Mazar-i Sharif
Trip Start
Nov 15, 2006
1
141
228
Trip End
Jul 15, 2008
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Mazar-i Sharif,
Afghanistan
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
We had to get up at O' early hours to catch our bus to Mazar-e Sharif which leaves at 5 AM. Kabul is getting cold and the Mustafa hotel had no heat while we were there. They do provide heaps of heavy blankets though. We were looking forward to getting on a nice warm bus. But the bus had no heat either, in fact they opened the vents on top of the roof right above our seats. We should have planned ahead and dressed more warmly, but now all the cloths we have that we aren't wearing are in the luggage compartment under us. Arvid's kameez and shalwar which was comfortable in the heat of Lahore and even Islamabad doesn't help much. Irina is only a little better off because she has a shawl which she, out of love or pity, shares with Arvid. An Afghani across the aisle sees our distress and offers his blanket, which we gratefully accept until the sun begins to warm up the bus. By the time we arrive in Mazar-e Sharif eleven hours later we both have colds. Sure it's just a common ailment, but it sure takes the glow off our heroic crossing of Afghanistan. On our long ride we crossed the Hindu Kush through the famous Salang Pass and the Russian built Salang Tunnel; it's three kilometers long.
We are staying at the Mazar Hotel for $50/night. Our room is really a cavernous suite with a bedroom, living room and bath. Our suite is at the end of one of the hotels two long wings. The ceilings must be 15 ft high. It is a huge place built in the 1930 and it doesn't look like any of the furnishings or fixtures have been changed in all that time. The electrical wiring is screwed up and the fuses keep blowing and there is no hot water. When Arvid makes the long walk to the office to complain the three men dressed like cadres of the Northern Alliance who had been there when we checked in are gone. We are the only guests in the building. There is a large dining room or rather banquet hall but it is closed indefinitely. This place is really strange . . . it could be a movie set for one of those European art films where there is no dialogue or plot. There is only one person here who speaks any English and that is Kareem. In fact with the exception of when we checked in with, he is the only one we see here. Kareem is in charge of us. After we settle in Kareem shows up and apologizes about the electricity goes to reset the fuses, but the water heater still doesn't work. So he unlocks the room next door and with gestures and one word shows us we can use the bathroom there to "douche". Later he returns to see if we want him to get us some food. His English consists of less than two dozen separate words, each one of which he pronounces earnestly and properly. He uses no phrases, conjunctions or articles. He will say something like, "You eat, I come, you go, you no go." So rather than chance what he might bring us to eat Arvid said "Ibn Sina Restaurant" which was a name we saw in our LP guide. His face lit up. "You go, I go." So Arvid and Kareem went off to get diner while Irina nursed her cold. On the way Arvid told Kareem we wanted to go to Balkh in the morning. Kareem was really excited, "I house Balkh, I wife Balkh." "Okay, but can we take a taxi to Balkh." "I speak taxi, you no speak taxi. What clock Balkh?" Eventually it was understood that we were all going to Balkh at 9AM tomorrow.
October 10, 2007
Ancient Balkh, the mother of cities, it's older than history. Can you believe we are going to Balkh? So that doesn't sound very exciting you say. How about this: Can you believe we are going to the birth place of Zoroaster and the Zoroastrian religion, and the tomb of the man who invented hashish? Balhk is where Alexander defeated the Persian Darius and married the beautiful Roxanne. It was called Bactra back them. Lots of Alexander's men settled out here and Balkh (or Bactra) became the capital of Bactrian-Greek Empire which we first learned about when we visited Taxila in Pakistan. So the Bactrian-Greek thing is starting to come together. It was such an important city that Tamerlane had himself crowned Emir there. The legends have it that the town is so old that it was founded by Noah after the flood. It certainly looks that old. We spent hours climbing around, up and over piles of dried mud to look at more dried mud. All this mud has a long history. It's the remains of the unbaked bricks which we still see being used in Afghanistan. We saw some new ones being made: wet mud is mixed with straw and placed in wooden frames to dry.
Tomorrow the taxi driver who took us to Balkh will drive us to the Uzbekistan border.
Comments
The Empty Hotel
Arvid and Irina,
Although there was no heat or hot water in the empty hotel, the 15 foot ceilings and the 1930's furnishings appear to have given you a sense of unique luxury. I hope your colds get better soon and that you get a warm bath in Uzbekistan.
Tommy Milwaukee