Road trips - Bamiyan
Bamiyan is probably one of my favourite places in Afghanistan I would say. It is quiet and peaceful for the most. Not much happens here. There was once large buddhas but they were unfortunately destroyed by the Taliban, the first time they were in power.
Some of them now though regret that they never got to see it but their higher ups said it had to go. There is very few roads in Bamiyan but plenty of paths towards village homes and plenty of fields of potatoes and wheat.
Before the Emirates came in power, I rode here by motorbike. We couldn’t go through Logar. Everyone would tell us it was unsafe so lo and behold it was a 8 - 10 hour trip, the long way round through Parwan. One particular time it was 6 when the main road was fixed and I rode in on a Honda VFR750.
It was like a space ship had landed and every Afghan wanted to own it. Even a group of Afghans came up to me at the hotel I was staying with the same amount of money I bought it for which was $3000. They even threw in a crappy Iranian rip off Honda CB125 so I had a bike to ride home. I said no.
The snow set in though on the way back and I was battling ride on ice till i worked out to keep my boots on the ice and become a skidoo.
In the end I went into a pothole the broke my exhaust and I had to ride home all noisy and loud.
These were the old days of adventure thinking one day we would have to out run the Taliban but now, there are in power and foreigners riding on motorbikes are amusing to the checkpoint guards.
I went late 2021 with Hollie and girl friend at the time (now my wife) Aleksandra to travel in the new era of Bamiyan, back under the control of Islamic Emirate. It still bustled with life. Girls do go to school there and women work, the Taliban seemed more interested in sight seeing than to enforce their rules in a Shia and Hazara dominated area. They did however remove forcibly the statue of Hazara mujahideen leader Abdul Ali Mazari have said hitting with it with and RPG then dragging it away with a helicopter somewhere in the hills.
For now, Bamiyan seemed at peace though and people just got on with their lives. It was quiet though in the streets except Taliban from Kandahar driving by to see the sights, do selfies themselves by the once were buddhas stupas and heading to Bandi Amir to ride the swan boats.
At the time I was feeling really sick. I assumed I might have COVID though Anas Haqqani, a spokesman for the Taliban said to the press “That even COVID ran away from the Taliban”. Turned out I had pneumonia but didn’t find out till I came back to Kabul.
Me and
got a coffee book coming out on Afghanistan. Get your self a copy. Send me a DM and can send you a link!