I had an incredible oppourtunity the other day to travel out to the Afghanistan - Pakistan border. The crossing is called "Torkham Gate" and is located at the famous Kyber Pass. I was very fortunate to be part of a group from the Embassy that travelled to the border to take part in meetings with the Afghan and Pakistani border officials. The whole idea is to start dialouge and improve infrastructure at the border.
This is really the only legal border crossing between Afghanistan and Pakistan and over 1000 trucks a day cross at this particular point. There is one dirt road over one bridge. It takes about 3 days for a truck to actually cross the border, once you arrive, wait in line and do the various paperwork . Adding to the challenges is that this is all part of the "Durand Line" which of course is still contested by both sides.
We flew from Kabul by helicopter and then had a road move to get to the border. Once at the border, the security was very heavy as both sides wanted to ensure nothing happened and then added on top of it all was the force protection from the coalition...lots of guns and rockets everywhere.
Unknown to us, they had shut the border completely down for our visit. The trucks and people were backed up forever. You are not allowed to take a personal vehicle across the border and everything has to be carried across. In the pictures you can see young boys pushing hand carts full of goods. These boys work at the border and ferry people and goods back and forth. They even move people who cannot walk the kilometre between the border points.
Hospitality in this part of the world is a taken very seriously and we were treated to some incredible food throughout the day. I will do a couple additional posts on the trip as I have some more great photo's to share as well as the best part of the trip....having lunch in Pakistan at the Kyber Rifle's Officer's Mess. I couldn't believe it, driving through the kyber Pass to have lunch at the Officer's Mess....crazy.
Great post Son.......crossing a border sure takes on a whole new prospective!! The boys with the carts are something, wonder how many hours a day they are at it..........look forward to more pictures, especially of the Officers Mess......love you........Mum and Dad
ReplyDeleteKyber Pass. That's pretty cool, huge history from Alexander to Babur of the Moguls. If I remember correctly Grandma and Grandpa Critchley spent some time in Pakistan.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the reminder Steve, Grandpa Critchley was still there when we got married, he sent a telegram from there. Still have it somewhere. Grandma and Dee had left because of health problems..........
ReplyDeleteHey Dave: yes it does take on a whole new meaning. I take this is the boy's jobs. Do you they paid much for this? Hey noticed in you blog about Deb's birthday that you are taking her to Jamica in February. I thought that was happening in late December or early January.
ReplyDeleteFantastic......I get to go on 2 trips.
ReplyDeleteDebra
Ooops. Your right Kathy, the trip is in early January.
ReplyDeleteI didn't relaize Grandpa Critchley was also there. In the officer's Mess there are hundreds of framed photo's going back to the late 1800's. I tried looking through them all to see Grandpa Davies, but no luck. No doubt his picture was there somewhere as most of them were of the British Officers with their Pakistani troops.
Dad (Grandpa Davies) was a Senior NCO when he was in the (British) Indian Army. Of course, in the 1930's there was no "Pakistan", it was still part of India. The Khyber Pass border crossing into Afghanistan was part of the North West Frontier of India when Dad was there. He did cross into Afghanistan during one campaign in 1938, probably chasing the ancestors of the present day Taliban.
ReplyDeleteHey Patrick (Mike), Grandpa Davies was with what is now called the Royal Welsh Regiment was he not? Also worked with the Gurkhas....saw one picture of him as a Sgt with Gurkhas. Have an old book he gave me, describes how to properly attack a rebel village....written in the 30's. Once again Dave, pretty impressive making it to the Khyber Pass.
ReplyDeleteHi Steve..Dad originally enlisted with the Welch Regiment, which after amalgamations was the Royal Regiment of Wales, which in turn became the Royal Welsh (2nd Battalion). Dad transferred to the Indian Army, where he remained until just after WW2 when he returned from POW. He ended his service in the RASC, where he was commissioned.
ReplyDeleteHi Dave....who knows, you might even have walked in the same footsteps as Dad at Torkham Gate. :)
Amazing we are all over the place, and yet are very connected both past and present......Thanks Patrick for the history on Dad, and of course thanks Dave for your Blob, as Dad calls it.........
ReplyDeletesend me more pictures plzzzz....
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