My Travels in AFGHANISTAN - Part 3 - Kabul
Oct 03 '01 (Updated Oct 08 '01)
The Bottom Line Afghanistan used to be worth visiting but now it's impossible. The day will probably come again.
As our bus came into Kabul, it was apparent that Kabul was much more worldly than the rest of Afghanistan. There were even quite a few cars, some trucks, several bicycles, and not quite so many horse and buggies, compared to the rest of Afghanistan.
My traveling partner and I had entered western Afghanistan about a week before and had crossed the country by bus, stopping over in Herat and Kandahar along the way (see Part One and Part Two of my story). We found ourselves in Afghanistan as a part of making the overland trip across Asia. This trip was just beginning to become popular among Westerners at that time, which was 1970. I didn't know it then, but I see now on the internet that it was known as the hippy trail. Speaking of the internet, I've done some research which I'll use to bring this travelogue more up to date.
After getting off the bus in Kabul in the late afternoon, we headed for our suitcases as they were handed down off the top of the bus. Just as I grabbed the handle of my suitcase a young boy also grabbed it and a tugging match followed. He looked Mongolian but knew a few words of English. It wasn't that he wanted to steal my suitcase but that he wanted me to pay him for carrying it. Since he was a good foot and a half shorter than I was, I won the tug, but I gave him a flimsy local coin anyway, knowing it meant more to him than to me.
We got a taxi and headed for the well-known Kabul Hotel. We spotted a brand new hotel, the Kabul Hotel International, but avoided it as being too western (and expensive). The Kabul was an older multi-story hotel near the center of the city. It was comfortable but not outstanding.
My best memory of the Kabul Hotel has nothing to do with the room itself, but rather with a trade I made. In the manager's office, I spotted on the wall an authentic Russian 1970 calendar featuring Lenin, and commemorating the 100th anniversary of his birth. I had to have it but of course it wasn't for sale. Then I remembered something I'd read in a travel book before leaving the States. It said to take desirable items for trade in less developed countries. It had suggested Kennedy half dollars and so I had brought a few bright shiny ones with me. Up until then I hadn't traded any but this seemed like the time. Not sure how to approach the trade, I pulled one out and the Afghan manager's eyes lit up. I pointed toward the calendar, he took it off the wall, and the deal was done, one Kennedy half dollar for one Russian calendar. I still have it.
Little did I know that in the years to come the Kabul Hotel was first to become infamous, and then years later, was to serve a noble purpose. In 1978 the U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan, Spike Dubs, was assassinated, somewhat mysteriously. It seems that he was kidnapped and taken to a room in an upper floor of the Kabul Hotel where he was shot. I remember the assassination in 1978 but I didn't know it had occurred in the same hotel where I'd stayed eight years previously until I did internet research just last night. As for that newer hotel the Intercontinental, until all news people were just recently kicked out of Afghanistan, they were required to stay at the Intercontinental. Built in the sixties, it's still the best hotel in Kabul.
After checking into the Kabul Hotel, we headed toward a very well-lit downtown area not far away. There was an eatery something like a deli or cafeteria. I don't remember exactly what the food was, but I remember it was terrific, especially after the food of Herat and Kandahar. In other words, no sour yogurt, no strong mutton, no semi-raw eggs, no grainy nan bread. By the way, there are no well-lit areas in Kabul now, because I hear on TV that there is little electricity.
In the few days that followed, we explored other parts of the city, mostly the areas near downtown. There was a river, the Kabul, that flows down through the center of the city from the surrounding snow-covered mountains. Nearby was a beautiful blue-domed mosque. I've read that it has suffered damage during fighting.
We went to a bazaar which consisted of many open shops, something like a flea market nowadays. There were more Afghans there than tourists. To get a better exchange rate, we illegally exchanged money at a shop with beautiful Afghan carpets. In retrospect, I hope we didn't endanger our freedom (or lives) by doing so. The Afghan paper money was done in a brightly colored intricate design with the king's picture.
Speaking of the king, on a major road near downtown Kabul we saw the outside of his large palace, which was surrounded by a large brick wall. It had an iron gate with guards stationed in front. Three years later in 1973 when the king was in Italy, he was overthrown by his cousin in a coup. I didn't know what had become of him since then, until just two days ago I saw him on TV. He is still in Italy in exile, an elderly man now. From what I hear on TV, some outside governments and some Afghans want him to return as king but as a symbolic figurehead.
Unlike Herat and Kandahar, in Kabul in 1970 there were many well-dressed Westerners and Asians but few hippies. There were even a few unveiled Afghan women then. There aren't any unveiled Afghan women today under the Taliban, because they would be shot, literally.
We visited the Kabul Museum, which had antiquities going back at least a couple of thousand years to the time of Alexander the Great. It was obvious that the culture in the place that is now Afghanistan has changed greatly over the centuries. As for the museum, I've read that much was looted during civil wars in the early to mid-1990's, and these antiquities have been taken out of Afghanistan and are being sold all over the world.
However, just ahead of the Taliban invasion of Kabul in 1996, many of the remaining artifacts were successfully packed up and moved to the Kabul Hotel which was used as a storage depot for the artifacts. The last internet update I've found states that the museum artifacts had not been disturbed in the Kabul Hotel as of May 1998. I rather doubt that this is still the case.
After spending a few days in Kabul, we headed northeast by an old bus through the lower portion of the Hindu Kush mountains toward Pakistan. These mountains had little vegetation, at least in March, and were mostly barren, colored sharp rocks. At one stretch there was a river down below. Although the road was fairly new, it was treacherous. I remember literally praying as the bus bumped and teetered along the rough winding mountain road. There always seemed to be a steep drop-off within inches of the side of the road. My fear wasn't unfounded because there were old wrecks of vehicles strewn here and there down the cliffs off the sides of the road. We got through the mountains to Pakistan and then over the famous Khyber Pass without incident. We proceeded on to spend the night in Peshawar.
When we were in Kabul, I thought it was bustling. I hadn't seen bustling until I saw Peshawar, Pakistan! But Pakistan is another story, one which I probably won't tell since Pakistan is already fairly well-documented on Epinions.
Address for My Travels in Afghanistan - Part 1 - Herat:
http://www.epinions.com/content_40783548036
Address for My Travels in Afghanistan - Part 2 - Kandahar:
http://www.epinions.com/content_2202968196
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