My TEDx talk is now online. Enjoy!
Big thanks to the TEDxVilnius team, fighting many difficulties to create a highly necessary and inspirational intellectual event in my hometown Vilnius, Lithuania. http://www.tedxvilnius.lt/ Hopefully there will be video of my talk “Extreme Tourism in Kabul” online very soon. Hello audience! You were lovely!
I walked around the streets every day without any problems. Most people said hello or ignored me. Some kids swore at me for fun a couple of times. I was only asked for my passport once by the police the whole time I was there. I met women who went out in the daytime alone but wouldn’t do that at night (same in London, right?). I didn’t hear anyone say they were going out less, but there was a general feeling that things were getting slowly more restrictive. Of course, many people I met were under heavy security protocols and couldn’t go 20m down the road without an armoured car… but that seemed to be overcaution rather than an accurate assessment of the risks. As my friend said, “security guys never decrease security, they just increase it”.
Hehe… The streets aren’t signed, but you just get taxis everywhere and sometimes the taxi driver doesn’t get lost. There’s a street known as Rubbish Street because it used to be full of rubbish. There’s also a few streets where live electric cables are exposed so you shouldn’t really walk there if you are drunk.
Happiness is fibre-optic internet and a smooth chin. I will continue blogging non-explosion Kabul news here, and maybe one day I will go back… but until then - enjoy the archive, ask me questions, and tell your friends.
Random workshops and retail outlets on the way back to Kabul from Bagram. When I say random, I mean solarpanel teapot birdcage.
Poppy Palaces. I wonder why they are called that?
No girl can resist a ringtone serenade and a bag of uncut sapphires from this guy.
The Panjshir Valley looks like it’s rendered by an X-Box.
F-15!!! Yes I am an aerogeek. So what.
I didn’t report suicide attacks that happened while I was in Kabul, that’s not what this blog is about. But on the day I flew out, this happened. The feeling I got in Kabul was that the situation is getting slowly worse, and it’s a shame to get such obvious evidence.
I’m off to the airport… more updates when I get back to the internet.
Houses in the Panjshir Valley.