yeah hey guys this is doug i'm here in
istanbul turkey right now and today i'm
flying to baghdad
iraq
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
alrighty guys we have made it to our
gate
i'm here
with the iraq squad
jay and janet
we're going to be uh getting on the
flight shortly we are going to be flying
into baghdad
today we're going to be spending a
couple days there and then going all
throughout southern iraq to babylon
asura a bunch of other places so it's
going to be amazing going to be taking
you guys along for the ride with us so
excited we're going on fly baghdad first
time flying as well i'm really really
really excited yeah it's all of our
first times on fly bag
there's our plane right there
and
then we're off to explore baghdad here
we go
[Music]
let's go
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
all right guys i just landed in baghdad
i'm in baghdad iraq words i never
thought i'd say but i'm so so excited
just got off the plane first impression
it's hot it's hot
it's very hot it feels like you're in an
oven kind of die
wow
i have not been this excited about
arriving at a new country in a long time
this is
just
surreal i'm flying in i wish i had a
window seat but i didn't but you could
see i could see across the guy standing
next to me just
this insane sprawling view of the city
and it's just
truly surreal to be here right now
so guys surprisingly iraq actually now
has a visa on arrival for citizens of 30
countries
including all three of ours
us uk and ireland we're applying for the
visa right now
at the desk here then we're going to
head through
immigration or passport control
and meet up with our tour guides
okay guys um wow okay it's like three
hours later jay janet and i applied for
the vsan arrival you know standard
procedure like i was saying there was
some kind of an issue with my passport
which i won't go into the details but
janet and jay got theirs approved within
an hour and a half or so after like two
hours i finally
told jay and janet like just go just go
our tour guide was gonna send a separate
car for me if i was able to get in thank
god
i just got the visa i could literally
cry right now i'm so happy because i
literally thought that they were gonna
put me on the next flight out of the
country
oh my god i'm so happy anyway i'm good
to go
let's go into iraq
[Music]
guys it's very dark right now in the car
but i'm here with bassam
captain
uh this
this road this highway from the airport
to the city center of baghdad was once
considered one of the most dangerous
roads anywhere but now it's uh it's much
safer okay we're going through a
checkpoint real quick
let me turn this off okay so as i was
saying uh this highway used to be
considered quite dangerous it's actually
the same highway where the iranian
general qasim suleimani was killed in a
us airstrike just about a year and a
half ago in fact we just drove past some
kind of
marker of the exact spot where it
happened and there was
kind of twisted uh remains of two cars
and i just can't believe i'm driving on
that
road where that happened and that i've
read so much about pretty crazy feeling
first impressions have definitely seen a
lot of
military style
vehicles tank style vehicles kind of
along the roads here a lot of concrete
barriers so
uh it definitely feels different to any
place i've ever been that's for sure
but at the same time
normal i don't know it's kind of strange
and i think that's going to be
what it's
like repeatedly
beautiful
so yeah guys like i said there's
definitely signs of
you know conflict and whatnot here a lot
of guys with big guns such as right
there but at the same time you've got
families kids women
children running around here it's very
very cool and it's always kind of
strange arriving at a place at night
because it's dark out and
it's kind of hard to get a real good
idea of the place so i'm very excited
for tomorrow morning we're gonna hit the
ground running and go all over baghdad
alrighty guys after that brief fiasco uh
i made it to the hotel
i'm reunited with my friends janet and
jay you know that yeah
me too i thought i was losing you guys
for a second there
anyway
sure uh we have met up with uh the
company that we're going to be touring
around with we are here with ali hi
and uh we've just come to a restaurant
what's it called
you heard it
and we're gonna have a bunch of barbecue
meats we've got some pickles here to
start jay what do you think you're going
to town already in the hospital
just a pickle
it's a pickle
very tasty
we're all very hungry food's coming soon
can't wait it's just like gopro
hello douglas how are you
i'm great
whoa
[Music]
beautiful i'm so excited
you look so happy
this is the special dish of this twister
special dish
so which what what do we have here
uh ribs a lot of stuff
uh boneless
chicken
kebab
grilled cabbage
it's like bread with meat inside exactly
all righty let's dive in
time to try the ribs
everybody's chowing down on ribs oh my
god
and this is the tikka the chicken tikka
chicken chicken
iraqi chicken tea a rocky chicken tikka
not the indian chicken chicken all right
iraqi style
it tastes really sweet this is
this chicken with like pomegranate and
chutney and it's kind of sweet so good
so good
so i can mix everything
so you get the chicken you can mix it
with the pickles with the
parsley stuff
and the green stuff yeah
you get some lemonade they're like
squeeze over them get some onions and
also like
cooked onions those like those taste
very differently by the way uh-huh and
it's amazing the rock is just lovely to
mix everything guys if you've ever
watched any of my tick tocks you know
that i'm a big fan
of
turkish iron well it turns out iraq has
their own version of it called
[Music]
smoke
smoked yogurt that's what it means yeah
yeah
and it's apparently similar to turkish
iron but has a really smoky flavor and
mahadi is saying
warning us that i may or may not like it
all right let's try here we go
interesting
what
jay
i was waiting for you to finish
it's really good i'm so used to drinking
so much salty i run in yeah
this has
definitely like you said it's really
smoky and crunchy i think i just need to
get used to it more than the salty one
yeah that was the same reaction i had to
turkish iron the first time i tried it i
was like oh what is this yeah
it's like it tastes it feels and tastes
like normal iron when you first try it
and then it's like that flavor kind of
the smoky like tangy almost flavor hits
you and it's like whoa i like it i think
i like it
all right here we have the aftermath i
think we did a pretty good job it was
absolutely delicious
wow
it's all gone so guys it is midnight
right now and it is a hundred degrees
fahrenheit or
about 38 degrees celsius at
midnight just to give you an idea of how
hot it is here in baghdad
in the middle of august so tomorrow
morning and all day tomorrow i'm sure is
going to be very interesting for
for me but we'll see how it goes
alrighty guys i'm back at the hotel here
in baghdad that was an incredible day a
little bit stressful at times but i made
it here all is well i am so excited to
get out there tomorrow and show you guys
what baghdad is all about and to see it
for myself really so excited i want to
give a huge thank you to bill weekend
and rocky road travel these are two
companies that have helped us organize
this tour you can find links to their
sites down below i've got so much more
to show you from iraq we're going to be
traveling all over the country so it's
going to be incredible i'm posting a lot
of highlights from the trip on instagram
so definitely go check that out if
you're not following me there already
and if you like what you're seeing here
don't forget to subscribe to the channel
it really helps me out and i really
really appreciate it so thank you guys
so much for watching and i will see you
in the next one
[Music]