I have some catching up on blog posts to do. Travel on the road got too hectic to write much, and life got busy quickly once my feet hit the ground again in the States.
I’ve already written about my time in Tajikistan, which was interrupted by a brief trip across the border to Afghanistan. For a while now, I’ve found the cultural, ethnic, and religious diversity in this country fascinating, and was really excited to visit. In Dushanbe, I met another American traveler with an interest in going, but put off making a decision. The actual decision was spur-of-the-moment: we woke up, made the decision to go, went to the consulate to get a visa, and took a shared taxi to the border. We slept in Afghanistan that night. In the marketplace, we met Malang Darya by pure coincidence. Malang is one of two Afghans to have claimed Noshaq, his home country’s highest peak. He’s something of a local legend, and now makes his living as a tour guide for Westerners. He drove us to our guest house, and offered to set up a trek to Noshaq base camp.
In the end, our trek to base camp would be derailed by local bureaucracy. We met with officials in Ishkashim, where we crossed the border, to arrange our permits. We then drove up the valley to Qazi Deh, Malang’s home village and the starting point for the trek to Noshaq. Once we’d already arrived, we received a call saying that we were not allowed to hike unless we drove eight more hours round trip to meet with another local official. This proved too tight for our schedule, so we explored Qazi Deh, returned to Ishkashim, received a partial refund from Malang. But I was still glad to see some of what life is like in Afghanistan, and the dramatic contrast with life just across the river in Tajikistan.
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| Afghan National Police officers stand outside their compound |
Afghanistan is a country of amazing beauty, especially here in the Hindu Kush mountains. Rocky peaks tower over green valleys and babbling streams. Generally, everyone was friendly to foreigners here. Despite the Taliban controlling the territory about ten miles up the valley in the photo below, I never felt unsafe in Afghanistan. The natural beauty, comparable to Pakistan, was one of the highlights of the trip. I wish my stay could have been longer, and I hope to visit the rest of the country someday.
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| View of the Wakhan valley near Qazi Deh |
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| Aqueducts bring water to Qazi Deh |
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| Afghan Car Wash – just drive out into the middle of the river! |
