Afghanistan Travel Forum

Anyone been to Northern Afghanistan recently? Seriously consdiering a trip from the Tajik border to Kunduz, Mazar-e-Sharif and Kabul only. Anyone been there? any advice? Any good contacts there, definitely want a guide and maybe a guard. Thanks

Sounds like a great trip. How's Brown? I'll see if anybody knows anything for you...

Hello again Matt,
Your crazy, but I'll be one hell of a time!!!

I will ask two of my co-workers. They went there earlier this year for family.

I meant 'it will' not I'll!!

Just for the obvious correction since Roxanne might twist that around in her naughty mind.

Hi, This Is Sal. Please contact me if you need any help within the Pakistan Territories specially Northern Border Areas of Pakistan. We have good friends, they will takecare of you.

I work with a guy from Afghanistan. Let me see what he has to say.~

I read in Sunday's paper that the LP has a brand new guidebook out for it. Although, that may not help you on the 'recently' front.

I hate to mention this, esp while G is on this thread, but the Central Asia 'branch' of LP's Thorn Tree covers Afghanistan and, of course, Tajikistan.

I just thought of something else. I've been planning on going to Central Asia for a while, and was going to work on visas, etc. with this group: http://www.stantours.com/

The guy who runs it is a German expat, and although he doesn't seem to specialize in Tajikistan or Afghanistan, he's been in the region for a while, and may be able to provide some direction.

The goal of VT is to hook people up with the best information available ;o)

In May next year I could answer :-)

Ellen, the new Lonely Planet is out since Monday, but already not available. I am on the list of my bookstore and they told me, LP cannot deliver.
But there is another good book by Odysee publishers:
http://www.odysseypublications.com/publicationsPublication.php?publicationID=00074

And another site that might be able to help:
http://www.aims.org.af/index.aspx

Good choice, SumTingWong, seriously !
Ingrid :-)

...and, of course, Ingrid, you've GREAT Tajikistan pages, which should also help in the trip planning! :-)

Thanks Ellie, but I don't have any information on transport into northern Afghanistan. Yet - after May next year we will see :-)
But - erm... I recently realised that Wikipedia's contribution to Pamir Highway has an external link to... guess what... VT's guide to Things-to-do Tajikistan, and.. well :-) I was a bit proud, as my tip is still the first one to appear in that guide :-)

Thanks guys for the relpies, my plan is to fly from Islamabad to Kabul, hire a car and guard to drive to Mazar-e-Sharif, then drive to Kunduz, cross the Panj into Tajikistan and continue up to Dushanbe before flying off into the Pamirs to Khorog. Ingrid, you have a wonderful Tajiki page, I will definitely read it in further detail soon.

Hi Matt :-) Thanks for your compliment :-) I am still working on it, let me know if you need more info. Oh, and ignore my cynical remarks I wrote for the high heel tourists, you have enough experience to estimate how rural but marvellous Tajikistan and Pamirs are. Make sure you don't do ANY business with Traveltajikistan, but with Stantours, as Ellie wrote. For Dushanbe, check with Anna here on VT: http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/80914/ I met her there, she is adorable and can help with any information you might need, like accommodation in reliable guesthouses, taxis, restaurants, etc (I wish I would have asked her before I went....).

What are your plans after Khorog ? Travel along the highway ? From where do you fly back ?

We are currently planning (mid term, trips will start maybe next May) to drive along northern Pakistan, from Chitral to Lasht, then hike eastward (it ist called the 3 Boroghil passes) until Chinli Pass. We wanted to cross the border to Afghanistan's Wakhan corridor at the Boroghil pass, but we need a permit, and this is, according to John Mock of LP, only available in Faizabad, Kabul or Ishkashim. So we thought to fly on a separate trip to Dushanbe, then Khorog, drive to Ishkashim, cross boder, organise permit and then drive and hike along Wakhan east and cross Boroghil from the north. Then we would need to fly back via Islamabad. In total, this will be 3-4 trips of each 4 -5 weeks or so.
That's why I am interested how you fly back, as you will arrive in Islamabad, even if we still have enough time for this Wakhan trip.

Thanks :-)
Ingrid

Ingrid, if you weren't doing so much hiking, I'd ask if I could tag along! ;-)

Ellie, our first trip will be mainly travelling by cars and only a bit hiking. We want to get a feeling for this area east of Chitral :-)

very interesting. My plan can change easily depending on afghan security conditions. Now im going to fly - or hire a car and armed guard if the pass is ok from peshwar - from Islamabad to Kabul, then drive to Mazar, then to Kunduz, cross the new bridget into Tajikistan at Apnj-e-pamir, and continue up to Dushanbe, get all the GBAO permits (ill pre-arrange through a travel agency) and then fly to Khorog, drive the pamir to Murghab (do an extended - maybe a week or a little less - horse trek up there in the kyrgyz areas - was at songkol in kyrgyzstan a few months ago - loved it!) Oh, do you know about horse trekking in the murghab area, any recs? then drive to Osh and from there through the fergana valley to tashkent, samarqand, bukhara, khiva, urgench and then down into Turkmenistan and Iran. If the security situation in afghanistan is real bad, Ill go from islamabad up to Gilgit, do the karakoram highway to kashgar (I really recommend kashgar if you havent been), cross to tajikistan and head to murghab and khorog and then back up towards osh and then on into the fergana valley, tashkent, the ancient cities, than cross from Turkmenistan into Afghanistan to go to Herat (Pretty safe now from what ive heard) and then from Herat cross into Iran to Mashad and continue onto Tehran - Isfahan and out from Dubai or Istanbul.

:-) Except the Afghan, Turmenistan and Iranian leg it is almost similar to how I travelled last year. I started in Tashkent, then the other UZ cities, from Samarkand to Penjikent and then Dushanbe, Khorog, Murghab, Osh, Ferghana Valley and back to Tashkent. I know it is not liked to recommend own pages, but have a look, Matt, I am so far the only one who wrote Ferghana and Marghilan. In Marghilan is the oldest silk factory. Excellent !
If you are going to read my TJ stuff, you will find META (I have this all in the Generals). They are an excellent agency/tour company for eastern Pamirs. Very nice, helpful and very much fair prices. They can organise any treks or animal trips. They even have camels.
I can recommend to do a horse trek westward along Murghab river. Or north of Murghab, almost close to Karakul, along the road that leads west from the highway (just south of the 5000 m mountain). There are fascinating geoglyphs at 38°38'35,75 N, 72°54'42,39 E. And last year I stayed with Kyrgyz nomads and had the BEST yoghurt on earth !!
If you have Google Earth, check the blue dots for photos of "Hausibek". That's Markus Hauser, the one who made the Pamir Map.

When will you leave ? I am working on my Pamir stuff, but have finished Khorog only, not yet Murghab and the other little villages along the highway. Ask, whatever you want to know :-)

Boy, I envy you !!!

Ingrid :-)

Update for Matt and all of you:

we have just found a website of a young Indonesian guy, Agustinus Wibowo, who is currently in Kabul, working for the Indonesian embassy:
http://avgustin.net/home.php

This guy (25 years!!) is a marvellous photographer and writer. He really writes with heart and brain.
I can highly recommend to read his long blogs about his 2 Afghanistan travels (in 2006 and the current one of 2007).
Matt, maybe you can contact him and ask him about the current situation and maybe help and advice for your travels. His email is given on his site.

And on his site, I found a link to a marvellous Afghan singer, Farhad Darya:
http://www.farhaddarya.info/index.htm

Ingrid