The Black Flag Cafe©

The Bell Tower, Xian, Shaanxi Province, China, 2nd November 2006



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An Iraqi-style "Tesco Metro", Nasiriyah, southern Iraq, 9th June 2004



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You PMC's and your facial hair. Cool pics, thanks for sharin'.

Atrax wrote:You PMC's and your facial hair. Cool pics, thanks for sharin'.

Forgive him, he's French. My face is as smooth as a baby's arse

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You have to admit that the frogs are suave bastards.

nowonmai wrote:You have to admit that the frogs are suave bastards.

This guy was, very cool under pressure, probably because he smoked 100 ciggies a day

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Somewhere along the Andean high road between San Pedro de Atacama, Chile, and Salta, Argentina, 8th June 2007. This route takes you slowly up to the Paso De Jama at 4400m, before the sharpest plunge down 2 kilometres in altitude and along the largest set of switchback road bends I've ever seen, bettering anything I saw in the Himalaya. All of which was just as well, because at the exact moment in time I took this picture the first symptoms of AMS were kicking in, especially with the missus.



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On the road to Bamiyan, Afghanistan, 5th October 2008



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Another gorgeous photo.

Cripes the hair on the back of your neck has to stand up in some of those valleys - you cant even see all the way up the walls from inside a car, can you?

Nope, but not as scary as the sheer drops on Tibetan roads. Some are snuck on the sides of cliff faces that drop into seemingly bottomless abysses. I measured one on my GPS at over 900m top to bottom, and we were out at 2am on a crystal clear moonlit night, tearing around dirt track bends with no barriers in thick, frozen snow. One side of the bus was almost scraping the cliff itself, the other scooting snow off the narrow ledge into the void. I could just make out the tiny lights of upcoming trucks labouring away far below, like an inverted starry night.

The bus had a chain smoking driver who thought he was at Le Mans, and that was when he wasn't talking over his shoulder to his mate. I just curled up in my maggot at the back and wished I had a rabbit's foot to rub instead of cupping my frozen ballsack for mercy. The AMS didn't help much either, but unlike Chile I was stuck with it in West Tibet. It took me a week in Ali to adjust, before taking another mentallist bus to Mount Kailash.

Fucking terrifying it was, but I wouldn't have missed it for the world ;-)

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flipflop wrote:Fucking terrifying it was, but I wouldn't have missed it for the world ;-)

Its a strange thing that. Doesn't really make sense. I haven't experienced the Tibet roads to that extent (in fact i don't even think we went near those roads you're talking about) but its odd how the worser (i know thats not a real word), uncomfortable or freaking scary something is the more you are glad you've done it. Even during times when i feel full of regret at the same time i can't never want it to pass. I don't quite understand the philosophy behind it but maybe we're not supposed to.

Wow, sorry that was a horrible post. Rotten grammer and spelling etc, i haven't had a bed for 3 days so bare with me

This is the crap English:

Aussie TJS wrote:at the same time i can't never want it to pass

The other morning I spent nearly three hours pouring through this thread. From page one until the finnish line. The jetlag it gave me the next morning was well worth the little sleep I recieved that night.

As it was an emotional thrill ride, the vastness and wide ranges of pure randomness. No order to what came next. Brilliant commentary on each and every image and the subtle, riviting truth as told by the photographer in stories at times.

The best past was the up and down nature of showing a picture of a stunning sunset, then moving into an innocent local child not conflicted with politics or fighting, just happy to get their picture taken for a brief second. Then, a shot of a twisted metal device used for war, only to skirt back to an endless mountin top that stands on guard and peacefull.

I could have went to a theatre and paid $ 10 bucks to watch the late showing of whatever is playing for three hours, but this was a far better story. Thanks for sharing your footfalls and what is seen through your eyes dayly flipflop.

Thanks for sharing your footfalls and what is seen through your eyes dayly flipflop.

Fliflop's Footfalls would be an excellent name for his Book.