Satisfy your lust in Baghdad (finally!)

by Tom Johansmeyer on

According to the NY Times, Baghdad is getting safer, and people are looking to have a good time (though, this does stand in stark contrast to the suicide bombing I reported a few weeks ago). So, if you find yourself in Iraq‘s capital, stop by a nightclub, order a drink and nail a prostitute. For the best results, go to Saddoun Street, where you’ll have plenty of choices.

Or, you can dash off to Abu Nawas Park for a sexual liaison in one of its many hiding places. Fortunately, the bang you get won’t attract the U.S. Army‘s attention!

After your romp, hit a café to toke a hookah and gamble on dice and dominos. If you win back what you spent on the prostitute … well, it’s like she really wasn’t a prostitute after all!

But, be careful.

Gambling is illegal … whether it’s dice, dominoes or cockfighting. Prostitution is, too. Fortunately, the police have had their hands full with the truly dangerous, so they aren’t going to go “Serpico” on hookers and booze. In fact, prostitutes are a figurative step from being deputized, as they’re the cops’ best sources.

To get in on the carnality, the sticker price is around $100, but you’ll probably spend at least that in drinks just to broach the issue.

Needless to say, the Iraqis are certainly having more fun than the Americans. Locals can pay for the real thing, while U.S. military personnel and civilian contractors can’t even bring their own substitutes for prostitutes. Damned shame.

Of course, vice doesn’t just bring fun and excitement … not even to a place like Baghdad. There have been reports of inappropriate (i.e., criminal) behavior, even under the loose enforcement of these laws. Human trafficking and drug abuse are among the problems being discovered in Iraq, proving that turmoil is constant … it just changes its face.

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[Photos by Brian Sayler]

Egyptian Pyramid to Open to the Public

by Kraig Becker on

Zahi Hawass, Egypt’s Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, has announced that the 4500 year old “Bent” Pyramid will soon open its inner chambers, allowing tourists to venture inside for the first time. He also says that others may follow suit soon afterwards.

The Bent Pyramid is located in Dahshur, which sits roughly 50 miles south of Cairo, and is believed to have been built by the Pharaoh Sneferu. Hawass says that the Pharaoh’s tomb has yet to be discovered, and he believes that it is still somewhere inside the structure.

The pyramid gets its name from the fact that its upper portion slants at a different angle from the lower portion. Egyptian archeologists believe that as the structure was being built, engineers changed their design out of fear that the whole thing would collapse. As a result, the bottom part of the pyramid rises up at a 55º angle, then transitions to 43º as it nears the top.

The Red Phyramid, which sits closely to the Bent, is already open to the pubic, allowing visitors to venture inside. Hawass promise that more are scheduled to open next year, including one that is described as having “an underground labyrinth”, that dates back to the Middle Kingdom, some 4000 years ago.

While I was in Egypt a few years back, I had the opportunity to go inside one of the Pyramids at Giza. It was dark, cramped, and the passage was narrow. Once you got inside, to the inner chamber, there wasn’t anything to see either, and certainly nothing like the amazing artwork inside the tombs at the Valley of the Kings.

Wrong switch, gets Delta fighter jet escort

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Don’t slip!

A Delta Airlines pilot accidentally activated a hijacking alert on a flight from New York to Tel Aviv. As a result, Israeli fighter jets were scrambled to escort the plane “safely” to Ben Gurion Airport.

The fighter jets lingered briefly over the airliner and its 100 passengers … ultimately for no reason. Then, they escorted the plane – and probably a confused flight crew – into Tel Aviv. A technical malfunction, apparently, kept the pilot from communicating with the airport’s tower.

Nobody was hurt in this bizarre event, according to Israeli transportation ministry official Dani Shenar, and an investigation will be launched.

Heathen in the Holy Land: How to get your free trip to Israel

by Aaron Hotfelder on

To read the previous entries in Gadling’s Heathen in the Holy Land series, go here.

Free trip to Israel, huh? What’s the catch?

Well, first off, you must be Jewish or have a parent who is Jewish. [I’ll pause while all the Gentiles find another post to read.] Still with me? Okay, you also must be in the 18-26 age range. If you meet both of these requirements, the Birthright Israel program wants to give you a free ten-day tour of Israel.

Is airfare included, you wonder? Yes. Everything is included. That’s what free means.

The purpose of Birthright Israel, according to the group’s website, is to “send thousands of young Jewish adults from all over the world to Israel as a gift in order to diminish the growing division between Israel and Jewish communities around the world; to strengthen the sense of solidarity among world Jewry; and to strengthen participants’ personal Jewish identity and connection to the Jewish people.”

Your trip will visit major Israeli cities like Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, and take in famous religious sites such as the Western Wall, the Dome of the Rock, and the Mount of Olives.

For any young person– well, any Jewish young person– looking to travel on the cheap, you can’t get any cheaper than this free trip with Birthright Israel. But be forewarned: the trips fill up early (in fact, summer 2009 trips are already full). The next trips will take place in the winter of 2009; check this site in August in order to apply.

For a full list of FAQs about the trip– including “If I meet my spouse on a Birthright Israel trip, do I get a free honeymoon?” go here.

To contact someone who has already gone on this trip, e-mail them at alumni (at) birthrightisrael (dot) com.

Book your tickets now for the ancient city of Ur

by Jeffrey White on

Iraq is reopening the ancient city of Ur to the public next month when the United States military hands it back. It’s been closed since the US invasion in 2003.

The archaeological site is the birthplace of Abraham and dates to 6000 BC, where it once resided on a bank along a former course of the Euphrates River. It’s one of Iraq’s oldest and best preserved archaeological sites, famous for its ziggurat, or stepped platform (pictured).

Ur is also famous as the site of a great conquest by Alexander the Great a few hundred years before the birth of Christ.

The site likes next to the US air base of Talila, just outside of Nasiriyah in Southern Iraq.