Road to Katmandu
Just finished this title over the weekend. This is a remarkable achievement as I am usually such a slow reader. Although this book appeared in 1971,(re-published 2005), two years prior to me making the same journey, I enjoyed this title & I would recommend it to anyone, especially now that many of the routes mentioned are now closed.
My favourite descriptions are those of the whole time travel aspects of Afghanistan at that period. If you wondered what life was like in medieval times then Afghanistan in the early 1970s, was rushing headlong into c10th century.
Afghanistan: Grains of Sand
Afghanistan rushing headlong into the 12th Century -horses, oxen, sheep, bells & wooden lorries.
Lorries decorated with their versions of second-hand psychedelia. One main route connects big towns: Herat-Kandihar-Kabul.
One side of the road, Russian built, the other by the Americans,
the Russians the left, perhaps ?
Courted by both sides, but mistress of none - her virginity intact...
Border guards too funny to be taken seriously.
Cartoon characters in uniforms inherited from the Bolsheviks found dead at the Winter Palace,
but torn & tattered greatcoats do not disguise
a familiarity with weapons of warfare.
Pistols & rifles rejected from regular wars
find their way here.
Or were these weapons hand - made at home?
One learns not to argue with these men.
Baksheesh still smoothes my way through.
Step into the Afghan lunarscape
- it is a long distance between towns,
towns, where Afghani ecologists re-cycle used tyres making beautiful footwear, buckets...etc..
Roadside hotel, bus broken down it's well below freezing
& too cold to sleep on the bus.
I walk inside a hotel & see
Afghani pilgrims overcrowding floor space on their way to Mecca. A wooden stove in the centre of the room is the only source
of heat & light;
I step towards the fire & the tribesmen stand aside & let me gain access to the flames, we sit & watch each other,
they are all red beards & toothless smiles,
sheep roam freely among sleeping herdsmen.
Some other pilgrims arrive slipping out of the snowy moonscape.
I had learned the rules of the game & stood back to let the new arrivals into the fire.
I had broken through the web of silence & I am immediately shown open affection, they take me to their hearts.
The sun comes up & we go our separate ways, I go east, they go west.
Further on through the Khyber Pass,
Panthan bandits shatter front & back windows of vehicle, fighting the same war our Victorian ancestors began,
don't they know there is no longer an Empire
. ,
-proud to be proud, they will fight on until their death
the Russians were soon to learn this lesson....
Now the Soviets have taken over (at least they believe they have ), Will we see the first Afghan rocket on the moon?
Will the Afghanis throwaway their antique rifles
& learn how to push buttons & send forth nuclear weapons?
After five years of jihad, the holy war continues, with Soviet air attacks spitting fire over hillsides. Afghanistan is the Russian Vietnam,
a superpower fighting a superior guerilla defence.
The Mujahideen believe deeply in their cause
& launch rockets & mortars with a prayer to Allah.
Soviets no longer (did they ever?) believe in their mission.
Why this offensive attack on Afghanistan?
Almost all the Afghanis are in refugee camps in Iran or Pakistan. What does the U.S.S.R. want with an empty desert landscape?
To practice moon landings for their rockets?
.......
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