I have cleared out my office. About 5 years ago it was all put into packing boxes while building work was carried out and last week I emptied the last few boxes. The push came because the PC Tower has sat on the some of the packing boxes with a wooden plank on top to spread the weight. The sides of the box bowed out and looked ready to collapse. It was probably safer to throw away the boxes and not let it collapse, sending my PC crashing to the floor. The contents of the boxes were largely unimportant bits and pieces and have now been thrown away… Like manuals for hardware that failed years ago!
Inside one of the boxes, there was a small bag that was full of memories, including the diary of my first trip to India in 1993! I opened it up to look at some of the entries and some papers fell out – my plane ticket and a photo. The plane ticket was my return ticket to Delhi with the Afghanistan national carrier, Ariana Afghan Airlines. There was also a description of the flight in the diary. I have not flown as much as some people, but I can safely say this is probably the worst flight I have ever been on…
We nearly missed the flight as the departure boards did not mention Kabul, but instead Moscow. As you can see from my ticket, Moscow is not mentioned. Neither is Tashkent [Uzbekistan], but we ended up there too.
The boarding of the flight was a farce with everyone rushing on to the plane with the first call… except us. We waiting for our rows to be called which were in the second call [row 25]. We were called and got on to find the plane full! We had spent 45 min at check in organising the seats in block for the 8 or so of us travelling only to find it was a waste of time. There was no chance of any passenger who had already claimed a seat that did not match their boarding pass being moved to the right seat, so we ended up clustered round the toilet. I am not sure if some of the passengers were actually aware of the operating instructions of an aircraft toilet. A few were even aware of the operating instructions of a western style toilet in general…
At Moscow, the plane taxied to some remote point of the airport and through the windows we could see armed guards surround the plane. I wanted to step onto Russian soil just to say I had done so, but when I asked, there was no illusion that this would be not be possible in any way shape or form and that any attempt would result in the armed guards showing me their ballistic skills.
The Kabul landing was not quite as extreme as some who have landed there. As we started out descent, I was handed a report of an Ariana flight a few months before, that has descended from 30000 ft to landing in a tight corkscrew to avoid the anti aircraft missiles that were launched from the surrounding hills. The day we landed it was just a uncomfortably sharp descent, when the seat belt sign went on and you were told to stow baggage, it was only a fool who did not. But there was no corkscrew turn and there was a very nice view of the runway just before we landed on it giving an opportunity to view all the bits of plane to either side. Large enough to be recognisable. Like tail sections. And wings. And cockpits. With jaggy edges and what look like scorch marks round those edges.
When we came to a stop, most passengers got off and the air crew vanished! Which is just as well as there would not have been enough room otherwise to be boarded buy the guys with guns – they apparently looked like Kalashnikovs, but I would really know- who then prevented any movement on /off / inside the plane. “You stay in your seat until we leave.” And with an attitude that even I did not consider asking to step on the runway!
The aircrew returned shortly after the plane was boarded. Gone were their smiling faces, knee length skirts and blouses. Instead they were all dressed in the full length burkas, with only their eyes visible. I am guessing it was the same air crew, but it was hard to tell.
At least I could watch out of the window… and see the fuel truck that was meant for our plane to refuel with get hijacked by some guys with those Kalashnikovs. The man supposed to do the refuelling couldn’t exactly do much except watch. I got the feeling this was not the first time it had happened.
At last all the armed men left and we were on our way, to Tashkent, Uzbekistan. This time were were boarded buy guys with with moustaches, mirrored aviator sunglasses and a beret. Oh yes and a Kalashnikov. And no, standing on the tarmac was NOT an option.
Arriving in Delhi after 18 hours was a relief!
Looking back at the trip, I can now understand the concern my parents had - they were aware I was off to India for a bit, just not the route I was taking to get there. A quick check today of the situation in the countries en route we have the following:
1993 Russian constitutional crisis
The constitutional crisis of 1993 was a political stand-off between the Russian president and the Russian parliament that was resolved by using military force. The relations between the president and the parliament had been deteriorating for some time. The constitutional crisis reached a tipping point on September 21, 1993, when President Boris Yeltsin purported to dissolve the country’s legislature (the Congress of People’s Deputies and its Supreme Soviet), although the president did not have the power to dissolve the parliament according to the then-current constitution. Yeltsin used the results of the referendum of April 1993 to justify his actions. In response, the parliament declared that the president’s decision was null and void, impeached Yeltsin and proclaimed vice president Aleksandr Rutskoy to be acting president.
The situation deteriorated at the beginning of October. On October 3, demonstrators removed police cordons around the parliament and, urged by their leaders, took over the Mayor’s offices and tried to storm the Ostankino television centre. The army, which had initially declared its neutrality, by Yeltsin’s orders stormed the Supreme Soviet building in the early morning hours of October 4, and arrested the leaders of the resistance.
The ten-day conflict became the deadliest single event of street fighting in Moscow’s history since the October Revolution of 1917.[1] According to government estimates, 187 people were killed and 437 wounded, while sources close to Russian communists put the death toll at as high as 2,000.
“Afghanistan remains a battleground, with rival factions fighting for power and pounding the capital with rockets. An estimated 10,000 people are killed, 750,000 are displaced, and many neighbourhoods in Kabul are devastated. Although the fighting lessens somewhat in the latter half of 1993, it is still unclear if the nation ultimately will be governable.”
1993 in Uzbekistan
In Uzbekistan, there was some sort of political violence, but I can’t find exact details about it.
And as a final thought, take a look at the ticket back. This was the reason I kept the ticket, because it has a photo of the tallest Buddha Statue in Bamiyan, Afghanistan [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhas_of_Bamiyan].