While i was on the plane from Baku to London, the other day, i worked out that the amount of time i’ve spent on planes during my life adds up to about three weeks!
Three weeks spent on planes… It doesn’t bear thinking about really, does it?
I don’t think i’ve ever been so happy to get to England before! It’s a really beautiful day here – sunny and about 25°.
High tide’s in the middle of the day at the moment and i actually went for a swim in the river estuary at Heybridge Basin earlier on! Well, “a swim” makes it sound like a little bit more than it was – i got in, swam about half a dozen strokes out, half a dozen back, and got out again! It was pretty nippy. But it was great to be in salt water again!
Here’s a photo of the river around where i had a swim:
Wow! I just walked round the corner to the shop and bought a newspaper!!!
That’s nothing special, you’re thinking, i do it all the time – or, at least, i could if i wanted to…
But it’s a real novelty for me after being in Afghanistan for seven out of the last eight months. Not only are there shops that sell newspapers here, but i can walk out the door – without a guard bolting the gate behind me and letting me in when i get back – and round the corner to the shop, in shorts and bare feet. That’s not something you can do in Kabul really.
The only newspapers available in English in Kabul are a couple of really crappy little ones and one that’s not quite so crappy, but still doesn’t really have much content. And there are no shops selling them – maybe you can get one from some kid on the street or something…
And that’s the first time i’ve walked down the road in shorts and bare feet for nearly eight months – since i left Australia. It’s something i used to do all the time and have done for nearly 20 years – all over the world. The weather’s not always suitable for it in England though!
I could start to get used to this sort of freedom!
I flew from Kabul to London yesterday, with Azerbaijan Airlines. Apart from the lack of a stopover, it was a much better journey than last time – when i flew via Dubai.
To start with, there was hardly anybody at Kabul airport – which was packed last time i was there. The Azal flight is earlier than most of the other flights out of Kabul, i think, and not many people fly that route – which is why there weren’t many people around the airport.
There was no queue to get into the check-in area, no queue for passport control, and the waiting room (which is like a large rural bus station might be, in a normal country!) was almost empty.
There was a small amount of buggering around to get on the plane – for some reason we had to put our own bags on the conveyor belt into the cargo hold, out in the plane parking area. Of course, this was half-arsed, as you might expect – and there was at least one bag left over afterwards, which the ground crew just put onboard anyway. I don’t know why they bother, because i’m sure you could get a nuclear missile onto a plane in Kabul airport if you paid someone enough!
The plane from Kabul to Baku was better than the one i flew on going the other way, three months ago. It was a Russian one, but it had a much more modern feel to it than the previous one.
But we arrived a bit late at Baku, for some reason, and the airline staff were getting a bit agitated because we were delaying the departure of the flight to London.
When we got into the terminal, they took our passports and tickets off us and led us in a procession out through passport control, made us put our hand luggage through an x-ray machine, and then led us back through passport control again. After this, they had some sort of problem getting through the locked door into the departure area – i got the impression that someone had changed the security code on the door and not told them about it!
Eventually, though, we were in the departure area – where i’d spent a couple of hours hanging around last time i passed through Heydar Əliyev airport.
After sitting around for a while, we were told to go into the departure gate area, which was empty apart from us – all the other passengers were already on the plane. To get in here, we had to put our bags through an x-ray machine again, walk through a metal detector arch, etc. There was a long delay at this point as some British Afghan women (sisters i think, with a little child) were dragging a big blue plastic bag full of bags of almonds and dried fruit, and all sorts of other stuff, which had to be taken out of it and checked. (Their bag had already broken twice and had to be replaced by airport staff at Kabul and at Baku!) Then one of the airport staff started questioning one of them about her residency status in Britain (she had a British passport, for fuck’s sake!). All in all, the whole process took at least half an hour.
After they eventually gave us our tickets and passports back, and our boarding passes, i was the first one down the air-bridge and into the plane – for some reason, the rest were quite a way behind me. When you walk onboard a plane full of people, that’s been sitting there waiting to take off for a while, it’s a bit like running the gauntlet. Everyone’s staring at you and thinking “you’re the bastard who’s been making us sit here for half an hour!” and wondering why.
I got three seats to myself, up the back, which was nice. The plane wasn’t full, but it wasn’t far off really, so i was lucky to get so much space. And the flight to Heathrow was comfortable and uneventful. The food was ok – although nothing really special – and the cabin crew were friendly. Both times i’ve flown with Azal now, i’ve noticed the cabin crew are all really friendly on the flight between Baku and London, but they all seem impatient and unfriendly on the Baku / Kabul flight. I’m not sure why that is, but i guess the staff on the Baku to London flight get to stop in London for the night, before going back the next day – whereas the Baku to Kabul flight turns straight round and goes back to Baku again. Also, the planes are better on the London leg than on the Kabul one….
It was very cloudy at first, and i couldn’t see the ground at all, but we emerged from the clouds as we started flying over the Black Sea, and the view was pretty spectacular!
Looking at that region on Google Earth today, i realise i know almost nothing about it. Country and city names are familiar, but that’s about it. Yesterday, when we were flying over it, i didn’t even know it was the Black Sea! I wish i’d had an atlas, or something, with me, as i would have realised that the ships i saw at anchor, waiting to get into port, were waiting to enter Sebastopol – or possibly Odessa, i can’t remember now. But they’re both places i’ve heard of and it would have been nice to know what i was looking at. Looking at it from the plane, i thought i’d really like to do a trip round that bit of water on a boat.
After the Black Sea, there were clouds again for a while, and then we flew over hundreds and hundreds of kilometers of flat and featureless farmland – divided up into patchwork-like strips and rectangles. It looked kinda interesting – but really really boring! I was glad i didn’t live down there!
I’m not sure where exactly all that farmland was, but i guess it started in Ukraine, maybe across southern Poland, possibly a bit of the Czech Republic, and maybe into Germany.
After that, we flew over Holland and the North Sea and then straight up the Thames. Landing was quick, and the flight was pretty much dead on time, somehow.
It was a beautiful warm evening in England, with plenty of humidity to rehydrate me after being dessicated for so many months in dry old Kabul. It looked amazingly green, too!
All in all, it was a good trip and i’m really pleased to be here. I’m still wondering if i’m going to be going back to Afghanistan afterwards or not though…
I’m leaving Afghanistan tomorrow morning, and i’ve got no idea whether i’ll be coming back or not.
It’s a weird feeling, not knowing what’s on the horizon – i’m not used to it at all. I’ve usually got some kind of sixth sense for what lies in the near future for me – but not this time. I can’t help wondering why i’m suddenly out of touch with it, really.
I’ve applied for a couple of jobs – one i don’t think i’ve got any chance of getting, and i don’t think i really want it anyway. The other one, i’m not sure… On the face of it, i haven’t got the experience they require – but my chances might depend on who else applies. If i’m offered that job, i’ll definitely take it. Needless to say, it’s near the coast, and in the tropics!
There’s nothing much else on the horizon. If nothing comes up, i guess i’ll be coming back here. I’ve got the opportunity of at least another couple of months work here, if i want to take it – and probably till the end of the year.
I’m much happier about being here now, than i was a few weeks back, and the thought of returning here in a month doesn’t horrify me any more. I guess that’s mainly because the weather in Kabul’s improved beyond all recognition – it’s been sunny non-stop for at least a week (well, not really non-stop – it does stop at night! ) and the temperature at the moment’s getting close to 30°
But the beach is still a thousand k’s and another country away and i’ll be very happy if something else good comes up and i don’t have to come back here. I’m not holding my breath though!