Our plan was to catch the 8.00 bus the next morning to Hakkari right on the Iraq border and change buses there to travel close to the Syrian border and then to to Mardin.
The plan started alright. We got the service bus to Hakkari. As we approached we noticed vehicles with strange number plates heading in the opposite direction. These turned out to be refugees and foreign workers leaving Iraq while the first stage of the First Gulf War in Kuwait was under way.
When we arrived at Hakkari it proved impossible to get a bus in the direction we wanted to travel. There had been incidents recently involving the PKK the Kurdish terrorists/freedom fighters (depending on your standpoint, and I don't know enough to have one that is worthwhile). Apparently a bus had been attacked and passengers killed. This stopped us in our tracks. We had to turn around and head back to Van.
On the way back we revised the plan.
