What life is really like in Afghanistan, the place Australians are warned not to visit

DRUGS, despair and lawlessness.

It’s the place Australians are warned not to visit, and without a doubt war-torn Afghanistan can be a rough country to live in. Sadly, it’s also dealing with a skyrocketing drug problem, with more than 1.6 million residents (5.2 per cent of the population) considered to be addicted to heroin, according to the United Nations.

So when seasoned traveller and blogger Josh Cahill decided to venture inside, he was bound to delve into its dark side.

However, Josh, a German nomad who used to live in Australia and has travelled to more than 60 countries, also found something more surprising. He says the country is entering a new chapter and has some incredible spots and friendly locals. This is his story.

I heard the ‘ding’ alerting us to put our seat belts on as the Safi Airways flight 204 slowly started to descend into Kabul, the largest city in Afghanistan. And as the aircraft’s nose dived through the last cloud I started to realise that a new adventure, more intense than I had ever experienced, was about to begin.

I simply didn’t have any idea what to expect; Afghanistan’s capital city is certainly not a place people ‘visit’ for leisure.

Too many people shook their heads and expressed their concern when I told them I was planning on heading here. “Isn’t it still a war zone?”, “Three American contractors were just shot at the airport last week, are you sure you wanna go through those airport doors?”

But it was my childhood dream, and at last, it was about to come true.

However, Josh, a German nomad who used to live in Australia and has travelled to more than 60 countries, also found something more surprising. He says the country is entering a new chapter and has some incredible spots and friendly locals. This is his story.

I wasn’t entering the country as a contractor, nor someone who came for an NGO in order to change the world, driving around in armoured vehicles barely exchanging words with locals. No, I was a simple tourist visiting the country in order to tell the rest of the world how beautiful Afghanistan could really be.

I wanted to meet, stay and interact with the locals, get to know the country and participate in the every day life of the people of Kabul.

So I haddecided to couchsurf, to gain the full and authentic experience of staying in the city. My host’s driver picked me up at the airport, and I buckled up once again with a smile on my face, just like a little boy on his first ever roller-coaster ride.

“I’m driving through the streets of Afghanistan’s capital”, I thought, and it still felt so surreal. It filled me with delight and pure adrenaline. It may sound strange to you, but these are the moments an adventurer lives for.

However, Josh, a German nomad who used to live in Australia and has travelled to more than 60 countries, also found something more surprising. He says the country is entering a new chapter and has some incredible spots and friendly locals. This is his story.

Straight away, it was clear that I had arrived in a new world — a place full of daily struggles, but also of culture and a beating heart.

The streets around the airport were full of security checkpoints. There were a lot of armed soldiers, women begging in their burkas and kids playing football anywhere they could find a little spot of greenery.

That’s one thing that stood out to me as we drove along — the residents really love their cricket. Every street, park or courtyard was full of young Afghans batting the ball. It only stands for its progress that in 2015 the Afghan cricket team qualified for the ICC Cricket World Cup in Australia for the first time ever since the end of the Taliban regime, when any kind of sport was completely banned.

As we continued, I also spotted wedding halls, shops and battered buildings.

Along the river were plenty of local markets where you could buy the most interesting things, from all sorts of animals (either dead or alive), seasonings and fragrant spices, clothes, interesting looking birds and lots and lots of vegetables presented on some wobbly old wooden tables.

Tragic struggle with drugs

While I continued my stroll along the river I almost choked due to the terrifying smell of all the litter scattered on the streets. I noticed a group of people kneeling on the dried-out riverbed bit of it. All of them were tenting up their scarfs around their faces.

This looked like a weird ritual and I was told that this was where dozen of Afghan drugs addicts gathered to shoot up heroin or mainly smoke it, surrounded by garbage which covers nearly every centimetre of the ground.

The country is actually the world’s largest producer of poppy opium, the raw material from which heroin is made. Another sad fact is that Afghans have also become a leading consumer of the drug. An estimated 1.6 million citizens are considered to be addicted. This is a serious problem that the country has to face in the near future if the government doesn’t start acting soon.

Despite their troubles, the locals are really friendly

During my journey it struck me that there was a clear eagerness of the people to contribute to a better Afghanistan, to be able to shake off the image of the Taliban and their destruction. Kabul is alive and ready to become the majestic place it once used to be.

I was the white man walking through the streets, a “nonbeliever” as extremists would say. I didn’t blend in and I was the one of only two foreigners I encountered in the streets of Kabul who wasn’t driving around in an armoured car.

But, instead of facing bullets and attacks as many would have expected, I experienced the total opposite. I was treated like a guest and locals honoured my courage and respect with a big and bright smile that warmed my heart.

Of course at times I felt uncomfortable passing security guards with their Kalashnikovs at the ready. I felt naked, exposed. I had heard of stories of security forces randomly shooting at foreigners if they had a bad encounter them. My life felt like it was in the mercy of those guards.

I must have passed dozens of loaded guns every day but I’m still alive sharing my story with you today. I was always cautious of course and never headless, but after a few days I stopped feeling the unease and paranoia while walking through the streets.

It’s a land of beauty

No words can do the experience justice.

Before my trip, I had questioned whether all the risk was worth it. But at the end of the day I was blessed with some of the most unique experiences a traveller could ever have on this Earth. One of those memories was travelling through one of the most severe, history-laden and risky thoroughfares in the world, the Salang Pass.

The Salang Pass is a historic area of many tragedies, but also of indefinite beauty. It is a major mountain pass that connects the Kabul region to both northern and southern Afghanistan. Crossing the Hindu Kush at 3800 meters in the middle of the night must have been one of the most momentous times of my trip. I was speechless about what I’d seen that very night. It was nature at its absolute best.

The war-stricken facade

Kabul also offered moments like these, especially when I visited the most iconic building of the country, the Darulaman Palace. I guess no other building in Afghanistan could describe its own story as accurately as this one.

The war-stricken walls of the palace could probably tell a hundred stories. For a little bribe I was allowed to go inside which was such an incredible experience. As I walked through the old dining halls I closed my eyes and wished that I could travel back in time to when canapés were served and grand music was played at the palace.

But I was also interested in the tragic times when the only sounds ringing through the halls was the barrage of artillery hitting the building during the civil war. The place had quite a special atmosphere unlike any other place in Kabul.

Ultimately, it wasn’t what I expected

I knew from my previous trips to conflicted countries such as Iran or Egypt, that most of the time things aren’t as bad as they seem. We love to exaggerate things in order to satisfy our greed for the sensational, but in truth the reality is something else.

Still, Afghanistan has been at war for more than 35 years and many people have tragically lost their homes, their families, and their lives. That’s a fact, of course.

But the country has since entered a new chapter of restoration and wants to leave its image of the war-torn country behind it.

Sure, it can be lawless and rough at times and many people may think Afghans carry a lot of hate in their hearts but the experience I had on my trip was only blessed with mutual respect, dignity, kindness and hospitality that even my own country seems to be lacking at times.

The daily life in Kabul and the rest of the country was nothing like it is portrayed in the media. At least not to me. If someone was going to ask me if I found Afghanistan a dangerous place to travel, I would say probably not. At least not from what I personally encountered in Kabul or on my road trip north to Mazar-E-Sharif.

Afghanistan still has a very long road to go and nobody would agree that it was going to be easy after decades of war, but that’s no surprise.

I would visit the country again and I will very soon because Afghanistan and its people definitely deserve more attention.

But is Afghanistan ready for tourism?

Afghanistan may not seem like the most organised place to travel — inadequate infrastructure for tourists, a high security threat warning especially in certain areas, and a lack of traveller comforts — but I only experienced a beautiful and welcoming country whether in Kabul, or while travelling overland to Mazar-i-Sharif.”