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From Times Online

April 24, 2007

Afghanistan to Albania - axis of excitement

Tony Wheeler, founder of Lonely Planet, sets out to visit nine repressive regimes for his new book, Badlands

This month sees the publication of Bad Lands by Tony Wheeler, co-founder of Lonely Planet publications, a first-hand account of his experience travelling through some of the most repressive and dangerous regimes in the world.

The Australian author and pioneering traveller visited Afghanistan, Albania, Burma, Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea and Saudi Arabia – and documented the challenges and delights of travel in these ‘Bad Lands’ in a no-nonsense style.

Below you can see an interview with Wheeler talking about his travels, a slideshow of images from the book and read an exclusive account of the country he found most interesting and would like to return to - Afghanistan.

Watch the video interview

What is it about Afghanistan that stirs such interest and passion with everybody from invading armies (Britain and Russia both burnt their fingers here) to carpet collectors (read Christopher Kremmer’s incisive The Carpet Wars) and, of course, a host of acclaimed travel writers? Eric Newby’s classic A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush and Jason Elliot’s much more recent An Unexpected Light are both set in Afghanistan. Even Bruce Chatwin wrote about it although Chatwin rejoiced that he visited the country ‘before the Hippies wrecked it’. They did this, he claimed, ‘by driving educated Afghans into the arms of the Marxists’.

As far as I know flower power didn’t bring too many other countries to their knees, but I visited Afghanistan at the height of the hippy trail era so if Chatwin got it right I guess I have to bear some responsibility for the subsequent mess. My return, 34 years later on my Axis of Evil tour to write Bad Lands, reminded me why, if the ongoing chaos ever comes to a close, this could again be a great destination.

It’s a dramatic land of snow-capped mountains and searing desert wastes, fast running rivers and villages wedged into steep green valleys. Mix in a host of crumbling old fortresses and hidden religious monuments and then add a sprinkle of abandoned Russian tanks and other armaments. Dot a few big cities into the picture and people it with the proud if sometimes slightly crazy Afghans and it’s easy to see why the place had such a magnetic pull in the 1960s and ‘70s.

My recent Afghan wanderings started and finished in Kabul with excursions north to Mazar-i-Sharif and east to Herat. From Herat I made a 4WD foray into the rugged centre of the country to visit the towering and impossibly remote Minaret of Jam. Another trip into the centre took me to Bamiyan, where the giant Buddhas were destroyed as a final act of destructive madness by the Taliban. Along the way I met amazing people and over and over again had those ‘wow, look at that’ experiences which remind us that the world is still a big, wide place full of surprising wonders. The ancient city of Balkh (just waiting for keen archaelogists to descend upon it) certainly fits that category. As does the impressive Buddhist stupa of Takht-e-Rustam, cut out of solid rock.

There were also more mundane surprises, like how good the food was or how well my mobile phone worked. I picked up a local SIM card from a mobile phone shop in the centre of Kabul and joined the Afghan hordes, shouting into their phones. It seemed to work in even remote corners of the country. Flying back to Kabul from Herat I found myself sitting next to a young Afghan phone engineer. He’d returned to Afghanistan a couple of years earlier, after growing up in a Pakistan refugee camp. In a country that sometimes feels like it’s only left the middle ages yesterday, it’s remarkable how the mobile phone and Bollywood TV soaps have become part of everyday life.

Tony Wheeler’s Badlands: A Tourist on the Axis of Evil
Tony Wheeler
1st edition
RRP £8.99
ISBN 1 74179 186 3
Purchase from BooksFirst for £8.54 inc free delivery

Wow, you went to Cuba?! How very brave of you

Adam, London,

I haven´t read the book yet. But i don´t think i will read a book that takes over Mr. Bush´s classifaction of the world, and reports on that. Reject it, or simply igonore it, i would say.

I´ll check the reviews, if there in the Cuba section there is the usual Getting there and getting away part on Guantanomo bay. And why not write about the town of Iran in Texas? I´d be curious about that. That texan dude must be having troubles with the neighbourhood ranch. Good ole Persia, i passed through just some months ago without any hassles.

Promoting Afghanistan as a tourist destination, i am still doubtful. I met too many people coming from there, or going that way in Pakistan, just for the fact that it is "so cool", that i rather left it. Besides for a ole-fashioned backpackers the prices are too expensive. And despite being Anthropologist, without a proper assignment, knowledge of Pashto or Farsi, i reject being in a war zone, where i can´t be of any assistance.

Happy travels anyway.

Manfred Elian, Berlin, Germany

I have been following the travel supplements in most of the weekend papers and I just keep wondering when an article on Eastern Crete is going to appear. Down beyond Agios
Nikolaos and down as far as Sitia. The district of Lassithi seems to be left out of travel articles. The western part of Crete seems to be rather more often advertised. There are a lot of good sandy beaches in the Northern/Southern part of Eastern Crete. This is where you will find a taste of the real Crete with good original stone village houses.

Patricia Lyons and Martin Smith , Leighton Buzzard , Beds. England

Tony, regardeless of your need to sell the book, which I am sure it is great anyway, I am afraid I stand by my earlier comment that travelling to Cuba is probably less adventurous than travelling to Paris; only much more interesting.

Two more comments regarding yours about the ''spanish companies making a lot of money on the back of cubans''; if you cared to speak to any cuban (when they are out of reach from the CDR) you would have found out that all of them would love to work in the tourism industry, spanish-owned or not.

And of course I assume that all australian companies behave like virginal maids in the business world, not making money ''on the backs'' of locals anywhere, and all australians tourists behave like boy-scouts when in Thailand etc, so I am unable to respond to your school-boy-like comment about us bad-bad spaniards taking advantage of poor latin americans once again.

A Rough guide reader... twice as happy now

jorge, zaragoza, spain

Just wanted to underline what Alex Melbourne says about Iran. I went there in 2005 and absolutely fell in love with the place. Very friendly people, totally not 'touristy' and, best of all, absolutely none of the usual 'hassle' westerners (especially women) experience. I loved dressing Iranian women style, it added to the experience of blending in (even if young women gently pointed out that Hijabs did not need to be black!)

I long to go back again - hopefully independently, but must try to learn some more Farsi first. Looking forward to readingTony's book

Angela Parkes, Norwich, UK

Lucy, Paula – I underline that Albania today is not repressive and dangerous and that even in the long running Hoxha era it was reclusive rather than a threat to anyone. Jorge – you’re absolutely right about Cuba being full of foreigners, many of them from Spanish companies making a lot of money on the backs of Cubans. Adam and Jorge – and I also underline that this was not any sort of ‘dangerous places’ trip, I’m careful and cautious, not a ‘brave traveller’ at all.

Tony Wheeler, Melbourne, Australia

I travelled round Iran in 2003, and found it the most fascinating place I have ever been. The city of Esfahan is one of the wonders of the world, the people were friendly, helpful, curious and much less anti-American than myself (a Brit). They were very eager to point out the difference between their government and the people, as I wish the West would do more often. Even when I overstayed my visa by mistake I was dealt with by officials with courtesy and friendly interest about why I was there in the first place. The food is great too. It is a complete misnomer to call Iran part of a so-called Axis of Evil. Even if they have a government that is oppressive in some ways it is much less so than Saudi Arabia which is often referred to as a 'moderate Islamic ally of the West'. Women may be separated from men in buses, at work and so forth, but they are much more evident in a variety of employment areas than elsewhere in the Islamic world. I can't wait to go back again!

Alex Melbourne, Mitrovica, Kosovo

I am absolutely gobsmacked that you've included Albania in a list of 'the most repressive and dangerous regimes in the world'. Your ignorance astounds me. I'm speechless......

Lucy, UK,

Wow! Mr Wheeler dared to go to Cuba! I am speechless... he must have been the first foreigner the cubans have seen since 1959, with the exception of a few soviet military trainers...

Such a brave traveller, compañero!

jorge, zaragoza, spain

Why is Albania on the list of the most repressive and dangerous regimes in the world?! Is it a joke? I'm speechless...

Paula Blackman, London, UK

Your not the only person to travel to these places mate, My friend has family in Afganistan, I've been there a few times, totally different to what the americans make it out to be, i feel safer there than with all the nutters in the UK!

Adam Webb, MK, UK

"A Male Tourist on the Axis of Evil", Mr Wheeler, please. Or did you see many women travellers in full burqa enjoying the same sights and experiences in Afghanistan as yourself?

Karen Winton, Hong Kong,