Jalalabad & Eastern Afghanistan

Think of the great clichés of the Afghan character and you’ll be transported to Afghani- stan’s rugged east. Tales of honour, hospitality and revenge abound here, as hardy fighters defend the lonely mountain passes that lead to the Indian subcontinent. For Afghan, read Pashtun: the dominant ethnic group in the east whose tribal links spill across the border deep into Pakistan. Jalalabad is the region’s most important city. Founded by the Mughals as a winter retreat, it sits in an area with links back to when Afghanistan was a Buddhist country and a place of monasteries, pilgrims and prayer wheels. Sweltering in summer, you can quench your thirst with a mango juice before heading for the cooler climes of the Kabul Plateau, via the jaw-dropping Tangi Gharu Gorge. A stone’s throw from Jalalabad is the Khyber Pass, the age-old gateway to the Indian subcontinent. Getting your passport stamped here as you slip between Afghanistan and Pakistan is to experience one of Asia’s most evocative border crossings. If you’ve been in Afghanistan a while, you might find the sudden Pakistani insistence on providing you with an armed guard for your onward journey a little bemusing. Sadly much of the east remains out of bounds to travellers. The failures of post- conflict reconstruction have allowed an Islamist insurgency to smoulder among the peaks and valleys that dominate this part of the country. The beautiful woods and slopes of Nuristan – long a travellers’ grail – remain as distant a goal as ever and the current climate means that carefully checking security issues remains paramount before any trip to the region.

HIGHLIGHTS

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Nimla Khyber Pass

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