Turkey: Kurdistan, riding along the borders of Iraq and Syria with wasted kurds at 170 kmph
[17/12/17]
Today I entered Turkish Kurdistan, having bid farewell to Iran. Back in Tabriz they told me I should not come here as it's too dangerous - the sky rains bombs instead of water and such. However, so far weather was good.
There is quite a lot of military personnel and vehicles around here. Those vihicles patrol cities, just like any civilian cars and nobody pays any attention to them. The roads between settlements are full of police checkpoints, or rather bristling with weapons military fortresses, always on alert.
For the night I stopped in Hakkari, from where it's only 40km to the border with Iraq and 150km to Mosul. My route lies along the border with Iraq and Syria.
[18/12/17]
Pressing on to the coast... Today on the road I had my passport checked many times by the police and twice they thoroughly searched my luggage. Both times it was an awfully close call, as they almost found my weed stash...
The second time they weren't satisfied by all this and had me detained on their post for about 2 hours while they were checking my passport in their cutting-edge database (by sending the photo of the document to someone via whatsapp). Then they had to admit I ain't no terrorist and hitched me a ride with two kurdish men who apparently drive even faster than iranians.
While in Iran they have speed limits of 110 kmph and actually are going aroung 130 kmph, here in Kurdistan they don't seem to have any limits at all and are going with the maximum speed their vehicle can manage. In our case that was around 170 kmph. We even shared a few joints in the car so yeah, it was an exciting ride with wasted kurds along the syrian border.
They were heading to Diyarbakir, to where I initially didn't plan to go, but in the end decided to stick with them until this city as there was not much difference for me exactly where to go.
I definitely didn't regret that, Diyarbakir turned out to be an old city with plenty of historical places and quite authentic city in general.
More photos:
Previous post: Iran: Tabriz and Kandovan village
Check out my travel blog:
Iran: 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20
Tajikistan: 7, 8, 9, 10
Kyrgyzstan: 4, 5, 6
Kazakhstan: 1, 2, 3
Congratulations, Your Post Has Been Added To The Steemit Worldmap!
Author link: http://steemitworldmap.com?author=nameless-berk
Post link: http://steemitworldmap.com?post=turkey-kurdistan-riding-along-the-borders-of-iraq-and-sirya-with-wasted-kurds-at-170-kmph
Want to have your post on the map too?
Glad to see you back up
love your adventures, venturing into these dangerous places, I guess reading your posts are the nearest I'll ever get to them
I appreciate your support
like getting a good article D./@nameless-berk
Wow glad they didn't find your weed stash :) Sounds like a terrifying but probably pretty fun ride with the stoned Kurds at maximum vehicle speed. I love your photography, the extra images at the end are great.
Much love - Carl "Totally Not A Bot" Gnash / @carlgnash
Click the badge to learn more about
Human Certified Original Works
Wow! I love the journey! Im excited to follow your travels. Now you have me itchin to travel the middle east :)
I'm sure that Latin America is fun as well
Absolutely, the list keeps getting longer :) I dig your traveling style, reminds me of me and my friends :)