Fayzabad

Fayzabad, Afghanistan, in the Badakhshan province, one of the most remote places I have ever seen. This is in the far northeast of the country, near Tajikistan. It is in a big valley in the vast Hindu Kush mountains, absolutely breathtaking scenery. This is a German base, home to a couple hundred German soldiers, about 60 Mongolians that serve as guards, 6 USACE people that I am working with and a handful of others. Everything is in German, there is pork served with EVERY meal, there are two clubs that serve beer (0.6 Euros each) where the Germans congregate every night, definitely not a typical Afghanistan military base. Things are very quiet here, at night is is pitch black, the air is very clean, and I have a nice private room, pretty much the polar opposite of Qalaa house. In addition every night at 7pm sharp the beer whistle goes off. What they do is blow the air raid siren once to alert everyone that the bar is open. Two blasts is a warning and three blasts is head for the shelter. Fortunatley I never heard more than just the beer whistle. I have been told that the rumour is the Germans have made a deal with the local drug lord, so the Taliban pretty much leave this place alone.

This is the plane we flew in from and back to Kabul in.

Fifteen seat Global Air airplane, haven't been in anything that small in a long time.

This isn't something you see on an airplane every day. The English dude carrying it was nice fortunately.

Hindu Kush mountains from the air, they went on and on and on.

One of the weirdest things I have ever seen. The runway is from the Soviet occupation and is made of corrugated steel. Rolling on it is a bit of a teeth chattering experience.

The world famous Fayzabad internation airport main terminal.

View across the runway towards the town.

The beautiful Hindu Kush mountain are a stark contrast to the Soviet era camp. Buildings are all new metal and conex boxes but the two rings of walls appear to be original. The camp is very neat and efficient, the Germans like to keep things tidy.

ISAF and German vehicles.

The main guard tower and flags from the entry gate

Vigilance is the price of freedom

Fortunately at no point was I required to use this stall (read small print) :)

Germans queueing up their armored vehicles for some sort of patrol.

View across the river Kokcha to the town of Fayzabad.

View from top of main guardtower looking north.

View from top of main guardtower looking east. The Mongolians man that machine gun all day long.

View from top of main guardtower looking west.

View from top of main guardtower looking south.

A couple of the Mongolians, manning the tower.