India Overland with Swagman Tours, London to Kathmandu.

Mazar-e-Sharif to Kabul
The game of Buzkhasi (goat grabing) is not unlike polo, it is on horseback but that's where the similarity ends. The ball as such is a stuffed goat that you have to grab and get to your circle on the field. It is violent and dangerous with a good game claiming several injuries while an excellent game is when some one is trampled to death by the horses!. It reminds me of bull riding, you would have to be mad to climb on the back of a 3 tonne bull that's as mad as hell, but young men do it with no thought of a life in a wheelchair. Our arrival at the desert field was unexpected and the young men, most of them oil workers were pleased to have real women to impress. We had lots of galloping past very close at full speed even though the goat was going in the other direction. Men are men in any country, they love to show off.	Buzkhasi
It was at this match that a grand looking old man came up and asked for the boss man & was pointed in my direction. We had some strong hand shaking and lots of smiles before he got round to what he wanted. He asked how much for the blonde girl. I was a bit shell shocked at first, he was serious he wanted to buy Angie. She had that platinum blonde (almost white) hair and would be a real novelty around here. We were talking camels in exchange, he offered four and the other men around thought this was too much, he must be mad to pay that much. He must have thought all the women belonged to me or at least I could arrange it for him, it was not easy to put him off. After our conversation I went over to the people standing with Angie and her husband and told them not to take their eyes of her, just to be on the safe side. We were very close to the Uzbekistan border and they could grab her and be over the border in 15 minutes.	Mosque in Mazar
Central Square Mazar-e-Sharif	This city has a different feel to Kabul, it is more spread out ,less congested and not quite so run down. We are offered much better exchange rates here for US dollars and if you want Russian Rubles, you can get a truck load for a dollar. I get some Roubles to sell back to the drivers back home who do the Russian Scandinavian tours. I could make a very nice profit when I get back which added to my pay that was going into my bank back home will give me a little nest egg. We spend the rest of the day around town drinking tea and having strange conversations that some time are translated from English to Russian, then into Afghan, then back the other way. They say it's all in the translation, well it must be because it didn't make much sense to me but it was fun. We have dinner served in the courtyard of our hotel with local music before turning in ready for an early start.
We soon past the road to Bamiyan that we had come out of two days ago and started to climb towards the Salang Tunnel. We have to climb about 10,000 feet which was going to be hard on the old bus. It was not long before the temperature gauge was near boiling and we pulled into a tea house for a break. There were hoses set up that brought water from somewhere up in the hills down to cool the vehicle engines. All the trucks were lined up to run the hose over their radiators and engine until they were cool. The water was freezing, it must come from near the snow line but it did the job. In no time we were all cool and ready to go. These stops were about every two kilometers so we just pulled in gave her a quick squirt and set off again. It was proving to be easier than I had expected and soon we were up high and the temperature was falling fast as we neared the snow line. We were warned that we had to get past a certain point before 4pm when they closed the road, so no one was caught up in the snow and froze to death.	Salang road winding up to the tunnel
The gate appeared about 2pm, so we were going well and soon approached the first of the avalanche tunnels. These are at points on the road that are prone to snow blocking the highway, plus they would give you some shelter if you got stuck up here. We have been in the snow for an hour now and the temperature is below zero and falling fast when the tunnel finally comes into view. We have to wait for our turn to go through and get a chance to look around. Beside the tunnel entrance are low buildings that house the operators, generator and emergency accommodation for anyone unfortunate enough to break down up here. Everywhere there are signs of split fuel, old drums and rubbish, it is Afghan to a tee. There is no ventilation in the tunnel so we have to close all the windows and hope we don't have to stop in the tunnel. Its time to move and driving from the bright light of snow to almost pitch dark was quite a shock, for a few seconds I couldn't see a thing. This is not a European tunnel, the finish inside is rough water steams everywhere, in places it comes down from the roof in big curtains. It is very narrow in places and I'm glad when I can see the small white spot appearing in the distance.	Avalanche shelter
Salang Tunnel entrance	Waiting to go though
At last we are on the Kabul side of the pass and a downhill run to Kabul. Lots of photo stops were avoided by pulling into the tea houses and hosing down the brakes to cool them as we descended 8,000 feet in less than 2 hours. We had just pulled out of a tea house when the mini bus in front of us decided to pull up quickly and my wet brakes would not stop us in time, so I ran into the back of the bus. It wasn't a lot of damage but we had to pay them US$100 so we could get going. This made us arrive in Kabul about 8pm, time for a late tea in Chicken Street before we made preparation to depart the next morning. Abraham treated us like long lost friends shouting free coffees and plates of chips. He was no fool he wanted the drivers to come back and bring lots more tourists. We just heard that Ariana, the Afghan airline has been banned from Heathrow and will now fly into Gatwick, but even there they are not allowed to taxi up to the terminal. Apparently they have twice hit the terminal building when approaching their arrival gate, where do they get their pilots from?. Some one piped up "have you notice the shortage of bus drivers lately.?"	Its wide at the opening
The trip continued