Would You Take a Vacation to Afghanistan?

1. Geekazoid
   March 20th, 2009 at 7:11 pm

   This is poignant, sad, all of that. Truly Afghanistan has many spectacular and beautiful sights that are perfect for tourism.

2. pardonmoi
   March 20th, 2009 at 7:11 pm

   Beautiful country and I'd love to see it someday. For now though, I'm happy to stay "unkidnapped" and to keep my head attached to my body.

3. Alex
   March 20th, 2009 at 7:12 pm

   The world is full of amazing places, which are probably a lot safer than Afghanistan.

   Tourism requires much more than just spectacular scenery - there's a lot of logistics involved (hotel, transport, food) that I'm sure are lacking in places like Afghanistan.

4. violet
   March 20th, 2009 at 7:25 pm

   Didn't they blow up a lot of the enormous Buddhas? That one hurt.

5. Quiana
   March 20th, 2009 at 7:41 pm

   I have faith that some day I will get to go there. But I am opposed to death, so I can wait.

   Things change more quickly than people believe.

6. Inti
   March 20th, 2009 at 7:46 pm

   violet, they are completely destroyed. I remember seeing it in the news back in 2001, ending a global controversy opposing the entire world vs the Taliban. The footage of the dynamiting was painful, I felt as sick as when Baghdad was being bombed 2 years later.

7. Lauren
   March 20th, 2009 at 8:14 pm

   This is truly an amazing place filled with culture and archaeological treasures. Well done

8. Kalel
   March 20th, 2009 at 8:35 pm

   If I really wished to see Afghanistan, I could sign up for the US Army.

9. arbos
   March 20th, 2009 at 9:37 pm

   Comparing Florida and an independent country... yeah, colonies! lol .....

10. Geekazoid
    March 20th, 2009 at 10:00 pm

    That's true Alex, which makes it even sadder. I think any country in the world that has beautiful natural sights would be proud to show them to the world, and have a nice tourist trade (a great source of revenue). Just seeing these pictures I can't see how anyone wouldn't find it a beautiful place to visit and see.

11. violet
    March 20th, 2009 at 10:28 pm

    @inti: Mm, yes. Watching the bombing of Baghdad on television was the first time I had a visceral reaction to anything like that. The tears...they just happened. I don't consider myself particularly maudlin or whatever, but it was like my first grown-up, fully-aware response to what was, in flat truth, scores of innocents being annihilated. Really f*cked up moment.

12. poppedculture
    March 20th, 2009 at 10:44 pm

    I have to second the keeping the head sentiment. That's just way too high a cost for tourism. I'll go somewhere safer, like Sudan.

13. Medical Pastiche
    March 20th, 2009 at 10:56 pm

    When I was in Afghanistan almost 2 years ago, the country was in the midst of falling apart and falling to the Taliban. I would not be hopeful that things would change in 10 years time to make it a vacation place; even now, it is incredibly dangerous for people with jobs who do relief/aid work to be there.

    I do not think that most people realize how bad the situation really is, and stories like this do not help correct that perception.

14. Geekazoid
    March 20th, 2009 at 11:56 pm

    I see your point Medical, but I didn't take the article to be deliberately misleading people into thinking it's like Disneyland in Afghanistan. I take away from the article more of sadness that it is so filled with beautiful scenery, yet it is so dangerous and unstable as to be unfit for people who appreciate beauty to visit.

    Kind of like an ironic sentiment more than trying to sugarcoat the actual situation there. That they are sending more troops there, and the level of violence there is rising at a rapid rate, is very scary.

15. Orjan Morjan
    March 21st, 2009 at 9:06 am

    A more fitting comparison would have been travels in Vietnam.

16. Zizkovak
    March 21st, 2009 at 9:22 am

    I have always wanted to see that part of the world... makes me sad that I can't.

17. GailW
    March 21st, 2009 at 10:29 am

    How sad that such a beautiful and culturally rich country has been destroyed by war and religious zealotry.

18. Medical Pastiche
    March 21st, 2009 at 11:12 am

    Geekazoid,

    The problem is that in Afghanistan there is only a handful of scenery which could be viewed as beautiful. As a whole, considering the vast amounts of bleak, arid mountain-desert, Afghanistan is quite ugly.

    As I commented in the source article, the article is like saying the Sahara desert is beautiful, refreshing, and full of life based on visiting an oasis.

19. Skipweasel
    March 21st, 2009 at 2:31 pm

    Meanwhile, a bunch of intrepid tourists tour Iraq...
    http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=102187982

    They asked about hiring a couple of armed heavies for protection and were told that they'd have to have thirty or so - and feed them. So they decided instead to do without and keep a low profile.

20. Video Game Dork
    March 21st, 2009 at 3:20 pm

    And what vacation would be complete without as stay in...
    The CITY of SCREAMS!! D:

21. ted
    March 21st, 2009 at 5:15 pm

    The City of Screams sounds really enticing. Are the hotel walls soundproof?

22. Frau
    March 21st, 2009 at 5:37 pm

    As much as I would like to - I'll pass.
    And it is unforutnate that there are some truly beautiful and unique places in the world that I think some people would be proud to show off to the "rest of the world", but it is the few ruling religious zealots who make it miserable and unwelcoming.

    Movies, whose settings are supposed to be in Afghanistan are being shot in my "backyard" anyways. I can just pretend.

23. lannaxe96
    March 21st, 2009 at 10:50 pm

    A beautiful place with a long heritage of historical treasures

24. Jeff2442
    March 22nd, 2009 at 1:28 am

    Yeah, but the blue mosque is in Turkey.

25. Johnny Cat
    March 22nd, 2009 at 12:23 pm

    Orjan Morjan, yes from what I've read the Vietnam tourism can be quite a tricky deal.

26. Non
    March 22nd, 2009 at 5:07 pm

    I don't know what I was doing at the time, but wow...I never knew they blew up and defaced the giant Buddhas. How sad.

27. Detroit Indian
    March 23rd, 2009 at 9:48 am

    Let me just mention that another incentive would be that Afghani women are considered one of the best looking in the world. Of course this depends upon whether the future will allow them to shed the burqa

28. Crispy75
    March 23rd, 2009 at 2:28 pm

    Friend of mine visited Afghanistan and Iran (he had a Afghani/British friend out there) a couple of years ago. Absolutely amazing places - geographically and socially. I edited his camcorder footage, which I'd link to some stills of if I still had a copy >_<

29. SFC 18 Delta
    April 7th, 2009 at 5:43 am

    I am currently here in Afghanistan, and I can tell you it is pretty amazing, if you like nature and the outdoors its a real nice place, mountains, lakes, rivers, it just looks so cool, valleys with small villages and rivers flowing through them...the sad part is there has been a lot of littering around the u.s. bases...while in a convoy escorting some jinga trucks, even the drivers threw out water bottles onto the dirt road like it was nothing...it will take a long time to try to lift this country up to what it was back in the 60s and 70s.

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