Swimming in Afghanistan, June 1974

In the book the Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini about his youth in Kabul, the narrators friend said he had a dream. They were swimming in the Qargha Reservoir around 1974, a big lake outside Kabul. I remember this lake as I also swam in it, in June 1974.

Qargha Reservoir near Kabul. After [1]

Kabul

After 7 days in Kabul, the hippies or 'travellers' as they prefer to call themselves, en route to India, were getting very bored.

US Embassy Friday night drinks

Yesterday we were at the friday night drinks of the US Embassy. We were invited by our American fellow 'travellers' who told us about the free drinks, the first alcohol since Iran.

Inside, we thought we spotted the CIA representative right away with his crew cut hair, and started a political discussion about a magazine in Russian with pictures of happy homes in American suburbia.

We quickly got into a useless discussion and felt even more bored. We went outside to the pool and shared a joint, intended as a provocation by our American fellow travellers who had invited us for the drinks.

On the way home, being very stoned, we lost our sense of direction and unable to think clearly, had to take a taxi.

The swim

The next day, still drowsy from last night, we decided to go to the lake outside Kabul. The main reason was the shower in the hostel, there wasn't any. Half the occupants of the hostel joined us, which reduced the bus fare. One of the two Swiss nurses, the sexy blond shy but hip one [1], joined us but the brunette stayed as she was still engaged in an endless word fight with her German lover of 5 days. Staying in a dormitory, we could not escape listening in. The sexy blond one was available as we already noticed in Herat last week where she spent the night with a real Spanish hippy, looking very cool after spending 9 months in Inida. It was a classic cross travel engamement, each going in opposite direction and it lasted only a day. I still remember the satisfied grim on the face of the Spanjard in the morning.

The lake was created by a hydro-electric dam in a dry, brown area with rolling hills and a major power supply for Kabul.

We did not see any other Western people on the beach and also only a few Afghanis. We took off our clothes but all obeyed the European norms and did not go naked, trunks for men and bikinis for girls. The Swiss girl looked very sexy in her knitted tiny bikini, with erect nipples penetrating the loose knits.

While swimming, I saw many men on the hills around us and it was not until after drying on the shore, I slowly started to realize why there were so many men lined up on the hills.

They were waiting for us, or more precise, the Western girls in their skimpy bikinis. There patience paid off, the blond Swiss girl was class, especially when wet.