Shir Khan Bandar – Last Day in Afghanistan

And it’s time for me to say good bye to the Afghan land.

Every Thursday during the Ramazan, the Muslim’s fasting month, the Indonesian embassy in Kabul hold ‘buka puasa bersama’ probram, or breaking the fast together. This was always a good opportunity for the Indonesian community in Kabul to gather and have chit chat about life in Afghanistan. I met some UN workers like Aini, Nita (going to Sudan), and Mr Saptono, who had worked in Papua as well for 8 years. I also met a ‘newcomer’ volunteer architect, Widhya, whose boss, Rowry Stewart, traversed the Central Route of Afghanistan on foot in winter 2001 and wrote a book. I also couldn’t forget the nice moments with Mr Ambassador, all of the diplomats, and staff in the embassy, and of course, the excellent food. It was a very beautiful memory with all you guys in Kabul.

It was a coincidence that Tolo TV was broadcasting a program, ‘itfar in other countries’, and yesterday they broadcasted about breaking fast in Indonesia. I didn’t watch by myself but Chayos and Mr Hamdani said the program was ugly. “Why did they only show the slum, people cooking next to the railway, dirty rivers, beggars, they only captured the bad sides of Jakarta!”

People from the embassy might be very upset by the unbalanced information of Jakarta broadcasted by Tolo. They concerned about the image of Indonesia which was so difficult to build.

This morning when I took a minibus to go to bus station to Kunduz, the driver asked where I from. “Ah… Indonesia!!! It’s very beautiful country, isn’t it? I saw on Tolo yesterday….!”
I didn’t comment. I really didn’t know what to comment this time.

The journey to Kunduz was smooth on the Town Ace car. Kunduz was still hot, even now was already October. I arrived in Kunduz after 6 hour journey, and continued immediately to the Tajik border at Shir Khan Bandar.

‘Bandar’ means ‘port’ in Farsi, and Shir Khan port is the entry point to Afghanistan from Tajikistan, separated by the Panj River (Amu River) which had been the border of Afghanistan since about a century ago. But this port, an international border, was a very quiet, weird, eerie port I had ever known.

The village was dusty, with several houses separated not so close each other. There was a quiet ‘samovar’ or ‘club’, a hotel which cost only 100 Af per night including dinner. There was a big building, with broken windows and door. I thought it was a war remnant. I took a photo, and suddenly I was called in. The man was the commander of immigration police, and he reminded me that taking pictures of military installations was prohibited. So the broken house, which I thought was a war remnant, was actually soldier’s dormitory. There was a primary school nearby, also with windows without glass. Walking in this quiet, dusty border in the middle of desert, reminded me to Zamyn Uud border in Mongolia.

Ishkashim, another Afghan-Tajik border, was a busy bazaar. Shir Khan port was a complete extreme. Tajikistan, even was visible, was not that near. The nearby bazaar from Tajikistan side was some kilometres away, unreachable on foot. There was a plan already to build a bazaar at the Afghan side, but it’s unknown yet how many years it will take to complete.

Until today, the two countries were connected by boat. A bridge was being built by the USA. By then, international transport would be much simpler and more efficient.