trip to Mazar-e-Sharif
last weekend I went with kyle the crazy aussie to Mazar e Sharif, which was a great relief to get out of kabul. It was cool cause we both found a reliable driver like 2 days before and just said, hey let's go, and that was it. at 5am i was knocking on kyle's door and then we were off. this pic to the left is the sunrise just outside of kabul, before we hit the mountains.by far the best part of this 2 day trip was the 8 hour drive to and from Mazar, which passes through the Salang pass, which is famous as one of the highest tunnels in the world and was built by the Soviets in the mid-1960's - a prelude to invasion later on. This tunnel road system cuts down the travel time down by days, so it is very strategic. There are these bit concrete roofs that cover the road and prevent the road from being covered by snow, these are pretty long but don't cover
the entire road up so still the road needs to be shut down after it snows in the winter. Then there is this proper tunnel that you finally go through, the ventilation system in there is not quite the best, but it goes underneath a freakin mountain, so it's pretty impressive I must say. I can't believe this thing survived the war. Going through these mountains made me extremely anxious to ski, there's one spot especially that would be perfect for a ski resort, i've heard a few foreigners here talking about it, but that's a long way from reality. Perhaps the biggest problem is the landmines leftover from the war, which are not predictable even though the snow cover apparently is enough to thwart any risk. I've met some people w
ho've been skiing around here, it was supposedly exhilerating.After the mountains there are more mountains but without snow and they are pretty odd looking, i read that they appear like psychadelic green sand dunes, which is an accurate description even though I've never had a psychadelic experience. Luckily we picked a good weekend because the grass is just coming up and things were very green in general. Also, the apply and cherry blossoms were in bloom...reminded me a bit of Washington, D.C.
Once we got to Mazar, we went to the Shrine of Ali, basically the most famous mosque in Afghanistan. I have to be honest, it wasn't as large as I had imagined, it seemed k
ind of vertically challenged, but nonetheless it was really cool and beautiful. There aren't many tourists there so people just followed us around asking us questions, it was especially interesting to see Kyle get approached by women in burkas because I never talk to them but they were really interested to talk to her, guess it's a girl thing.Notice the awesome platform shoes, pretty cool. Perhaps the best part of my trip was when we were going for dinner at Delhi Darbar, an afghan Indian food chain, we drove through the center of the city and I spotted an outdoor area with chairs and a glass shack that had a plethora of sheeshas! My eyes immediately lit up and I was yelling to kyle, is that sheesha???? as if I couldn't believe my eyes, but yes, it was indeed an outdoor sheesha cafe, reminding me much of my days in cairo. In Afghanistan, they don't have outdoor sheesha cafes, partly because of the bad social stigma that goes along with the waterpipe but also the winter has been cold so it's difficult to do so outside. The fact that I found this sheesha cafe just outside the most religious place in Afghanistan and to the north of Kabul was a bit of a surprise, but actually the weather there was warmer and as we sat puffing on the sheesha, we heard a group of young lads go by in a car screaming their lungs out - our driver Nasser proclaimed, 'bacha mast ast' or something to the effect which means 'those boys are drunk'. As we sat there chillin to the sounds of an Uzbek pop remake of Shakira's 'ojos asi', it made for a very interesting and exciting night.
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