Flight From Kabul
Saturday, December 16th 2006 - 8:31 PM
I'd been a bit concerned, the last few days, about whether or not it would snow on Thursday - as that was likely to affect the chances of me getting out of Kabul on the Kam Air flight i was booked on. But i was pleased to see, when i woke up that morning, that it wasn't snowing and didn't look like it was going to.
My flight was scheduled to depart at 3pm, so i went into work for the morning to finish things off and get done what needed to be done. My main priority for the day was to finish installing some 50mm flexible plastic pipe for network and phone cables between the main building and the offices at the back - where the office is that i work in - and also cables to two satellite dishes, which are currently hanging in the air. The trench for this was dug weeks ago and i was sick of looking at it. But it had taken all this time to get everything we needed to do the job properly.
In the end, we didn't really get what we were doing finished - although we got it to a stage i was happy to leave it at. But it was midday - time to knock off and go the the work guest house. My boss had organised a party for all employees of our organisation and an Afghan sister organisation whose offices were nearby. Like all good landlords, she had no thought for the residents of the house - just assumed it was ok to invade our home with a hundred people like that!
Anyway, i was planning to go to this party till one o'clock and then go to the airport. But not long before i left work, Gavin said i should go to the airport now, rather than later, as there was the traffic to negotiate and getting through the airport took a long time on its own.
So i went home - where there were already loads of people milling around, loud music playing, massive amounts of cooking going on, etc. I got my bags from upstairs and ran the gauntlet of lots of handshakes, goodbyes, and inshallahs. Someone made up a takeaway package of food for me, which was nice, and i finally left. I asked the driver if he minded me eating in his car. He didn't, so i opened the package - it was a whole grilled fish wrapped in bread. It was a struggle to eat it, in that cramped environment, trying not to drop fish or dribble oil on the upholstery, but it was delicious.
At the airport, we had to take my bags out of the car - not all of them, they weren't that thorough - and go into a building where someone had a half-hearted look through them. Then we drove into the carpark - the same one the car had been in when i arrived, over three months ago. The carpark was just rough, muddy, earth and it seemed to have been slightly re-arranged every time i went there.
A porter with a baggage trolley was waiting in the carpark and i asked him how much he charged. He didn't say anything, so i asked him "fifty Afs?". At that, he muttered something i didn't catch and walked away. I couldn't understand this, as he hadn't replied when i asked him, so what was his problem? I got the driver to ask him how much he wanted and he said a hundred Afs. Mushkel nez - no worries. That was fine - there was no need for the mini melodrama!
He dropped my bags off in the main entrance hall of the airport - where the crush of people began. It eventually became clear that i had to pay a departure tax of 500 Afs, so i began to edge my way towards the window where you pay that. At this point i began to wish i was travelling light and hadn't brought everything with me. If i'd been smart, i would have realised carting such a load of heavy bags through the inevitable chaos of the airport would have been a nightmare.
There was a bit of melodrama at the departure tax window - with some guy pushing in and another guy being pissed off about it. They had a bit of a debate about it, which didn't make any difference to anything. But eventually i struggled my way to the position in front of the window and handed my money over.
After that, it was a short shuffle to join in the scrum to get through the single doorway into the check-in area. This doorway was being guarded by a man in military uniform and periodically people would come up to the door from a different angle to us and he would let them through before the people queuing. I guess they were paying for the service - but who knows?
When i eventually got to the front, a couple of guys carrying a massive bag between them came the alternative route and the guard had to let me go inside first because they couldn't get in otherwise. He told me to stand by the door, though, and wait. Then he said if i gave him eleven dollars he would get me through the check-in quickly. I wasn't sure about this, but i seemed to be at his mercy, so i agreed. Looking back on it, though, i should have just ignored him - he couldn't have done anything much about it.
As it happened, paying him didn't appear to have any effect on anything - although i guess my progress could have been made slower if i hadn't paid him. The first stop was to put all bags through an x-ray machine. And then walk through the usual non-functioning metal detector arch. I was glad it wasn't functioning because i would probably have had to take off my boots - which have got steel toecaps.
Then, my bags having been hijacked by another porter, i was led to the Kam Air checkin desk - via a "strap your bags for a dollar each" stop. All in all, my short journey through the airport to the point of getting checked in cost me about twenty five dollars. Plus departure tax. It was my first time, so i was an easy target. Next time, i'll be more on the ball about avoiding the multiple unofficial "taxes".
From check-in, it was a long, slow shuffle through passport control. This line barely moved at all - mainly because three passport control lines converged, just beyond the booths, into one queue to put our hand luggage through another x-ray machine and walk through yet another non-functioning metal detector.
While i was standing in the queue, a short Afghan man with a largeish bag just walked straight through - ignoring the passport control booths altogether. I saw him later in the departure lounge, and i think he got on the Ariana flight to Dubai, that left before the Kam Air one did.
Eventually this last stage of the shuffle was over and i was in the departure lounge finally. The term "departure lounge" conjures up an image of a proper, modern airport. But this lounge was more like the waiting room in some dingy, rundown rural bus station. In fact, the whole of Kabul airport feels like a dilapidated and long-neglected bus station in a big regional town in some out of the way part of Asia. As it's run by the international security forces, you'd think they'd be able to do better than that.
There's no PA system or anything even approaching flight information and all you can do is sit there and hope you haven't missed your flight somehow. At one point, a man walked through the waiting room calling out a PIA flight to Pakistan. Later on, when someone called the Ariana flight, they just stood at one end of the room and called it out once. People were all asking each other which flight it was, as there was no other way to find out. I didn't even catch what was called and i hoped what i'd been told by the woman who was sitting next to me was correct.
After a long wait - wondering all the time whether or not i'd missed the flight, or what was going on - the Kam Air flight was called. I didn't hear this announcement either, but as there were only Kam Air passengers still waiting, i got up and followed them out.
We got into a bus and were driven across the rough tarmac of the airport to a waiting plane. On the side of the plane it said "Dubrovnik Airlines" and there was a big picture of a peninsular with a town on it - Dubrovnik, i guess. Of course, i started to wonder if this was the right plane, but it was obvious it was, as everyone else on the bus had Kam Air boarding passes.
Once we got on board, there was some minor drama because some people's boarding passes had seat allocations on them and some didn't. But in the end, everyone had a seat and we finally took off.
The view from the air was spectacular. There was a lot more snow on the mountains around Kabul than i would have expected, and the scenery was beautifully white all around - with just the ridges of the hills and the vein-like lines of the rivers standing out from the whiteness around them.
We got a meal on this flight - rice and kofta (meat balls) and a few other things. I hardly ate any of the meat and i realised that i don't actually like meat very much! I'd already decided to avoid eating it as much as possible, because i don't think it really agrees with me, but this was the first time it occurred to me that i don't actually like the stuff. Well, not the first time - because that was part of the reason i stopped eating it in the first place, when i was 14 - but the first time recently.
The flight seemed to take forever - particularly as, according to the Kam Air web site, it's only supposed to be two and a half hours. It was about twice as long as that - not including the hour-long wait in the airport beforehand. We eventually arrived at Dubai at about 8.30 - which is 9pm Afghan time.
I'd arranged to be picked up by the hotel courtesy bus and was pleased to see the driver was there with a sign, waiting for me, when i came out of the customs hall. The traffic on the way to the hotel was appalling - the driver said it's always like that - and i eventually arrived at the hotel well after nine o'clock.
Checking in was uncomplicated and i was in my room fairly quickly. This hotel wasn't as posh as the one i stayed in on the way into Afghanistan, three and a half months ago - but it's in a much better position (in Deira) and my room had a balcony overlooking Dubai Creek, which was nice. The room was costing US$185 for the night - which, fortunately, was being paid by my employer. That made it by far the most expensive hotel room i've ever stayed in. The previous one was about $150, i think - but prices in that other hotel were nearly double what they were in August, no doubt due to Christmas coming up. Before the $150 one, the most i'd ever paid for a hotel room would have been in the very low tens of dollars!
I felt fairly hyper after i arrived - the effect of the travelling and of being in a bustling, lively city for the first time in ages, after being in sleepy old Kabul. So i went out for a walk around.
There were lots of shops open in the area around the hotel - even though it was about eleven o'clock at night. It was Thursday - which is the last day of the working week in Dubai, equivalent to Friday night in non-Muslim countries, so it's probably not surprising. But it was an incredible contrast to Kabul.
I walked around for a while and looked at the shops. Then i went to the abra (passenger ferry) station, on the creek bank, not far from the hotel. There's a snack bar there and i had some food - a couple of vegie samosas and a couple of bondas (south Indian dumpling-type things, made from rice and mung bean flour, or something similar). That cost 3 dirhams - less than one Australian dollar. I also had a green coconut - drinking the juice first and then getting it cut open so i could eat the flesh.
After that, i was feeling like i really ought to go to bed - as it was near enough midnight - although i didn't feel particularly sleepy. But i knew i'd wake up early the next morning and i still had a long journey ahead of me.
You can see some of my photos of Afganistan at
WillKemp-Photos.com/afghanistan