Tag: Afghanistan

Review: The Places In Between – Rory Stewart

My fascination with Afghanistan continues. The Places in Between, by the now-Member of Parliament Rory Stewart, is a record of Stewart’s walk from Herat to Kabul in Afghanistan in early 2002, mere months after the commencement of the War in Afghanistan. It’s a fascinating journal of an 800 km walk between a series of town and villages, in the dead of winter, across territory often still marginally controlled by the Taliban. Stewart’s letters of recommendation from earlier villages’ headmen are often the only things between a bed for the night and being left outside in the snow to fend for himself. Relying on the Islamic tradition of hospitality, he nearly always has a floor to sleep on, some bread to eat, and a roof over his head every night.

He meets a bewildering array of characters, and it’s clear he’s done his homework: a Persian speaker, he successfully manoeuvres himself into and out of situations as need be, knowing how many effusive greetings to offer to a stranger at any given time, or how to confuse parochial and threatening locals with wider-world talk.

But the villagers and headmen and soldiers and officials aren’t the only stars of this captivating travel journal. He takes in the cream of the architectural and geological wonders of the area: from the domes of Chist-e Sharif, to the empty niches of the recently-bombed Buddhas of Bamiyan, to my personal favourite, the minaret of Jam. Conservation worries aside, reading his account of climbing to the near-top of the minaret, with nary a soul around, gave me chills, and made me desperate to swap places with him, 12 years in the past, if only for a second.

There are also stark reminders of the ongoing war/invasion/occupation. Burnt husks of villages, destroyed by the Taliban. Families missing vast swathes of members, killed by the Taliban. The vast, empty caverns in Bamiyan where the Buddhas once stood. The accurate and anguished recounting of these traumas by the people whom Stewart encounters only reinforces the conditions and the time in which he’s walking, only months after the invasion started.

The Places in Between is a fantastic read. Riveting, illuminating, harrowing. And if you don’t have a tear in your eye when Stewart recalls the final fate of Babur the dog, an unwanted gift that soon becomes his valued travel companion, then you’re a brute. Read this book as soon as you can.

The Places in Between – Rory Stewart

Review: A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush

‘God, you must be a couple of pansies,’ said Thesiger.

A Short Walk… is the story of a couple of ill-equipped, frightfully British chaps who decided they wanted to climb a remote, as-yet-unconquered peak in the north-east of Afghanistan. The quote above is the final line of the book, uttered by famed explorer Wilfred Thesiger, whom they encounter on their return from their adventure, who catches them in the act of inflating their air-beds.

Whilst their inexperience and naivety leads, as expected, to all manner of difficult and dangerous situations, the story is told with quintessentially British humour and wit. Infinitely readable and most enjoyable, it played right into my current, and bewildering, fascination with Afghanistan. Tragically, whilst reading I attempted to track Newby and Carless’ journey around the Panjshir Valley and through Nuristan on Google Maps, with the help of the crude maps included at the end of the book which, whilst not always successful, made the stories a touch more real and tangible.

If either travel writing or Afghanistan is your thing, read this book.

A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush – Eric Newby