We only had a one car convoy on the way out. Apparently we became expendable in our time here. At least we had a shooter who was dipping Copenhagen and listening to country music in the truck. Reminded me of college.
Upon arriving at the Kabul “International” Airport, you must be prepared to grease everyone who touches your bags. The small bills were flying out of my hands so fast it felt like I was in a strip club. Once we cleared passports, baggage check, and customs we were placed in the “VIP lounge”. Here are a couple pictures of the Kabul VIP Lounge.
There was a sign that said they were undergoing renovations, but I didn’t see anyone working. The bathroom in this place was pretty hideous as well. Jeff wanted to get to his “Cone of Sanitation”. I blew my nose today (3/26) and I swear it had dust from that airport in it. I was looking around and wondering just how much asbestos I was inhaling. I really felt bad for the couple with the kid who had obviously just started walking. No, check that, they were idiots! I felt sorry for was the kid. These people were blonde and obviously not from Afghanistan and Kabul is not standard destination. What kind of screwball would take their infant into a situation like that? Damn hippies!
The United Nations flight was about half full, but it did leave on time. I was almost waiting for the pilot to ask me for a tip before he would start the plane, but he waited until we were in the air. This was smart, when you think about it. People are much more motivated to give the pilot money when the plane is in the air.
Once we were in the air and outside of the throbbing metropolis of Kabul, small villages could be seen out of the window. The villages were obvious because of the geometric shapes formed by the walls around the properties. The Afghans are some wall building mofos. Almost everything is built with stone or brick. I was told that a stone wall is cheaper to erect than a chain link fence. The labor here is so cheap and the fencing materials would need to be imported.
The view from the plane was pretty amazing. For a while there were snow covered mountains in every direction. There is very little green, that may have something to do with the time of year, but it’s doubtful that the region gets what one would call lush. The mountains are very rocky and have some incredibly shear faces. I could see meandering streambeds cut into the rock, and tiny villages tucked into small draws in the hillsides. Some of the streambeds appear to be completely dry; they must have been cut over thousands of years by water just from melting snow.
I’ve been looking out the window for over an hour and I am amazed. This region must be one of the most geologically fascinating places on the earth. A smarter person could probably tell you about the different strata that are visible; however, you are stuck with my paltry descriptions. Come to think of it, a smarter person who was better with words might have talked his way out of this trip in the first place.
When we landed in Dubai and made it through all of the hurdles fairly smoothly. After taxiing to the hotel, we checked in, dropped our stuff off, and caught a taxi down to the Suq (pronounced sook – it is a commercial quarter). There was the Gold Suq, the Spice Suq, the Textile Suq, &c. We went to the Gold Suq first and got to see tons of gaudy gold jewelry. We then went to the Spice Suq where I took a couple of photos, and we all bought some spices. They had barrels of saffron, that looked amazing. Larry gave me something to eat from a barrel. “Try it” he said. It was a dried garlic chip, and boy was it pungent. It kind of took my breath away for a second. I’m sure Jeff was wishing that it wouldn’t come back. Now he was with two stinking guys (Larry had already had some).
We walked around the various markets for a while, then took a water taxi to the other side of the creek to have dinner. After finally locating a place, we sat down and had some lamb kebabs, some kebbeh, grape leaves, and baba ganoush. All of which were very good.
We got back to Germany on Friday evening. After checking back into the hotel and retrieving my stuff from a friends room, I headed across the street for some schnitzel and a big ol’ bier. Pork and alcohol, things are starting to get back to normal.
5 comments:
Glad your feet are again firmly planted in Pork and Beir country, safe and sound.
Referring to the site survey you mentioned in the last posting, why if the Romans were able to determine elevations using a tube filled with water to within a fraction of an inch, and build mighty aqueducts over a 100 miles in length, why is the Afghan site topo off by +/-10 feet?
I've been off-line for a few days so I just got a chance to catch up on your adventures. Your account had me laughing several times, although I doubt it was very humorous at the time. Anyways, glad you made it back and love to hear your tales.
-Steven.
Okay, I'll bite - how much does a night with a Russian prostitute that looks like Minnie Driver cost? Not that I think you actually plunked down the dough (none of my business) - but if I were in your shoes (so to speak), I would have had to ask (for purely academic reasons of course).
Did you get a photo of Minnie? After all, its all well and good that you say she looked like Minnie Driver - for all I know, she could have looked like Minnie's driver Norm.
A photograph would have been a nice validation of your claim that she looked like Minnie Driver. Not that I think you are being dishonest at all - but, after a couple of weeks of looking at Afghan "beauties", my boxer pup Cassius would probably look better than South Dakota Ethington's mom to you. (no offense to Afghan beauties, such as they are.)
Wilhelm
Youse got questions? Well Ise got answers!
Here goes:
PMG - The reason that the topo is off by +/- 10 feet is because it is all taken from aerial photos. USGS does the same thing for their quad maps. The pictures are taken at various times and at various elevations and there are naturally more photos taken over more populated areas. All this means that the maps for this area have contours at the 10 foot interval (which probably puts the accuracy at +/- 5ft, my mistake). And the only reason that they are that accurate is because the area is near Kabul. Other areas have 30 meter contour intervals. This is a very mountainous area, and as such would need very detailed photos to get accurate maps. I'm sure that the "proper" military has more accurate info, or has GPS units along with them.
As an aside the mighty aqueducts, while impressive as hell, were basically man made streams. i.e. the grades are not really that important. As long as the depth of the water is more than the change in grade it will flow.
Wilhelm - Let it be known that I did not have sexual relations with that woman, (who looks like) Ms. Driver.
She never gave me a rate, and I didn't ask for one. I bought her one drink and also bought the Colonel a beer (hey, I'm no com-symp). For all I know, maybe she really wasn't a prostitute. But pretty Russian women do not just appear out of nowhere, by themselves, and sit down between a couple of guys at a bar. Now this type of thing may happen on a less than frequent basis in the far reaches of Vladivostok, it seems especially odd in Dubai. And since I was just planning on having a couple of beers, and maybe a shot or two of bourbon, I did not have my camera with me. So you are just going to have to trust me on this one. The fact that she was good looking, and allegedly paying attention to me, was the true tip off that she was a dues paying member of the oldest profession.
Q.E.D.
PMG - Oh yeah, I almost forgot. This area was also mined by the Russkies when they were here. So aside fro the de-mining being part of the site work package (something I've never seen before), it also makes surveying difficult. Of course my idea for how to find the mines was summarily dismissed. I told them just to take a couple of bags of Halloween candy and throw them out in the fields. Let the kids find the mines. Don't you think it would give them high self esteem to know that they helped out the nation?
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