Greetings From Afghanistan!
May 10, 2012, 7:00 am
By MATTHEW ROSENBERG
If you can put aside fear of being shot, blown up or kidnapped – in other words, basically pretend that Afghanistan is not in the grip of a brutal and seemingly interminable war – the country boasts some truly breathtaking tourist attractions.
There are the monumental relics of the great empires that have swept through, like the citadel in the western city of Herat that Alexander the Great is said to have built around 330 B.C. And there are spots of immense natural beauty befitting a remote country on the Western edge of the Himalayas, including the shimmering blue and green lakes of Band-e-Amir, Afghanistan’s first national park.
Hippies loved the place in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Tom Freston, the founder of MTV, spent a few years in Afghanistan back in the days before he regularly wore suits.
But the hippies are long gone. And forget about tourists – fear of being shot, kidnapped or blown up is something most people chose not to put aside.
http://atwar.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/10/greetings-from-afghanistan/