Kabul’s own Tour Eiffel on the edge of the modern city, just outside the Paris Banquet Hall.
KABUL — It’s 6 AM and we’re winding our way through Kabul’s streets, heading out of the city for our return journey to Dushanbe. As we round the traffic circle near the “Eiffel Tower” it becomes clear that we […]
Entering Kabul, the density is overwhelming after the sparse, uninhabited expanses of desert, mountains and countryside stretching north to the Tajik border.
Women in Burkhas manouevre along the edge of a busy Kabul roadway.
Cemeteries are marked by billowing strands of green, the Islamic holy colour, signalling each grave.
A roadside shop on the outskirts of Kabul sells […]
Traffic jam in a tunnel at 2,676 m in the Salang pass en route to Kabul
KABUL – We are stopped at 2,676 meters above sea level, inside a tunnel in the Salang Pass, en route to Kabul. Clearly, there is an accident or some other disruption to traffic somewhere up ahead. I am thankful that we […]
This is posted out of sequence. It relates the story of my most recent travel from Kabul to Dubai to Dushanbe at the beginning of February. Just catching up!
DUBAI — My colleague (William, the Project Manager) and I are booked on the 3:30 AM Tajik Air flight from Sharjah (about 30 minutes from Dubai in […]
DUSHANBE — A story in the Globe and Mail today, talks about a military investigation into claims a civilian bystander was wounded by Canadian Forces when a soldier fired a warning shot at a car that got too close to a military convoy in Kandahar city. Subsequent comments posted on the Globe’s web site quickly […]
DUSHANBE — Okay. So, I admit it where others may be too ashamed. When I’m bored, lonely and frustrated… and without amiable company. I have been known to Google myself in the privacy of my own home. Okay, okay. Sometimes in public places too.
What I’ve come to realize, since I began blogging, is the vast […]
DUSHANBE — It would appear that Canada’s Leader of the Official Opposition, Stephane Dion, has seen the light and backed off his ridiculous demand that Canada join the league of NATO laggards in Afghanistan that refuse to allow their troops to fight. Smart move.
If there’s an issue the Liberal Party does not want to trigger […]
DUSHANBE - Having just returned from another stint in Kabul where I spent two weeks meeting with the commander and senior officers of the Afghan Border Police, the Director General of the Afghan Customs Service, the European Union Police Mission, ISAF, and a handful of UN agencies including IOM and UNODC, as well as private […]
DUSHANBE — I arrived back in Dushanbe on Monday morning after an uncomfortable flight on Tajik Air from Sharjah Airport in the U.A.E. More on the flight in a later post.
Here in Dushanbe, the city and its people appear to be enjoying the calm before the storm. I found my apartment exactly where I left […]
KABUL — This is posted out of sequence. I’m catching up on some pics I took last week in Kabul.
By the end of the week it was warming up in Kabul. Most of the ice on the roads and “sidewalks” had melted and people were spending more time outside.
I could not imagine riding a bicycle […]