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Kabul Travel Blogs

Background: Afghanistan's recent history is a story of war and civil unrest. The Soviet Union invaded in 1979, but was forced to withdraw 10 years later by anti-Communist mujahidin forces. The Communist regime in Kabul collapsed in 1992. Fighting that subsequently erupted among the various mujahidin factions eventually helped to spawn the Taliban, a hardline Pakistani-sponsored movement that fought to end the warlordism and civil war that gripped the country. The Taliban seized Kabul in 1996 and were able to capture most of the country outside of Northern Alliance strongholds primarily in the northeast. Following the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks, a US, Allied, and Northern Alliance military action toppled the Taliban for sheltering Osama BIN LADIN. In late 2001, a conference in Bonn, Germany, established a process for political reconstruction that ultimately resulted in the adoption of a new constitution and presidential election in 2004. On 9 October 2004, Hamid KARZAI became the first democratically elected president of Afghanistan. The new Afghan government's next task is to hold National Assembly elections, tentatively scheduled for April 2005.

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By Michael J
August 15th 2007

Afghanistan: Still a War Zone

Asia » Afghanistan » East » Kabul

Our Group
This is the entire group that I was traveling with. I'm in the first row, second from the left.

In going to Afghanistan, I wanted to do several things, such as: better understand Afghan culture; learn some Dari; and show Afghans that Westerners (and Americans specifically) are capable of visiting other countries in capacities other than in the military. While I did all of these things to at least a certain extent, the thing that sticks out in my mind was how crazy the security situation got the day we arrived. Security Situation Before we even got out of Europe, we heard on the news at the airport that two Germans had been kidnapped in central Afghanistan (read [View Full Entry]

By Andrew B
July 5th 2007

Bye Bye travelblog hello tumblr

Asia » Afghanistan » East » Kabul

this blog is far too ugly, here's my new, prettier, one. http://4trees.tumblr.com/ [View Full Entry]

By His Dudeness
October 20th 2006

A short trip to the North

Asia » Afghanistan » East » Kabul

Salang Pass
On the way to Mazar-e Sharif, a view towards the Salang Pass

And a short trip it was... I wanted to go up North for two weeks or so, but I stayed only for 4 days... Plans change... Anyway, I went up to Mazar-e Sharif to look at Afghanistan’s holiest shrine, the tomb of Imam Ali, the son in law of the prophet Mohammed... It is all a bit confusing as according to most Muslims he is buried in Najaf in Iraq, which is one of the most important pilgrimage sights in the world especially for Shiite Muslims... According to legend, he visited some local mullah in a dream (of course...) revealing his [View Full Entry]

By His Dudeness
October 12th 2006

The Hazarajat, from Herat to Kabul

Asia » Afghanistan » East » Kabul

Herat
Herat sky-line with the Masjid-e Jame'

So, as you can see from this update, I am still alive after crossing through the centre of Afghanistan from Herat to Kabul. First Herat, a bustling city and a good place to get accustomed to Afghanistan. It has some interesting and beautiful sights, like the Jameh Mosque, the Musalla complex and views from the citadel in the old town are superb. I stayed in Herat for 3 days, checking with the tourist office how security was on the central route. The guy at the tourist office was very helpful and asked around with drivers who were plying the route how [View Full Entry]

By Dutch House Shoe
September 15th 2006

Shoe goes for a ride

Asia » Afghanistan » East » Kabul

Dykstra Shoe Helo Door

One of the coolest shots I have ever seen was taken by CPT Dykstra, somewhere near Kabul... [View Full Entry]

By nomadicanuk
September 3rd 2006

Kabul to Jalalibad

Asia » Afghanistan » East » Kabul

Good Morning Kabul!!

Sept 3 Note to self....I reek, After breaki it was off to the embassy though due to usual ineffiviency it was closed for another hour or so, After standing around and seeing several nervous american patrols come through as well as some NGO workers with their own bodyguards we discovered that we would not be given visa's for pakistan as our old ones had not expired yet, this meant that we would have to wait till october to leave Afghanistan...a proposition I was not looking forward to. This led us to the German embassy to see if we could get any [View Full Entry]

By nomadicanuk
September 2nd 2006

Day 2 Kabul

Asia » Afghanistan » East » Kabul

Writing my Will
something every tourist should do while in Kabul

Sept 2 After a paranoid night of restless sleep...including a lame attempt at barakading the door with the nightstand it was off to the usual place for milk tea and deepfried dough of some kind. Today since the embassy is closed we have decided to head to west Kabul to see some of the destruction caused by the heavy fighting that took place there over the recent years. This also brought us to the Kabul zoo though its lacluster entrance made us skip right to the destroyed buildings. After wandering around for several hours of streets with old fortified watchtowers and [View Full Entry]

By nomadicanuk
September 1st 2006

Kabul

Asia » Afghanistan » East » Kabul

Kabul

Sept 1, 2006 The first of the third month traveling seems to be a fitting day to wake up in Kabul. This city is surreal in any sense, tensions are always high, foreigners are rarely ever seen and we've become quite the tourist attraction for the locals. The hotel we stayed in was an absolute disaster, though not many accomadations in Kabul went for less than 10$ usd a night. The day started out with some breakfast of a mystery fried bread and milk tea. The owners of the restaurant are extremely polite to us and very friendly. We start to [View Full Entry]

By Sharon Jumper
March 15th 2006

Days 9-11, Kabul

Asia » Afghanistan » East » Kabul

Neighborhood kids

Our last three days were a blur of museums and shopping. On one of the last nights, one of my roommates and I went to dinner at the 5-star Serena Hotel. It was like being in a whole other world - and we got to see Kabul at night for the first (and only) time. After 8 pm, the streets of Kabul look like a ghost town. No lights, no cars, no noise. One of my favorite memories of Afghanistan will be our time at Babur's tomb and garden in Kabul. Babur, the founder of India's Moghul empire, occupied Afghanistan during [View Full Entry]

By Sharon Jumper
March 12th 2006

Day 8, Bagram and OMAR mine museum

Asia » Afghanistan » East » Kabul

Mine clearance team

We went to Bagram and saw a demonstration of how the HALO Trust was clearing minefields. As HALO's website notes, Afghanistan was heavily mined by Soviet forces during their ten year occupation, with further mine-laying by the communist regime of Najibullah, during localised internecine fighting between Mujahideen groups and most recently between the Taliban and the Northern Alliance...Afghanistan is probably the most mined country in the world, with HALO estimates of up to 640,000 mines laid since 1979. HALO’s operations started [View Full Entry]

Travel Blog » Asia » Afghanistan » East » Kabul