‘The Bed That Saved Me From the Taliban’ In 2018, Greek pilot Vasileios Vasileiou checked into a luxury hilltop hotel in Kabul that was popular among foreign visitors.

getpocket.com ^ | 1/20/2019 | Vasileios Vasileiou

[rktman]

I had decided to go for dinner early - at six o'clock - with my friend, another pilot called Michael Poulikakos. It was the first time in the three or four months that I had been coming to the Intercontinental that I'd done this - usually I had dinner at around 8.30pm.

We finished dinner about 7.30pm and then I went up to my room - room 522 - on the top floor, to make some calls. At 8.47 p.m. I was on the phone to Athens when I heard a big explosion down in the lobby.

I went out on to the balcony. I could see a man on the ground covered in blood and I could hear gunfire coming from inside and outside the hotel. I realised how lucky it was that I wasn't in the restaurant at that moment and said to myself, "OK Vasileios, you have to do something in order to survive."

[rktman]

Now that is quite a tale. YIKES!

[Signalman]

Amazing story.

[Vendome]

Wow

[TexasGator]

Story seems to have ‘evolved’!

[njslim]

Got more lives than a cat ………...

[allendale]

Bit of irony in the fact that many modern Afghans are descendants of Alexander the Great’s Greek soldiers who stayed and settled in what is today’s modern Afghanistan.

[KittyKares]

He was both lucky and wise. Imagine having the Taliban’s operational center in the room next door!

[Does so]

Taliban means “Student”. “Students” arrive from Pakistan after training in Pakistan madrasah schools. (Memorizing the Koran).

[TexasGator]

‘Taliban’ is plural.

[pangaea6]

How did he draw the short straw to have the Kabul flight route? Geez, who the heck even goes to Kabul? And how do they have a freaking luxury hotel there? That wasn’t asking for an attack was it? It seems Captain Obvious places to avoid in one’s life. But glad he survived, good for him

[The Truth Will Make You Free]

Thank you for posting this article. I too was in a Kabul Hotel attacked by terrorists, but not like this. A random bullet missed me by 6 inches, and I heard bombs and gunfire, but that was it. This guy mentioned the crisis training he had. He must also have had preparatory psychological training to escape such an ordeal with what appears to be no PTSD. Amazing!

Oh, and I’ve eaten at the “Intercontinental Hotel” many times. For a while I went every Saturday morning for the buffet breakfast. From what I was told it was originally part of the chain, maybe in the 1950s. When it reopened it kept the name but is independent. The Hotel is on the far west outskirts of Kabul against the mountains and has some nice views and decent (by Kabul standards) gardening and views.

[Does so]

I meant “Talibans”.

;)