“Do-you-buy” – pronounced as Dubai
I’m in Dubai. Just for a day. To check it out. See what it’s like, maybe to find someone who lives here and find out what they think about this city.
Dubai. Large. Sandy. 85% Indian. Un-natural. Hot. Windy. Very hot. Even hotter. Againts all rules. Traffic jams in the middle of the day. Lots of Russians.
It’s Ramadan month, which means fasting from sunrise to sunset. Fasting means no food or drink. How do you cope if you go for a walk and it’s 40C? I saw a McDonalds on Sheikh Zayed Road and I thought “Bonza! Let’s get something to eat! I’m a traveller, travellers allowed to eat during Ramadan (I think!). So off I go, hoping it would be open, longing for a cold post-mix coke. Surely enough, the store is open. Surely enough, there are people there buying food. I ordered a large “Chicken Big Mac” meal, picked it up, went to a table, sat down, started eating. Nice! But here comes a security guy and says, “Excuse me sir, the food is take away only”. Now, that’s business! While the rest of the restaurants and cafes in the whole city are closed for Ramadan (they only open after the sunset each day), McDonalds people thought, “hey, we can still open the store and sell BigMacs. We’ll just tell people to go somewhere else to eat it. In the 40C heat. Or, maybe just keep it for dinner tonight. Or for tomorrow. We know that BigMacs don’t go off.”
I did a bit of sightseeing and visiting places today. Mostly commercial stuff. Actually, my impression is that the whole city is commercial. Huge. Massive. Growing from under the ground.
I was able to catch up with a friend of a friend, a businessman here in Dubai, for dinner. It was interesting to actually meet someone who works and lives here, and share with them some of my business ideas and plans.
Here are some photos. There is a bit of a sand storm here today, so a few shots look a bit misty.
The first day you meet, you are friends. The next day you meet, you are brothers.
The first day you meet, you are friends. The next day you meet, you are brothers. (Afghan proverb).
I’m sitting here at Kabul Airport, and trying to collect some thoughts. It’s about two hours before the departure of my flight (the flight it 1hr late), there is nothing else to do here. So, here we are.
Today is my last day in this country. I had a great time here. There is nothing like seeing the country with your own eyes. There is nothing like saying hello to locals. I had a truly amazing time.
This morning we decided to clime one of the mountains. There are a lot of mountains or very large hills around Kabul and we went for a walk. The friend who suggested that we do that, had done it before and he described it as a “light walk”, that was “fairly safe”, and that it only took 40min of light walking. So off we went. Up the hill. Up the stairs. And up the hill again. And then more. And then more. I didn’t think we would make it to the top of the mountain, but we persevered. The views were breathtaking. Hey, maybe that’s why we were all out of breath.
There is an ancient wall that goes along the ridger of the ranges, an old fort, an old wall. Aparently it was build in the 600s (or 1600s? need to confirm that). Just when we reached that wall, we noticed a group of AF soldiers following our steps behind us. I think they would be about 500m away.
We kind of thought that it would be better to somehow to avoid them and we pushed on. At the top of the mountain we met a bunch of US muscle guys with a lot of large guns. Apparently they were from local embassies and just want for a “walk”, same as us. After taking some pictures with them, they quietly warned us “Hey, you be careful there. They’re talking about a lot of kidnappings”. And off they went. It was interesting to see a very polite greetings exchange when they walked pass those AF soldiers that we were trying to get away from. We pushed on, making some lead time before the AF soldiers would catch up with us.
We walked along the wall on the ridge of the mountain and now we started to walk down. I have to say, it’s much easier to go down than climbing up. Now, the soldiers just got to the top, when we were about 100m down the mountain and they started to shout. “Hey, you” etc etc. What do you do? We decided to ignore them and continue on on our way. Apparently, as my friend said, they won’t shoot unprovoked. I hoped we didn’t provoke them by ignoring them!
Very often, soldiers or police (all heavily armed) would try to stop our car at a road block, but more often than not, we’d just ignore them and keep on driving. Amazing really. There was once, when one of those soldiers wanted to stop our car by pointing his gun at us. But hey, after saying “Salam Aleikum” we were able to drive by, also, without stopping.
Walking down the mountain we encountered a group of army people, now, of a different type. They were marking an area that had land mines. They used rocks that were painted two colours – white, pointing to the safe side and red pointing to the mined site. See some photos below. It wouldn’t be the most pleasant job to do by any means.
Then we we met a bunch of kids, from a hut nearby. They chatted for a while with Phil. And after I gave them some money they went back to their mother back at the house. I have no idea what these people do for food. How does their mother feed her 5 little kids? The hut is so high up, to walk “down the shops” would really be walking “Down” to the shops. And then up. Just imagine (for those who are in WA), to live at the very top of Bluff Knoll. I don’t know. They must have it really tough.
So, the walk down the mountain was very enjoyable, to say the least. We were very sore, but now, we had a chance to walk though the “real Kabul” – all those little mud huts, donkeys and lots and lots of kids. As we walk down, everyone is smiling. It’s amazing how much Afghanis smile at you. It’s amazing to exchange “Salam Aleikum” with a total stranger, shake hands and just wish each other good luck. Afghanistan is a nation of smiling people.
At the bottom of the mountain I bought a kite (!) and we then caught a taxi home. My bags were already packed and here we are, sitting in the waiting hall, ready for boarding my flight to Dubai, together with KamAir.
The process of getting through the passport control and security checks deserves another blog post. But big thanks to Phil to was able to walk me through the most checks and convince most guards to leave the contents of my bag alone. Thanks brother.
This concludes my journey to Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan. This trip gave me a lot of food for thought. Let’s see where this experience takes me in the future.
When God gives, He doesn’t ask whose son you are.
When God gives, He doesn’t ask whose son you are. (Afghan proverb)
Since I arrived in Kabul Phil is introducing me to his friends as “Guennadi, a friend from Australia”. Yesterday, on the way to the city, the driver, an Afghani man, asked Phil, “Is Guennadi Russian”? “Why?”, Phil asked. “I recognised him by his name, Guennadi is a Russian name”. He then proceeded telling us that a number of years back he used to work as a mechanic for a Russian Automotive company. And his Russian boss, Peotr (Peter) really liked him because he was a hard worker, and each weekend the boss would bring him a box of chocolate. Saying that he had a huge smile on his face and he said that those were good times… I then asked him what it was like when the Soviets were in the country. On that he said, “I didn’t have anything to do with the military, so I don’t really have anything to say..”
Here are a couple more photos from my trip to the city.
Guns, nuts and amazing views.
Here are some more videos. The first one is in a shop in Chicken Street. With lots of guns. Most of which 100 years old. A good one.
The following video is of a boy the nutcrucker. He’s job is to crack wallnuts. I’m not sure if he’s allowed to eat them!
And this video is taken from a taxi – a drive from downtown Kabul to a cafe on the other side of the hill. Amazing scenery there.
Kabul Fried Chicken in Touristical Kabul
Kabul Fried Chicken – Clean and Tasty! Today Phil and I went to Chicken Street, it’s kind of like Hay Street Mall in Perth or Arbat Street in Moscow – with lots of shops on both sides of the street, with a lot of interesting things. There is a lot of soviet trophies, like samovars, russian money, belt buckles, matreshkas, as well as more interesting things like rifles from the British times (early 1800s), pistols and other stuff like that. It’s a pity that you can’t take these out of the country – all of this would be priceless outside of Afghanistan. It will be sad to see it all go, as the western rubbish overwhelms the country – probably most of these shops on Chicken street will be gone in the next few years. Does anyone have ideas how to take these riffles out of the country? Please let me know.
We then went for a walk through the city, dropping by a video store, walked pass “KFC – Kabul Fried Chicken” and then caught a taxi back to Chila cafe where we had lunch and a cup of coffee.
Here are some photos and a couple more videos.
Kites, kites and more kites
One of the beautiful parts of Afghanistan culture is kite flying. There are kites everywhere. Every day we go somewhere we see lots of kids flying kites, lots of kites in the sky. There are traditional competitions where kite flyers entangle the string of their flying kites with each other trying to cut the string of the other. The winner’s kite remains flying while the loser’s kite string is cut loose, drifting free with the wind until it falls to the ground. Kids then run after these cut kites to try and capture them when they come down. Usually whoever captures a cut kite can keep it.
Here is a video of a couple of kites in the sky.
Kabul Streets – videos
Here are some videos taken from our car as we drove along Kabul streets.
When man is perplexed, God is beneficent.
When man is perplexed, God is beneficent. (An Afghan proverb)
I’ve had a few conversations here with people who moved to Afghanistan to work, and as it happens to be, most of them have little kids. I am trying to find out what drives people to come here and how they can justify bringing their children here. I’m sure a lot of people would think that this is very inresponsible. It’s bad enough to risk your own safety, not talking about that of the little children. And, me being me, I asked people this exact question. The answers that I got from different families were pretty much the same and these conversations made me see it all in a different lilght.
These people don’t fool themselves or pretend that Kabul (or any other place in Afghanistan) is a safe place. And at the same time they don’t pretend to be superheros who can deal with any situation that may arrise. They are careful and caution people. They are just ordinary people like you and me.
Living in the west we tend to worry about every little thing, up to the very ridiculous point, such as… I don’t want to even start! People who live in developed countries are actually afraid of more things than people who live in places like Kabul. People who live here realise that there are things in life, including life iteself, is out of our control and it is completely in the hands of God. Including the lives and safety of children. We have to let go of our fear. We have to let go of our controlling nature. We have to entrust our lives to God. This, and only this will make us free.
A mountain will not reach a mountain, a man will meet a man.
A mountain will not reach a mountain, a man will meet a man. (A Persian proverb).
Since my arrival at Kabul airport (which is also used as a military airport and fiming is not allowed), I’ve seen a few arrogant foreigners, one of whom was actually wearing shorts. It’s a month of Ramadan here, which is a time of obstinance from food, drink, loud talking and so on. It’s also a time of reconciliation and spiritual cleansing. This is a very important time of the year for every muslim. So, to wear shorts, or inapropriate clothes, expecially during this time is definitely in no way helps the “winning of minds and hearts” of the locals. A lot can be said about the cultural sensitivity, expecially in a culture-rich country like Afghanistan.
A cup of coffee commits one to 40 years of friendship.
A cup of coffee commits one to 40 years of friendship. (A Turkish proverb).
It is a great joy to come to Kabul and visit my dear friends, Phil and Julie who work and live here, together with their beautiful kids. It’s been a long time coming. Kabul is one of those places that you currently hear and see a lot of TV – for obvious reasons. And you only see and hear about the worst. Things are not like that here at all. Kabul is a lively and interesting place – with very friendly people. People who smile a lot and very happy to exchange greetings with you – even the officials. Today we went to visit a NZ family who live about 10kb from Kabul, 40min away from the house where I’m staying. They are probably the only foreighers in the area. I asked them how were their neighbours. They said that the neighbours just couldn’t be better. Their kids play with other kids on the streets, they help each other, the live in a community. The community in a sense that we long forgot what it is in Australia. Being a part of a community (a local community and a community of expats here) is something that attracts many people who choose to come and live in countries like Afghanistan.
The driving here in Kabul is absolutely crazy. There are lot of people on the streets and it feels like Mitchel freeway going trough Fremantle markets. Literaly.
Here are some photos I took today. It’s been a very pleasant and exciting day. From having lunch with friends (shashlyk!), driving through the city – Kabul CBD – where all those embassies are, driving along the Jalalabad road (the Kabul-Peshawar road – the one with a lot of military convoys and road blocks), going to an Italian supermarket “Ciano” in the middle of nowhere and coming back home to the sound of a Muslim prayer in the loud speakers in the near mosque (which will probably continue on till 3am in the morning – it’s Ramadan!). It’s been quite a day.
So, here are some photos. I’m taking a lot of videos too, but these may have to wait till I get hold of a faster internet connection. There is a lot to see.
