Kabul was cool and a place that I had wanted to visited for years and years!
I was really worried for a while about going to Afghanistan. It was the most worried I had ever been pre-departure for any trip that I had ever done. I’d been trying to get to Afghanistan for a while and had a couple of previous failed attempts.
Failed attempt 1 (2017)—The valley in Tajikistan—There was a weekend market trip taking place and a bus leaving from Dushanbe to the Tajik/Afghan border, and I was strongly thinking about going back then. You can cross to the Afghan side, buy your products, and come back. I decided against it at the last minute, mostly because of safety concerns.
Failed attempt 2(2019) – I had Pakistan and Afghanistan planned on the same trip, but some last-minute changes occurred, which was a bit frustrating at the time, just before Covid hit, further slowing down the whole process.
Failed attempt 3 (2022)- I was supposed to take a trip from Islamabad in Pakistan to Torkham in Pakistan, and then cross the border. At that time,I was living in Saudi Arabia and the Saudi government reintroduced the COVID-19 restrictions at the last minute, meaning I would have needed to go somewhere else to quarantine for 2 weeks before going back to Saudi Arabia, so I had to cancel which was frustrating at the time, Islamabad isn’t too far away from the Afghan border, less than a 4 hour drive.
So, it was time to plan the next attempt, this time attempting to link it up with Turkmenistan, a neighboring country and luckily everything went according to plan this time.
I finished the Turkmenistan tour, landed early back in Dubai, and went straight to the Afghan embassy early in the morning. I initially met several helpful people who directed me to the correct office and then the process began. It involved signing several documents, getting some passport photos printed, and scheduling a meeting with 2 different people, mostly wondering why I going there, along with numerous other things.
Later that day, my visa got approved, the whole process took about 6 hours since the time of arrival at the embassy and I booked my flight for the next day to Kabul.
The airport is still undergoing maintenance after the 2021 Kabul Airport bombing, so parts of the airport looked quite bleak. I arrived at the passport control and this was my first interaction with the Taliban and it went smoothly. They just asked a couple of questions and then gave me a pullout paper that included a passport picture and I needed to have this at all times, just in case we got stopped at a later time, then the police would know that I’m a tourist. The document was only sufficient for tourism within Kabul, in order to leave Kabul, you would need to apply for a different document and then wait for approval.
I stayed at the Kyber Hotel, a nice hotel in downtown Kabul, and arranged everything in advance. The hotel is safe and there are a couple of really nice restaurants nearby and the breakfast was amazing with a variety of options.
I arranged a tour around Kabul from the receptionist at the hotel who spoke really good English. We would go out and explore the entire city the following day because it was getting dark on day #1.
The following day we began at Kabul Zoo, located in one of the quieter parts of Kabul and we had most of the zoo to ourselves.
We proceeded to the main city center, this area had all of the markets, all the hustle and bustle, and even a bird market.
We then went to Babur Garden and walked around for a while, before stopping for some traditional food at a local restaurant and a couple of coffee stops along the way.
Then we continued to drive around some more, taking in some of the views of the nearby mountains, before going back to the hotel and getting dinner.
The next day I flew back to Dubai, with every country in Asia (all 48) officially wrapped up everything.
