Safe...ish

...ish.

NY Times had an interesting article this weekend about travelling to Iraq. Sounds like heading to the Kurdish region is actually fairly safe as the article explains:

As recently as last March, a bomb went off in Sulaimaniya, the second-biggest city in Iraqi Kurdistan, killing a security guard. A truck bomb in May 2007 outside a government office in Erbil left over a dozen dead and several more wounded. And earlier this month, the long-simmering tensions between Turkey and Kurdish separatist rebels erupted again when Turkish warplanes entered northern Iraq and bombed remote rebel bases, killing at least 15 Kurds.

Wait. Did I say safe? What I meant was that there are truck bombs and air raids. Still, it’s safe enough that tour operators are taking regular trips there, and it’s hard to imagine they would be able to afford the insurance if there was a high likelihood that people would come to harm. And the article also highlights the joys of traveling to an emerging region:

On a cool Monday night last fall, at a traffic-clogged border crossing into Turkey, a dozen Kurdish men stepped out of their cars and began passing around pita and tulip-shaped cups of tea to a pair of young, bleach-blond Swedes who were road-tripping across the Middle East in a beat-up sedan.

Flights on Austrian airlines come out to about £900 round trip just about any time of the year, so a bit pricey to get there, but an interesting option to consider.