Kabul impressions

Kabul, over 3'000 years old, has been fought over by many in old and recent days. It was run over by the Mongols, and conquered by Babur, who made it into the headquarter of his Moghul empire, contributing among others the still accessible Babur gardens (see post below). It must have been an inspiring place, when an indian poet, Haider, wrote in the 16th century "dine and drink in Kabul, it is mountain, desert, city, river and all else".

The streets of Kabul reflect both the glamour and the sadness of the past three tousand years. Its amazing to drive through the city and watch out for left overs from the past and emerging structures that point towards an fragile future. Below are some of my favorite pics which I took over the last few weeks There is something about balloons in Kabul - they pop up in the most unexpected places, in a never ending variaty of colors, sizes and shapes. Its odd to look at them and think about that only few years ago, people would have been convicted for such simple pleasures.
To me its one of the many "healing" signs - keeping in mind however also that the support for taliban and other militant opposition groups is on the rise again
Bikes are all over in Kabul

One of the old buildings, the Darul Aman Palace, build by King Amanullah Khan in the early 20 century. I just learned that he drove a rolls royce and introduced reforms such as electricty for the city and schooling for girls.