Letter to Afghanistan

two disclaimers in this video I will avoid certain keywords not because I'm afraid but simply just to avoid potentially being demonetized in such I will be referring to the current deao ruling government as just the government second you have to understand Afghanistan has been through a lot in the past few centuries it is important to note that the current state of the country is in a complicated period where the government is still experimenting with ideas on how to properly move forward everything that is policy today is not always guaranteed and it is still subject to change based on how the Afghan people interact with their government dear Afghanistan I'm going to visit your country and I'm American so two things I won't do I won't talk about the obvious thing that everybody thinks about when they put the USA and Afghanistan together in a sentence there's nothing I can say that hasn't already been said a billion times before there's nothing new I can cover so I'm not even going to bother and the second thing I'm not going to do unlike many YouTubers in the past I'm not going to do this look at me I'm in a scary dangerous country oh look at all these people they're probably scary and dangerous too yeah like And subscribe share this video so why am I going well for one my friend Gus leads group tours and he wanted me to specifically join this one so I agreed and kept it a secret from everybody body yes even my mom can Americans even visit well despite all that's happened surprisingly yes but in order to do that I have to first go to one of the only few Afghan consulates in Dubai I'll report back to you when I'm done so I'm at the airport I know it's not required but I was told if you want to blend in better uh it's better if guys have facial hair so I haven't shaved in 3 weeks is as good as it gets it's kind of sad I know because my last name literally translates to beard man I'm a disgrace to my Italian [Music] ancestors so this is my third time in Dubai I'm not really here to have fun I'm just here to get the visa from the Afghan Consulate that's pretty much it what the hell is going on dear Afghanistan I made it the consulate is pretty easy to find granted the line is pretty long so I showed up early however the process is surprisingly easy all I have to do is give my tourism papers and pay for the Visa no questions no interview just pay and go so I guess this is it off I go whoa all right here we go Afghanistan demonstra and we need [Music] your made it sorry Mom [Music] so this is where we're staying it's actually uh it's not bad now this is interesting check it just for safety the hotels are equipped with these bulletproof doors should anything happen Wi-Fi works but uh so let's see uh checking the speed of the internet 16 kiloby per second 24 okay it's going up a little bit okay still it's in the kilobytes like dang good morning hey Mom uh yeah so I'm with Gus right now remember Gus hello um from uh Netherland Denmark same same same same yeah so Mom what you me uh I'm sorry I forgot to tell you I went to Afghanistan what so I'm in Afghanistan right now with Gus she says are you crazy yeah we have that's our tour guide he's uh he's helping us hello so yeah yeah that's my mom yeah are they okay she say are we is everybody okay everything okay no worries at all can I trust you you have no chance he's already with me you have no ch that's pretty much it okay so now Mom knows okay I feel better no choice you have no choice oh my God you're a sneaky person dear Afghanistan almost 10 years ago Afghanistan was the very first country episode I ever did on my channel so my knowledge of this place was rooted in whatever trivial facts I could remember from my rudimentarily made 6 minute 42c long episode but for these next few days I just want to see it for myself and come to my own convictions I'm learning a ton of new subtle things that distinctly stick out and play a role in Afghanistan's character like how birds are considered the number one preferred house pet and you can see bird markets all over the country all over the roadsides you will see nanaii SAR or mobile bakeries these little glass kiosk things that sell bread on the street all taxis by law must be a shade of light blue and fairs are super cheap and speaking of which since many cars are illegally imported you will see curious license plates from all over the world that are definitely not from Afghanistan and speaking of which all produce and street food is is wrapped up in Korean newspaper apparently I learned that they have a deal with South Korea who sells it to them for cheaper than the price of conventional packing material it's these small little details that I like taking note of because it doesn't seem like it's much but it's like the foundation that everybody here is familiar with and that's the real treasure I'm trying to discover everything I've been told aside I'm here now so what really is Afghanistan so we're listening to some music right now it's nice we're in the car so as of right now in Afghanistan you are allowed to listen to music within the confines of your car or your home but but for now music has been prohibited in the public so if you walk down the streets you probably won't hear much music so you might hear music at like small parties or wedding halls or maybe the gyms but other than that just walking down most streets or whatever in public it's very rare that you'll hear music that's just the way how things are now who knows but yeah one thing I noticed the level of English proficiency here is actually pretty high I don't know if it's a kabo thing or just a city thing but even kids speak English pretty well and uh a lot of them watch YouTube it's h they say that's how they learn they just watch YouTube over and over and over again that's how they learn so this kid what's your name yeah uh you lived in the USA yes where Turlock where Turlock Turlock California I'm also from uh I'm from Los Angeles so cool um how did you learn English you just lived there and you learned it yeah I lived eight years so when did you move back to Afghanistan 8 8 n months ago 8 nine months ago yes your family is Afghan I'm guessing yeah what did you say you Fe like Afghani I look like Afghani thank you thank you so I didn't realize I have a little bit of an advantage when I come here all these people kind of look like me I when I was on the street people start speaking doy to me like they think I am Afghan and uh it's pretty cool I blend in pretty easily of course I can't respond to them when they speak doy to me but yeah I'll take it I mean these people have really good hair and they're pretty goodl looking so I guess that's a compliment no but for real Afghan men have like the best hair out of any men in any country I've ever seen in fact it's actually encouraged for them to grow out their hair and beards as it was a practice that Prophet Muhammad was said to have done so you'll see guys Dawning these perfect glistening swooping bangs and locks I was told that the secret behind their perfect hair is a collection of oils that are made in the jalalabad region so the girls are going crazy over he's so handsome over that guy he's so look at his hair like I want to know what shampoo he uses they going not he not this is your last time to see him there he is bye oh yeah I forgot to mention that our group was made up of eight people we had Wasim Masha Gus Sam PRI vilus me and per and of course can't forget our local contact and the best guide ever Sardar this guy was hands down the MVP and handled everything amazingly yes our group had two women which meant that there were certain sets of protocol that they would have to adhere to I'm in the van with the ladies today and I oh my oh ladies what's the protocol what do we do what do we do for it's all good now now now it's good but if someone says checkpoint we oh no checkpoint checkpoint checkpoint you just all the ladies have to cover their hair that's just the way it is and with that I want to take a moment to address what misconceptions I had that were dispelled in the west we are told that women in Afghanistan cannot go to school or work at all that's actually not true but it is complicated girls are allowed to go to school up to age 12 and from there if the girl desires to further her education it must be done either by homeschool or online classes they are allowed to go to certain yet limited fields of study and University mostly in the education or medical sector as there is a demand for female doctors since male doctors AR allowed to perform certain procedures on women like assisting in birth unless they are close relatives women are allowed to work in certain Fields as well most of them include services that cater to women such as female security guards teachers for children and girls and female clothing tailor and so on occasionally you will even find some of them in an office or ticket counter I mean the government knows that it wouldn't be ideal to hinder half of their entire population from working no women do not require a male escort all the time everywhere they go however if they desire to travel 45 km outside of their City they will require a male relative this only applies to locals not tourists and it depends on the region but no women are not required to all wear full head to toe chelder covering everything with only a mesh to look out of you've probably seen pictures of it but they must all cover their hair and abide by modest clothing laws and it's not discussed a a lot but Afghans totally have a subtle flirty culture like as mentioned men will flaunt their perfectly groomed hair and beards and unmarried women are allowed to show their faces more and might wear a light belt around their Abaya to show a little bit more of their figure it's so subtle and secretive but everybody does it and knows it men also have to abide by modesty laws which means no showing of any main body parts that bend like knees or shoulders so no shorts or tank tops hence the peranan or Jama that the majority of men wear in public and of course we had to get some I'm stuck between these two I don't know which one should I get teal or hunter green hunter green hunter green okay I'm getting hunter green as a fellow Afghan I recommend that one as a fellow Scandinavian he's 11% I did the DNA test I think my head will F through oh my God so can you tell us AP part I don't think so know I don't think any twinsies twinsies e [Music] all right number one spot in Afghanistan the Boman caves right here unfortunately the statues were destroyed in 2001 but the cave that the ancient hazaras used to live in are still here you can see them from the 5th to the 7th Century all of this was happening and it's so crazy we're here this is a UNESCO heritage site I'm so glad I get to be here it's so crazy you can literally just go inside these little caves crawl in and out of them look at that each of these caves has like a little what do you call this like a little Inlet for I guess what would have been a statue or something cuz you can see the holes of where they would have been reinforced they took out all the icons and just left the little inlets where they would have stood uh around the like if you look up there you can still see the carved designs on the awning of the insides of the cave it's pretty cool for the record yes I did have a permit to fly the Drone if you do not have one it will be confiscated dear Afghanistan I went to bamyan now I know why they call this Place The Shining Light and the valley of gods it is seriously one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen in my life even getting here by car was a spectacle passing through the snowcapped Hindu Kush mountains so we have reached the snow Zone we are this high up in the mountains and way back there is Baba Mountain the tallest one not the noo but the snow snow Zone The snowgo Zone something like that I'm not even joking like look at this you can see the snow we are in the snow zone of Afghanistan I'm not at all surprised that UNESCO designated this whole place as a world heritage site and it's not only the Boman Buddha caves but it's like every few kilometers there's like an ancient new site or Fortress just sitting there open for the people to explore it's absolutely marvelous all of Boman is a UNESCO site but today we're going to go to the red City AKA zoh Hawk City it's a huge massive Citadel on top of a huge Red Cliff everything's red red stone red Everything Is Beautiful it destroyed by the uh Mongols go figure everything in this area was destroyed by the Mongols I love how in order to get to the site you have to like walk through some random Farmers potato field at least he didn't yell at us hey nobody yelled at us not yet not yet [Music] oh [Music] [Music] so I just found out that my house was robbed my neighbor sent me a picture he's like hey I noticed one of your doors seems like it was forced open was that you and then it hit me and I'm like oh shoot stuff was disheveled all over the place they called the police and uh my neighbor helped lock up the door and everything secure it thankfully my mom wasn't there she's in Korea right now and I'm in Afghanistan so nobody's nobody's home right now thankfully all my hard drives were still there all the footage I've ever taken of geography now I don't know how this happened I guess someone may have been watching me and they knew I wasn't home or something and I'm here halfway across the world doing this project and I won't even know the full gravity of it until I get back home I'll try my best to keep going on with this trip but this is going to be weighing on my mind a lot in any case uh just a yeah little update dear Afghanistan like most Americans I can easily get over traumatic experiences by doing one thing eating my feelings away and Afghanistan I got to say your food is topnotch like yes I see the general Central Asian themes with things like palao or various types of shash leik or Kebab meat dumplings with cream sauce however I was pleasantly surprised to learn that one of my favorite dishes in the entire world could technically be considered Afghan I've always said palak paner is my favorite Indian food but technically it could also be considered Afghan because they were under the mugal Empire and uh if you go to Afghan restaurants they'll have a section that says mugali food and under it is my favorite food from India slth Afghan region palak paneer delicious cred spinach with little cheese curds in it oh I love it so much and technically it's Afghan so we're having breakfast here and uh I've never seen this carrot Jam carrot Jam I'll try it what all right Masha tell us how is it try it how is it let us know it's like carrots with sugar he's so rushing okay all right it is like carrot with jam with sugar sugar I told you it really is just like oh you sound so Russian yeah I'm so well after that calorie distraction we were off to one more Adventure to one of the most beautiful sites I've ever seen this one's going to be good [Music] [Laughter] a [Music] this is bandar Lake it is the bluest Lake I've ever seen in my life there's like six of these little Lakes they all join together natural formation but there's like a legend behind it Ali who is a relative of the Prophet Muhammad he used a sword to make this Lake it's like a legend if you look down there there's like little boats you can go on the lake it's like a watery Resort that you can find hidden secret in the middle of the mountains hard to get here it's difficult to get here but if you can get here oh my goodness it's such a privilege it's so beautiful can't believe I'm here gu we're helping okay so in order to get a boat a little duckboat cost 200 Afghani per person uh Mr Gus is going to be my first mate yeah hi hey um and uh I'm going to fly my drone while I'm in the duck booat uh nothing like a good old duck booat or Swan boat yeah with one of your best friends in Afghanistan land ho let's see if we can uh get on the land can you touch it can you touch it come on a you got it you got it yeah we touched the land we accomplished our pointless objective should we go back I got all right fly my drone in a lake in Afghanistan and it's beautiful let's do this here we go [Music] holy sh well it's cold wait how do I get out of here how do I get out of here dear Afghanistan there was actually a lot more we did like we went to Masa Sharif and Kandahar but this video is already getting long and I think I'll save those bits for my patreon patrons in any case I feel like the only way to appropriately end this is to let an Afghan have the final word with that I couldn't think of anyone more perfect than Sardar what do you want the world to know about Afghanistan um I know there is a very negative reports negative propagandas in the uh International communities against Afghanistan but I want to tell to the people of the world that U Afghanistan has a very beautiful and stoning U history stonic Landscapes U pure lot of variety of cultures I feel proud being an Afghan and when I travel to the cities provinces mountains rivers whatever I see I proud on myself that I am an Afghan and we have such a beautiful such a rich country and of course there is a very friendly relationship between all Afghans So based to my experience and from friends that I have here that in other countries this friendship it doesn't exist it doesn't matter what group Hazard USC what it doesn't matter everybody's just AF is just Afghans Afghanistan is like a mother for us Afghanistan is nothing without Afghan people without Afghan people and Afghanistan will not be beautiful without this diverse ethnics and Rich culture we have it needs the diversity it needs cool I like that I like that thank you thank you for your time Afghanistan I really hope we get to meet each other again in the future I really am interested in seeing that Wan Corridor and I'm excited to see what the future holds for you sincerely barbs [Music] w

Channel: Geography Now

Views: 376,208

Keywords: Geography, facts, info, cool, education, learning, countries, history, class, lesson, funny, travel

Id: oMkcxC8cF10

Length: 23min 42sec (1422 seconds)

Published: Thu May 30 2024