Kabul to Dubai

Nothing is proving uneventful here in Afghanistan. Here's the latest unexpected experience. My traveling partner Jim and I head to the Kabul Int'l Airport arriving 4 hours early as instructed by our travel agent. After getting "felt up" by two different (1 smiled at me) female security agents (they apparently don't believe in the magnetic wands) we get to a bus which will take us to the terminal. There, two younger Afghan men make our acquaintance, speaking pretty good English, and get off at the same terminal area as Jim and I. They insist on helping us with our bags speaking with various security guards at checkpoints in route to the terminal. Once in our general terminal area (this is not designed like a US airport) they lead us to an EMPTY Afghan restaurant. There they tell Jim and I it is too early to get into the Ariana (our airline) terminal but this "international" restaurant was a safe place to wait... still no one in sight. The hair on the back of my neck is now standing but I continue to think the best. I pull out $5 and a tashakur (thank you) but did not get the response I was expecting. One of them said to me "oh no ma'am, we had to bribe your way to get into this terminal area so early before your flight so you owe us each $40". The hair on my neck was right and it's now only them and Jim and I in this deserted restaurant. I responded with a "I didn't see any money exchange hands" and Jim was just downright mad and came up with the right answer: "let me call my friend the Police Chief and ask about this". The fear immediately appeared in these guys' faces. I then pulled out my Ministry of Interior Criminal Investigations ID card to which they responded with even greater fear. They couldn't apologize and get out of there fast enough... I still gave him $5. We then quickly exited the restaurant and headed to the Ariana termain, interestingly without any problem. An afterthought: I should have taken their picture to really scare them. In the end, Jim and I believe the travel agency has a scam going with these guys.

Everything else from this point on to the road to Dubai was rather uneventful, comparatively speaking of course. After a couple of more body searches and two more scans of our bags we ultimately get into our waiting area to catch our Ariana (Afghan Airlines) flight to Dubai. The waiting area and ultimately the airplane was packed Pakistani's, Afghans, and folks of other origin I have no clue about. Needless to say, there was no organization for entry into the airplane, just a mad dash to cram into a bus which took us to our airplane which sat on the tarmac for an hour.

Let's leave it at, the smell was not particularly pleasant. But 2 1/2 hours later we were landing in Dubai. And now the rest of the story, but you will once again have to wait.