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GuidesMobin Jamshady
Field operations manager, Travel AfghanistanMobin Jamshady is the older brother of Muqim Jamshady CEO of Afghan Logistics our joint venture company in Afghanistan;
Mobin is 28 and has been in charge of logistics on each of Travel Afghanistan's 2004 Expeditions. He was trained in his family business as a mechanic but also expert at erecting tents in the most unlikely places and has been known to cook. He sees his future as working in tourism with Travel Afghanistan rather than as a full time motor mechanic. He is shown here in the Wakhan.
Mobin Jamshady, extreme right with
two of Travel Afghanistan's drivers
Benedict Jenks
Benedict’s career as an accountant (specialising in investigating major fraud for KPMG) has been consistently interrupted by a lifelong obsession with travel. He has now visited over sixty countries for pleasure and exploration as well as on business. He finally left the City a year ago to pursue his travel interests full time, and joined Matthew Leeming on the first organised group from Britain to visit Kabul, Bamiyan, Ajar, Herat and the Panjshir Valley in Afghanistan last March.
As well as Afghanistan, Benedict’s recent travels have taken him to India (to trek and climb in Ladakh and to visit Rajasthan) to Tibet (where he climbed Lhakpa Ri, a seven thousand metre peak adjacent to the North Face of Everest), Nepal and Ethiopia.
Benedict has contributed a number of photographs to Afghanistan: A Traveller's Companion & Guide, due to be published later this year, and has had his travel photography published in the UK, the US and Ireland
Daud Akbary
Younger brother of Khudai Akbary, Daud works as a Project Manager at the British Embassy in Kabul. He accompanied Matthew Leeming to the Great Pamir in 2002 and the Travel Afghanistan 2004 Expedition to the Small Pamir with Haji Safit Mir.
Daud Akbary second from left
Khudai Nazar Akbari
Project Manager,
Afghan Expeditions - GeoVision, Inc.
Khudai Akbari was born in Charikar, Afghanistan. During the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, Mr. Akbari worked for the Norwegian Afghan Committee in Peshawar and Afghanistan as translator. For the last seven years Mr. Akbari has lead expeditions to the lost spinel mines in Badakhshan, the Lapis mines at Sar-e-Sang, the emerald mines of Panjsher, and to the ruby mines of Jegdalek. He has arranged and been involved in planning and coordinating all of GeoVision, Inc's projects in Afghanistan. He has arranged and spoken at numerous meetings with commanders, the Ministry of Mines and Industry and the president of Afghanistan.
‘Gary Bowersox (centre) and Khudai Akbary (right) near Sar el Sang’Gary Bowersox
President Geo Vision Inc
Known everywhere in Afghanistan as Mr Gary, he has visited Afghanistan every year for over thirty years. After graduation he joined the United States Army and obtained the rank of Major during the Viet Nam war. After his honorable discharge from the US Army, he worked in the gem industry in Brazil, Burma, Sri Lanka, Madagascar and Thailand. In 1973 he began working and surveying the gem mines of Afghanistan. During 1976 he was awarded the exclusive rights for the export of lapis to the United States. After the Russian invasion, Mr. Bowersox worked with the mujahideen in developing the gem mines in Afghanistan. This entailed many potentially dangerous trips into Afghanistan during the war. In 1997, he was appointed as consultant to the Minister of Mines and Industry-Government of Afghanistan. He has conducted hundreds of lectures and six symposiums on the gem and mineral industry of Afghanistan. His articles(Gemstones of Afghanistan, Emeralds of Panjsher Valley, Afghanistan, and Ruby and Sapphire of Jegdalek, Afghanistan) and book Gemstones of Afghanistan have been regarded as the original and most complete study of Afghanistan's gems and minerals.
