SOMETHING BETTER CHANGE - One Day as a Tiger - page 100

From Kunduz, we reached Faizabad after a twenty-hour journey in the back of a
truck shared with local families, monks, mullahs, salesmen and military men on
leave. [8] They seemed to come from all the clans of Afghanistan: Uzbek, Turkmen,
Pashtun, Hazara. Most were strikingly good looking. The children, especially the
adolescent girls, were dressed in bright colours - too many to take in, like the lan-
guages and the rapid telling of stories shouted above the grinding roar of the truck.
We shared food and laughed off the frightening moments, careering on a single
lane road hundreds of feet above the river. Hashish smoke billowed from the
driver's cab.
At a caravanserai in Faizabad the entire team assembled for the first time. All the
bags were unpacked, re-inventoried and allocated to the different climbing and
trekking teams. Voytek was determined to proceed with his plan for Koh-i-
Bandaka and we were amazed how easy it was to create a false permit with the
help of our Afghani liaison officer Anwar. There was a shop with a large wooden
box camera. We had a photo taken of the permit issued in Kabul, the word
Mandaras covered with a piece of paper. On the newly printed permit taken from
the photo, Anwar wrote in Koh-i-Bandaka as the objective authorised in Kabul. It
looked surprisingly genuine.
Some of the yellow barrels had goods for sale to the Afghanis and more local cur-
rency was acquired. But at the last minute we were expected to pay a large bribe to
the local governor before proceeding. He was a large man and seemed pleasant
and accommodating, but Anwar told us he was known to be cunning and avari-
cious. He held all the cards. We had enough dollars for the Mandaras bribe, but
not enough to add Koh-i-Bandaka. It was not looking good for our breakaway
group. Zawada again seemed almost relieved that the four Bandaka boys would
have to rejoin the main party. Negotiations were at a stalemate when Voytek unex-
pectedly appeared in the doorway.
'Quick - we have one hour. I have negotiated for the four of us to travel with a
Spanish team going to the same range.' The governor did not quite understand
what was happening as I hastily paid my respects and left. Zawada continued to
negotiate the Mandaras bribe. Voytek and I scurried back through the dusty streets
to the caravanserai and joined Alex and Jan to complete the loading of our gear on
to the Spanish truck. [9] We were off.
1. This was another anomaly of the era. Polish workers have always found a way to come to England where they are well respected for the skills
and willingness to work very long hours. There was a joke going around before the 2012 London Olympics that went something like: how will you
Poles be able to prepare for the 2012 European Football Championships when all your construction workers are in London? Answer: They'll fly
home in the evening and come back to London next morning. [back]
2. On my fortieth birthday I had an unexpected pint with Robert Plant at the Blacksmith's Arms in Broughton Mills, one of Alex's favorite pubs.
The now independent rock star had been to see Barrow AFC play at home that Saturday and arrived with a small entourage to sit at our table. He