Ever since the Taliban fell in late 2001, I’ve been curious about when tourism would return to Afghanistan. Apparently, it’s beginning to. In a recent Mammoth Times article entitled The Rebirth of Afghanistan, Bill Altaffer optimistically describes what he saw on a recent package tour to Kabul. “You won’t find hordes of tourists, fancy hotels, five-star dining or organized sports and other activities there,” he writes. “What you will find are wonderfully friendly people living in a culture radically different from your own, colorful and vibrant street scenes alive with strange sights and smells, a whole country as yet unexplored and unspoiled by a tourist-oriented infrastructure.”

Altaffer goes on to describe Kabul’s people, restaurants, schools, markets, historical sites, and the ever-present war detritus (an attraction in itself in Afghanistan — some war remnants date back to the British area and beyond). Amidst all this, did Altaffer ever feel in danger? “Yes,” he quips, “for two reasons. I passed twice through Pakistan, for one. My other fear, since I stopped in [East Asia] twice, was possible exposure to SARS. But none of us were afraid to be in Afghanistan itself.”