Afghanistan

Travel Tourism Travelogue by Gregory Melle

Including Afghan photos and Taliban comments

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Please use http://www.notsorry.com/afghan.asp

I am a Canadian who visited Afghanistan in July 1975. I was doing a world tour. I travelled overland from India to Europe when this was still possible. Afterwards, several invasion, revolutions and bombing campaigns have made big changes in this part of the world.
Afghanistan's main cities and towns became controlled by the Taliban government in the 1990's. This is group is the remnants of the fighting "freedom fighters" that were readily supported by Western governments when they fought against Russian invaders. Within a few years they spun into "terrorist fanatics" practising an extreme religious fundamentalism that rejected all Western ideas or concepts. (They did appreciate modern weapons, vehicles and aircraft). In 2001 they took the further step of rejecting most anything Eastern, ancient or compassionate.
I once expected the countryside to remain essentially the same. This seemed a country where change was gradual and slow. I was dismayed to read the news reports in 2001. One of my regrets from my earlier trips is all the photo opportunities that I have missed. I was careful to limit my photographic efforts so as to ration film that seemed to be quite expensive. There are many cultural memories, that could have been preserved by photography, that now will never exist. Does this really matter in the Great Game of world politics? I remain quite uncertain on this point.

I arrived as a passenger on a local bus travelling up the Khyber Pass from Pakistan. Both of these photos show the Kabul River. The second one is near the main Kabul bus station. You will notice in these photos a lack of people and obvious targets.

After enjoying the modest comforts of Kabul I headed north to Bamiyan. This isolated spot in the Hindu Kush has a massive cliff face riddled with ancient caves of Buddhist monks. Among these were two immense standing Buddha statues. One was 50 metres tall. The faces were removed in quite ancient times by an Islamic campaign against idolatry.
I was guided up through the complex of caves and tunnels until we emerged at the statue top. I took a photo of the lush valley below and promised to return one day for a longer visit.

I will never see this sight again. In early 2001 the Taliban troops wired these statues up with bombs and dynamite. They sighted their modern weapons -- many of them supplied their former American allies in the war against Russia -- and blasted these ancient monuments from this particular realm of existence.
Can ideas really be so readily destroyed?

The Afghan story does not have obvious answers for outside observers. Anyone who has visited the Hindu Kush or read any local history should realize the futility of invasion. The mighty Russian army failed to conquer Afghanistan in the 1990's. In the 19th century the British Empire failed twice to conquer. The Second Afghan War left just one British survivor from 19,000 invading troops.

In late 2001 the Americans and their allies poured in massive military resources to drive the Taliban from the main cities. I expect that they will never manage to control the countryside. In Afghanistan -- as in most of Central Asia -- loyalties are to tribal groups and not to nations. Afghanistan and Pakistan are quite modern demarcations on the map.

Even before the invasions and revolutions, this was hardly a place in which any invading army should feel comfortable. Recent events show once again that Afghanistan can be invaded. This is hardly the first time in history. History also shows that this country is extremely difficult to unite, rule or change.

Afghanistan is extremely rugged. The mountains rise to more than 5,500 metres. The climate is extreme. The men are tough. Weapons are everywhere. The clan system is quite impenetrable to outsiders.
[I wrote the previous paragraph early in 2001. How horrifyingly correct I was.]

In September 2001, it became apparent that the man whom the Taliban treated as its guest -- Osama bin Laden -- directed suicide airline bomb flights into the heart of the United States. (Though he certainly did not act alone. He had high level supporters in several mid-Eastern countries).
Can ideas be destroyed as readily as glass and steel buildings? (Some comments on recent terrorism are at BadChoice.com).

From Bamiyan I travelled in a truck/bus to the mountain lakes of Band-i-Amir. They are situated high in the Hindu Kush mountains at more than 2500 metres elevation.

This next group was provided to me by an Internet friend. She was one of many travellers through central Asia in that 1968 to 1978 time period.

The lake water flows over a natural marble dam into the lower valley of the Kujruk river. While there are many small streams flowing in these views, the water was extremely clear and difficult to see. The limestone edge is about 10 metres high.

This includes a morning view looking down the river valley from the lowest lake.

There are five lakes and natural dams in the chain: Band-i-Khamar, Band-i-Gulaman, Band-i-Aibat, Band-i-Panir and Band-i-Pudina.

My old Fodor's Islamic Asia book says that "Band-i-Amir holds its place among the wonders of the world. The most famous things often fail to move; Band-i-Amir is above matters of taste, it is beauty itself."

I travelled from Kabul to Herat by an 16 hour trip on a modern Mercedes bus. This was about 8 hours more than advertised. There was one driver. The heat was dreadful. The road was in places excellent, in other parts it barely clung to mountain canyon walls. The driver had a single cassette tape that was played repeatedly at full volume. The driver was very tired. I was thankful to arrive alive in Herat city before dawn.

Herat had the driest air that I have experienced. It also had some of the world's tastiest bread. This bakery had its oven in the floor. The baker flipped the flat loaves into the customer's hands as his assistant slapped new loaves on to the oven's walls.

I found some wonderful Afghan photos on the web.
Luke Powell's Afghan Folio shows some wonderful photographs taken in that brief 1970 to 1978 time when so many travellers were wandering Asia.
A Berkeley University hydrologist -- also surnamed Powell -- toured the country in 1978. There are a wide range of photos at Geo-Images.

PhenoMag.com and Daniel Chay both have fine photos -- both are in French language.

Kabul Caravan has some realtively current travel information.

Bamian, Bamyan, Bande-Amir, Band-e-amir, Banda Amir, Ban Bande Mir, Aphganistan, Afghanestan, and Afganistan are all alternate spellings that I have seen used for places mentioned on this page.
This web site is a personal hobby.