Afghanistan

No sooner had the US begun its bombing campaign in 2001 did I decide that sometime soon I'd make it to Afghanistan. Not having the kind of funding needed to get in early when the country was still at the forefront of the world's attention my opportunity would have to wait until May 2003, more than eighteen months after the world began to forget about Afghanistan.

Today it's once again a forgotten backwater. The world's focus is now on Iraq, SARS, some kind of road map about peace in the Middle East, and a host of other things that don't involve Afghanistan. Apparently, if Afghanistan is going to get some international attention it will cost the lives of a few ISAF personnel to get it. That is very disturbing.

Promises of aid and security have been made. Few have been kept. Violence is on the rise. Stability is on the wane. Security is deteriorating. A handful of tourists have trickled in, mostly Japanese, finding a war-torn country desperate for normalcy and mostly quite welcoming to these few intrepid folks that make the effort to visit.

The stories in this section chronicle my brief visit which lasted from May 12 - May 24, 2003. The three sections: Kabul, Bamiyan, and Mazar-e-Sharif chronicle my travels to and around each of these places, while the Practical Matters section provides some useful travel information.

Note: The stories and information in this section dates from May 2003 and some things may be different now.