Back in Afghan Land

I am going back...
Most people have heard that I have gone back to Afghanistan, by the time you are reading this I'll be sitting in the sand box wondering what the hell was I thinking. I got a call a few weeks ago to come back asap and I do enjoy the work here so here I am again. The rest of this blog is a log i kept of the adventure to get to Afghan land from ottawa.

Day One:

6am: I don't have to be at the training camp till 9:30 but i hate to rush myself today. Grab a shower, wolf down some left over Chinese take out, get the last packing done and grab a taxi to the camp.

Noon: Turns out that there is not much to do at the camp other then some paperwork and the travel briefing. That's just two hours of being told “don't be late for your plane”,”don't get drunk”, and “don't anger the locals in Dubai”. All to do now is sit till our ride to the airport is ready to go.

2pm: After a hour of sitting around the van shows up for the five people leaving today load in. This number will get bigger as we pick up people along the way. Loaded the back of the van with the luggage when we hear a electronic chime music. We all looked at each other trying to figure out who bag it was coming from, too late to dig everything out to figure out which one. After about ten min. it stopped, I assume the batteries died.

4pm: Made it to the airport with two hours before the 6pm flight. Dropping off my backpack, that was a bit fun with a huge tube sticking out for my pack for the fencing blades so down the over size luggage shoot it went. Down to security and the airport lounge to wait for boarding, used this time to change my pocket money to American and AED.

8pm: The Flight was running 15 min late and a previous flight was cancelled so it was full and understocked so no drinks, but it was a hour to Toronto so no big deal ...

10pm: Toronto: We arrived late but we still had time to get a quick bite to eat, I only had time I thought for some take out box of sushi. Sat down to enjoy my slightly stale sushi and the boarding time came and went, some firemen walked by and we noticed the air port staff going to the window and taking pictures. The flight we have is on one of the new double decked Airbus A380-800, well was. One of the cargo loader screwed up the order of operation and dropped the box down before backing away from the plane and in turn dropped this steal crate right down onto the wing. Flight Cancelled.

1am: Been standing in line since they announced the cancellation of the flight. We needed to get a hold of some one in the company travel team to get new “orders” on what we should do we ended up being near the end of the line, the A380-800 can hold more then 500 people so the line was LONG........We the travailing group of now of seven (picked up a few in Toronto) are getting hotel vouchers... Emirates have filled every flight for then next three days that is going to Dubia so we don't know how long we are stuck in Toronto.

2am: Hotel In Toronto: Finally getting some sleep, food will have to wait till tomorrow. The company travel desk will call us in the Morning with a new Plan... Turns out its was my luggage that was making the music, a cheep travelling clock from England that i threw in my pack early in the packing weeks ago and totally forgot about.


Day 2

9am: Woke up a hour earlier then i needed to, the clock in the room was running fast. There is some confusion how long we can stay but not too worried. Breakfast was a bit strange, we were given coupons for the meals each with a given value but they did not give us menu instead told us what we were to get, i had to make a point to ask for eggs over hard verses the predetermined scrambled eggs. We got some marching orders from the travel coordinator, we are going to take a flight to a neighbouring emirate city of Abu Dhabi and then a bus to Dubai, still waiting for tickets.

Noon: The same happened at lunch when it came to a meal, other customers not related to emirate flight got menu and what looked like very nice dinners but people from the flight were directed to a table with three catering dishes with rice and two quite bland almost all vegetable curries. I think some one is getting scammed. We have our tickets which worked out as the hotel informed us we only had one night and needed us to leave even if the vouchers we gave them was for two nights...

5pm: Our flight leaves at 8:30 but we want to leave early from the hotel and get food at the airport, We had our fill of the hotel. Got to remember to get some magazines as this will be a 13 hour flight according to the ticket. The last person to the group of now eight had joined us, he was to meet us yesterday but his flight from Kingston got snowed in.

Day 3
9pm local time: Off of the 13 hour flight and onto a bus to Dubai. The Flight was the all economy version of the Boeing 777 so my knees hurt from seats being too close to each other, Got very little sleep so very much in a bad mood... Now on the other side of the world and need to find the bus...

11:00pm local time: Made it to a hotel in Dubai, the hotel room is nice and after the bus ride it nice to stop moving. Had some fun at the bus station here when we tried to get a taxi, apparently cars from three different companies showed up and the drivers started arguing over who could park ware. We stood there very tired after 15 hours of travel and we are literally yelling “Does any one want some money here and give us a ride?” Got a sandwich from the all night room service, quick shower to wash off the days perspiration and dust and bed by Midnight

Day 4

The last plane to KAF. Started the day at 4:30 a,m. Nice to get some sleep in a real bed. Another day of flying, the weather in Dubai is a dream at 21 C. We got three taxis for the group of us, they drive fast here and add that fact there was three they had a bit of a race going so made the trip to the airport quick if not a bit terrifying. The terminal for the chartered flights has a McDonald, its the last time to get some real fast food, I know some may argue that. Picked up a chicken big mac as my last food before KAF, there is food on the flight but that’s not real food by any ones definition. The charter company we fly in doesn’t have any planes of there own they hire other small airlines to do the actual flying. When I first came to KAF almost two years ago the sub-charter was a Ukrainian airline that flew Russian built knock-off of a airbus that came in twice a week. This time around its a Turkish company flying a quite new 737-800 that comes five times a week with another to be added soon.