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7 Days in the Most Dangerous Country in the World 🇦🇫

· 52 min · Watch on YouTube

Play: 7 Days in the Most Dangerous Country in the World 🇦🇫

7 Days in the Most Dangerous Country in the World 🇦🇫

Harry flies from Dubai to Kabul for a seven-day trip through Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, organised end-to-end by a local tour guide — with no British Embassy support if anything goes wrong. He buys a shalwar kameez to blend in, has mostly warm encounters with Taliban soldiers (and one scary filming misunderstanding defused by his guide), explores the markets of Mazar-i-Sharif and its Blue Mosque, road-trips through barren rural landscapes to a Buddhist stupa, faces a colder reception at the Taliban’s home base in Kandahar, and ends in Bamiyan — the women’s market, the destroyed Buddha statues, and a goat feast to which the invited Taliban never showed. He closes by donating $2,000 ($1,000 of it his own) toward local schools, part of $3,000 raised with friends. His verdict: the people are among the most hospitable in the world, the rules they live under are not — and the trip is safe with the right guide (see travel with a local guide).

Itinerary

Dubai → Kabul (guest house, first Taliban encounters, restaurant) → Mazar-i-Sharif (markets, cricket, Blue Mosque) → rural road trip near the Uzbekistan border → Buddhist stupa and caves → Kandahar (royal tomb, Shrine of the Cloak) → Bamiyan (Russian tanks, women’s market, Buddha niches, goat feast).

Key moments

  • [00:00] Why go: Harry’s belief that a government and its people are not the same thing.
  • [03:19] Landing in Kabul — Taliban white flags at the airport, adrenaline, and a friendly first conversation.
  • [06:07] Potted history: Soviet invasion 1979, mujahideen, civil war, the Taliban’s rise from Kandahar, the 2001 US invasion and 2021 withdrawal.
  • [07:57] First Taliban soldiers — friendly, cricket banter, even an invitation to stay the night; then a soldier confronts him over filming (he was thought to be filming women) until the guide steps in.
  • [10:31] A surprisingly upscale Kabul restaurant, with a tour of the walk-in freezer and communal cross-legged dining.
  • [12:36] Mazar-i-Sharif markets: clean streets, giant cauliflowers, relentless friendliness, and a vendor lining Harry’s eyes with traditional kohl (surma).
  • [16:58] Cricket with local kids — Afghanistan had just beaten England.
  • [20:08] The sobering side: many children under 10 working in the market instead of attending school; Harry’s take on sanctions hurting people, not the government.
  • [22:45] Buying an unemployed man (recently deported from Turkey) a baby swing for 2,000 (from video – unverified) for his child.
  • [25:11] The Blue Mosque, and a rundown of life under Taliban rule: music and TV banned, beards expected, girls barred from school past 13, face coverings — enforced unevenly by province.
  • [29:28] Road trip through barren near-desert; meeting a 27-year-old camel herder ten hours into his journey.
  • [33:31] A 4th–5th-century Buddhist stupa — partly destroyed by the Taliban, then rebuilt, with entry charged at 500, maybe $5–10 (from video – unverified); college students interview Harry, and most admit they’d leave Afghanistan if they could.
  • [38:49] Kandahar: a Taliban member refuses to shake Harry’s hand because he’s not Muslim — his only bad experience — followed minutes later by his fifth dinner invitation of the day.
  • [41:28] Bamiyan: the City of Screams, rusting Russian tanks, Afghanistan’s only women’s market (where women do work, varying by province), and the Buddha niches destroyed by the Taliban in 2001.
  • [46:22] Buying a goat (“Messi”) for 4,000, about $40, for a make-friends-with-the-Taliban feast — the Taliban accept, then cancel after the goat is bought; the feast goes ahead anyway.
  • [49:36] Donating $2,000 to Muhammad, who runs four schools on donated funding; $3,000 raised in total with friends and fellow creators.

Extracted pages