Hi Omie

Thank you for the link to your writing, I really enjoyed reading Part 1. Many of my most cherished memories are of Pakistan and it's nice to read some familiar place names. I must concede a little envy from my side at you having seen Afghanistan (well, the world) in the 1970s, though the picture you paint (using Pak rupees in Jalalabad, a slightly more liberal and cosmopolitain air compared to NWFP, the river in Kabul like a sewer all stick in my memory) is very much what I experienced in 2009. How amazing to go now, decades later and fulfil your dream by doing it on a motorcycle.

"It is interesting to note how nature and experiences make us and how we overrate ourselves as deciding for ourselves."

This rang true for me, I remember seeing a couple with a Landcruiser in the Madina Guesthouse in Gilgit in 2003 and thinking what an incredible way to travel tht would be.

A bit more back on topic, I have come across two recent accounts of travel in Afghanistan.

One is from a personal friend who has been running tours in the country for many years, who recently completed his first trip since the exit of American occupiers. He made a round trip from Kabul to the Minaret of Jam, then Herat Farah, Lashkar Gah, Kandahar, Ghazni, Kabul. He reported no issues, though predictably there were some Taliban officials who were nonplussed and perhaps suspicious of western tourists.

The other was on the HUBB Facebook page, and was from a western motorcyclist who reported a bit of hostility, though the account came across as being rather naive.

Western media would most likely not be able to report that peace and law-and-order have improved since the Americans departed but, certainly in the south of the country, that seems to be the case. I am very much hoping to visit Afghanistan again in the not-too-distant future and look forward to hearing about your trip.

Best wishes,

EO

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EurasiaOverland a memoir of one quarter of a million kilometres by road through all of the Former USSR, Western and Southern Asia.