28. maj 2016

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)