96 Hours Inside Afghanistan in 2020

before thomas takes us on this wild experience in one of the rarest travel destinations in the world we just wanted to let you know that our black friday drop for seek discomfort is currently live and it will be on for the next seven days and as you will see in this episode we got to use seek discomfort to provide funds to making someone's very special dream come true in afghanistan for every order over 35 dollars you will be getting two seek discomfort flags for free again the seek discomfort black friday drop is currently live for the next seven days make sure you check out sega's comfort.com now to afghanistan i'm about to fly to one of the most dangerous countries in the world as a storyteller i'm interested in people and places that can defy our previous assumptions make us expand our perspective and expose our limited world view throughout my experiences over the past few years i've learned that nothing is black and white nothing is as simple as we'd like it to be instead everything is more like various shades of grey there's good and evil everywhere which is why i decided to visit a country i never thought i'd see in my life afghanistan afghanistan has been in a continuous war since the soviet invasion in 1979 which eventually nine years later as the war ended led to a civil war for power between militia groups and over time the gruesome control of the country by the taliban the final and current chapter is one we're all more familiar with the us invasion in 2001. the united states military has begun strikes in afghanistan which unfortunately after 19 years still hasn't fully ridden the country of terrorist groups the complexity of the political situation has unfortunately given afghanistan a bad reputation around the world hiding its immensely rich and beautiful culture from all of our eyes and today i'm hoping to change that but this doesn't take away from the fact that i am flying to a country that is still incredibly dangerous foreigners get kidnapped for ransoms random bombings happen throughout the country every week if not every day and having a local guide who understands where civil limits end and where taliban borders begin is absolutely imperative luckily i'll be going with my friend drew binsky a fellow content creator who has the goal to visit every country and is currently at 190. he's been to afghanistan before with his incredible guide noir who's taken over 500 tourists to visit his country he's so incredibly proud of but first a very valid question that i think many of you will have is what about the pandemic i got tested three days before leaving the day before leaving the day i left and the day after i left all four times tested negative i've now been isolated at home for the past 14 days and neither me drew or our guide nor have shown any symptoms and i know that we've said this many times before but given how much is outside of my control on this one and that my return flight leaves 96 hours later this is definitely the most uncertain and dangerous trip i've ever signed up for [Music] the trip to the most dangerous country in the world supposedly it's about to begin feeling very very nervous i woke up to a lot of missed calls from family trying to persuade me not to go for now though time to catch this flight the middle of the night i can't see another white person around at the moment [Music] on the bus ride over here i looked down and i remembered that i was wearing love over fear and uh took a moment to think about what does that mean in this moment i feel like this trip fully embodies fear you google afghanistan and all you see is explosions is terror is misery and on top of that i've never had this much backlash on any trip that i've ever done it's not just fear in the news it's also fear from people around me and then obviously fear within myself i can sense my own ignorance already because i'm afraid i'm sitting here and i feel completely different from all of these people and so for me in this moment love over fear means surrendering to the truth that humanity is inherently good because any time in the past when i've truly followed my gut and chosen love over fear it's turned out to be the greatest decision i've ever made especially when fear is particularly loud how you doing thank you [Music] goodbye well taking my first steps in the country hi of afghanistan so far everybody's just been incredibly nice many people asked to make sure that i have somebody here to take care of me and i'm not fully on my own it's the most people that have ever talked to me on a flight before dude how are you oh my god dude welcome to afghanistan what are we doing right now oh my god look at your outfit you made it how are you good i'm thomas this is noah great to meet you norman very welcome to afghanistan oh my god thank you so much for having me thanks i forgot about that welcome to terraps on this four day trip we're going to spend the majority of it in the historical city located in the western part of the country herat herat is the third largest city in afghanistan and felt like the perfect city to get a first short glimpse into the country amazing i'm almost tearing up looking at the window right now i'm in like complete disbelief it's it's a landscape and a place that i genuinely never thought i would see in my lifetime so to actually be here and see it i uh i can't wait out of all the countries in the world man like this one is the most i guess the word out uses surreal to be here because you hear about afghanistan on the news you hear about these bombings there was a bombing yesterday in kabul a lot of them don't even make the news anymore because it's happening so often and as we speak the taliban is controlling about 50 percent of afghanistan it's pretty scary there's only how many provinces are open six uh yeah six to seven provinces for now out of how many out of thirty four oh wow in here uh we don't really have like uh like too much taliban and stuff like that but we we have like some random thieves some kidnappings when you like go quite away from the city center how far away like probably like four to five kilometers [Music] oh it's a big gate at the entrance of our hotel [Music] oh what a place wow oh look at our hotel in hirats thank you wow what are we doing now all right i got your traditional afghan outfit here and a matching blue turban for you amazing let's get you all dry this is step number one of blending in right it's kind of respect to the culture to the outfit and people really like it when they see you with this normal clothing it automatically creates a friendly atmosphere how do i not rip this yeah it's sometimes tough to get it on this is our daily outfit yeah you'll get used to it don't worry it's really comfortable when you start wearing it blending in all done i asked you like all day whoa whoa wow how do you feel man that is not what i was expecting that's amazing it's amazing right wow this is the bulletproof door [Music] oh wow thank you it's not the not the official moment yet [Music] wow so this is the outside of the friday mosque on turret [Music] the backdrop of this mosque behind us is really interesting it's uh there's a whole bunch of kids playing qriket on the little dirt patch available and above us are some apache helicopters all the reminders of where you are all at once how are you good should i film this oh yeah yeah yeah they really want me to film this moment i don't know yes yes we've been caught up in the middle of this cricket game and it's everyone's going crazy oh [Music] he's directing me right now what should i film this yeah dude you're ballsy for giving anyone your camera he just wants to fight drew said it was very ballsy with me to give my camera away to one of the kids one of them would run away with it but no he just wants to try it this guy's a future director right here [Music] [Music] very good yes what just happened just came up to me and asked me to try to figure out where it was from yeah they were just really nice well we are now actually stepping inside of the mosque holy it is much bigger than i expected [Music] what are you guys doing here just visiting or are you just visiting yeah what can i do for you oh just nothing man yeah hello yeah just hello great to meet you yeah amazing thank you they're incredibly friendly like he literally just asked the question what can i do for you unbelievable that's just part of the conversation here [Music] like i didn't grow up particularly religious but when you're here and you have those shared experiences with people it feels like the pinnacle of what the point of religion is which is just connection and love and like caring for each other looking at someone in the eyes that has a completely different life than yours and speaks a completely different language uh and having a connection those are the times where you have like a shared moment of humanity that like transcend culture transcends borders transcends language it transcends belief it's just like hey i have no idea what you have been through and it's definitely completely different than what i've been through but maybe that's a part of what contributes to us having like a moment of friendship even though we can't even communicate with each other right i feel like we've had a few of those experiences here as well where you're like just connecting human to human and that's it and you're just fully present with each other you don't understand each other right but it doesn't really seem to matter because you're with each other [Music] oh [Applause] so thank you so much for coming both of you thank you thank you on our first full day in the country noor took us to a place i couldn't believe existed in afghanistan the citadel of herat built in 330 bc during alexander the great's conquest of the middle east and asia this citadel would serve as home to many rulers in the following centuries afghanistan was located right in the middle of the ancient silk road where the east meets the west the herats and surrounding cities thrived from the international exchange of goods knowledge and traditions this citadel serves as a reminder of afghanistan's deep roots and its impact on the world there are some military choppers flying above us right now it's a clear reminder that even though we're here in this peaceful citadel we are still in afghanistan and as a reminder you get quite often as you drive around and walk around the streets with all the heavy military presence pretty much everywhere we're not able to film any military because if you get caught doing that can be some serious issues very strange experience to have to be in such a beautiful historical place and at the same time be reminded of the context of the country that we're in so the caretaker of this citadel is opening the doors for us and taking us around he just told us he likes our outfits everywhere you go when you meet someone they'll offer you tea yeah without offering tea it's like they miss something like they don't feel comfortable he's offered us three times so we finally took it but we finally took it off then it says [Music] i'm really curious to know what his experience was like when the taliban took over herat as known as a young boy had like a nice haircut or something they made you go and shave your head if if someone like we're tramming their beard they put him in prison until the beard regrow and then they would let him go out for example the woman they couldn't came out by themselves the woman were not allowed to go to school if you were caught like stealing they were chopping the hat i myself i saw hands hanged on the tree in a square in mazar sharif are both you and him worried that once the u.s troops leave that the taliban are going to take over the country everyone is worried about that now you're now almost there controlling like 60 70 of the country like anywhere just outside of the city you cannot go is there distrust amongst people because you don't know who's who collaborates with them and who doesn't yes local people looks like taliban taliban also looks like local people yeah just thanks for sharing thank you so much fascinating looking out the window it's unlike anything that i've ever seen basically not a single tourist in this entire city it kind of feels like a time capsule in history it's a culture that's been so isolated from the rest of the world as well because of the wars that being here and seeing it is unlike any other travel experience that i've ever had that was awesome the market is always the first place i like to go when i visit any any new city because you get a feel of what they're wearing what they're eating how they act yes to stay for dinner be my guest you're very welcome to afghanistan and stuff like that i've never seen a country with such diverse uh like facial features when you go to the u.s people are very diverse because they they've immigrated from all over the place but the local afghans like just ethnically look so different like you see some people very dark features and then some people with much more like south asian teachers right like it's just like such an amazing blend yeah so this is kind of how you do it man cool yeah we got a lot of space here dude that is this is a lot of food yeah mix as well all right first real afghan meal this looks absolutely delicious there's no way you want to set it so we've just been invited to hang out with some local guys and smoke some hash dude i love how he just whipped out a hat this is crazy look at this stuff cool so let's go do some cool stuff those are the best man let's interject here with a quick culture and history note apparently afghanistan produces about 80 percent of the world's supply of hash and is rumored to have invented it centuries ago we would typically not go after a moment like this in a yes theory adventure we don't want to promote the consumption of either hash or alcohol or any kind of substance for that matter but given that travel videos often feature wine in countries like france or italy we've decided to make an exception even though the stigma around hash is much larger around the world that for the sake of a cultural experience and a story for the grandkids to say yes to this invitation [Music] well we are walking over to our driver's house definitely the more remote area that we visited so far no way oh how you doing what are we doing right now [Music] very good nice yeah [Music] just chilling there's no other better setting that i would imagine having this kind of experience it like literally just feels like homies hanging after school [Music] so the coolest part about this experience is you feel like you're hanging out with friends and you're sick we can't speak this is my luck oh that was that was great thank you goodbye goodbye oh my god that was amazing that was so fun thanks for bringing us are you okay with some pomegranate juice right now yeah i would love some pomegranate okay let's do it yeah we are getting some pomegranate juice freshly squeezed off the street yeah wow that's amazing never had pomegranate juice before i'm very glad afghanistan is the first place that i do absolutely delicious [Music] over the next two days nor took us to the landmarks of herat so today we're exploring uh more of herrat this is the tomb of gerhart begum the wife of the minister of the 13th century and although this city has seen destruction and invasion for lots of its history here the complex was so huge they destroyed all the walls because they were worried that the russians would come and use that as a base so they destroyed everything it's just interesting to hear all of the different generations of people that decided to come here and destroy this country one at a time we've taken turns to take down the beautiful culture that that has been here for hundreds if not thousands of years i also noticed how lively and flourishing it was one interesting thing we keep noticing everywhere is there's kites in the air really everywhere we go and you see little kids running around with them there's three of them right there there's two right there there's one over there one right there pretty incredible it's very endearing and just sweet way to see kids playing together everybody thinks afghanistan is a really bad place but i'm trying to tell them it's a very amazing place thank you thank you so much there are so few few little people like you in the world thank you so much we have hope we have energy we have so so so talent in afghanistan and we're gonna make our country to a better situation every time we ate or walked around people would offer to have us at their houses with open arms you guys look very nice like with afghan outfits and everything and he hopes the time you're having in here at you will have very good time and he says if you're if you want to come to our house you're very welcome oh that's so sweet but the best part of it was seeing the love noor had for his country and history welcome to the shrine of hajja abdullahi ansar a philosopher and a poet of hirat during the 10th century so the age of the stone out there the gravestone that you see that's like almost 600 years old off-camera noor explained to us the challenging childhood he'd had and the one way that he thought afghanistan could change investing in education his dream was to start a school for children left on the streets so on the last night we decided to sit him down to hear his story and surprise him by helping him make his dream finally come true it's been amazing getting to know a little bit about you and i just wanted to have a conversation a little bit about your experience being here it feels like the taliban and just the terror is like a disease in a very special place this war has been going on for i mean since you were born right i was born right in the middle of the war yeah and i was raised in this situation i was exactly born in the north of afghanistan a city called mazar sharif yeah the toughest moment was when taliban came to mazar sharif actually so as a very young kid i saw lots of lots of like dead bodies and the day when taliban came i was like 11 years old they took over all the areas and they were stacked at our village all of our men came together like even normal people they left their job and shops and stuff and then they were fighting against the taliban people were so scared and they evacuated like the whole the whole area they all like do by walking they try to go and escape into the mountains of charkins out there but unfortunately lots of them were killed and died between the city and the mountains because taliban were shooting behind them lots of heavy artilleries 25 to 30 percent of the people were killed like that on the way from the city to the mountain so it was an extremely horrible situation and well everyone was scared in our families we had to leave everything behind like the family the house and everything for a while we stayed quite away from the city like for a week and after a week we finished our food and water and everything so we had to come back to our house and then when we came back uh the taliban put our house on fire so when we reached at the house the smoke was coming out we tried to at that time we didn't have like water and the pipes and we tried our rest but but we couldn't save the house like for three days and four nights our house was on fire and it was just burning and burning it was a crazy situation but it was like a miracle no one hopefully from our family was lost in the wars there's not a lot of times where you hear these direct stories coming from people that lived it hearing the news it's so sad that we've gone so numb to like oh another bomb goes off in afghanistan and the horrible thing is that's several families losing family members and you forget that the people that suffer the most from terrorism are the people that are in the countries where it's happening it's a bit difficult for me to talk about this crazy situations in afghanistan but you know i have a passion about this country i'm just really worried about the future of afghanistan right now when i see all these amounts of biggers and kids and children with no education and they're just growing older and older at least to help to offer a better future for afghanistan so i'm thinking of making a new school like a shelter to somehow help these children give them the money that they're earning but instead asking them to come and stay in the shelter and educate and i have very good you know network of my friends people who are educated and they want to volunteer to support these kids and i'm really hoping at the beginning of 2021 wow we're having a shelter because mainly i am trying to cover the kids who are like begging on the streets no families they're just left behind but still beside that there are children who have families but they're extremely poor these two types because they're really the future of afghanistan and they really need support so i went to bed last night and i was just staring up at the ceiling and i was just thinking about this like what you were telling me and i messaged my friends and they all really connect with the story as well and as a part of this video we're releasing seek discomfort clothing and we would love to take some of the proceeds from that and contribute to your school oh that would be so nice and so we're thinking of bringing you ten thousand dollars oh wow man that's i i can immediately buy it buy like a like a piece of land for the compound is that true yeah yeah i already like uh uh four thousand dollars to buy 400 square meters of land for the school but still we need a lot of money for the walls like to build the actual house and everything so my whole saving from last year was 4 000 and i like i i separated that four thousand for the kids and uh i already bought a piece of land somewhere in mazaru sheriff so hopefully we're going to change that to a compound yeah this is nice of you man this is like really really touching man you know there's more to this yeah so thomas and i have brainstormed about this and i would like to make a contribution as well several thousand dollars i will be adding you know man i'm i'm about to cry man oh no without your help we're going to go to the knees man we cannot do anything so i was i was really i was really hoping that someday i i was i was going to do this you know even my english is kind of crazy now right okay i i'm sure this school will will be a good thing one day and uh and i will remember that you guys were almost the first people who helped me with this he's almost my friend i can it's i cannot forget this moment man this is give a hug thank you bro you're gonna make something beautiful and i know it [Music] even though i only had four days afghanistan was truly the most impactful country i've ever visited it might not show at the start of the video while boarding that first flight i almost had a panic attack out of fear basically questioning every decision i'd ever made up until this point but deep inside i knew my gut was telling me to go because i think today more than ever the world needs positive stories that bring us together i never felt so welcomed before people were so incredibly friendly and i'm excited to hopefully come back one day and see more as you heard there are obviously lots of challenges this country is still facing but i do think that it is resilient and compassionate people like noor who have the ability to create the positive ripple effect of change the country needs offering noor ten thousand dollars to help start his school was honestly a split second decision i made after feeling so touched by his story but i knew i'd regret leaving the country without offering tangible help obviously there would be no way for me to do this if i wasn't confident that our community and seek discomfort wouldn't be reliable avenues to make something like this happen so quickly which is the magic we're able to create with seek discomfort by building our own brand and so if you're interested in supporting us and getting yourself or someone you love some clothing for the holidays our black friday drop is live right now and for the next seven days we hope that you're looking forward to seeing norah school for children flourishing in 2021 as much as we are after my covet test the day before leaving and the day after when i landed in dubai i made it out of afghanistan safe and sound and covet free i've been home now for the past two weeks like i'd originally intended and have been so grateful for the eye-opening trip this was i hope that you have a beautiful rest of your day thank you for watching all the way to the end and we'll see you next week you

Channel: Yes Theory

Views: 4,948,114

Rating: 4.9554749 out of 5

Keywords: yestheory, seek discomfort, yes theory strangers, yes theory travel, yes theory subscribers, getting out of your comfort zone, Afghanistan, Afghanistan travel, Traveling to Afghanistan, Is Afghanistan safe, Afghanistan Taliban, Dangerous travel, Risky travel, How to travel to dangerous countries, Beautiful travel, Travel to unusual places, Travel, indigo traveller, kenya, north korea, travel vlog, indigo traveler, vlogger, footage, chernobyl, backpacker, backpacking, Amazon FBA, FBA

Id: J74B2jzr8iA

Length: 33min 55sec (2035 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 22 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/Gutterlord]

It was so nice to see the middle east in a positive light.

[u/allanthegeneral]

Watched tons of videos about Afghan,I have to admit this is the only positive video that I know of from Afghan.