Day 1 - June 6th, 2008

I arrived yesterday, June 6th at 10 a.m. into Kabul airport. My flight was from JFK to Dubai by Emirates and Dubai to Kabul by Pamir Airlines. There was a ten-hour lay over in Dubai and I stayed at the airport.

My friend Faisal Arsala received me from Kabul airport. There was no problem at the entry point. Although I didn't see my bags in Dubai airport (I had to pay an agency named Marham to transfer my bags from terminal 1 to terminal 2) they made it safe. I checked into a guesthouse named Park Residence in the heart of the city at the rate of $55 per night with single bed, attached bath, breakfast, dinner, internet and 24 hour armed security guards, all included. This is one of the main mid-range places where international guests stay and it is right next to the famous Chicken Street in the Shahr-e-Nau district. I sat down with my friend to get a brief account of the situation and discuss our course of action.

I took a quick shower and got ready in 20 minutes, ate lunch and headed out to look around. Everything was closed and streets were empty because it was Juma, Friday, a holiday like Sunday. So, we went to where most of the city population was, to Qargha Lake, a famous picnic spot in the suburb of Kabul. On the way back we stopped at some music stores that were open to check out some supplies of instruments. Right opposite was a building where all Kharabadi musicians have their small music rooms. It is like their small offices to hang out, be contacted and hired. They are known as Kharabadis because they were earlier located in an exclusively musicians' district called Kharabad which is now abolished. During the Taliban regime they all had to shelter in Pakistan. I spent four hours with them, mixing, mingling and also playing music. Words spread fast (cell phone are common) and within the time I was there I met most of the cities major musicians. They came to meet me and we became friends in no time. I came back to the guesthouse, ate dinner and had a good night's sleep.