The real journey begins

9th August 2012

The plane ride lasted about two and a half hours, and it was really amazing to fly over Iran and see the place where human civilisation started. Iran is basically 99.5% harsh desert, the only place there is any human settlements are right next to rivers. It really showed me how important water is for life to flourish. Granted, I didn't fly over the big Tigress or Euphrates rivers were the first humans settled, but from what I could see the region is a very bleak place - no green or water anywhere! I am so glad I got a window seat for the flight to Kabul, I was glued to watching the ground the whole time, it was very interesting! Even the land itself was really cool. Because the land was so bare, you could see in the mountains all the different layers in the crust and any other geological features of the land.

Weird stripy land features...

The first river I saw, it was unsettled

The dark areas are the farms around the river, the rivers are the only places with civilisation in Iran

Crossing into Afghanistan, clouds started appearing and we hit some turbulence, because of all the mountains that suddenly sprang out of nowhere, forcing air currents upwards. Afghanistan so far looks less arid than Iran, there are a few trees on the mountains, bigger villages and more rivers.

In Afghanistan now, mountains everywhere!

More Mountains!

Centre right is Kabul, where I am now. Centre left is Bamyan, about 150km away

Flying into the airport was really cool, there were military helicopters and planes lining the whole length of the runway. I was wearing shorts and a shirt on the plane, Tony told me that when we get our luggage from the plane I should go and get changed into some long jeans right away. Apparently in the Afghans' eyes you may as well be walking around in your underwear if you wear shorts, even short sleeve shirts are pushing it, though I saw a lot of tourists and Afghans wearing them.

I was really expecting there to be more guns visible on the guards at the airport, but none had any weapons except for batons in the terminal. As I was leaving the terminal a few guards had pistols, and I saw one with a rifle. A couple of vanloads of soldiers were leaving the airport too, and I got a quick glimpse of a machine gun of some kind. You see guns all the time in movies, but in real life they really are fearsome, you don't really think of them like that when you see them on the TV screen. They look really, really big...

The drive from the airport to where I am staying was very interesting! The roads were wide enough for 3 lanes going each way, with a barrier in the middle to separate traffic going in opposite directions. However, apart from that barrier there were no other road markings to separate lanes, so the whole thing turned into a huge free-for-all. The situation only got worse when the wind really picked up and started blowing sand everywhere, reducing visibility to just 10m or so... I recorded a few videos of the car trip but they don't seem to be uploading so I'll try them again later!

Greg Hussey has his own place in Kabul, so we are staying there, we have internet and electricity and beds so all is good here!

The German Shepherd, Jed, where I'm staying at the moment!