Baghdad was bad, Dad

[worldwidese]

Rex- here's mine, it's your turn next!
The talk of war sets me thinking of years ago when we were performung in a nightclub in Baghdad. It was just at the end of Ramadan, and Arab nerves were on edge. There was a Spanish juggler on the bill, and he did 5 balls. Suddenly an Army officer jumped up and shot the juggler dead. We asked after we came out of shock, why he did it, and they told us it was because the juggler had "Jewish Balls" ( blue balls with yellow stars) Two days later at sundown I was (foolishly) out for a stroll and I was walking on the side of the road as there was no sidewalk. Suddenly I was pulled into a jeep by some soldier. I banged him on the head with my handbag and managed to jump out and run.
Then a revolution broke out, and we couldn't leave Iraq as the airport was closed and there were tanks everywhere. We had previously been offered a contract for Basrah, and that seemed safer than Baghdad. Our passports had been confiscated when we entered the country, and when we wanted to leave Baghdad for Basrah because we had a contract there, no-one could find our passports. Finally they called us into an office where there was a big heap of passports and we had to fish ours out of the pile.
In Basrah, they housed us at the Palace Hotel (some Palace!)A real dump! I kid you not, there were little piles of s--- behind the columns in the Lobby. The nightclub where we performed had a blind band! They played by ear. The Sheiks and princes from the Emirates used to come in with their bodyguards, sit around on floor pillows and pick their toes as we performed.
Also with us were "Fred and Maria" This act was Fred, a black American, who used to walk around in the hot daytime with an overcoat and a briefcase, so he wouldn't be mistaken for a local black, who were all pretty well slaves. His act was singing, dancing, and playing Jazz on sax. Maria was a German, who did a belly dance. She was beautiful, with milk white skin, violet eyes and jet black hair done in a Cleoptra style. One evening the Prince of Qatar approached Fred and said he wanted to buy Maria for his Harem. Fred told him that in the US they didn't sell wives. The Prince said, "OK, I will hire out the Club tomorrow night for a private party." Fred thought the best thing was to go next morning to the US Embassy, and they told him to get the hell out of Basrah while they could. We later heard the Prince turned up at a Night Club in Beirut to make Fred a better offer, and even went to Hamburg to ask Maria's mother to let him have her.
We stayed on, and were contracted for shows in the British Club, which we did.While there we took advantage of their pool, and were invited to see a movie. The movies were borrowed from any British ship which happened to be in port. The movie we saw was "Ali Baba" and was Hollywood's idea of Basrah! Everyone roared all through the movie as it was all so dead wrong.
Next they invited us to do shows up in the oilfields (Kirkuk and Mosul)for all the expats working up there. We were driven through the desert with plenty of roadchecks along the way. Note- this was at the time when ARAMCO was still present in Iraq before Saddam tossed them out, and that is why the war is happening now, in order to get back in again.
Finally we left Basrah to go to a contract in Ankara,Turkey on the Orient Express. But that is another adventure, so I'll end right here.

[Peter Voice]

I was a war-correspondent in the middle and far east for five years (Fairfax/Murdock/AAP) before taking up pavement art. Your story bites deeply and confirms much of the prejudices that cause my nightmares.

I am still desperately hanging in and believe our artform can transcend the day to day politics of even the most desperate situations.

Then again, my stuff doesn't work in the US.

[Rex Boyd]

Wow!!!
"shot the juggler dead"
I'm flabbergasted to say the least. Talk about some hardcore adventures. I've had my little tastes here and there of the exotic and exciting and I've met a lot of performers who have many tales to tell about performing and travelling, but I think this must be Jedi level.

Rex

[AJJames]

OH MY GOD,
my adventures and those of my fellow adventurers pale into insignificnace,
Jeez,I feel like an unimaginitive tourist compared to you world wide
, jedi level? yoda level i'd say.
may the force be with us all

[Rumpelstiltskin]

You've certainly had some spiritful adventures Kelly!Respect!!! <img src="graemlins/jester.gif" border="0" alt="[jester]" />

[worldwidese]

Reflections on a trip from Iraq to Turkey. (See first post in this thread)
We left Basrah for a contract in Ankara, Turkey. Travelled by train on a Wagon-Lit booked by Thomas Cook. A fantastic old carriage, lined with plush moquette. A little round indentation and a hook to hang your pocket watch, just like Phineas Fogg Of Around The World In Eighty days fame.

No problems till we got past Baghdad. We woke up in the morning to find the Dining Car (also fantastic) had been removed during the night. We had nothing to eat for the whole day except an orange each and a bottle of soft drink that kind passengers gave us. Finally at one train halt, passengers smiled encouragingly and pointed to their mouths and rubbed their stomachs. Food, at last!

We rushed out on to the platform, but unfortunately all there was were some local Fedayin entrepreneurs with trays of boiled sheeps' heads! Grey and awful looking with glassy white eyes staring at us. No thanks! So we had to make do with mint tea.

When the train reached the Border of Iraq, we were surprised to find we weren't going directly in to Turkey, but the railway line went across a small triangle of Syrian territory. We hadn't been advised by Thomas Cook this was going to happen, so we had no Visa to enter Syria. The Syrian Border Guards told us we would have to go back to Baghdad to get a Visa. About 24 hours. Luckily we had been performing recently in Egypt, and at this time in history Egypt and Syria were joined in the United Arab Republic, for which we had a valid Visa. So with a lot of persuasive words and a little persuasive "Baksheesh" (bribe) we were able to reboard the train, cross the Syrian stretch and then back into Iraq through Kurdish country and on to Turkey.

When we reached the Turkish border the first stop in Turkey was a Station filled with impressive looking men with big macho black mustaches. Many of them also had a long stemmed red carnation clenched in their teeth, which kind of sent out mixed signals. We had to unload all our belongings, clothes and props etc. and it was all examined minutely. Then we had to pay "import duty" on our props (3ft tall Marionettes, show wardrobe, sound system etc.) Everything got loaded back on the train and off we went to Ankara.

On arrival our stuff was unloaded and again minutely examined, and again we got the "import duty" biz. Pay twice? No way! We dug in our heels and tried to talk our way out of it, till finally a delegate from the Hotel we had the contract with found us in the Customs Shed, greased some palms and off we went to a very enjoyable contract.

Also on the Bill there, were Fu Yung Chung, a clever Chinese guy from Malaysia, (chairs balanced on his chin, glasses full of water thrown on to a tray balanced on his head etc.) His wife, Shirley, from Shanghai, was a singer.

We also met up on the street one day with a family from Hawaii who had a (natch) Hawaiian Show. They had arrived from Yugoslavia with a station wagon crammed full of ham salami, as the Yugo money was worthless outside the country. Bad choice, salami, as people in Turkey don't eat pork! This fact also bothered Chung and Shirley, as they live on pork.

We advised the Hawaiians to go to the US base, where we had done some extra Gigs at the Officers and NCO Clubs, and the salami was received with open arms, and paid for in US Dollars.

From Ankara we had a contract in a Casino in Istanbul, where we had some interesting times, and then on to Izmir, to perform in a Nightclub during the International Expo. Next to Beirut, to Amman, Jordan, back again to Beirut, and then back to Cairo where we had some VERY interesting times.