Iraq: the candy trail ...

mrp@thecandytrail.com (the candy trail ...) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Rubah - first morning in Iraq was greeted by a pro-Saddam march in this small desert town; was soon hassled for taking this photo by an undercover cop but refused to hand-over my film and rapidly got into a shared-taxi bound for Ramadi ... bound for Baghdad.

mrp@thecandytrail.com (the candy trail ...) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Backstreets of Baghdad

mrp@thecandytrail.com (the candy trail ...) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Backstreets of Basrah

mrp@thecandytrail.com (the candy trail ...) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Town square of the Shia holy city of Kerbala

mrp@thecandytrail.com (the candy trail ...) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

cheap hotel room with a view - Baghdad at dusk

mrp@thecandytrail.com (the candy trail ...) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Eldery couple on the backstreets of Basrah.

mrp@thecandytrail.com (the candy trail ...) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Shiite family, Marsh Arabs, Narsariya area, southern Iraq

mrp@thecandytrail.com (the candy trail ...) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Weekend in Samarra: the spiral minaret of the great mosque built in the 9th century AD, when the Islamic world was way more advanced than Dark-Age Europe. It was Friday - the Muslim holiday - and we had sat awhile at the very top and the as the family-crowds arrived we were departing when I took this shot.

mrp@thecandytrail.com (the candy trail ...) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Babylon - as rebuilt by Saddam (one of the few places where I could freely take photos).

mrp@thecandytrail.com (the candy trail ...) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Babylon

mrp@thecandytrail.com (the candy trail ...) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Leaning minaret of Mosul, northern Iraq.

mrp@thecandytrail.com (the candy trail ...) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Ruins of Hatra, central Iraq.

mrp@thecandytrail.com (the candy trail ...) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Shia holy city of Kerbala

mrp@thecandytrail.com (the candy trail ...) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Giant Saddam war memoral glorifying the brutal and pointless Iraq-Iran war of 1979 - 88, Barsah.

mrp@thecandytrail.com (the candy trail ...) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Marsh Arabs, Narsariya area, southern Iraq.

mrp@thecandytrail.com (the candy trail ...) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Marsh Arab household.

mrp@thecandytrail.com (the candy trail ...) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Marsh Arab transport.

mrp@thecandytrail.com (the candy trail ...) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Petrol tanker that I hitch-hiked with across the flat, empty amber desert, from Jordan to Baghad.

mrp@thecandytrail.com (the candy trail ...) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Kurdistan: the only photo - taken with permission from our escort, on route from Rayat to Kirkuk, on route to another military base for more questions ...

mrp@thecandytrail.com (the candy trail ...) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Sunset over the Shia holy city of Najaf.

mrp@thecandytrail.com (the candy trail ...) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

I never intended to go to Iraq. But I heard it was now possible (this was Nov 1989) ... I had no guidebook, no info and maps were impossible to get due to the recent Iran-Iraq war security measures so I copied this one from a hotel lobby book in Amman, Jordan, before setting off on my sudden and unexpected excursion into Iraq, after getting my tourist visa approved in Amman.

mrp@thecandytrail.com (the candy trail ...) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Gary - left, and me - MRP on the right, age 23, at Hatra looking to the desert (a few days before being arrested).