First week in Afghanistan

12/02/11 Finally in Afghanistan

I arrived in Afghanistan this last week and in many ways it’s similar to Iraq but just different.  One thing that is not different is that it takes a long time to get here.  I take a 5 hour flight from the west coast of the US to DC to catch a 14 hour (or so) flight to Dubai and then stay the night.  I then fly a Boeing 737 (charter service) from Dubai to Bagram Air Base.  The charter is crewed by Indonesians where I was served a decent chicken sandwich and piloted by Russian (“your pilots are Yukov and Serge” – really!) 

The 2.5 flight takes one over the Persian Gulf, then across SE Iraq and then into Afghanistan.  It’s a pretty dry part of the world and desolate (as the pics show.)  I then landed at Bagram Air Field then take a prop flight to Mariz-Sharif (an hour or so north) and then land at Kabul International Airport (after another hour or so.)  So I take off Sunday morning and land Tuesday night and travel across 11 time zones. 

This begins the Afghanistan adventure….

R/Chris in Afghanistan