Afghanistan

Before the Russians invaded, Afghanistan was a country on the “overland trail”. Many travellers passed though on their way to India or Europe. It was a country which had not fully entered the twentieth century.

Entering the country from Iran meant using the border crossing between Mashad and Herat – at Islam Qala. This became notorious as it was a rip-off difficult to avoid. The local Customs officer owned the “hotel” in “no-man’s land” between the borders and all buses were forced to overnight there.

Entry from Pakistan was through the Khyber Pass – it was quite a trip riding on top of a truck. Landi Kotal was a “duty free” village on the way where drugs were freely available. It was also possible to enter from Pakistan through the Khojak Pass (between Quetta and Kandahar).

The main route for overlanders was Herat – Kandahar – Kabul (or vice versa). The roads had been built by both the Russians and the Americans. On the Russian section they had built a grey concrete hotel complete with swimming pool (but no water). It was used as a bus stop (for passengers to get tea) – no-one actually stayed there. Mostly the buses stopped at a “chaikana” or tea house. I remember being on a bus with some Americans whose request for Coca Cola was met with much derision. One girl asked, “Where is the toilet?” and was taken into the chaikana and shown a door. She went through it to find herself in the desert. She asked again, “Where is the toilet?” The owner of the chaikana waved his hand at the vast expanse of desert and replied, “The whole world is a toilet!” – quite profound really.

There was a certain etiquette observed in chaikanas. The customer would be bought an enamel pot of very hot tea and some glasses (usually not too clean) and the customer’s first duty was to rinse the glasses out with hot tea – makes sense to me.

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