Finally Out

After a night that was sleepless, it’s Monday 21 Aug. morning. The curfew has been lifted. At 7 AM, a car came and took me to the Baghdad International Airport, but as I arrived at the Airport entrance, the taxi turned out as a trick set out by the taxis office at Babylon Hotel. I thought that it was called from the Airport taxis office by the Babylon Hotel taxis office, but it turned out that the driver was just friends with the Hotel taxis manager, and that despite his being an officer at the Iraqi Ministry of Interior (working as a taxi driver on his days off), he was not allowed to go into the Airport premises. Only Airport taxis are allowed to go there; something I knew, but what I didn’t know was the reality of the car. So here I was, paying this guy 80000 ID, then paying the taxi that would take me inside the Airport an additional 20000 ID, instead of 50-60 K ID if the car was of the Airport taxis. That’s life… live and learn!

It isn’t that I haven’t tried, but when I asked them on Sat. for the Airport phone number, the Police (who are supposed to know everything in this country) gave me the phone number of a bank instead of the Airport’s!

Welcome to the 3rd World!