{"id":1997,"date":"2011-08-30T21:49:07","date_gmt":"2011-08-30T18:49:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onmytodd.org\/?p=1997"},"modified":"2015-06-22T17:02:34","modified_gmt":"2015-06-22T15:02:34","slug":"hawler-malbworaan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/onmytodd.org\/?p=1997","title":{"rendered":"Hawler – Malbworaan"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ramadan is over. Eid is on, a three-day holiday following Ramadan. And it’s even worse. Nothing is open at all except for a few food shops, but you have to come across one first before you can buy canned tuna.<\/p>\n

So I left Hawler earlyish. I cycled towards Mosul, then turned right well before that city. Mosul, not within Kurdistan, is one of the more dangerous cities in the world, especially for foreigners.<\/p>\n

Anyway, I’ll skip to the interesting parts. After 100km and very little food I still felt ok but decided to have a break and either hitch a ride to Dohuk or pitch the tent somewhere. I was in the middle of nowhere, 75km from Dohuk. So I stopped and after a few minutes of relaxation everything went black, then white. I had serious trouble standing upright. My vision came back slowly, I decided to lay down the bike, and to sit myself down next to it – then the lights went out completely and I fell down flat (luckily I wasn’t standing anymore). And right into a bunch of thistles, but I didn’t notice at the time. I don’t think I was gone for long. But… holy crap! That was a first.<\/p>\n

After a few more minutes I felt ok again and decided to cycle on to the next village and ask someone there for food. The next village had – a church!<\/p>\n

To make a long story short, I’m staying with a huge family in Malbworaan, an entirely Assyrian<\/del> Chaldean village right next to the church. They speak some English and fed me good.<\/p>\n

Cycled: 105km<\/p>\n