Anyone here ever been in Iraq or Afghanistan? (1 Viewer)

[Scientician 0.8]

I'm not taking the piss. I'm curious. I had a lecturer who'd been in both, back in the '60s. Had friends who lived in Iraq before the Gulf War. Anyone on here been to either country?

 

[dleacht]

I have a friend whose English who spent a year and a half in Iraq. She was in the British Reserve Army. Do you want to interview people or something?

 

[Scientician 0.8]

Nah, just curious whether a tourist industry exists in either of those countries. You'd probably be have to be working or in one of dem armies to be in either spot in the last 7 years but maybe some of yiz were there before that?

 

[La La]

my old flatmate in HK went to afghanistan about......two years ago now. a load of his friends were there either as journos or in NATO and kinda new the run of the place, so he had no problems. but he said it would've been tricky getting to some of the places he did without that kind of 'in' if you like.
i have a huge book on the place. would LOVE to go. hindu kush looks amazing. some of the scenery in that country is unbelievably beautiful.

 

[Denny Oubidoux]

has anyone read "A Short Walk In The Hindu Kush" by eric newby? he was working in a clothes shop in the 50s and his friend wrote and asked if he fancied going climbing some large mountain in the hindu kush so he said yes and they went hiking in wales for a weekends practice before heading off to afghanistan. very entertaining read.

 

[La La]

has anyone read "A Short Walk In The Hindu Kush" by eric newby? he was working in a clothes shop in the 50s and his friend wrote and asked if he fancied going climbing some large mountain in the hindu kush so he said yes and they went hiking in wales for a weekends practice before heading off to afghanistan. very entertaining read.

no, but im sure as hell going to now

 

[Lili Marlene]

Iraq
Tourism Board
P.O. Box 7783
Baghdad, Iraq

+964-1-5433912 +964-1-5384718

can't imagine they're that busy, give em a call

 

[RSJ]

I met a few lads who drove through parts of Afghanistan. It's reasonably fine as long as you stick to the safe parts of the north apparently.

 

[Jrad (BFB.ie)]

Afghanistan, the land of a thousand smiles
​

Tourism Afghanistan
​

 

[Jrad (BFB.ie)]

​

Afghanistan, let your imagination run wild
​

Tourism Afghanistan
​

 

[Lili Marlene]

just don't go to nigeria

http://wikitravel.org/en/Nigeria

WARNING: Nigeria is NOT a safe place for tourists to travel under ANY circumstances.

in comparison to

WARNING: Iraq is currently a war zone and traveling there is incredibly dangerous and strongly discouraged.

 

[broken arm]

I'm pretty sure my girlfriend's dad drove there in the 60's in a tiny van with some mates.

This could be totally confused but the only part i remember of the story was they crashed into a wall and had to rebuild it and when they were driving back through germany it was 66 and england had won the world cup. because it was an english reg van loads of people were cheering at them and beeping (in good vibes) but they didn't have a clue what was going on.

they also ran out of money in France and had to eat stolen fruit from fields and rob petrol to get back to the UK.

something like that.

 

[plug]

I met a guy from new zealand who knew a spanish guy who travelled through afghanistan on a donkey. that's about as close as I've got to the place.

 

[Jrad (BFB.ie)]

Nigeria, eats uuur thi-ang
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Tourism Nigeria​

 

[Reets]

My uncle used to teach English in Afghanistan about 10 yrs ago, people were friendly, but he never felt all that safe. He teaches in Saudi Arabia now (worked in Iran for a bit but hated it) and says its worse then Afghanistan, he cant leave the complex on his own, has to go to dodgy clubs if he wants a drink. There's been attacks on the complex and college in the past, so I dont think he's gonna stay there much longer. The pay's great though.

 

[RSJ]

What's he teach?

 

[Jrad (BFB.ie)]

My uncle used to teach English in Afghanistan about 10 yrs ago

What's he teach?

Fuckin moron.

 

[Lili Marlene]

ahahahaha

jrad takes his internetting very seriously

 

[Reets]

What's he teach?

He teaches English in Saudi & Thailand, not too sure how he's able to do it as he never did his leaving cert (or whatever it was called in the early 70s).

 

[hugh]

Hey,

I got this great story about this dude I met once who spent some time teaching English in Iran in the 70s. Bit of a drug-head this guy .. quite fragile disposition and ended up living as a monk in a Buddhist community.

Anyway, he was in Iran during the Shah's time, pre-revolution, lot's of secret police and general paranoia going around, especially among the foreign community. He met this guy at a party one night who claimed to be part of the Shah's inner circle. The guy let him in on this big secret - apparently the Shah's nose had been blown off in an assassination attempt some years previously and since then the Shah had been sporting an expertly designed, and totally convincing, false nose. They didn't want anyone to know about this because it would make the Shah look foolish and vulnerable. Yer man was warned not to talk about this because if the secret police overheard he would be thrown in jail.

So, being of quite paranoid disposition himself, he became increasingly worried that some night he would get a bit drunk at some dinner or something and say something out about the nose, and this would be overheard by the wrong people. He became terrified of going out, and terrified that he would end up in some conversation about noses and would be unable to stop himself blurting it out.

So, he had to leave his job there, and leave the country - all because of what some joker told him at a party one night.