Afghanistan & Egypt in the time of the plague

[netllama]

FYI, I've finished writing up the detailed trip report which accompanies these photos here:
https://netllama.linux-sxs.org/llamaland/?p=3039

Good read.  So you got to drive over the Salang Pass in the end anyway    The thought of actually flying from Kabul to Mazar took me a minute to get used to.  When I was a "value conscious" hippie travelling back and forth across Central Asia a few times in the 70s, I don't know if there even were flights!  I was wondering how you'd connect the dots there.  Sounds like you worked out a good short stay in a tough country to get around in.  I must have spent close to three months there in the course of my travels, and got into some pretty remote places, but it was all much safer then.  Besides the mosque in Mazar, my strongest visual memories are driving hours across stark deserts on horrible roads in vehicles lacking anything you'd call a shock absorber, and the cresting a hill to drop into a river valley full of cottonwoods, leaves dancing in the sun against the blue sky, cultivated fields, and small villages built of local materials.  Glad you got to get out there.

Now to read about Egypt!

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Ha, I was just thinking, "This is a TR worthy of FlyerTalk, and one that doesn't just gill the screen with details of the first class menu" so I thought I'd check to see if you're there, and lo, you are! cool. I'm MojaveFlyer over there. Maybe you can detect a theme in screen name?

I really like that forum. I've learned so much from my fellow travelers there, and saved a hell of a lot of bucks with interesting ticketing ideas (most of which no longer work, but...)

Indeed, the wikipedia page for Salang Pass ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salang_Pass ) is a fascinating read in of itself. It seems almost surreal that I was there just a few weeks ago.

I envy where you've been at a time when the world was a much simpler place. I can still recall bits & pieces of travel stories that my mother mentioned when she traveled the world back in the 1960s (she saw a decent chunk of Africa and the Mideast). In some ways, its far easier now, but in others, its much more difficult. If only it were safe, I would have gladly spent a few weeks in Afghanistan, seeing places like Kandahar & Herat. The Wakhan corridor is relatively safe & viable for foreigners, but getting there from the rest of the country is near impossible, as the roads basically only connect with Tajikistan. I was up in (the rest of) Central Asia back in July 2019, but foolishly didn't take advantage of that opportunity at the time, instead opting to see more of Uzbekistan instead.

There's so much of the world that I want to see, and so little time to see it.