Adventures in Correspondentland (48 page)

After years as a suits correspondent, I went to Afghanistan to rejoin the fraternity of boots.

Kabul three years after the fall of the Taliban. For foreign correspondents, Afghanistan sometimes felt like a theme park, divided, Disney-like, into a hotchpotch of different realms.

On the road with George W. Bush in Bucharest. He always received a much warmer welcome in ‘New Europe' than in ‘Old Europe'.

Campaign 2000: it would last significantly longer than we thought.

Travelling with the president: I missed the press plane but caught a ride on the backup aircraft for Air Force One.

More homework needed: catching up on some essential reading in the departure lounge of Kabul Airport.

Flying over the lawless Afghanistan/Pakistan border region. The helmet is always a sign of maximum danger.
  (Courtesy of BBC Motion Gallery)

The exchange with Donald Rumsfeld and Hamid Karzai that landed me in trouble for the first time in my career.
  (Courtesy of BBC Motion Gallery)

Travelling through the beautiful Kashmir Valley, in a seat with by far the best view.

Srinagar on the afternoon that militants tried to turn a historic bus trip into a ‘coffin on wheels'.
 (Courtesy of BBC Motion Gallery)

The morning meeting in the Delhi bureau, with my producer, Vivek, and my cameraman, Nik.

Some downtime along the tsunami-wrecked shores of Tamil Nadu.

Heading up the Indus River to deliver aid to remote tribal regions after the Kashmir quake.