AFGHANISTAN
itinerary:
2001.06.28 - 2001.07.26
so there i was at the afghan border. the guard (see pakistan) had pointed me in the right direction to cross the border. that was pretty obvious anyway, there's a conspicuous gate with hundreds of people teeming around it, paying no attention to the traffic. the gate, just wide enough for one truck at a time, was manned by pakistani soldiers armed with meter-long strips of rubber. as soon as they opened the gate to let traffic pass hundreds of people on the afghan side threw themselves at the opening in the hope op slipping past the waiting pakistani soldiers.in vain of course. i was allowed through a smaller opening next to the gate, also guarded by several soldiers armed with whips. once on the other side i was led away by an afghan pointed out to me by the last pakistani guard at the gate.
the afghan led me to a small checkpoint where i took of my boots. i was requested to leave my bag outside, but i didn't feel like loosing it just yet. inside the borderguard starts by asking the usual questions (occupation, reason for travel etc) and then points to my bag. as was to be expected, he felt the need to completely empty my bag and check everything.it seemed he was doing it more out of bordom than to try to actually find anything. this took over an hour, and i was getting worried about the time. just then a german man from some ngo burst in, got his stamps and was about to leave when he asked if i wanted a lift to jalalabad. well, of course, but the taleb borderguard wouldn't let me leave without first taking his picture. the ak-47 was sent for, and disappeared as soon as the photo was taken. i scooped my belongings in my bag and made a rush to catch up with the german, who seemed who be in a rush.
once outside richard, the german, led me to his airco'ed 4x4 with driver. i squeeze in the back between a huge and very friendly afghan and a stack of new computers in boxes (i don't get the border system, importing and declaring stuff seems to be on a trust basis). en route to jalalabad richard tells about his ngo work (irrigation canals, wells, etc) and complains about the idiot borderguard we just met. naturally he was quite surprised to hear i was here as a tourist; as he had seen me playing with my camera at the border, he had assumed i was a journalist or photographer. that might be the reason he offered to put me up for the night, as the trip to kabul would take to long. and we bounced on at low speed towards jalalabad... the roads being so devastated that driving any faster than 30 kilometers per hour was impossible, making the trip take several hours.
in jalalabad, we chatted over a fresh vegetable and naan lunch in the garden of quite large house, discussing 'the situation', safety, world politics and the like. he assured me that, although the taliban could be very bureaucratic (and if they didn't want something, it wasn't going to happen), it should be safe enough to travel around. (safer maybe than most major western cities, as petty crime would be punished by severing a hand, unlike, let's say, new york). anyway, as he had things to do in the city he dragged me along and gave me a tour on the way.
after he had picked up his wash we stopped off at a tailor he new. a sikh as it turned out, something i didn't expect to see in afghanistan. i knew the taliban should tolerate christians (more or less the same beliefs, but christians (and jews) didn't get the 'revised edition', but that's a completely different discussion) but i didn't expect anything from a non-abrahamic religion. i had heard not to say i was baha'i (which i'm not) and jewish was a giveaway, leaving one safe option for non-muslims: christian (which i'm not, but the crumblies on the other hand...). maybe it was because we were so close to pakistan, even though i had heard jalalabad was real taliban country, together with kandahar. anyway, they chatted for a while in what sounded like urdu.