Airport Security

In the flood of 9/11 retrospectives this week, some are taking a close look at whether we have appropriately balanced our heightened security concerns with the principles of liberty on which our nation was founded. To this, I will add this note on airport security outside of the U.S. Authorities in India (no strangers to terrorist attacks themselves) have prohibited boarding an aircraft with firearms, hazardous chemicals, explosives, radioactive materials, "miscellaneous dangerous goods" (which apparently includes knives and cleavers), and coconuts.

Why all airports haven't taken this prudent step, I cannot say. However, I cannot rule out the possibility that it is only due to their thoroughness that none of the flight crew on our flights in South Asia were subdued by blows to the head with a coconut, nor were any innocent bystanders injured by the unpredictable effects of a coconut responding to changes in cabin pressure or flying across the plane during turbulence.

We're sure there's a reasonable explanation, but also sure we can't say what it is. Google searches for various combinations of words like "airport", "security", "India," and "coconut" proved fruitless. Do let us know in the comments if you have any insight.

Nepal Continued

Oh, criminy.

One takes a tactical pause to do some photo editing, then a long weekend out of town, and before you know it, it's been 10 days of silence on the Holla. It wasn't our plan. But we're quite close to having things sorted to regale you all with photos of our various May-through-September exploits soon, hopefully in a pretty regularly posted fashion. Or at least without random week-plus pauses in the middle. Above, a totally random picture from Nepal until we are really truly ready to go.

Sorry. We really do appreciate that you all stop by here and we don't mean to waste your time.

Of Nepal: Pedicabs

Easily the best way to get around town. Sorry, we're still busy moving in, more words soon, maybe.

Of Nepal: More from Kathmandu

The staff photographer failed to buy any flower garlands while we were in the center of Kathmandu.

Of Nepal: Sculpture

Best thing about Kathmandu is that there seem to be little temples or shrines or monuments or religious sculptural things just lying around all over the place. Some of them still obviously active, others perhaps active but also just spots that kids use as jungle gyms or old guys use just to sit on and shoot the breeze. One detail of one such monument, though I have no idea which, above.

Of Nepal: Trash

We met a few people who said they couldn't believe how dirty Kathmandu is. Which maybe, more than anything, demonstrates that Nepal is a swell place to visit for people who have never been to the developing world before. I would put it right in the middle of the developing-world curve for dirt, pollution, trash on the streets, etc. Exhibit A: this woman who I assume did not herself drink enough coca-cola to generate all the plastic garbage in this giant bag of plastic stuff. And assuming she gathered it from the streets, that presumes there is someone paying for recyclables, which isn't bad for the developing world, or even for the U.S., really.

Of Nepal: Sign

My Nepalese is a bit rusty, so I have no idea what this says.

Of Nepal: Dog versus Cow

Starting off our Nepal coverage with a bang... I don't know if there's really more to say about this one beyond "Dog versus Cow." Photograph taken in Kathmandu Durbar Square, the historic heart of the city, filled with dozens of temples, thousands of pigeons, and occasionally, a dog fighting a cow. (The dog and the cow faced off and put on aggressive displays but sadly, in the end, they did not actually fight. At least not while we were present.)

Of Nepal

We have a massive backlog of photographs. And words, I suppose. Since the founders' intent for this blog was mostly to amuse ourselves, and to keep notes about what living overseas was like, we sort of feel obliged to recall the stories that went with these pictures. In rejection of all the blog medium's conventions, we have never prioritized timeliness and are set to explore new frontiers of un-timeliness now.

So. Some time in May, your intrepid correspondents took their fourth of four awesome vacations from Kabul. I will reiterate here these talking points about leave:

1) Yes, we got a lot of leave from Kabul.
2) Embassy management did their best to ensure that the American taxpayers got their money's worth out of us while we were there.
3) But the intent of the leave is so that the civilians who never signed up for any of this years-away-from-the-spouse-and-kids nonsense when they joined the Foreign Service could have several chances to get back and see their families. You can't seriously object to giving people a chance to see their kids, right? Or do you just hate family values?

Since we had no children or spouses back home to visit, we took advantage and visited cool places that are closer to Kabul than they are to the United States.

Thus, our fourth vacation of the year, we went to Nepal and undertook a trek to Everest Base Camp, with some time in India thrown in for good measure. Over the coming days and weeks - more pictures from South Asia.

Surprise: The Holla is Back!

Seven weeks of Home Leave. Seven weeks of Home Leave. I consider myself quite lucky because I'm sure most honest people don't get a seven-week vacation at any point short of retirement. We tried to make the most of it, which included an almost-total internet silence. Limited email, no Facebook, about the standard amount of Twitter (i.e. zero), and no updates on the Holla. Sorry, loyal readers.

Now we're back in Washington, working like a dog for the man. Sort of. In any case, we're ready to attempt a regular publication schedule again, mostly working through a backlog of late Kabul material and Home Leave photos from Alaska and California and Colorado. E.g., above, from Surprise Lake, in the Eagle's Nest wilderness near Kremmling, CO.

Another Tactical Pause

The only thing better than a nice long R&R break is an even longer Home Leave. We're starting ours by wandering off into the wilderness of Alaska, far from telephones, televisions, and internets. We will be hiking and paddling and climbing in the fjords and mountains. We will almost certainly not be posting to the Holla. Once we get back in mid-July, we have stuff to share from Nepal and India, hope to have stuff to share from Alaska, and will also get back to some leftover but worthy pictures of Afghanistan. E.g., the photo above, which we like, and are 90% sure we haven't published here before. Hopefully it will tide our loyal readers over.

Khuda Hafez

So long, Kabul! It was a memorable year for your intrepid correspondents, due in equal parts to the intense policy environment, the nutty living environment, or the series of awesome vacations he was able to take from Kabul. One unexpected thing that all of three of these factors have in common: They were hell on the Holla publication schedule, which slipped from "approaching daily" to "when we get around to it." It did leave us with something of a backlog in the photo department, which will at least be a start in terms of maintaining something vaguely interesting to publish over the next year, which we will spend in less-than-exotic Washington, D.C. In any case, it's not an end to the pictures from Afghanistan yet, but a fond farewell to the country.



Oh, and I added this second picture of kids waving because that last little guy cracks me up. Maybe he just lacks the motor skills to wave, or maybe it's a genuine facepalm.

Of Bamyan: Fashion Plates

Not everyone in Afghanistan is wearing shalwar kameez.

Of Bamyan: Busy Day

Busy day at the Bamyan gas station. Why don't more American businesses have a bed out front for leisure time between customers?

Of Bamyan: Roofdeck

It's late, so we don't have insight to offer, other than to say this is pretty kick-ass for a house made out of mud. Flowering trees and a rooftop lounge? Sign me up. And I have a feeling they're paying less for this than we'll be paying in DC come August.

Of Bamyan: For Sale

Market stalls in front of the Buddha niches in Bamyan.

Of Bamyan: Boredom

This picture reminds me of my favorite line ever in a briefing memo. I know that's a bold statement, briefing memos being a famously electric form of expression. In any case, the line from the briefer about the trip to Bamyan (with all apologies to the author) was: "The day will be anchored by an exciting visit to the local potato cooperative." As in all writing, excising adjectives is generally wise, but sometimes one just has to emphasize the less-than-obvious excitement of a given event.

As previously noted, we think there are kind of a lot of VIP visitors zipping around Bamyan. Exhibit B: This guy, who is apparently less than fascinated by the parade of armored Land Cruisers motoring along the road up the valley. We did, in fact, get to take a nice drive up the valley beyond what I would presume most visitors see, unless everyone who goes to Bamyan stops by the potato cooperative, which this local resident apparently did not find all that exciting.

Of Bamyan: Beneficiaries

The primary intent of the visit to Bamyan was to highlight some of our agricultural support programs. The Ambassador delivered a speech to a potato cooperative, which has benefited greatly from the Afghan government's financing assistance and some USAID-sponsored potato storage facilities. It did inspire one of the weirder requests I have fielded in my career, when the Ambassador asked for someone to find him a potato a few minutes before his speech, for use as a visual aid during his remarks. Afterwards, the gathered U.S. and Afghan officials distributed big sacks of fertilizer to the farmers. We will leave that scenario without further comment, other than to note that many, like the guys pictured above, were pretty happy with the event.

Traffic Cop 2

Still Bamyan, and a much busier intersection than yesterday's picture featured. But a somewhat more lackadaisical traffic cop. I'm sure people in Bamyan would tell you that Alexander the Great built the columns behind him.

Traffic Cop 1

A motorcade full of distinguished visitors is not an unusual sight in Bamyan. Every foreigner in Afghanistan wants to go to Bamyan at some point in their time here. It's peaceful, it's beautiful, it features the niches that were once home of the monumental Buddhas.

Even so, I have to guess that this gentleman, dutifully carrying out his traffic-direction charge on this nearly empty corner, was paying a bit more attention than he normally might were a VIP motorcade not passing by. Either that or he just takes a lot of pride in his work on this not-so-busy corner, and deserves a raise.