Transient

My experience from Kandahar to Manas was basically the same as my trip in, but in reverse, and without the extreme sleep deprivation. There were no all-night flights. I was able to appreciate the experience of flying in a C-17 because I wasn't nodding off, using my body armor as a headrest.

The Manas Nato base at the Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan airport, is meant as a staging area/transient base for people going somewhere or coming back from somewhere (mostly Afghanistan). Everyone not leaving within a few hours is assigned transient billeting, which is like what you imagine old-timey barracks to look like. Rows of bunk beds in a tent, and that's it.

I got to Manas Monday evening and was stuck here until I left for my commercial flight back to Germany very early Thursday morning with nothing to do in between those times except turn in my body armor which took about twenty minutes. So with all that time on my hands, I got to know the base fairly well. 

After getting everything scanned in, and getting some linens for my stay, and arranging for my travel to the Bishkek commercial airport on Thursday morning at 0430, I traipsed over to Pete's Place.

This is where residents of Manas are permitted to buy and consume two alcoholic drinks per day. As far as I've been told, most other bases where alcohol is permitted, but restricted offer two beers smaller than a regular 12-oz can/bottle. Here, they're serving big, European-style, .5 liter bottles. Also they were serving these beers at incredibly low prices  - nothing over $3 for a wide variety, including many fancy schmancy brands. Not having had the ability to drink for a very long time, my alcohol tolerance had diminished... noticeably.

Across the room at Pete's Place I noticed a man wearing a Yarmulke. I went up and asked him if he was with the chaplaincy, and he told me not yet but that he planned on it and on going to JTS for his rabbinical training. I'm sorry we didn't get to chat longer, I didn't even catch his name, but good luck to that guy.

Also on base, there is AAFES town. AAFES has set up a sort of courtyard of shops off to one end of the base. There's a bunch of souvenir shops, a Burger King, a Pizza Hut, and a Green Bean coffee place.

AAFES Town.

Apparently structures of this shape are central in Kyrgyz culture, and that's why this gift shop was shaped this way.

Most of Wednesday evening I spent wasting my energy trying and failing at getting some sleep before my shuttle to the commercial airport. Since that wasn't working I got to chit chatting with some of my tent-mates (who were also my plane-mates on my way out of Kandahar as we were all assigned to the same tent). One of the two soldiers I was talking to said that he was from Ohio. Where Ohio? Cleveland area. Where Cleveland? Do you know the Shaker Heights area? Ha! How crazy is that? A guy from the Shaker square area and I (also being from Shaker Heights) end up sleeping in beds 6 feet from one another on the complete opposite side of the world! We spent some time leading up to his (and everyone else in my tent besides my) departure recommending restaurants in the Cleveland area for each other to visit once we each get home.

For a brief moment at the Bishkek commercial airport just after 0500 on Thursday morning, it looked as though I wasn't going to get on the flight which would've been a disaster. Apparently, the interpreters had told me I had the proper stamps on my paperwork to travel through Kyrgyz customs, but in fact, I did not. After the interpreter with me rushed off to get me the right stamp, I made it through customs on time and I was on my way.

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!