Baghdad 2011

Baghdad - capital of Iraq, home for thousands of people working for private security companies and a great place to find grilled carp (see below). As this carp was cooked, its muscles twitched alarmingly - but at least we could be sure that it was fresh. This was another IBBC trade mission to Iraq - a chance to meet people and promote the interests of British-registered  businesses.

We flew from Heathrow to Abu Dhabi as there are no direct flights from London. This meant spending the best part of the night sleeping on what felt like a park bench, but champagne in the lounge was excellent. We arrived in Baghdad from Abu Dhabi into an International terminal that looked as though is was finally starting to see a reasonable volume of traffic. 

Baghdad seemed pretty quiet while we were there, and the sight of freshly planted flowers near to the Al Rasheed Hotel gave the place the look of a borough trying to win the "best kept town of South East England" look - were it not for the tanks, concrete blast barriers  and machine guns.

But there are real signs of progress here - traffic jams, shops and the sight of people goring about their daily lives.

Location