Afghanistan 12 - Visas

Everybody needs a visa, from an Afghan Embassy to enter Afghanistan. Visas are not available at any border. Several nations are expressly denied entry at the request of their home governments like South Koreans.

Entering from Pakistan:
As of the time of writing, the Khyber Pass is closed for entry to Afghanistan.
That means you from Peshawar cannot catch a taxi, a bus, a moto-rickshaw, hitch-hike, walk, drive your car, your bus, ride your motorbike, scooter, push-bike, unicycle, pony, donkey, whatever to the Torkham border and on to the Jalalabad-Kabul road until further notice.
We have several excellent Pakistani contributors here as well as tour guides who you can rest assured will gleefully inform you when it is possible.

Entering from Iran: 
From Mashad there are usually a handful of busses, mostly carrying freight to Herat. Make sure you book you tickets at least the day before you intend to depart, as the busses leave around 04:00 to 07:00 in the morning.
Expect to be sitting next to boxes of tiles, panes of glass, artificial flowers, kid's bath toys and all sorts of other random crap that there is apparently an urgent need for in western Afghanistan.
(to be continued)

Afghanistan 11 inshallah airlines

Generally speaking if you don't wear a vest they will think you're either a stupid tourist, a Pakistani, a boy or effeminate and not necessarily in that order.

In Kabul you will probably feel silly wearing a full shalvar kamiz and vest, so best to go with the trusty David Attenborough uniform of a normal long sleeve shirt and trousers, usualy something like blue and beige or similar. have a look at what most of the Afghan men wear around Kabul and you'll cotton quickly. (no pun intended)

Air Travel: 
Ariana Afghan National Airline is jokingly called 'inshallah airlines' for a reason, and Kam Air and Pamir air aren't far behind. The chances of your flight even showing up on the day you've booked the ticket for are directly proportional to the will of God. Even the regular routes like Kabul-Herat are unreliable and it isn't uncommon for people to have to wait up to three days to get a flight out.

(to be continued)