Afghanistan Travel Guide

By any stretch of the imagination, Afghanistan isn't the simplest country
to travel in. For the visitor, it's a world away from backpacking in Thailand
or island-hopping in Greece. It's a country recovering from nearly three
decades of war, with a host of continuing problems. You'll need to invest
time getting the latest safety information, and news from other travellers
or colleagues working in the country.
But with the right preparations, and a constant ear to the ground once
you're there, travel in Afghanistan is not only a possibility but also incred-
ibly rewarding. The post-Taliban scene has brought investment to the
country for the first time in years, and the logistics of getting around and
finding somewhere to stay has become increasingly straightforward. Not
only that, it's an addictive country to visit. Once in Afghanistan, there's
something about the people, the history and even the air that can get in
your blood and promise to draw you back again. Do your research, and
you'll find Afghanistan a truly rewarding country.

Assuming that the political climate allows you to make a trip, the most
pleasant time to explore Afghanistan is spring or autumn, in particular
April to early June and September through October. In spring, north Af-
ghanistan turns from dusty ochre to bright green, as the desert and hills
spring into life and are studded with blooms of flowers. Autumn is harvest
time and brings the best of the Afghan fruit - melons from the north,
grapes from the Shomali Plain and fat pomegranates from Kandahar.
Summers can be blisteringly hot at lower altitudes, with cities like
Herat, Mazar-e Sharif, Jalalabad and Kandahar sweltering in tempera-
tures topping 40°C. The mountains mitigate this heatwave, and Kabul,
Bamiyan and Faizabad are all more manageable at this time, and their
altitude blesses them with deliciously cooler nights. June to September
is the best time to head to the higher mountains - much of Badakhshan
(including the Wakhan Corridor) is inaccessible for the rest of the year
due to snow. The white stuff can also make crossing central Afghanistan
to the Minaret of Jam extremely difficult outside these months, as roads
and high passes close for the winter. Even the Salang Pass, the main ar-
tery between north and south Afghanistan, experiences avalanches and
blockages a few times every winter.
Winter is harsh across the country barring the extreme south, with
temperatures sitting below zero and heavy snow in Kabul and elsewhere.
The spring melt can bring trouble of its own, with frequent floods wash-
ing out poorly maintained roads.
At the end of winter, everyone looks forward to Nauroz on 21 March,
the Afghan New Year celebrations. This can be a joyous time to visit
the country, and one of the best times to see the national sport, buz-
kashi ( p57 ). Conversely, the month-long fast of Ramazan (Ramadan;
p203 ) can be a trying time to be on the road, as restaurants and tea-
houses are closed during the day, and frequently shut up shop for the
entire month.

Afghanistan is by turn both an incredibly cheap and very expensive coun-
try to travel in. While the daily costs of eating, drinking and travelling
by local transport are relatively low, the cost of accommodation can be
high, and travelling by private vehicle very expensive. The large influx of
foreign workers with large expense accounts and an economy reliant on
imported goods has produced a two-tier system, where dual pricing for
locals and foreigners is not uncommon. Payment in US dollars is almost
as universally accepted as payment in afghanis.
Roughly speaking, if you opt for the simplest hotels, eat only in local
restaurants and at street food stands (and avoid imported groceries,
which are available in most towns), and travel only using local transport;
you can get by on around 1000Afg to 1200Afg per day.
If you've been roughing it and need a night in a comfier bed, or a break
from an endless diet of kebabs and rice, a single room at a midrange hotel
ranges from 1500Afg to 3000Afg per night. Many places charge a flat rate
for the room, so sharing a double can cut costs considerably. Kabul is the
most expensive place in the country, and a midrange room can cost up
to 4000Afg. Top end hotels - almost all of these are in the capital - cost
upwards of this, to around 6000Afg. The recent boom in hotel build-
ing in Kabul means that many top end places frequently offer generous
discounts, which can bring their rates down to the midrange, so don't be
shy about asking. Discounted rates are frequently available for long-term
occupancy.
For more details on money issues, see p206 .

It's easy to get swept up in the hectic atmosphere of Kabul ( p79 ), a city
struggling through the birth pangs of recovery. There's an enormous
amount to check out - the battered but recently reopened Kabul Mu-
seum, the wonderfully restored Babur's Gardens and the OMAR Land-
mine Museum. Take time to experience some of the more traditional
corners too, such as the birdsellers of Ka Faroshi and the hustle of Man-
dayi Market along Kabul River. If you're lucky, you might be in time for
a kite-flying festival or a winter game of buzkashi - Afghan polo, played
with a dead goat. A walk along the old city walls can bring some welcome
relief from Kabul's infamous bad air.
For real refreshment, get out of the city. A short drive north across
the Shomali Plain will bring you to the traditional mountain village of
Istalif ( p107 ). The village is famous for its rustic pottery - a great sou-
venir. Don't forget to stop to buy sweet grapes from roadside sellers on
the Shomali Plain. Carrying along the same road, switch northeast as
the mountains rise to enter the Panjshir Valley ( p110 ). Panjshir was home
to the legendary mujaheddin commander Ahmad Shah Massoud, who
never allowed it to be captured by the Soviets or the Taliban; his grave
lies halfway up the valley.
Closer to home, Qargha Lake ( p108 ) is a popular picnic getaway for
Kabulis. You can even tee off here for a round at the Kabul Golf Club.
The damaged model village of Paghman ( p108 ) is nearby - battered but
green, and with tremendous views that are worth a detour.

Foreign writers have frequently turned to romantic clichés when writing
about Afghans. They are portrayed as fiercely proud, lavishly hospitable
to guests yet always ready to pick up their rifles to defend what is theirs,
and with a streak of defiant independence that renders the country un-
governable. Like all clichés, these have some basis in fact, but the truth
is more complex.
Afghans are a naturally conservative people, and deeply religious. Their
independence comes from the harshness of the country, where arable
land is at a premium and the difficulties of the terrain has promoted
self-reliance and inhibited the formation of strong central governments.
As a result, power has devolved down to the tribe, village and - central
to Afghan life - the family. The household and the mosque are the
cornerstones of community.
Travellers have always remarked on Afghan hospitality, derived from
the tenets of Islam and tribal codes such as Pashtunwali ( p44 ). Even today,
showing hospitality to a guest is a point of honour, down to the poorest
Afghan who will offer tea even if they can ill afford it. This is a mani-
festation of Islam that gets to the heart of traditional Afghan tolerance,
and a world away from the insular and zealous strains of Islam imported
into Afghanistan since the Soviet invasion.
The experience of war has greatly damaged Afghan society. Nearly
a quarter of the population fled the country, where years in refugee
camps in Pakistan, or in exile in other countries, has fractured tradi-
tions and ties to the land. Many recent returnees have headed for the
cities in search of work, rather than return to their home villages. Civil
war helped further split the country along ethnic lines, and post-conflict
reconciliation continues to be a painfully slow process. Many warlords
retain political power and sit in parliament, despite an official prohibition during elections. Despite donning democratic clothes, many Afghans see
this is as a sham: ' - warlords are and
remain warlords.

The Afghan economy is largely based on subsistence agriculture. The
main crops are wheat and soft fruit, with a similar importance placed
on raising livestock. At the end of 2001, the economy was at a stand-
still, wracked by several years of drought, and an international embargo
against the Taliban. In the intervening years, a flood of aid money and
investment has entered the country, prompting economic growth rates
in double figures - a boom that was only just starting to slow as we went
to press. Pakistan, Iran, India and the UAE are all important trading
partners.
For all this, growth in the formal economy has been massively over-
shadowed by Afghanistan's production and export of opium. The country
produces over 90% of heroin sold in the UK. Helmand and Badakhshan
are the major poppy growing areas: if Helmand was a separate country,
it would still be the biggest exporter of opium in the world (see boxed
text, p196 ). Tackling opium production, which funds the resurgent Tali-
ban and contributes to systematic corruption at all levels of government,
remains a key issue in Afghan reconstruction.
Since the break-up of the Soviet Union, Afghanistan has been touted as
a transit route for oil and natural gas pipelines from Central Asia to the
Arabian Sea. Governments and oil companies have signed memoranda
of understanding with a succession of regimes in Kabul (at one point Taliban representatives were even flown to Texas for talks) but continued
instability keeps plans firmly on the drawing board. Afghanistan itself
has small natural gas deposits in the north, which are yet to be fully
exploited.

Afghanistan's rich mix of over 20 ethnic groups reflects its geographi-
cal and historical position as the crossroads of Asia. Successive waves
of people have invaded and settled in the country, while others left to
conquer or settle neighbouring countries. The result is a patchwork of
nationalities that spills over Afghanistan's borders at every point, into
Pakistan, Iran and Central Asia - relatively few ethnic groups are con-
tained entirely inside Afghanistan.
While the concept of an Afghan nationality is a very real one, decades
of war has enflamed ethnic divisions. Population flight in the form of
the refugee crisis has further fractured traditional ethnic and power bal-
ances in the country. Reliable population data are hard to come by in
Afghanistan, although a limited census was carried out in 2003 to aid
planning reconstruction.

The mention of Afghanistan's second-largest
city conjures up a collage of terrorist train-
ing camps, rugged terrain, warlords, nar-
cotics, fierce tribes and the War on Terror.
Its strategic and political importance is un-
derstood by the Pashtun proverb: 'Control
Kandahar and you'll control Afghanistan'.
This was a lesson that Alexander the Great,
Genghis Khan and even the Russians failed
to learn. Unfortunately since the fall of the Taliban in 2001, the security situation
in the city and surrounding areas has dete-
riorated significantly to the point where
there was an average of one suicide bomb-
ing a week in 2006. Although the current
players, Afghan and international, under-
stand the significance of controlling Kanda-
har this Holy Grail continues to elude them.
Despite the violence surrounding them
the Kandaharis continue their daily lives, al-
beit lived with restrictions and a level of fear.
Women continue to be the most affected -
few women are seen in public on the streets
of Kandahar and if ever you do see one the
majority will be wearing the nylon burqa.
Life for the women of Kandahar is invariably
lived behind the high walls of their family
compounds with few girls being given per-
mission to attend school still, despite reports
in the media extolling the liberation of girls
since the arrival of democracy.
Older Kandaharis will tell you about the
times before the Russian invasion, when
they hosted hippies taking the overland
trail in the guesthouses that lined the streets
around Chowk-e Shaheedan. Although it
may be some time before Kandahar is ready
for independent travellers again, it is clear
that the NGO, international organisation
and contractor communities are desperately
needed to improve the lives of Kandaharis.
Although millions of aid dollars have been
spent in the area, insecurity and corruption
have prevented it reaching many people.In years to come there is no doubt that
travellers will enjoy views over Kandahar
from the Forty Steps, Pashtun hospitality at
picnics in the Arghandab Valley and visits
to the Mosque of the Sacred Cloak.

Generally Southern Afghanistan is the roasting oven of the country with its expansive deserts and dry cities reaching to and beyond 50°C every summer. The northern
reaches of the south including Oruzgan and Ghazni are the exception where the climate
is much cooler with heavy snows from December to March. The best time to visit is
April to June or September to November, when the large skies are sunny and clear
and there is colour in the few trees but the temperatures are neither of the extremes
felt in winter or summer.

Dari is so similar to Farsi (the language of Iran) that even Afghanis will often refer to
it as Farsi. The principal difference between the two is that Farsi contains more loan
words from Arabic and Turkish.Dari is an Indo-Iranian language and a member of the Indo-European language family. While it is written in Arabic script, and runs from right to left, it isn't related to Arabic at all. For a more comprehensive guide to the language, pick up a copy of Lonely Planet's Farsi Phrasebook. Pashto is the speech of the Pashtuns across southern and eastern Afghanistan, and Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province and Baluchistan. Though there are some regional differences in pronuncation between
the Swati and Afghan dialects (eg the northerners call themselves Pakhtun, the southerners Pashtun), this is still the lingua franca from the Indus to Kabul. For a more
detailed coverage of Pashto, get a copy of Lonely Planet's Central Asia Phrasebook.

Bamiyan sits at the heart of the Hazarajat in a wide valley braided with mountain rivers
and is one of the poorest yet most beautiful parts of Afghanistan. Once a major centre for Buddhist pilgrimage, modern Bamiyan is now more closely associated with the de-
struction visited on Afghanistan's culture by war. The two giant statues of Buddha that
once dominated the valley now lie in rubble, victims of the Taliban's iconoclastic rage.
Despite this, the Bamiyan valley still holds a powerful draw over the imagination. It was
made a World Heritage site in 2003 for its cultural landscape and is a must-see for any visitor to Afghanistan. While isolated today, it wasn't always so. Bamiyan was once an important way station on the Silk Road. Trade and pilgrims flocked to its temples and in return Bami-yan exported its art - a synthesis of Greek, Persian and Indian art that had amajor influence on Buddhist iconography as far afield as China. Centuries later, Bamiyanbecame the focus of Afghanistan's nascent tourist industry, as visitors came to redis-cover its past glories and gaze in awe at the monumental Buddha statues carvedfrom
its cliffs.War brought an end to that. Initially iso-lated from the fighting, Bamiyan suffered terribly under the ideological fervour of the Taliban, whose anti-Shiite doctrines drove ethnic massacres as well as the smashing of idols.

Perhaps more than any other city in Af-ghanistan, Herat speaks of the country's position at the heart of the Silk Road. At the crossroads of trade routes leading to the Middle East, Central Asia and India, Herat has often been coveted by neighbouring powers as a valuableprize. It has flourished throughout history as a rich city-state, a centre of learning and commerce and even one-time capital of the Timurid empire. Such history has given the city a cultured air of independence that can sometimes make Kabul seem a long way away. In the 1970s, Herat was a popular stop on the Hippy Trail for its relaxed air, and rightly so. Herat's place in history has often been overlooked in favour of Samarkand and Bukhara, but its inhabitants are proud of their past and the city's reputation as
a place of culture. Although many of the monuments to Herat's glorious past are in
a sorry state, ruined by British and Russian invaders, the city is still the most rewarding
sightseeing location in Afghanistan. With its Friday Mosque the city still possesses
one of the greatest buildings in the Islamic world, while the Old City is one of the
few in Afghanistan to retain its medieval street plan.
Herat's post-Taliban recovery has been less rocky than other parts of the country,
due in no small part to the customs revenues from trade with nearby Iran. Visitors
coming from Kabul will instantly notice the difference: a reliable power supply, street-
lights and public parks. Although street crime can occasionally be a problem, it sud-
denly seems remarkable to see families out on the streets at 10pm going to ice-cream parlours. things haven't been a bed of roses, however. Despite his removal by Hamid Kar-
zai, Herat's longtime 'amir' Ismail Khan continues to dominate the city's political andeconomic scene, and the city's links to neighbouring Iran play an important role.
The insecurity along the Herat-Kandahar highway occasionally ripples back to the
city, although the presence of an Italian-led PRT has generally been well received.

Jalalabad, Afghanistan's largest eastern city and the capital of Nangahar province, lies
roughly equidistant between Kabul and the akistan border at Torkham. It sits in the lee
of the Safed Koh Mountains in a fertile plain watered by the Kabul river. Compared to the
capital it's something of a green oasis, warm in winter but hot and sticky in summer.
The winter climate meant that Jalalabad was a popular retreat for Afghan rulers since
it was founded by the Mughal emperor Akbar in 1570. The region's historical im-
portance predates Islam however. Between the 2nd and 7th centuries AD, the Gand-haran culture of the Kushans flourished in the Jalalabad valley and it was a place of pil-
grimage rivalling Bamiyan. Nearby, Hadda was a hugely important complex of mon-
asteries and caves used as monk's retreats can be seen on the far side of the river when
leaving Jalalabad for Kabul. Islam arrived when Mahmoud of Ghazni tore through to
India in the 11th century, and much of the area's subsequent history was tied precisely
to controlling the route to the subcontinent through the Khyber Pass.
Jalalabad was a British garrison during the First Anglo-Afghan War and received
the one survivor of the disastrous retreat

The fateful telegram 'Can you travel Nuri-stan June?' that kicks off Eric Newby's travel
classic A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush continues to inspire travellers with dreams
of high peaks and wooded mountain slopes, and villagers claiming descent from the
troops of Alexander the Great. Sat hard against the Pakistan border, Nuristan was acrucible for the anti-Soviet resistance and sadly remains an important centre for antigovernmentelements, making it an extremely dangerous region. In a peaceful AfghanistanNuristan could be heaven for trekkers, but for the foreseeable future all
travel is to be avoided.

Three hours (80km) from Faizabad, hard against the Tajikistan border, is the beau-
tiful Lake Shewa. One of the sources of the Amu Darya, the wide pastures that surround it are the main summer grazing grounds of the northeastern Kuchis.
Every May, Kuchi families arrive in their hundreds around the lake with their flocks.
It's a time for weddings and buzkashi, and there could hardly be a better landscape for
such pursuits - high peaks and wide green meadows. The lake itself is a dazzling blue
and large enough, we were told, that 'you can't shoot a Kalashnikov across it'. A com-
plete trek around would take two days. Your own vehicle is required to get to Lake Shewa, and you'll need a local guide to introduce you to the Kuchi so that you can set up camp (and to restrain their fierce dogs if necessary). The lake is accessible until October, although the nomads tend to leave for their winter grounds by September. Even if you don'tmake it here, if you're travelling at this time you're likely to pass their caravans on the road all the way to Kunduz.