Global Wanderer

15/4/25 – 17/4/25

After getting out of our taxi from Torkham at the entrance to the Wazir Akhbar Khan neighbourhood, we began the search for our accommodation – the GetINN Guesthouse. I’d been given the address, including the door number, but given our lack of internet and Google Maps, it did take us a few minutes (and some second guessing!). Eventually, we discovered it, located at an unassuming entrance, complete with a doorbell with no buttons (just two wires that you touched together to create the closed circuit for the bell to ring – welcome to Afghanistan!). We were greeting by the man who takes care of the day-to-day upkeep of the guesthouse (cleaning, cooking, etc) – whose name I have tragically forgotten – and Hijrat, one of guys who run Afghanistan Travel Experience (ATE) – who also own the guesthouse.

ATE are a bunch of legends – run by a guy called Tariq, who set up the company to help bring tourism to Afghanistan years ago, ATE are a key source of information for any traveller coming to Afghanistan. Their WhatsApp groups provide a space for travellers to discuss plans and ask questions, and they are always quick to provide responses to anything pressing you might need to know. Most tourists we came across at the guesthouse had booked tours with ATE – but their guesthouse is open to anyone. With a big common area where you can sit on the floor and enjoy endless cups of shin chai (green tea), it was seriously a great place to meet other travellers to Afghanistan, ask questions about places we were going, and plan our days out. I can’t recommend it enough!

After dropping our bags off, we headed out for an evening walk around the neighbourhood – only a short one though, as we were conscious of the fact we’d just arrived and hadn’t acquired any travel permits yet! First, we came across a tea shop on the side of the street – where we were served the most amazing cinnamon-spiced milk tea (and where the owner refused payment!). As we were sat drinking, a man came over to us and asked us where we were from. Introducing himself as part of Taliban intelligence, he told us to enjoy our trip, but to stay alert and to not stay out late tonight – rather strange! We also spotted a Taliban member walk into the minimarket opposite, his U.S.-supplied M4 with attached grenade launcher strapped to his chest. It’s certainly a strange sight to behold, especially for a couple of Australians completely unused to seeing guns in the wild!

Our first views of Kabul – you’ll spot the white Taliban flag everywhere, which contrasts strangely with the building in the second photo, featuring Kabul’s own Pizza Hut

We then walked a little further along the road, where we spied a small restaurant with some locals inside. Figuring it would probably be worth a shot, we headed inside, followed by about 15 different people who came in from the street to inspect the foreigners. It became clear quite quickly that the people of Afghanistan are incredibly friendly, and incredibly curious about foreigners visiting their country – and despite very limited English knowledge on their part, and incredibly limited Dari and Pashto on ours, we managed some basic communication, all whilst chowing down on some fabulous kebabs (meat, unknown).

Given the country has been battered by wars over the past 50 years, fought primarily by foreign armies, it was positive to see signs of tourism rebounding, particularly through our conversations with people at the guesthouse. Afghanistan has so much culture and history worth exploring, but for a long time (since the Hippie Trail era), it has been relatively inaccessible due to conflict. This is beginning to change though – and it is a net positive for locals involved in the service industry, as foreign tourism can provide a lucrative new income stream.

We made our way back to GetINN, sitting in the common room with some tea, before eventually retiring to bed. The next morning, after a hearty breakfast of fried eggs and Afghan bread, we headed off out into the city to acquire our travel permits!

Afghanistan’s Taliban government requires all foreigners in the country to obtain travel permits, detailing each province that they intend to visit. The purpose of the travel permit is to identify travellers to local Taliban leaders, and inform them of their right to safe passage. It appears to be possible to obtain the permits in any of the big cities you are likely to enter first (Mazar-e-Sharif when coming from Uzbekistan or Tajikistan, Herat or Kandahar when coming from Iran, and Kabul and Jalalabad when coming from Pakistan or anywhere else overseas). If going with a tour agency, they can generally obtain the permits for you in advance – as we were travelling, for the most part, independently, we had to take a trip to the Ministry of Information and Culture in Kabul to get ahold of ours!

On our way to obtain travel permits

The initial location we were directed to turned out to be a false positive – it was the old location of the Ministry, however it had since moved to a new location in the secure area of Kabul’s city centre. The Taliban guy guarding the old Ministry, however, flagged down a passing cab for us, and instructed the driver to drop us off nearby, which made life a lot easier.

After passing through some security checkpoints, and having our passports inspected, we were finally free to enter the building to apply for our permits. The first step, on reaching the first office, was to fill out a document with our passport numbers and full names, and tick off the provinces that we intended to visit. I was quite liberal with the ticks, on the off-chance that we decided to visit somewhere else – this is completely okay, as the permits are free (you can even tick all 34 provinces, if you like – people have done this before and had zero pushback!). Once that was complete, we were directed to take the document across the carpark to a separate building, to have it approved by the Tourism Directorate.

Whilst we were sat waiting for some bureaucratic process to be completed, a man came up to us, and asked in English if we would please follow him, as the Minister would like to meet us. We were ushered down the corridor to a large room where, behind an even larger desk, sat the Taliban’s Minister for Tourism, Khairullah Khairkhwa. Feel free to Google him, if you like – he has a Wikipedia page!

Through his interpreter, the Minister asked us our purpose in Afghanistan, why we wanted to visit, and what we intended to do. He also asked us what we thought about the country, and about the new government, and so on. Happy to hear our answers, he then informed us that he was personally signing off on our permits.

Signed and stamped permits in hand, we headed out of the Ministry, and out of the secure zone, finally free to explore this fascinating country! We wandered down the street to an enormous outdoor bazaar, heaving with people, and selling just about everything under the sun.

When we had finally run out of things to see in the bazaar, we headed back into Wazir Akhbar Khan – this time, to check out a bit more of the neighbourhood, and also, to visit the enormous flagpole that the Taliban erected a few years previously, on top of a hill looking out over Kabul.

The Wazir Akhbar Khan flagpole, and the view out over Kabul

There are a few streets in the local area that show heavy scars of the recent conflicts here in Afghanistan – that, and the several-metres-high blast walls located in various parts of the city are a stark reminder that war is only just over.

Some sad reminders of Kabul’s recent past

The Wazir Akhbar Khan Flagpole however, is a much more positive story – people were up here on the hilltop having picnics, drinking chai, and just generally hanging out – women included. The walk UP to the flagpole is quite strange, as the Taliban have closed the road leading up to it the short way, save for a little section right at the entrance. Instead, you have to basically clamber up the hillside, until you reach the short road leading to the entrance – here, you are frisked by Taliban guards. Dale was stopped and asked for his passport, I was dressed in Afghan clothes at this point (that I’d been lent by a British traveller staying in the guesthouse), and was well on my way to passing as a light-skinned Nuristani – I was through without a hitch. I will point out that it will make your life a thousand times easier if you are dressed in Afghan clothes, and – if male – grow a beard. Having, plus wearing a headdress over my hair, meant that I was rarely singled out by Taliban. Getting waved through most checkpoints without a second look certainly sped things up a bit!

We were approached after entering by a large man who spoke some English, and was tossing an AK47 mag up and down in his hand. He asked us a few questions about why we were in Afghanistan, then gave us his WhatsApp number in case of any issues – this was becoming a pretty regular occurrence here! We were also taken in by a group of young Afghan guys, who were taking their lunch break and going for a walk – they worked at the national media broadcaster, and spoke very good English! After leaving us with some tips about things to see and do in Kabul, and a few photos together, we decided to head back down the hill to the guesthouse to get some much-needed pre-evening rest.

That evening, we spent our time wandering through Central Kabul’s busy nighttime streets – a heady mix of smells, colours, and characters. We witnessed a number of ‘Only In Afghanistan’ moments, including a man carrying his souped-up U.S. M16 automatic weapon on one shoulder, and his small daughter perched on the other, and perhaps my favourite, a group of Taliban out eating dinner together – sat around the largest pizza you have ever seen, with their AK47s just propped up on the floor next to them. Contrast that with the shirt I spotted being sold at the night markets – ‘Either You Like Bacon, Or You’re Wrong’ – or the shirt I saw a young boy wearing that is rather too vulgar to write on a blog post, and you’ve got yourself Afghanistan. Our most important stop of the evening though, was for some traditional ice cream. Sheer yakh is an Afghan ice cream, made by churning ingredients in a bucket surrounded by ice. Flavoured with things like cinnamon, it is incredibly tasty – and because it is basically just frozen unpasteurised milk, insanely filling!

Kabuli ice cream is the best!

That brought an end to our time in Kabul, save for a short overnight stop on our way back from Bamyan later in the week. There are definitely a million other sites to visit here in the Afghan capital – we very much only scratched the surface on our short visit here – but something that is not lacking in Kabul (and Afghanistan in general) is hospitality and friendliness, which are worth more than anything when you are travelling in a foreign land. We made our way back to the guesthouse, stomachs full, smiles beaming, and ready for our next adventure – to the province of Bamyan, and Afghanistan’s first national park, Band-e-Amir!