Sept 10, 2006 Arrival in Hong Kong is uneventfull though its nice to be back in Asia,,, the simple fact of seeing women again was great!. After taking the metro directly from the airport into the city I meet Emil at the YMCA and after finishing his trade mission was ready to kick back and relax for a few days. After a quick run through Hong Kong seeing many of the main sites and having a well deserved starbucks we head to Shenzhen for the economic marvels that await us in this 20 year old city. We spend the next couple [View Full Entry]

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September 7, 2006 The recent days in Jalalibad though expensive have been well worth it. Recuperating and doing nothing for several days besides playing risk and reading has really helped our spirits and the stories from the other "guests" are amazing. After a brief interview with the Consul on our intentions in Pakistan and some questions about Europe and North America we have our passports...I still don't understand why he was positive I was ethnic afghan..must be the beard.... Our new friends from the UN arrange us a 4x4 vehicle and a reliable driver that will get us to the border [View Full Entry]

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Sept 3 Note to self....I reek, After breaki it was off to the embassy though due to usual ineffiviency it was closed for another hour or so, After standing around and seeing several nervous american patrols come through as well as some NGO workers with their own bodyguards we discovered that we would not be given visa's for pakistan as our old ones had not expired yet, this meant that we would have to wait till october to leave Afghanistan...a proposition I was not looking forward to. This led us to the German embassy to see if we could get any [View Full Entry]

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Sept 2 After a paranoid night of restless sleep...including a lame attempt at barakading the door with the nightstand it was off to the usual place for milk tea and deepfried dough of some kind. Today since the embassy is closed we have decided to head to west Kabul to see some of the destruction caused by the heavy fighting that took place there over the recent years. This also brought us to the Kabul zoo though its lacluster entrance made us skip right to the destroyed buildings. After wandering around for several hours of streets with old fortified watchtowers and [View Full Entry]

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Sept 1, 2006 The first of the third month traveling seems to be a fitting day to wake up in Kabul. This city is surreal in any sense, tensions are always high, foreigners are rarely ever seen and we've become quite the tourist attraction for the locals. The hotel we stayed in was an absolute disaster, though not many accomadations in Kabul went for less than 10$ usd a night. The day started out with some breakfast of a mystery fried bread and milk tea. The owners of the restaurant are extremely polite to us and very friendly. We start to [View Full Entry]

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August 31 THE ROAD TO KABUL..VIA JALALABAD Torkham, the border crossing and its very few buildings was packed with people. Shortly before the bus came to the crowds of men, burqas and wheelbarrows transporting all sorts of goods (also the elderly that weren..t able to walk), other people in the bus wanted us to pull up the curtains, so that nobody would see our pasty white faces. Torkham witnesses violence and shootings quite frequently. Smugglers, random armed men, tribesmen, Pashtuns, the heat, the endless waiting hours sometimes bubble up, and seeing westerners passing through occasionally arouses anger. Especially since all officials [View Full Entry]

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August 29 Woke up early and headed to the passport office, to get permission to enter the tribal areas after being told no after waiting a good hour it was onwards to the Afghan embassy where it took us two hours to get visas even though the system was bloody confusing. After this it was off to the Kyhber pass agency were we were told that we did not need their permission as we would not be staying there and would rather need permission from the home office. After a stressfull time at the Home office and running several blocks to [View Full Entry]

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August 26 After finding a suzuki ride to Aliabad its onwards on top of a local bus to Gilgit. The several hour ride allows for great mountain views, a great tan and witnessing some great rockslides. In Gilgit its time to check in at the Madina Hotel a great place though the food was not as great as in karimabad. Gilgit is an interesting city with a heavy military presence and more of an islamic feel compared to Hunza. After some discussion I finally make the decision to head to Kabul and see Afghanistan first hand. The hotel manager tells us [View Full Entry]

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August 22 After some fresh apples for breaki its time to pack and settle my bill. Start hitch hiking towards Karimabad and am soon picked up by a friendly finn, who has rented one of the classic jeeps that are famous in this region. The drive is awesome with stunning views and having the entire back of the jeep to myself, truly Hitchhiking is the fastest and most comfortable transportation in the region. After reaching Karimabad its on to have a great meal at the large hotel (I truly don't remember the name) it is the best meal I've had the [View Full Entry]

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August 21 After a leasurely morning breakfast with tea and omelets it was too late for a big trip so it was time for the Yangzt Vally. Even though it was clearly described by the hotel manager I completely missed the turnoff for this hike and ended up further down the road, using a rockslide to scramble to the old path, after walking the channel for a bit I realize why it now is called the old path as a rockslide has completely taken out the path that was previously carved into the mountain side. Rather than backtracking all the way [View Full Entry]

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