The Deadly TUNNELS OF SALANG PASS S8 EP.08 | Pakistan to Japan Motorcycle Tour
Assalam-O-Alaikum everyone and welcome back to the channel from Bamyan, Afghanistan. I reached here yesterday. I had tried to capture the historical sites of Bamyan in my previous vlog. I hope you have liked my previous vlog. Today we will say goodbye to Bamyan and leave for our next destination, Kunduz. It is about 400 km from here.
I have been told that the road condition is not very good. So it may take longer. But it will be an adventurous ride. So we will enjoy and capture whatever natural beauty or historical sites we come across on the way. Long rides scare me since the miles seem to go on forever.
Anyway, we will have a good breakfast now. As we have to spend 10 to 12 hours on the road. We will try to reach there before evening.
It is 7:30 am now. We will have breakfast, pack our bags and leave for Kunduz. If we reach there by 7 pm, we will have a light of 11 hours. Let's just have a quick breakfast. Today we have green tea for breakfast as usual.
We rarely get black tea here. At times we do get it. Apart from this, we have two boiled eggs.
We have cheese cream, nutella, and jam. We have a lot of sugar. We also have Afghani bread. So this will be our breakfast. The food here is very good.
But the breakfast is just fine. I had breakfast at Sher Shah's house in Kabul. He had cream, not cheese cream, but something else. He added honey to it and that was delicious.
But this is just fine. Let's see if we find a good restaurant on the way. Sometimes the bread is as hard as wood.
Let's start with the eggs. Bismillah... In the name of Allah (prayer for journey) May Allah bless us with a pleasant day.
We have just received bad news early morning. I carry two mobile phones for navigation. One was Samsung S20. I have been using it for the last 3-4 years.
It was very good for navigation. It had my data and German SIM card. The other one I have is the iPhone. Yesterday, when I left Band-E-Amir; Since I knew the route, I put the phone in this bag. I don't know if it fell down on the way, or I left it somewhere or if someone picked it up.
These are just assumptions. When I checked my mobile phone this morning for navigation, it wasn't there. Usually I always keep it here. Otherwise, I take it out and put it in my pocket.
I made this mistake yesterday. and consequently i lost it yesterday. I lost the important data as well.
The SIM card was German. I need that too. Let's see if I can arrange for an eSIM from Germany. I need to buy a mobile phone for navigation. As it's dangerous to keep iPhone here. Anyway, it's a holiday here.
That's why all the shops in Bamyan are closed. I am a little sad. I need to buy an extra mobile phone. That might take a few days until I get somewhere. I can buy that from here though.
But I need to get the cover of the same company for navigation. Let's see from where I can get it. Anyway, such things keep happening. I am glad that I did not lose my iPhone. It had much more valuable data.
What happened to them? They were about to crash into my motorcycle. Assalam-O-Alaikum Tourist Sorry... Germany. This is our first investigation. The main thing is to show the permission letter. That's in Dari language, probably.
So, they understand it. But they don't know how to read English. Now, they're gonna stop us. They will stop us now and again. One stopped me and the other asked me to leave, I am afraid they might shoot me from behind. You never know.
English. Yes. Sorry, could you speak Urdu? No. He asked me if I know Urdu.
I said no. They ask extra questions intentionally. Like where are you coming from? What are you doing? That's why I avoid them.
I have already had one or two incidents. That's why I am a little careful. We might not be able to find a petrol station here. So let's get refueled here.
Assalam-O-Alaikum Let's take a short break here. We have been riding for the last 3 hours. Not stopped anywhere as such, except the check posts. I believe we've covered a distance of 200 km.
The internet is down, so I can't tell you. So we needed a break. We have Kabuli Pulao. Which is easily available here. With it, I think there is something like meatball. Here comes the water.
Thank you. After this, we'll have green tea. Pakistan Pakistan? Gujranwala? Punjab? Sindh? Lahore What's the name of this place? Do you speak Urdu? A little bit. I don't understand Pushto. The problem is that I can't talk to these people. They speak neither Urdu nor Persian.
Nor English. We are having tea. The food was very delicious. We need to relax now because we have been riding for a long time. And we have a long ride ahead of us. Tea It seems that we have reached the Kabul Mazar Highway.
Let's refuel from here. At the same time, let's check Google. Turkish, no. You speak Turkish? Yes.
I have opened the map now. We are at the moment at Pul-E-Matak. We will go from here to Kunduz. It's 263 km from here.
And the navigation is showing 6 hours 10 minutes. It's 1:20 pm here. Wa Alaikum Assalam Yes. Thank you. I am good. Thank you. And you? Thank you. Nice to meet you.
Let's see if we can make it till night. Even if we don't take a break, it will be 7:30 pm. I think it'll be dark by the time we reach Puli Khumri.
I am not sure what he is saying. I am good. Thank you. Passport? Yes, I have a passport. Are you from? Germany Tajikistan. Passport Why? Yes.
I asked him what happened. He called out so loudly. This road has rattled me. It's a long journey ahead. I thought he was the only one pushing the bus.
Take a look... Incoming tunnels. We have gained a lot of height. The road is bad through and through. But the journey goes on. Certain sections are congested with trucks and buses.
But overall, it's good. It's great that it's becoming cloudy. We will have some respite from the sun. Otherwise I'm already having headache.
And I don't think we need anymore sunlight. This is the road from Kabul to Mazar Sharif. I was warned that this road is terrible. But I didn't expect it to be so bad. Let's take a break here.
Assalam-O-Alaikum Let's have something cold to drink from here. Some energy drink probably... It's going to be tough today. We have covered 35-40 km on this road.
We have refueled at the petrol station. We are told that the road will be like this for another 100 km. Then it will be fine. That's our only hope to reach by the evening. Otherwise, it's going to be tough.
As the road condition is bad. I have been riding at the speed of 30-35 km/h. I have covered 35 km in an hour. But it's good. We've got an energy drink.
Ginseng Energy Let's refresh ourselves. We'll gain energy for another 100 km. In fact, the courage.
I don't think I will be able to forget this ride anytime soon. We have Abdullah with us. He speaks Urdu. So, we're having a conversation with him. Where did you live in Pakistan? Peshawar He was saying that it runs on diesel.
No, it runs on gasoline. Just got it refueled a little while ago. Will go to Kunduz now. Thank you very much. Did you like our country? Too good. Bye Urdu is well-known in this area.
There are Pushto speakers here. There were few Urdu speakers in Bamyan. So here at least you can talk to someone. I think these are very old tunnels.
Because their construction style is unique. By the way, this area is populated. I was anticipating that as we would gain height, and go towards the pass, it'll become less populated. It might get less populated ahead but not here. When I was planning this trip, I anticipated this to be the most difficult day. And that's what is happening.
I think the road has been extensively damaged because of the war. And it hasn't been repaired yet. I think there is a check post ahead. Let's see if they stop us or not. Assalam-O-Alaikum How are you? Going to Kunduz.
Thank you. I am good. Thank you. Germany Nice to meet you. Thank you very much. Tajikistan Okay. Thank you very much. He offered me a cup of tea before going. You can see the zig-zag road going up.
We have to go up there. I can mostly see tunnels there. I am hell tired. I can't even sit properly. I am in pain. I'll go this way.
Thankfully, this patch is better. It's very dark here now. Our auxiliary lights are still able to show us the way.
It's quite dangerous. I think there's some generator here. Probably that's making all this noise. Nope. This is a generator for air circulation. We are in the tunnel now.
The road is better now. We are at an altitude of 3500 meters. This is Sarang Pass or Sarang Tunnel. We've exited from the opposite side. Have they written something over here. Oh! Lots of fruits here.
I should take a picture here. This is Afghanistan Islamic Emirate. Assalam-O-Alaikum How are you? I am good. How are you? Perfect I am told that the road is better on this side.
But I don't think so. We have covered a very short distance according to the map. They are building the road on this side. And the under construction road sites have their own problems.
There's just too much dirt here. If it rains, it will all become muddy. Thank God it didn't rain today. It would have been very difficult.
We have set up the navigation. We're only 750 meters away now. I hope they have space. I have no idea about any other hotel here.
I will have to ask then. Let's see it's crowded here. They must have enough rooms. Praise be to Allah . Thank God. After such a long ride, we've finally reached.
Assalam-O-Alaikum I am good. Do you have room available? Sorry? Welcome to Afghanistan . Thank you very much. What can I do for you? Do you have room available? Sorry. We don't have any right now. The rooms are all booked. Full Can you tell me the name of any other hotel nearby? You can write down in your phone. Where is it? Give it to me. Okay.
Thank you very much. No problem. Let's go Rangeeli (the motorcycle). We can definitely get food from here. I can see a lot of restaurants here.
Let's find a hotel. Then we will come to eat. It's quite crowded here.
What a day it has been. We have traveled for 12.5 hours. We have covered a distance of 440 km. It was a long ride. It was never ending.
But anyway, we have finally found a room. The room is clean and decent. The washroom is good.
I have paid 3000 Afghani for this room which is around 40 USD. Because there are not many options available for hotels here, that's why the rates are a little high. I have been told that you can have good hotels in Kabul and Herat. The others are just fine. The hotel we got in Bamyan was very good.
Anyway, I have had my food. I have eaten kebab from outside because they had Kabuli Pulao here. I wasn't that much hungry.
I didn't feel like eating because of how drained I was. But I decided to eat something light anyway. It has been quite an adventurous day.
I hope you will like this vlog. Let's take rest now. Tomorrow morning, we will go to Badakhshan region.
We will show you the vlogs there. That's all for today. Remember me in your prayers. Don't forget to Like, Subscribe and Share.
Allah Hafiz
2024-09-21 23:59
