After reaching Mazar e-Sharif, it was time to get to the hotel and they luckily also had a “normal” toilet. On the first day we went to see the blue mosque, which is quite famous.
Blue Mosque
We got there and got controlled to not take anything forbidden in and also were told to not take pictures of anything demolished. They didn’t want any bad pictures to leave this country, so they did it anyway. I am not a person who likes to follow regimes, when knowing it is possible to not to. I guess in North Korea it would be a different story. Also to not take pictures of military things is something I don’t do, but a destroyed building for positive publicity? For sure I won’t follow that!
At the mosque I took many pictures, also a lot of pictures I was not allowed to take, of women and of broken parts of the mosque. Everywhere you were able to see Unicef backpacks on kids, which I liked seeing, because actually the money gets used for something people actually use.
The mosque was nice, a bit destroyed but nice. It was the one thing I really wanted to see during my trip there, so seeing it on the second day was great. I wasn’t allowed to enter the mosque because I wasn’t a moslem. Of course it is something to respect if they ask you not to when wanting to go in, I personally just don’t understand it because in other holy buildings in other religions and in most mosques it is allowed to go inside, even when not following their religion.
A meetup of realization
While walking around, many people realized that I was a tourist. I didn’t try to hide it there, so it was quite obvious. Camera out and speak English. Many people wanted me to take a picture of them, so I did and it made them happy to see them. They wanted me to bring them out and show it to the world. All of that was nice, until someone spoke to me in German.
He was asking me how I was doing, so I asked him back after answering. He told me “not so good!”, so I asked him why he wasn’t doing good and he answered with “Because of things you are not able to see!”. After that I realized that he was right, I was as a tourist not really able to see what actually was going on in the country. I could imagine it, but knowing wasn’t possible. Why would people tell me about how bad everything would be, when the Taliban are everywhere and from whom they could get into big trouble. It is something which logically is making no sense. I am just not able to, especially with a guide this wasn’t possible. I need to get more into communicating with people, but probably more possible outside of the country, where they don’t need to fear a bad punishment.
In the streets of Mazar e-Sharif
While walking along the streets, it was interesting, the people didn’t care anymore about tourists that much. I was walking around and taking pictures with the camera. People sometimes asked to take pictures of them, or not to take one. It was quite peaceful, but the situation changed quickly when I took a video in which some women were in. People got pissed fast and wanted to choose violence. Luckily they saw the video and the woman was not focused, but it could have been a bad situation. People are taking this law really seriously.
I got my favorite food a few times that day and in the hotel was another tourist. I was talking to him and realized that he was German, he visited almost all countries and we spoke in German. It felt so good, because we talked for around 30 min while the guide was there. He finally realized how shitty it is when you can’t understand what people around you are saying. Obviously that didn’t stop him from then on to change to maybe speak more English or less unnecessary talks with random people. I told him, but he didn’t seem to care.
My friends in Germany who are originally from Afghanistan told me that the best thing in Afghanistan would be the watermelons, so I tried one, outside the season and it wasn’t special. Maybe during the right season I need to try it again, maybe it will make a difference then.
For the night I got an ice-cream, which tasted good, but that was the only good thing about it.
A looooooong next day
In the morning I felt like I would throw up, I just didn’t know when. It was just a matter of time. I didn’t know yet what was wrong, but nothing fun was standing in front of me.
The guide didn’t take it seriously, but I know my body quite well.
We had to explore a lot, even though I told him that I didn’t have the energy for it, but whatever we went for it. Driving in another town to see the first mosque in Afghanistan, which was basically just some ruins. We were at some building from the Taliban in nowhere and were getting from then on to a Taliban next to us in the tuktuk. We took some pictures with them holding the weapons and me in the middle. Later on I was also able to hold the weapon, actually a cool feeling. I felt weaker and weaker and I just wanted to go back. I didn’t want to explore, but there was still something on the list, nothing to do against it. Had to see it, even though I said often that I didn’t want to.
After the next place he luckily listened and we went back to the hotel. Few meters before the entry it was finally time for my body to throw up, it felt shit, it was quite a relief and the start of a rough time.
Resting before going back
The guide didn’t know how to handle the situation and always offered me some food with a lot of oil and also sweet drinks. When suffering from food poisoning these are not the things you wanna give to your body. He finally left and the staff from the hotel took care of me. There was an old guy, who has been living in the UK for 50 years and comes back to his home from time to time for business. He finally helped me. He knew what to do and I was able to sleep for a few hours.
After it I got some more energy, but still felt super bad. Everything which I was giving my body went out quickly again and it was my 5th food poisoning so far in my life and not a fun one.
It was time to return to Kunduz, to be quickly back in Tajikistan. I was happy about that fact, but not about the fact that we had to go back on the shitty roads and stay another night together. Usually it takes a long time for me to get pissed off by people, but wow the guide was doing a great job. Not only that his mindset is full of shit, his behavior wasn’t something I like to pay money for. It would be different, if this would be a host on Couchsurfing, or someone who takes me while hitchhiking, but I pay money to do a trip. When doing this, it is in my opinion important to listen to the traveler, in that case me. So again, when getting a guide in Afghanistan, which isn’t a stupid decision for most people, book it with Ansari.
What’s up next?
Next is basically the finish of this story and they way back to Dushanbe in Tajikistan.
