AFGHANISTAN 13th August

We crossed into Afghanistan, straight into a dust-storm! Formalities for me were in triplicate this time and the customs post was falling to bits and full of Comex people which made the officials fluster and generally waste time.
Camp tonight is Herat on the airfield lying on 'comfy' concrete. Some of us got hot meals brought in for us - rice, meat and potatoes - very typical.
The next day Don and I transferred to the Oxford coach, just for the day and left at 8.30 am. I was the first driver. Unknown to us Edinburgh decided to leave at 5pm in order to do the desert stretch at night. Oxford camped in the desert just beyond Kandahar and since Edinburgh was 15 hours behind Don and I slept without sleeping bags, washing kit etc. Back
However, we visited three hotels in the two days that we were there where tea is 6d a pot and showers are available. We also use such stops to collect water. We are meant to drink a gallon each per day! The Oxford coach had very poor brakes and a bad clutch and was grossly overloaded. Their mechanics said that it was good to have two decent drivers on their coach for once!
In Kabul we were meant to camp by the zoo, but since the land had obviously been rejected for wild animals it was hardly suitable for us! So we moved up to the north west of Kabul to Lake Kargha. Here there was a nice restaurant under very western influence where we held a concert, the Scottish choir going on first after a ten minute rehearsal! Back
The water here was undrinkable so we had to go to the American Information Centre for 400 gallons daily. Even the lake was dysenteric. The cholera epidemic is not as bad as we thought, nevertheless we take every precaution. It is frustrating to see all these glorious grapes and melons etc at dirt cheap prices on street stalls and be unable to buy them, especially since we get a bit hungry on our daily allowance of 1/- (5p!) per head per day!

SUEDE COATS FOR £4!

Everybody has been buying Afghan coats here: Suede and embroidery on the outside, fleece on the inside. Full length coats cost £4 £5! I contented myself with a waistcoat which cost about 34s 6d, because bad tanning can lead to complete disintegration in damp conditions. Tomatoes here are about 6d per pound, but on the other hand, beer is about 7s 6d per pint.

 AFGHAN OUTFIT

I made very easy contact with Dad's friend Omar Homayun. He came over to the camp last night and invited Don Clarke, Tony Farquar and myself to his house and later to a superb restaurant which used to be a palace. We wanted to know more about Afghanistan, but he was in his element talking about Edinburgh and the Highlands and the University. The most wonderful surprise of all was a present which he had waiting for me. It was a full ceremonial Afghan outfit complete with sandals and a silk turban 20 ft. long! I was overwhelmed. As a souvenir it has no equal, since it cannot be bought locally and is really rather exclusive. Omar introduced me casually to a relative last night, who turned out to be the crown prince himself! He came again tonight and brought four large melons for our contingent. Back
We will shortly be departing for the Kabul Gorge and the Khyber Pass. It is not exactly a Sunday drive, but is now certainly not the myth it seemed from back at home.
We stop at Peshawar tonight and although we are meant to spend the following week in Lahore we are going up into the Murree Hills where it is cool and less humid. This has been designed to give the invalids on Comex a chance to recuperate. There are about 50 people ill at the moment. Some have fevers, some 'flu, some heat exhaustion and various forms of the 'trots'.
We have seen lots of camel herds and nomad tents in the Afghan desert, where the temperature was 112 degrees in the shade, and 104 degrees in the coach.

 KHYBER PASS

Well, it was my driving shift for the Khyber. Ours was the last vehicle over that day and darkness was on us at the very start. No stopping is allowed, so I drove I all the way over. We had no spare wheel and felt quite isolated. Beacons blazed on many hilltops, searchlights on others. The road was fairly tortuous and no easier at night. We saw twelve gunmen altogether, but there was no shooting! It is really the railway over the Khyber which is so spectacular. 'The Khyber' means Pakistan which also means we were driving on the left hand side once more, which made things a bit easier.
It was the Kabul River gorge earlier in the day which was most impressive with its hair pins, sheer drops and tunnels. We actually stopped twice for a swim. Back
In Peshawar we camped on specially laid out beds on a grass quad of the university. Unfortunately at about 1 am down came the rain! It was so humid anyway that it made little difference.
  Peshawar to Rawalpindi was an easy drive but from there up into the hills was a different story. Don drove until sunset, which was the most spectacular I have ever witnessed because by then we were above some of the cloud. When I took over we hit some of the worst conditions yet. The hair pins were so tight and the road so narrow that many coaches twisted their bumpers. We were held up by some coaches completely stuck on hairpins, but old Cuddles never grounded once. Durham, without their alternator, were following a jeep on side lights. The jeep took a wrong turning and the back wheel of the coach went over the edge! They stayed there all night until a crane could come up from Rawalpindi to pull them back to safety. Back

 7000 feet up

7,000 ft and all's well. Our reception here can only be described as overwhelming, but I must catch up on previous events before mentioning Delhi. Up in the cool of the clouds in our bad hospital cases all recovered including one appendicitis. We are in a University Hill Station for four days at about 7,000 ft; above the clouds in fact. It is cool and there are no flies, but we can depend upon torrential rain about midday due to the monsoon further south. We are sleeping in buildings with kitchens on the veranda and thus enjoy a degree of luxury. The country is very mountainous and misty, clothed with pine trees right to their summits and tiers of paddy fields step down to the border with Kashmir in the Himalayan foothills. Tigers and bears are said to be about! I, too, ended up in hospital with a temperature of 102. After a three day course of sulphadiamene I was quite well again. In fact I came out of our little hospital at 5 am to take the wheel for the hairpins again all the way down to Lahore. Back
Lahore was hot and sticky and we slept in a stadium, surrounded by fire flies and bats. We came into the town in the dark; bicycles and tongas (horse and charabanc) positively mill in the streets, making driving really tricky.
  We had one day sightseeing and shopping in Lahore. After fresh lime juice on ice in an air conditioned restaurant we literally fell out into the blazing heat. I was with Eileen and a couple of Oxford girls, so we dragged round clothing and material stalls in a chaotic bazaar. I was haggling over the price of a hat when two Pakistanis came up and shouted the poor salesman down. I got a huge bargain but felt pretty mean. One was an engineer in Switzerland and the other a lawyer.
As is their way we were brothers on the spot and exchanged addresses. They helped us shop for the rest of the morning making great bargains all the time. They bought us tea and gave us a taxi to and have a look round the mosque. Such mosques defy all description! There was then a trip to the Red Fort and we wound up the afternoon with a ride on a tonga and omelette and chips with milkshakes in an air conditioned cafe!
On Comex 2 there was a Pakistani called Sarawh. His uncle visited us in Kabul and again in Lahore where he brought us a huge curry in a vast pot. We went out that evening with our two Pakistani friends, then, on the invitation of an American GI, joined the rest of our contingent for a party in the Intercontinental hotel. Fully air-conditioned and Americanised it was quite a touch of the west again. We danced to a British pop group until 1am. Because it was so cool there we slept on the floor until 5am, then went back to the stadium for our gear and hit the road for Delhi. Back
  We were then held up on the Indian border for two hours in sticky heat. It was awful, but they gave us free cokes. Once through, the scenery changed a little. The approach to India is a plain and the road runs for hundreds of miles in an avenue of trees. It would have been just like England but for the heat and the water buffaloes wallowing in green pools by the roadside. All the villages sell iced orange and cokes which are very welcome. In one village near the great Nogla dam, two bears appeared at the coach door led by a ragged boy with bagpipes over his shoulder! As well as the common parakeets we saw egrets eating off buffaloes' backs, vultures and many dozens of carrion birds as large as eagles.
We also saw a few chipmunks beside the road. All the way, the road was crowded with bullock carts and people on bikes and on foot moving in both directions driving was again hazardous. It is worth noting that the population is much denser here than in the countries we've seen west of Pakistan. In fact it is quite impossible to find a whistle stop without natives appearing from behind every bush! Back

 DELHI

We reached Delhi at about 8 pm to be greeted with curried nuts, crisps and as much lemonade as we could drink. Then we had a dinner of curry, honey, cream and mangoes finished off with coffee. We had this on a balcony with the food being prepared over wood in little trenches on the ground. There is a huge open theatre here, lawns, archways etc. and great toilets! Tents were already erected for us, rope beds in each, electric lights and a fan. It is so wonderful to be treated in this way.
We went in convoy for a ceremonial drive through New Delhi and presented quite a spectacle as we visited Ghandi's tomb, India Gate, etc.
This evening we and two other contingents were guests of the Y.M.C.A. They laid on an exhibition of crafts and produced a cultural show of dancing, singing and films. It was all quite delightful and the women were all in saris. In Pakistan the women wear shirt tunics and trousers but here they wear saris. Many of our girls had tunic suits made up in Ayuba for a total cost of about 10/-. The tailors take only a few hours.
Our main stay in Delhi is really from 2nd to 9th September when there is an enormous youth festival, so tomorrow we all split up and go our various ways. We are bound for Jaipur via Agra to see the Taj Mahal. After a few days in Jaipur our contingent will split. People are going to Simla, Calcutta, Benares, to name but a few places. If I can make it I am off to Kashmir. I think Eileen, Don Clarke and Jim Lindsay are keen on the idea too. We shall see.
The rainy season is supposed to be over now, so life is reasonable. It is hot and cloudy in the afternoon and one tends to drip sweat continually.
Incidentally, my short illness left me weighing 7 st 9 lbs Frankly, I don't believe it, but most people have lost between half a stone and a stone.
Well, Taj Mahal here we come! Back