Afghanistan Revisited

It was summer 1974 when I did the so called Hippie trail (i.e in my case the overland trip from Germany to India). I was 19 years old and adventurous. And now with fading memories.

Just 51 years later my curiosity led me back to Afghanistan. Yes it can be visited again, although all my friends thought I was crazy, and even tired of living.

Indeed if you visit the respective website of the  German Ministry of Foreign Affairs, their advice is absolutely clear: stay away if you love your life.

Among others (as of April 2025), the advice was:

• all Germans should immediately leave Afghanistan

• Do not make any long journeys overland: we did a 15 hours trip by car from Mazar i Sharif back to Kabul

• before leaving to Afghanistan, make your testament and inform your kids how to get along when you won‘t return

• Do not fly any Afghan Airline (I flew Kam Air for the international connection, and Ariana from Kabul to Mazar i Sharif)

• Avoid crowds (impossible when visiting a market)

The Blue Mosque in Mazar in Sharif is one of the "Must See" locations in Afghanistan

To my surprise even my wife was keen to experience that country, so we travelled as a couple, joining a tour that was arranged by my favorite tour operator named Untamed Borders, based in UK, expert in traveling to so called „odd“ places.

Under their arrangement I can frankly state that I was not afraid for a single minute, and our oldest tour companion was a lady from Canada, eighty years old, not scared of anything, who several times claimed that „I can still stay at home when I am old“. I have declared her my role model.

By the way, nobody wanted to see our marriage licence. Which we did not bring anyway.

Snap shot of Taliban at one of the many checkpoints. Controlling our permits, i.e. whether we have the permission to visit a certain location

Of course it takes special preparations until you can fly. Step 1 I would say is to preregister for obtaining a visa. There is a website of the official Afghan Government which lists all the places where you can fetch your visa. Filling in that form is a very tricky thing, I constantly failed after having filled in the form, because after hitting the submit button the page froze, and I did not receive the confirmation letter that states that you have successfully submitted your form. Finally, our tour operator volunteered to fill in the form for us, and I got the feedback that it took him also quite some time to receive this confirmation letter.

This letter you have to print out and bring it to the Consulate of your choice, where you finally will pick up the visa.

By the way, although in Munich we have a Consulate General of Afghanistan that offers their visa services, we were strongly disadvised to get our visa there. Because this Consulate is not officially recognised by the Taliban, and with their visa in your passport you would be rejected anyway. So just select the place which this website lists as official: http://econsulate.mfa.gov.af/InfoVisa.aspx

In our case we were proposed Peshawar. In other words, most of us first flew to Islamabad, then continuing to Peshawar, where the selected General Afghan Consulate is located.

My wife and me, fully dressed in "Afghani Style". For women, a headscarf is sufficient, no Burka mandatory.

Two of our group omitted Peshawar:

• one did it in Kuala Lumpur

• another one in Dubai. Dubai seems to offer the simplest procedure, albeit also the most expensive: for some 400 USD somebody will come to your hotel room, pick up your passport and confirmation letter, and return your passport in the afternoon

In our case the fee was 100 USD, to be handed over as a clean 100  USD note.

Our ladies suffered hardship, or can I say they got an authentic experience: in order to enter the Consulate, they had to enter through a separate door and were handed out a Burka which they had to wear on the compound. While waiting in the morning heat, my wife almost collapsed under the Burka, stating that she could see almost nothing. Blind as she seemed to be, I had to guide her back to the ladies entrance.

For about an hour, my wife looked like this. I could identify her with the shoes she wore.

The visa procedure is straightforward: you place your 100 USD bill in your passport, together with the confirmation letter. All the passports are collected, than our guide knocked a door, then a Taliban came out and grabbed our passport, disappearing again. After perhaps 1 hour we were handed out our passports with visa inside. Why our ladies at all had to participate in that ceremony is still a mistery to me: we had to collect their passports, and our ladies just had to sit at the ladies section, doing nothing but wait (which they had been done  very well outside the Consulate, without a Burka, waiting in the car.

Friendly Taliban in Balkh

Anyhow, all of us got our visa, with one minor problem to solve: one lady of us stated the Embassy in Islamabad as the pkace where to pick up the visa, which was rejected. So our guide had in a hurry to fill in the form again, find a place for printing out that paper, and resubmit. So lesson learned: take it seriously where you want to pick up your visa.

Having a visa in hands is apparently not sufficient to travel in Afghanistan: you also need a kind of travel permit that states all the places you want to see. This travel permit was issued in parallel, while we were on our way to Kabul. I did not see this permit, this all was done by our guides. But what we always notes that at the many checkpoints on the road this permit was shown to the Taliban.

We had 3 guides, 2 locals and one international one of Untamed Borders. Full professionals, I can say, they always knew what they did, keeping us secure all the time.

Back to Islamabad- after having sufficient time to do sone sightseeing in Peshawar. Unfortunately the overland route via the Khyber pass was not yet open for foreigners (perhaps also not safe enough), which is why we had to fly in from Islamabad. With KAM Air, nothing to complain about this airline, landing safely in Kabul.

The immigration procedure also deviates a bit from what you may be used: you form 2 long lines (no extra line for foreigners), and after having received your stamp you have to line up again for a so called registration card. Depending whether their IT system works or not this can take time. This card you have to keep with you all the time and hand back when leaving Afghanistan.

Lunch on the road from Mazar I sharif back to Kabul. Always delicious.

Only then you can pick up your checked luggage and leave the arrival hall. Having left and being greeted by your local guides, you will walk quite a distance, as there are no vehicles allowed coming closer than perhaps 500m to the building.

Then you will be driven to your hotel. We had a good one, the Park Star Hotel. Which was so unassuming that you would not recognize it from outside. Purposely, I believe. Again, lots of security. Car being checked to be admitted to the compound, our luggage security checked like at the airport, to be followed by a personal check. We passed through 3 thick metal doors, until we eventually reached the check in counter, and from there in we could feel like being in a normal hotel.

Free WiFi. Oh, and before departure we organised an E-Sim (esim.sm), quite cheap, which we switched on when we arrived, and it worked! The same we did for the 2 days in Pakistan, also easy going, you are online and can WhatsApp or whatever you like.

Communication within our group also was arranged: our guide opened a WhatsApp group, and so each of us was always in the picture when some information had to be shared. Including fotos.

Another highlight: the missing Buddhas that the Taliban blew up. And patently the Buddhas will be rebuilt. With Taliban denying the fact that they were responsible for the destruction, but the blame would be on "foreign extremists".

In the hotel we were handed out our clothes that we had to wear while in Afghanistan. Dress locally, such as not to be distinguished from far from locals, which was a kind of security measure, such as not to stick out of the crowd from far. From close of course we were immediately recognized as strangers.

The Taliban: friendlier than we thought, although always a bit fearsome to look at with their beards, and guns. Countless checkpoints manned by Taliban, probably in order to show who is now in command. Never we had a problem. In order not to be distinguished from afar from locals, we had to dress local. Our ladies had to wear an Abaya with head scarf (and no hijab, let alone a Burka, which anyway does not seem to be the standard in the cities). We men had to wear this typical Afghan dress (loose pants, long overshirts, and if you wanted also a local head cover).

Our short tour lead us apart from Kabul to Mazar i Sharif, Bamian and the lakes of Band i Amir. Hotels in both Bamian and Mazar i Sharif were fully ok, the food in the restaurants was always delicious, even at the stop overs on the road between Mazar and Kabul. Nobody of us had an issue with digestion.

One of the Band i Amir lakes, with Taliban, of course

Our guides even managed a special permit for our ladies to visit the Band i Amir lakes (prohibited by the Taliban for women), so they appeared quite outlandish over there (but there were no questions asked about their appearance).

Some Taliban even had no issue to be fotografed, although at the many checkpoints you better kept your camera down.

Money: we changed our money in the hotel in Kabul (no ATM there, so bring sufficient USD or EUR). We were proposed a lumpsum to be put into a kitty, and our guide paid our lunch and dinner as well as entrance fees always from that kitty, I remember something like 15 USD in local currency per person per day, which was enough, even we got the remainder returned.

Airport security: it is an experience, flying out of Kabul airport, be it domestic or international. You will have to walk these 500m from the closest point that can be reached by car, and until you reach the check in counter, you will have to pass 3 security checks. To be concluded with the mandatory security check before boarding. In my experience, Kabul Airport has the strictest security of all.

Immigration is again straightforward- you have to hand back your registration card.

The famous and infamous Chicken Street, deserted, on a Friday Morning. A few shops had opened, you could buy Antiques, or jewelry. Or Safran, which we did.

In Kabul, in these golden days the Chicken Street was “the place to be” for all backpackers, and so I was keen to see my former “watering hole”. Located in walking distance from our hotel, however I was a bit disappointed. What remains are the many souvenir shops with Antiques. No more Hostels, where some backpackers stranded, addicts, begging for money to finance their Hashish consumption, which at that time was openly available.