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OUR SUNDAY TRAVEL * Traveling in the West of Afghanistan
Herat,Afghanistan -Free Range International , by babatim-13 Oct 2008: -- The picture below illustrates one of the reasons why being molested by the Taliban while traveling in the winter is rare...
We had serious time and budget constraints which forced us to drive around the ring road to Herat where the assessment was to begin. That could not be safely done today without a very large protection detail. It was dangerous two years ago too, but not so much during the winter months... There are no snow plows in Afghanistan (except on the Salang Pass and they were left behind by the Soviets) so a traffic jam like this can last for several days on end. Back then if an international showed up and took charge they could have cleared this out in hours. Working with my usual team of Tajiks we weaved through this mess in about 90 minutes by cajoling people to move a little here and a little there, and at times driving through the snow on the shoulder. Afghans will always cooperate and help an international who smiles at them, is polite, and knows a few words of Dari or Pashto. Being a good Marine the first thing I learned were all the good swear words which helped get us clear that day. Swearing about the weather and road and lack of snow plows allowed me to fit right in...
Once in the pass we ran into a typical scene – traffic jammed up due to heavy snow and trucks with bald tires and no chains. Once again the crew got out and started moving traffic out of our way...
Labels: traveling on trucks
posted by Unknown @ 6:27 AM
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