling branches looked like they were crying.

The photos are a few that we took while visiting another lake/palace area.