Extreme Sleep-Deprivation

Monday morning we left the hotel for the Frankfurt airport. Me Devin and Becca all arrived to Mannheim the same weekend and left the same day. We first flew to Istanbul where we had a six hour layover. This is not a slight against Turkey - just a commentary on social norms and how they vary between cultures - but Turkey and the central asian countries I don't think have mastered the art of personal hygiene as we know it in the Western World.

I do most of my luggage shopping at the Samsonite store in the Istanbul airport.

Meanwhile, Turkish Airlines has the best airline food I've ever eaten! We had two meals one on the way to Istanbul, and another between Istanbul and Bishkek. We got to Bishkek Tuesday morning, and followed our instructions to NOT USE OUR PASSPORTS but instead call from the specially designated phone a certain number for NATO people to come pick us up. Which we did, and then they did. I was under the impression that Manas NATO base was a ways away from Bishkek airport when in fact - it IS Bishkek airport in large part.

The entrance to the base is off of the tarmac of the airport. In the base are lots of tents and a big supply room and some things there for solders' welfare. Everything you'd expect of a transient base (one that's meant for large numbers of people going this way or that). It felt like Casablanca there. There's the "terminal" building where people waiting for "Space A" (A is for Available) on a flight and all there is to do is wait. After already having been traveling for 24 hours, the following 12 or so weren't a blast trying to stay awake.

My two travel companions left on an earlier flight in the day, and so I was struggling to stay awake by myself for most of the day. Not that exact times would matter to you, but I'm not able to share the times of the flights out of Manas because the information is usable by enemies and could compromise the safety of the flights. Interesting stuff, huh?

The giant waiting room once you've found space-a on a flight has lots of benches and a giant projector screen on which they show movies for the 3 hour waiting period before the flight heads out. They were showing Bad Boys for Becca and Devin's flight (I waited with them), and The Green Mile for my flight.

Finally we were called to the flight. We were bused out to the airstrip where I saw the C-17 Globemaster for the first time. I don't know what I was envisioning before that point, but I wasn't expecting to see this:

A C-17 Globemaster

We crammed ourselves into the cargo area via the loading ramp just as these soldiers are cramming this helicopter into a similar cargo area.

Oh no big deal - just putting this HELICOPTER inside that PLANE!

We weren't allowed to take pictures of our own, but this is what it looked like inside the plane (with a few less soldiers than this)

I was in one of the side seats facing in, basically right where the guy all the way on the left is sitting.

By this time I was in and out of sleep and waking up with pains in my neck. We touched down about 3 or so hours later in Kandahar.

I made it!