....puff, puff....
the time is the late 70's. the place is the Valley of Bamiyan, Afghanistan.
my traveling companions and i are some of the first tourists to come thru this town in many months, due to the recent soviet-backed coup. we are a welkum sight to the eyes of the local hotel owners, who are fighting amongst themselves before we all descend from the bus in the middle of town. the winner, it seems, gets the pleasure of introducing himself and his establishment to all concerned, and we are soon wisked in the direction of said establishment. we apologetically shrug to the defeated hotel owners and are hastened away. food & lodging, 2 bits per...
the building is a fascinating inn; 2 stories of simple post & beam, with wattle for walls. upstairs, the bedrooms. down, the public rooms & kitchen. the wc out back, of course. no electricity, cold showers, and rope beds. it coulda been five hundred years earlier, and this place was probably looking about the same. we're all beat after the long and rugged (!) journey up from Kabul. it's late, and after some lamb and rice, a few puffs of Freak Street black, we're all off to bed.... nodding off, to the occasional burst of gunfire out in the distance.
next day we're up early, breaking fast with lamb and rice, a few chillums are passed around the great room in prep for the day. and a beautiful day it was, a rich azure sky the like i've not seen since. the air was cooler & cleaner up here in the mountains, very refreshing.... our rooms faced off the one dirt road that was the town, so our view out our respective rooms was to the fields & homes scattered thru-out the valley, with the Hindu Kush in the distance. out we stumbled into the street and for the first time saw what Bamiyan was so famous for---the Giants! two huge figures carved into the rockface of the cliffs! we collectively gasp.. holy shite! they are in the likeness of the buddha. (i later learn they have been re-faced, and buddha was only the last incarnation of the carvings--they were known earlier as the Giants) anyway, we are f*cking blown away by the site of it, and started, naturally, to head in that direction... we were met on the street by a local who asked if we wanted a guide to the tunnels and the buddhas. sure! but we ask if he can get us a little local hasj as well, as our Kabul purchases are running low. off he goes with instructions to meet him at the feet of the buddha in 10 minutes. and he also reminds us not to trust any of the other 'guides', and wait solely for him, as he knew the correct way, and they were all theives & cutthroats, and not to be trusted. ...he was looking out for us. hehehe!
so yeah, we hang at the base until our trustworthy guide re-appears, with hash in hand, literally, as he seems to be making it as he trots up... so now we've got a palmfull of sweet black hasheesh, and pay him twice the afghani he asks for, against his many protests we manage to convince him to take the amount in full. he promises us the super-deluxe tour. so up we go thru the tunnels that catacombe into the mountain, stopping often, and taking in the views thru the many windows along the way.
eventually we realize we are up looking out over the buddha's head, there was this incredible view up over the Hindu Kush opposite us, and i swear i could the beginnings of the Himalya up there in the clouds. i was awestruck. it wasn't a view you could have seen from the valley floor below, but at this height it was literally awesome. the scene had the colors of a Maxfield Parrish lithograph... so naturally, we got out the much-used chillum, packed it with that fresh Bamiyan Black, and sat down for a serious session. bom shiva!
and that's one of my best smoke stories.
sitting on buddha's head...
s:.
p.s. it is unfortunate, but these giant carvings no longer exist. they were blown up by islamic zealots.