Where the Buddhas Once Stood -- Bamiyan

Me and my neuroanatomy book in Bamiyan.

up next morning, still arguing with heidar -- no, i don't want to eat breakfast

i'd like bananas or rice and tea

heidar finds bananas -- extremely rare, imported from pakistan

we argue because he peels them for me, i can peel my own bananas, no i don't want anymore, you peel it you eat it yourself

the old woman and her sheep. she is spinning yarn. i ask to take a photo, she declines. just of your hands? no.

wandering around among the ruins

the armed men asking for money, heidar argues, the men surround us and follow us, we try to get in the car and they follow us to the doors and windows

heidar gets out and goes with them -- the police intervene, heidar wins

stop at the ancient city shari gulghula (city of screams), sacked by genghis khan and used as a base for the soviets -- lots of unexploded ordinance; up up up to the top

then back toward kabul, stopping only for a picnic of mulberries