The Journey...Continued

We took a trip late this Thursday afternoon to the Panjshir Valley, the Valley of the Five Lions.  I did everything in my power to slip out of work an hour early so that I could accompany my mates and get the **f** out of Kabul.  The drive there was a mix of city, sub-city and country.  About 30 minutes out of Kabul, the landscape starts to change.  Grave vines take over dust fields, soon to be taken over by fields of wheat, who subside to apricot and toot (mulberry) trees.  Colors change from khaki, to brown, to green, to slate, back to green and the majesty of the slate colored mountains.  In a word, breathtaking.  In another word, peaceful.  It's hard to imagine war and destruction in this paradise.  Only a couple of decades ago, actually, just 10 years ago, this was the front line between the Taliban and the Northern Alliance.  Signs of the war and wreckage still litter the countryside.  Vast expanses of land house the dead cavities of tanks, helicopters and military trucks.  Like graveyards, but so much more full of life.  See, these rusted reminders of the Jihad have started to blend into the Earth.  It's the perfect picture of the Earth reclaiming the destruction of man.  Tanks covered in moss, or playing the role of rocks in the bustling Panjshir river.  It's almost unreal.  The contrast of rust to green, power lines to tent dwelling nomadic tribes, camels to goats, etc. play mind games with me.  How can a country so wrought with war and destruction be so beautiful and inaccessible?  Why would anyone want to keep this land away from the wandering eye?  Wait. Nevermind.  I'd want to keep this beauty safe from the perils of man and development too.  It's just too beautiful.