Monday, July 12, 2004

Bamiyan Trip

Aah, where to start… I guess I can begin by saying that the Bamiyan trip was certainly incredible for a number of reasons. I never thought I’d ever see those sort of sites, that kind of terrain, and those kinds of people.

Let’s start with the people. The people seemed a lot more open than the people here in Kabul; they always smiled and waved.. It was also like being in a different world (here in a different world) because the people all looked Mongolian. You can read about them here. I got a lot of good shots of the people in that area on my pictures page.

So the drive there.. We left at like 4am and gathered up all the Afghani police that we brought with us. They had several busses and a large truck, so the going was slow. However, the scenery was something to see, and I got a lot of good pictures of it. We finally reached the Bamiyan hotel (we stayed there in the parking lot) sometime after midnight. We slept there, and when I woke up I was greeted by some spectacular scenery. After the Taliban took over, they wanted to erase any evidence/presence of any other religion than Islam in the country, so they took it upon themselves to destroy the world’s largest standing Buddhas, carved into the cliffs in the 3rd century AD. Here’s an article about it. You can look on that site to see what it used to look like, and then you can go to my pictures site (in the Bamiyan folder) to see what’s left behind. :( Very depressing. We waited at the Bamiyan hotel until the Afghani officers had properly stuffed their faces, then we took off to the Forward Operating Base and set up shop.

The FOB was set up in a canyon surrounded on all sides by sheer cliffs. There was a castle on one of the sides that had apparently been there for 1300 years. Everywhere we went in Bamiyan there were abandoned buildings, things left behind from another era.. Tanks, anti-aircraft guns, dwellings, everything. I thought it was kinda symbolic of the people who live in that area. No matter what the current state of geopolitics, what regime is in power in Afghanistan, for a loooooong time these people’s lifestyle hasn’t changed all that drastically. They’re just trying to carve out a living and existence in whatever way they can, which is why I kinda felt bad when they started cutting down their poppy fields. All the villagers could do was sit there while their fields were swarmed by men with sickles, all under the eyes of many armed men. What could they do? Just watch as their hard work was cut down. I seriously doubt they’re gonna stand by and let that happen much more.

So anyway, there was some cutting going on, then we convoyed back in like 7 hours. We were seriously hauling ass, and we beat the living shit out of the trucks (F250s) we were in. There’s probably like $5000 damage to all the trucks that were in the convoy (a piece), and there were like 12 trucks. At one point I think we had all 4 wheels off the road – it was insane. So we came back, and the rest of our crew didn’t come back (they went to Bagram) until like 3pm the next day. So we had to wait another day to take a shower…….! That kinda sucked.

In any case, I will reiterate that it was quite an amazing trip. The makeup of the group was interesting; mainly South Africans for security and stuff, 3 Angolans, 3 Bosnians for unexploded ordinance, and only like 4 or 5 Americans. We also had a lot of Nepalese dudes with us – they recruit former Ghurkas for security purposes as well. The Ghurka who rode with us was actually a Sherpa too. He didn’t have any problems up there in the high mountains. ;) I felt pretty safe with all these guys protecting us, but let’s face it. If they’re gonna get you, they’re gonna get you. So all you can really do is be as safe as possible and enjoy the ride. ;)

Saturday, July 03, 2004

相変わらず酔っ払っとる

。。。だから間違いが多いかも。

じゃ、また今晩イタリアの基地に行って、ピッザ食べていっぱい飲んだ。チョーおもろかった。ヨーロッパ人のパーティやりかたがアメリカ人よりいいと思う。アメリカ人はケンかばっかりで、飲むとバカな事やっちゃうんだ。イタリア人、スペイン人、ノルウェー人、でぶなカナダ人(カナダ人嫌い)もいたよ。他の国の人もいたけどどこからか覚えてない。ごめん。

月曜日にバミヤンという場所に行く予定だ。(バミヤン県)バミヤンって日本にある中華料理のレストランでしょ?バミヤンというレストランで食べた事あるけど、実際のバミヤンに行くからすごくない??????Talibanがバミヤンにある仏教の偶像を爆発した(ひどい、タリバンも嫌い)。バミヤンで俺の”会社”がポピーという植物を絶やしてる。色んな麻薬がポピーから来るよ。アメリカがアフガニスタンを助けてて、俺たちがアフガニに色んな事を教えてる。実はポピーがあるかどうか別に関係ないけど、この仕事好きで、お金がいい。捨身(リスク)がやっぱりあるけど、捨身のない人生が退屈だ。でしょ?今、これ読んでる捨身のない人生がある人がもっとおもろい人生欲しいかな???(それに捨身のない仕事の給料が低いんだ、ふふふ。。。)←(自慢)戻ったら、写真いっぱいUploadするよ。

将来に、日本にいる時に機会あればバミヤンというレストランに行きたい。店員に「おい、アフガニスタンのバミヤン行った事ある人が割引もらえるか!??!」と言いたいと思う。(言わないけど言いたい。。)

実はこの文を読んでる人と一緒にバミヤンというレストランでゆっくり食べて時間過ごしたい。読んでありがとう。いい夢見て、気をつけてね。。
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Europeans are A-Ok

Once again, its saturday night and we decided to go over to the Italian compound to enjoy some pizza (and lotsa bacardi). I get a kick out of the way they do things, and i think that americans could learn a lot from them. They way they kick back and have a good time is so PG-13 - no one is all pissy and ornery, everyone is just there to have a good time. True, there are like 5 girls to every 300 dudes, but there arent any fights. Contrast this to my time spent in Okinawa, where it's like 3 girls to every 30 guys, and it was nothing but fighting and stupidity. One time I was chillin at a bar with this girl I was kinda seeing. I went to the bathroom, and when I came back there were 3 dudes sitting at the table with her. Uuh, ok. Luckily I'm a ferocious specimen of spin kicking destruction, so any nastiness was avoided. In any case, there were maybe 7 girls from Spain there, and one of the guys we went with is quite the dancer. So when they started playing spanishy music he was out there cutting a rug, and that definitely made the night worth it. Also, another guy we went with is Mexican, and it was just as fun to see him try and spit game in Spanish and get shot down. heheheh

This coming week I might be a little incommunicado for a bit - got some stuff to do here and there, so I won't be on quite so much. But I'll be sure to make a post when I come back, along with a lot of really cool photos on my pictures page. So be sure to give it a look-see.

That's about it for now - wish me luck. ;)