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http://www.travelblog.org/Forum/Threads/3062-1.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7957974.stm
No frills tourism - in Iraq
Hinterland Travel's managing director Geoff Hann (left), and tourists Pavel Dulapov and Tina Townsend-Greaves walk along a blast wall <i>photo: Hugh Sykes</i>
The travel company decided to operate without any guards
By Hugh Sykes
BBC News, Baghdad
The Sheraton Hotel in Baghdad has seen better days. But it is still open for business.
Five British tourists, two Americans and a Canadian spent two nights there at the end of a tour of Iraq which has included historic sites as well as cities where extreme violence is still a possibility.
They could be the cast of an Agatha Christie thriller - Adventure in Mesopotamia, perhaps: a civil servant, a businessman, a retired sub-postmaster, a former US probation officer and an archaeologist from London.
My friends certainly think I'm a bit mad - but I tend to go on holiday to places like Afghanistan
English tourist in Iraq
They had travelled the country from Irbil in the north to Basra in the south, taking in Babylon on the way, and the site of Ur of the Chaldees, the Arch of Ctesiphon and the holy cities of Najaf and Kerbala.
On their last day, they set off to see the grandiose Baghdad parade ground installed by Saddam Hussein. It is only 1km from their hotel but it took them two hours to negotiate a checkpoint before they could get there.
Generous welcome
Another day, on the road between Najaf and Nasariyah in the south, they spent six hours at checkpoints.
But those I spoke to all agreed it was worth it - for the places they managed to visit, and for the generous welcoming people they met wherever they went.
And none of the group seemed very concerned about security.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7957974.stm
No frills tourism - in Iraq
Hinterland Travel's managing director Geoff Hann (left), and tourists Pavel Dulapov and Tina Townsend-Greaves walk along a blast wall <i>photo: Hugh Sykes</i>
The travel company decided to operate without any guards
By Hugh Sykes
BBC News, Baghdad
The Sheraton Hotel in Baghdad has seen better days. But it is still open for business.
Five British tourists, two Americans and a Canadian spent two nights there at the end of a tour of Iraq which has included historic sites as well as cities where extreme violence is still a possibility.
They could be the cast of an Agatha Christie thriller - Adventure in Mesopotamia, perhaps: a civil servant, a businessman, a retired sub-postmaster, a former US probation officer and an archaeologist from London.
My friends certainly think I'm a bit mad - but I tend to go on holiday to places like Afghanistan
English tourist in Iraq
They had travelled the country from Irbil in the north to Basra in the south, taking in Babylon on the way, and the site of Ur of the Chaldees, the Arch of Ctesiphon and the holy cities of Najaf and Kerbala.
On their last day, they set off to see the grandiose Baghdad parade ground installed by Saddam Hussein. It is only 1km from their hotel but it took them two hours to negotiate a checkpoint before they could get there.
Generous welcome
Another day, on the road between Najaf and Nasariyah in the south, they spent six hours at checkpoints.
But those I spoke to all agreed it was worth it - for the places they managed to visit, and for the generous welcoming people they met wherever they went.
And none of the group seemed very concerned about security.
... mayb u cud b lucky ... 
