HOLIDAY IN AFGHANISTAN

HOLIDAY IN AFGHANISTAN



LOS ANGELES (Wireless Flash) – Afghanistan is probably the last place a U.S. citizen would want to vacation – but not every American shares that view. Los Angeles resident Robert Young Pelton, who pens a travel guide called The World’s Most Dangerous Places, says he’d have no qualms visiting the political hotbed now. Pelton first visited Afghanistan in 1995, when he set up the world’s first video interview with the Taliban, and says he finds the Afghan people extremely hospitable and the terrain beautiful. Don’t get him wrong: He’s not saying the battle-ravaged, impoverished country is a tourist’s dream – he just says it’s less dangerous and more culturally rewarding than the media makes it out to be. In fact, he believes fewer Americans would want to “bomb Afghanistan back into the Stone Age” if they visited the place.

Tue 10-02-01