After entering Afghanistan everything looked wracked down somehow, but the people were smiling at me. I received a local dress to fit in somehow and stopped shaving my “beard” weeks before and it felt good. Just having shorts and a shirt might get you attention you don’t want to receive. Taking a shared taxi to get to Kunduz, a place which was fought heavily during the decades of war. I didn’t know what to expect, but I had to go to the office of the Taliban, in order to get the permit for being able to reach Mazar e-Sharif.
Entering the place was already interesting, many people wandered around and nobody knew what to do. After a while someone told us that the guy who is giving the permits isn’t there, they will call when he is back. So there is a huge house, with a bunch of people, but only one person can put a stamp inside of your passport.
Seeing Kunduz
Walking through the streets felt safe. The people seem to live a simple life. Due to my backpack and the camera around my neck, people automatically noticed that I am a tourist, the local dress didn’t help much anymore. While waiting for my “burger” to finish, people surrounded me and wanted to make friends. They wanted to take pictures and welcome me.
The burger was basically a wrap with some vegetables and fries, quite good and vegetarian.
Also it was my first interaction with the Taliban, who were not checking on me. They were super friendly and really wanted to take a picture with me. I was waiting on a wall and then they sat down next to me. I didn’t know that they were part of the Taliban, after at the end someone told me. They do look a little bit different, if you look carefully, but not all the time.
Many people invited me to stay at their place, which I would have loved to do, but I was not alone, so there was no possibility for that. Also they might be in danger for doing that, that’s what some people told me, but no idea if that is actually true. What for sure is true, the Taliban are kind of everywhere.
I was not able to finish my food, without people wanting to spend time around me, but honestly that wasn’t an issue. This wasn’t an issue until I went to the university. At the university it went crazy quickly
University
At the university, I didn’t expect anything weird. Only guys spending their freetime outside and many of them playing football. No girls at all were at the campus, which was weird for me to see, but I didn’t expect anything different.
Once people noticed me, they were all coming. It was like an event, a tourist from Germany was coming to Afghanistan. To be fair to Kunduz there are not many tourists coming, but still the excitement was massive. Over 80 people were surrounding me from all sides. I felt like a superstar, but I felt quite overwhelmed, because I was never in an even similar situation. In Pakistan there were often some people around me, but never over 10, so 80+ is a different level.
I shaked many hands and tried to answer as many people as possible. I didn’t know what was right to do in the situation. All I know, I was extremely happy when I was out of that situation.
Hotel
We went to the hotel for the night, because it was way too late to get to Mazar e-Sharif, the next day I realized why. It was a bit weird for me to stay in a hotel again, but where else?
The owner of the hotel said that he spoke German, to be fair he spoke some things, but was never able to answer anything which came from me. Still nice to hear some German somehow.
The hotel was very central and had a normal “western toilet”. That is actually my only fear while traveling. Never ever have I used a squat toilet yet and I am not excited for the time when I have no option. I feel like it might happen next year in Iran, but so far I got through.
The Internet was bad, the AC was working really slow, but they at least had both of that, which was more than I actually had in mind.
The first night
Actually during the night not much was done, we went out to eat, where they didn’t have anything vegetarian, which tasted good. I had a lumpy soup, which I can’t even explain exactly what it was, but it didn’t taste that good anymore. At the end I received some “burgers’ ‘ which was fine for me.
While being out at night without the backpack and camera, people didn’t surround me, they didn’t realize that I was a tourist. The only people who talked to me were homeless kids who wanted money. The kids sadly were beat up from the adults around they, which was kind of f*cked. Nobody seemed to care though.
After the food there was a sort of milkshake or smoothie which was actually quite nice. It was freshly made and was some tasting highlight of that day for sure.
We had to wake up early to leave the city.
Next morning
Waking up by the workers of the hotel, who just walked in and put food on the floor. Some freshly made eggs with bread and a sauce. Actually it was very tasty, sadly the guide I was with was eating very loudly, so enjoying the food wasn’t a big option for me. At least he wasn’t snoring, because we were sharing the same room.
After the food got into the local dress and went to the office of the Taliban, this time he was actually there and was giving me the permit. The guide and him talked for roughly an hour and it was annoying, because it was all in Farsi, so no way for me to even be part of the conversation. The guide is called Ansari, so when you search for a guide, there are surely better ones.
The way to Mazar e-Sharif
We went in a shared taxi to get to Mazar e-Sharif and there I realized why we didn’t go at night. The road was so bad that most of it didn’t exist, at least the short road. There is a longer way, but with proper roads. We choose the cheaper and faster way. On the way we drove through villages with almost no infrastructure, but with a lot of sand and dust. It was interesting to see the trucks having international number plates, I even saw one from my hometown Hamburg. All of these number plates were non official, so invalid, because there is no force to drive with the Afghan numberplate.
We drove from villages into deserts and made it after some while on a normal road and finally the drive was a bit better from then on.
Before making it really into the city, we helped someone out whose car broke down in nowhere but I guess we were not the biggest help. When we left, the car still hadn’t moved. There were some women on the streets, who asked for money. The guide told me that they were from a culture where the men are home and send their wifes out to beg for money. The way he said it was, that these types of people are all beggars, so the whole country judges them as that. So a real chance of making it wasn’t there, even though that was declined, but the guide was quite narrow minded, which wasn’t the best way to learn a lot about the country.
The Taliban were checking me especially sometimes, but let us all in the city. At the end the controls before making it into the city were quite big. Several Taliban checkpoints and then you were in.
What’s up next?
In the next article, you will read about my time in Mazar e-Sharif!
