This is what I wrote in 2008 about two nights I spent in Kunduz, now perhaps captured by the Taliban. What I didn’t write then, was that on the first evening, walking through the streets, I felt for the only time on that trip to Afghanistan very much in danger and that, returning to our hotel, there was a guard with a light machine gun in the corridor outside our rooms who told us he would stay until we left in the morning.
I don’t know why, but I also don’t mention the convoy of trucks that overtook us on the road from Kunduz to Faizabad, in the pay of a then warlord (General Dostum, now Vice President of Afghanistan) with his men holding RPG launchers. I think I wanted to make the holiday seem normal, which I now realise it wasn’t.
“Sunday 1st June, Kabul
We left at about 08.00 and headed north on the seven hour drive to Kunduz.
Driving through the Hindu Kush across the Salang Pass is interesting. The road hairpins up going through a few short tunnels before entering a 2.6 km. tunnel built by the Russians and opened in 1964. It was the highest road tunnel in the world at 3,400 metres until a slightly higher one was built in the Rocky Mountains. Another (chilling) statistic is that it was the site of possibly the worst road accident in the world in 1982. A tanker blew up in the tunnel and engulfed a military convoy. 67 Soviet soldiers and 112 Afghans died. Many recent books describe terrifying journeys through the tunnel including The Bookseller of Kabul and Three Spoons of Sugar. Ours was entirely uneventful. The most noteworthy feature was the thick clouds of black exhaust fumes billowing out of the entrance. We had already noticed the high pollution level in Kabul and much of this is caused by burning high sulphur gasoline.
Arrived at Kunduz and checked into rooms on the third (top) floor of a rundown guesthouse, perhaps also built by the Russians.
Monday, 2nd June, Kunduz
A most unsatisfactory night: very hot and even with the windows closed the noise of a generator below us was most intrusive. As a result 04.15 reveille was not unwelcome. We left at 05.00 in a Toyota Land Cruiser which had come from Faizabad yesterday to meet us. The minibus goes back to Kabul today. Fitting seven of us in and Tiger (a mongrel dog) was quite a squash. Aziz, the driver, Akhilesh and Mobin went in the front, David, Pippa and me in the back, Assad in the boot and Tiger on the roof with the bags. For the first two hours, until we got to Kishim, the road was tarmac and then unpaved for the rest of the way to Faizabad, which took another four hours.
As yesterday, there were the rusting remains of Russian tanks strewn by the road and we passed Afghan soldiers clearing mines. Houses and walls along the way were often painted with The Halo Trust logo. For much of the way we drove along the south bank of the Kokcha River, going upstream. The river contains gold and panning for it continues now. Views of the mountain ridges to the north were spectacular, the precipitous views down to the river below us, worrying. Last Wednesday a truck carrying 70 nomads went over the edge near Faizabad. Fourteen people were killed and 50 injured.
Wednesday, 11th June, Faizabad
Left at 05.20 for the drive back to Kunduz. We were stopped in a small village where a convoy of Border Patrol vehicles, blue lights flashing, were drawn up.The typically heavily armed border police were having breakfast on the verandah of a chaikhana and, not wanting to risk a drive-by shooting, stopped all the traffic. Only after joining them for green tea did it occur to me that it might have been safer to stay well clear but they were friendly and curious about us. The language thing stopped much communication and even Urdu didn’t help much.
Later we had a puncture and the car started to play up, not starting and chugging jerkily up hills. We got to Kunduz at 14.00 and Pippa inspected three thoroughly unsatisfactory places to stay before, thanks to Lonely Planet, we went to a guesthouse owned by a German, from near Liepzig, called Frank Herzig. Gratifyingly Mobin was frisked before he was allowed to enter.
Frank said that he has been here for 2 ½ years and that he gives German lessons. He said that Kunduz has become much more difficult and it is not advisable to go out after dark. Even in the daytime he advised caution. The others want to explore the town and I was relieved when Frank arranged for a motorised rickshaw to drive us round with one of the boys from the guesthouse acting as guide. It proved a good way of seeing what there was to see, not much. By far the most interesting sight was on the other side of the road from 7 Days Guesthouse. A mosque, that looks maybe 19th century, with a large garden, a madrassa and an older looking gatehouse. We walked around the garden but were not allowed into the mosque. Kunduz is a Pashtun enclave and westerners are not welcome.
We gathered for drinks in the garden. The last of the Tajik vodka and tonic, garnished with cucumber, followed by cans of Russian beer that Frank found for us in the market and delivered in a cool box filled with iced water. We met three engineers (one English and two Nepalese) working on an irrigation project. They are making slow progress as first they have to clear the area of mines.
Thursday, 12th June, 7 Days Guesthouse, Kunduz
Up at 07.00 for an excellent breakfast with the engineers. Green tea, coffee, yogurt, boiled eggs, etc. Hasim, the boy who showed us round yesterday and went out for the beer, very pleased with $5 tip. Nigel, the bearded English engineer who lives in the Algarve and Zambia, expects it to reach 44 C in Kunduz today. It will go above 50 C later in the summer.”
I am reminded of Lord Trimingham (Edward Fox) tapping the thermometer in The Go-Between.
